Well would you look at that I'm building another kit for a campaign.... go figure LOL. This time for the fixed landing gear campaign, if you're interested in joining us go here!

This is apparently Italeri's upgrade/re-engineer of the super models moulds. Not to sure if that's true but I'm not really that worried about it. The kit has a reasonable level of detail for the scale and the camo schemes are simply fascinating! I'm going to do the Russian front scheme as that seems to my eye to be the snazziest. Also probably the most difficult and time consuming but hey it's what we do isn't it? Here are some pics of the kit sprues and colour schemes as per the box.

Nice choice Chris, I really like the Italian 3-engine designs. Best of luck with the build, I'm following along.

Cheers, D

As always D fantastic to have you riding shotgun so to speak!

Hey Chris,
Following you on this intersting design.

Gary

Hi Gary many thanks, like Damian I've come to appreciate the elegance in design of the Italian tri-motors, even if they weren't that great operationally. Mainly because their radial engines were always grossly under-powered. Take the Macchi Mc200 you put a Daimler Benz inline inverted V12 engine in it (Mc202/205) and you got an aircraft quite capable of keeping up with the spitfire! I've spent this morning sorting out what colours to use inside and out on this old girl and came up with what I hope will be the Humbrol equivalents. I'll be starting with the interior as per usual ... and the instructions!

I'm looking forward to seeing your detail shots. I haven't built an Italeri kit since the seventies, and I'd like to see what they're producng nowadays.

Gary

Interesting choice of kit. I am looking forward how this comes together. Challenging paint scheme!



Jelger

Welcome Jelger pleased to have you along. Well your wish is my command Gary! Here are some internal shots of the fuselage and what's provided by Italeri in the way of an interior. From what I've been able to discern a lot has improved since the Supermodel kit. The panel lines are now recessed and petite, they've provided a radio installation and cockpit and bomb-bay floors the instrument panel is a decal as are the radio faces and will need toning down a little as the decals are rather stark. But of interest is the fact the the Instrument panel decal is a silver background as I'm guessing so was the original.

The legs on the seat provided for the radio operator are longer one end than the other, yet Italeri would have you place it at 90 degrees to the fuselage, this is incorrect it should run parallel to it with the longer legs closer to the bomb-bay floor see picture for a more descriptive idea. I discovered this as I was trying to mount it in the fuselage and it wouldn't sit in line with the radio mount. I also questioned why the seat wouldn't face the work station.

After several hours of work at the PC trying to deduce what colour the interior should be I came to the conclusion that for my purposes Humbrol 120 enamel paint will be close enough for me. In reality it is probable a little to bright but it'll do. It would seem that Italian aircraft are no different in the controversy that they can create over just what the interior colour was. Since I'm no rivet counter or Regia Aeronautica purist close enough is good enough!

When it came to the interior I glued the cockpit and floors to the bulkhead and then placed them in position within the fuselage and taped it together for the night to dry. My reasoning being I can then take it out and detail paint it with ease rather than trying to do it all in place. While assembling the cockpit one of the control column wheels did an escape act and I'm going to have to build a replacement. Okay here's where I'm at right now.

Chris,
I'll be following your Build Blog of the SM.81 Pipistrello. I do remember this model from back in the 70s, but like so many planned builds, I never got around to actually building it.
Joel

Hi Joel welcome aboard glad to have you along for the ride. And as far as building this bird yourself, never say never my friend you aren't dead yet! I've got to say that Italeri have reworked this kit rather well! They've created the bomb-bay which was absent on the Supermodel kit and had to be scribed in, provided doors which can if you wish be posed open, the turrets can be posed either out or in depending on whether you've got your girl in flight or earth bound. (Out for the top and in for the bottom as I plan to have her on the ground.) The waist gunners positions can either be open or closed (open for me may as well show off my interior such as it is), and the two access doors can be open or closed(again open for me as she'll be on the ground in Russia somewhere)! The fuselage windows however do provide some headaches as they are just thin acetate which is glued into position I'm debating whether I will have enough room to place them once the kit is finished and sealed up or whether I'll need to come up with a means to ensure they stay put. Either way I'll get it sorted out!

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the pictures! I have something in exchane. A link for Italian Aircraft painting info. Hopefully you'll find it useful.

http://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_3a.htm

Gary

Hi Chris,
I too am following along.
I have to say you are game with the paint scheme you've chosen,it'll look fantastic once done.

Chris

Hi Chris fantastic to have another Kiwi tagging along! The colour scheme is indeed challenging. Time to see if the $400 bucks I paid for my Harder and Steinbeck airbrush was worth the price! LOL The trick will be to get the lines of camo as thin as possible my instructions say I can get lines as thin as 1 mm lets see if I can be that good! I think lines of 1 to 2 mm would probably be sufficient it'll be time consuming making all those little lines flow round one another.

Anyway as can be in the previous pics there are rather prominent ejector pin marks in the fuselage detail. I have previously used stretched sprue to replace lost raised detail and thought that the method would work here as well. Take a look at the following pics and see what you think.

