This is my first
article on ARC and I selected my latest completed model, that is
the Fiat CR42 in 1/48 from Italeri. There was not a lot a choice in
the past when building one of the most famous Italian fighters of WWII
in my favourite scale and I appreciated that Italeri finally developed this kit
that is the best offer today available in terms of cost/quality ratio. The kit
dimensions are accurate, panel lines are recessed (not a lot of panels in
this biplane, actually), just the typical shape of the fabrics of the wing is
too evident, but with some sanding the effect can be smoothed. Unfortunately the
only problem to me is that the kit represents the late CR42 serie with the
last type of squared carburetor air intake with sand filter and this
is good for the versions used by the Luftwaffe (the actual version of the kit)
or
for an Italian assault version, but not for the version that I decided to build
that is an early fighter version (what else?) deployed in North Africa
during the fall of 1940.
Luckily, the kit
provides several spare parts for different options: two type of spinner, normal
and "cut" type of wheels covers, etc, so I had just to build from
scratch the std carburetor air intake because all the rest I need was already
available from the box.
Construction
The cockpit from the
kit is quite detailed, but I preferred to replace the cockpit walls showing the steel
tubular structure just impressed in relief, by a brand new tubular
structure made from 0.5mm plastic rod that has been fitted to what has been saved
of the kit cockpit: the front structure with the dashboard support and part of
the floor with the seat. A significant detailing improvement has been achieved
by using the Eduard Zoom set FE332 to details the two
instrument panels and the two control consoles at the sides of the seat.
The typical Italian safety belts are made from photoeched, as
well, though they are missing from the photographs. Other kit
details of the cockpit that are not enough accurate like the oxygen and the air
compress bottles, the S.Giorgio gunsight and the compass have been made
from scratch. The cockpit has been painted in light grey (Humbrol 64).
Click on
images below to see larger images
The kit provides a fine
replica of the Fiat A74RC38 radial engine, made of five separate parts:
leaving the cover panels in open position it would require more detailing,
so I preferred to have the NACA with all the panels fixed and just adding
the spark plug wiring at the top of the cylinder and drilled out the exhaust
terminals to give them a more realistic look. The engine
cylinders have been painted in black with the base cover in light grey and
the exhausts terminal in metallic bronze. I also did some drybrushing in
silver to highlight the cylinder details and some weathering done by a
washing of black oil paint diluted by enamel thinner.
Painting
The painting of a biplane has to
be performed before mounting the upper wing: this added more risk to compromise
the final job since a complex part of assembly and some more handling has to be
done working on the finished surfaces, hence you have to suffer until the end
before understanding if your work is acceptable or you just wasted your time.
The version I chose to represent
is the std CR42 early paint scheme: overall top and side surfaces in "Giallo
mimetico 3" and irregular spots of "Verde mimetico 3" and "Marrone
mimetico 2" . All those colors are Lifecolor acrilics, just adding
some brown to the "Giallo" since the original from the bottle looks
too light once diluted and sprayed on the model. The underside is "Grigio
mimetico" obtained from Humbrol enamel 140 with some white added to make it
lighter. The upper wing tips have been painted in white as per the std tactical
marking of the period. The Italian paint scheme was not an easy task to
complete and it was repeated twice before obtaining the desired look.
Once I completed the mimetic colors, I sprayed the whole model with Tamiya Acrylic Gloss
Clear to get the model ready for the weathering and decalling.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Decals and finishing:
The subject I represented is an
aircraft in charge to the 4'Stormo, 9'Gruppo, 97a Squadriglia, based at El Adem,
Cyrenaica, in November 1940. Decals come from the Aeromaster sheet 48-188 (Fiat CR42
Falco Collection), but I just used the Squadron number, the Stormo and Gruppo
badges, as they are very nice and accurate. I preferred to replace the
wing and side fuselage fasces of the national insignia with others
coming from a Tauromodel decal sheet, instead. After placing all the decals, I
highlighted the panel lines with an oil dark gray paint washing. The
propeller was painted black on the back side and light grey on the front side, with
spinner in red. The final overall coat is a light spray of acrylic matt
clear from Gunze Sangyo.
The final effort was to glue the
upper wing to the rest of the aircraft, I already realized from previous trials
that the wing struts were slightly shorter than what required to fit the
wing distance, hence I had to split in two each of them and add some
plastic to make their length adequate, and this was a quite boring
exercise.
I completed the model adding the
navigation lamps on the upper wing made from Cristal clear, the control wiring
for rudder, ailerons and the bracing wires on the outer struts made from
stretched sprue.
At the end I was quite satisfied
of the final result, hope the same for you. Thanks for reading.
Elia
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