Chris,
I'm pretty impressed by the interior detal. Getting any on the inside of a 1/72 model is a bonus.

Cheers!

Gary

Yeah Gary it is and this is rather nicely representative of the tubular construction of the airframe. I've got all the ejector pins covered with stretched sprue I had to look a couple of times as I kept discovering ones I'd missed! Next will be a coat of interior colour and then detail painting followed by a wash to give it some shadows and depth and a little dry brushed silver to simulate wear on some of the more prominent raised surfaces. and a little weathering on the floor with Tamiya weathering powders to give a well used look.

Chris,
Your sprue repairs came out just about perfect. As I've found on the PV-1, it's way to easy to add more detail to the interior that will be next to impossible to see once the fuselage is buttoned up, and the glass green house installed.

So far I'm more then impressed with your build.

As for just how narrow of a line can you Air Brush, cone and needle should be 2mm, and the paint well thinned with a low psi flow rate, as you have to get very close to the model surface to keep the spray pattern as tight as possible. I've gotten excellent results with my Iwata M1 with a 3mm cone, which does a better job then the 4mm cone on my M2.

Joel

It looks very good indeed. Too bad of the many ejector pin marks, especially as quite a bit of the interior can be seen.

If you wish to save the effort of painting the intricate camo pattern, then Print Scale decals has the pattern as a decal.
http://www.printscale.org/product_110.html



Jelger

Gray, Jelger:

Thank you both for those superb URLs to Regia Aeronautica resources!

Chris, I still like my Supermodels! I'll be watching.

Hi Fred (I'm taking the liberty and using the diminutive which I hope you don't mind? ) pleased to see you here! I have a great affection for Supermodel they were cutting edge in their heyday. Not many kit manufacturers gave you rubber tires in 1/72nd scale.

Italeri have done a fantastic job of updating the moulds. The decals cover no less than 6 possible options, as well as two different engines and mounts because one of the options had different engines. I am pretty impressed by this kit.

Hi Jelger thanks for the info, but I think I'll try painting it first, I honestly think the decals given my skills would present more of a challenge!

Okay well a little further along gents, I've got a coat of interior green a'la Regia Aeronautica on the fuselage and various flaps and doors. I still am rather pleasantly surprised with just how well this kit has been "upgraded". I've still got to paint the turrets and assemble the guns so they can be trapped inside the fuselage when I eventually close it up. The waist guns while not fantastically detailed are passable and should look good mounted in the fuselage. I've got some decals to apply then shading and weathering in the fuselage.

I've assembled the wings and the undersides of which are full of complex curves. While I can't say whether this is accurate or not it does look gorgeous and they fit together well. The wing control surfaces are all individual and if you wished could no doubt be posed convincingly. The flaps have rib detail top and bottom and will look great on display.

I have minimal access to pics of this aircraft and all appear to have the control surfaces in neutral and flaps up. So it would appear the flaps don't droop while at rest, but I'm sure going to display them that way, I don't want to hide that great detail. So here are the obligatory progress pics.

Chris,
You're making excellent progress on that interior. I'll be the 1st one to agree that it's well detailed for a stock kit, especially a retool at that.

Looking at the wings, and those large curves that really need to mount flush to their respective matting surfaces on each fuselage half, do look rather intimidating. If the surfaces are just a little off, the amount of gluing surface really rapidly decreases. Have you dry fitted the wings yet?

Joel

The paint of the interior looks really nice. (Nitpick mode: on) I am not sure, but it looks though that you missed a few spots at the back at the radio compartment near the wheel. However, this may not be seen when closed (nitpick mode: off).

Removal of the injector pin marks really pays off. The nice light color will help to see more of the interior.



Jelger

@Joel: I've not attempted a dry fit yet Joel but the fit of the fuselage halves is pretty much spot on so I remain hopeful.

@Jelger: You are quite correct I'll be doing some brush touch up before placing the decals. And feel free to offer constructive criticism whenever you feel like it. It's why I put the build logs up here so I can improve my builds and find other ways of problem solving.

Well I'm slowly getting the interior painted. I've got the decals on and they look really rather good! The majority of the detail is painted, just some wires to paint and then a wash or two. I've got interior green on the two turrets and it just remains to paint the exterior colours. Place the guns in the turrets, then I'll be able to seal up the fuselage and attach the wings and tail planes etc. Just a note about the turret guns while there is no turret interior to speak of the barrels are separate and can therefore be added after all the work on the fuselage, wings and landing gear has been done! Therefore eliminating the possibility of accidentally removing them while doing the prep and painting. Two thumbs up Italeri!


I've got the engines mostly painted, the side guns done and two of the three engine mounts on. The last mount waiting until I've got the fuselage sealed up. The kit's part fit has been good to excellent! I've dry fitted the wings to the two fuselage halves, all that was needed to ensure a good fit was the trailing edge wing root needed a couple of licks with a file. Whatever gaps remain will easily be taken care of with a wipe of superglue.

@Joel:- Wing to fuselage fit ... GOOD ... check! I'll post some pics of my progress when it's been a little more substantial.