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SCW Fiat G.50 (AML 1/72 Kit Build)


Kiwikitbasher

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This is part of a HyperScale group SCW build I'm participating in, but thought it may be of some minor interest here as my first build log on Britmodeller.

The Fiat G.50 did not see combat in the SCW as far as I'm aware, but was in theatre by January 1939. The AML kit is very detailed with quite a lot of resin and PE, and the plastic looks OK at first glance. However, AML's G.50's are tooled for multiple options, and most parts are quite thick plastic. The kit is a typical mid-generation limited run issue moulded in a resin tool, so just about everything needs some cleaning up and adjustment for fit.

The photos below basically introduce the kit parts and show some progress thinning out the cockpit sidewalls to receive the resin detail insert (complete with hole right through the fuselage!).

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Got a little done on the cockpit. The PE throttle-box was fiddly to fold and is a bit oversize I think. My eyes were really straining through the optivisor to guide the three levers (one piece) through the three slotted gates. I spent 15 minutes or more crawling around the floor looking for the PE trim wheel only to find it stuck to the toe of my sock! The PE rudder-bar is a bit too wide, but I'm leaving it as is. The reins sidewalls have taken a fair bit of hacking to get the floor and rear bulkhead & decking to sit inside the fuselage OK. Likewise for the two-section PE instrument panel (not shown here):

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There's a lot of carving and adjustment associated with this kit - I found this image on a Polish site (Modelarstwo z pasjÄ… www.pwm.org.pl), which shows it's not just me:

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Anyway, at least the cockpit's now in place:

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Some progress, the biggest challenge is getting the cowl to fit so the machine guns are level and sitting in the troughs in the cowl. It's just barely achievable after a lot of Dremeling and filing. I was also pleased with how the prop turned out...

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the G50 did see quite a lot of wartime service including the Battle of Britain, North Africa, Sicily and with the Finnish and Croatian air forces as well as the Luftwaffe. The later models after 1940 were the G50 bis.

Best of luck with that kit.

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the G50 did see quite a lot of wartime service including the Battle of Britain, North Africa, Sicily and with the Finnish and Croatian air forces as well as the Luftwaffe. The later models after 1940 were the G50 bis.

Best of luck with that kit.

Yes, I realise it saw a lot plenty of operational service in WW2, and not just with the Italians. I was referring to the Spanish Civil War, where it was deployed in early 1939, but failed to see combat by that war's end later in the same year.

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Yes, I realise it saw a lot plenty of operational service in WW2, and not just with the Italians. I was referring to the Spanish Civil War, where it was deployed in early 1939, but failed to see combat by that war's end later in the same year.

Sorry about the misunderstanding, I am not very good with abbreviations.

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Ready for the paint-shop. I've left off the resin aileron mass balances and two wing pitots for later. After a fair bit of carving, filing and filling I got a usable undercarriage. Unfortunately, I don't get to use the kit's PE u/c doors as this early version didn't use them.

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A lot of good work has been done here! I have this kit (some a little older boxing with less detailed control surfaces - flat instead of fabric/ribs imitation) and I know very well how difficult it is.

A dozen of Fiats G.50 were used operationaly during final phase of the Spanish War (bomber escort missions over Madrid) but did not meet enemy airplanes.

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Thanks. Yes, I've seen the earlier tooling as a couple of my mates have it. It's quite different in the parts breakdown, especially the wings and prop, plus no resin sidewalls for the cockpit. I have another late tooling Finnish G.50bis to do, which should be easier second time round.

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A canopy re-think delayed my painting....

I masked and painted the rear canopy framing first with the intention of then masking it entirely before main painting - I fin this avoids build-up of every more layers on thin masked areas like framing as I avoid a gloss-coat and final matte-coat in this area. I then thought I double-check see how sliding canopy looked over my freshly painted rear canopy frames.

One problem builders of AML's open cockpit G.50bis won't have with the bis is the sliding canopy - be grateful for this! With the early version the kit part has the correct scale linear dimensions, but is unavoidably too thick due to moulding limitations. It should sit just overlapping the rear canopy, but is too thick to do so. Of course it's also too thick to be positioned open, as it sits too high over the rear canopy and away from its sliding rails. I had hoped to use the Falcon canopy intended to convert the inaccurate Airfix G.50bis to an early version with full canopy; but this proved to be too small. So in the end I made my own. Here's what I did:

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I've got most of the painting done, except for the cowl, as I had to remove and slightly re-align the rear section of the carb air-intake trunking; so I still have to paint it.

I chose to use the Falcon windscreen cut from the full canopy intended to convert the Airfix G.50 bis kit to an early G.50 (Falcon also offer a different G.50 bis windscreen as well). It's not a perfect match for the sliding canopy, but this should not be too apparent with an open canopy. I feel that the Falcon item will look better than the AML original as it a lot thinner. I may plunge-mould one using the AML canopy, but I'm unsure if I can be bothered at the moment as this build has taken a lot longer than I thought it would.

Should be decaling soon!

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The AML kit does not have what I assume are the wing leading edge inlets for the oil coolers. I originally drilled these out and placed a vertical saw cut through the middle to take a 0.005" insert to represent the middle divider; one of three required. I tried making two more saw cuts but this didn't work, so I just tried inserted plasticard dividers either side of the centre one. This did not work too well, and the dividers were too far forward in the inlet hole.

Late last night I had a rush of blood to the head and thought I'd try using a PE razor saw to cut three dividers into the end of a length of sprue that could then be inserted into the hole. My modelling workshop laptop was playing up,and I couldn't be bothered going upstairs to my desktop in my office.So I decided to make the part from memory instead of referring to images - Big mistake!. The result was far to big and too far forward. This morning I decided to fix things. The images show the processes I tried before coming to a solution I could live with, although still not all that good.

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Thanks, but I really made everything too hard for myself. I think the bests first course would have just been to drill the holes and leave it at that! I think that's all I'll do should I ever get around to building my second one.

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Great guide to the G-50. I plan to build the Airfix one some time.

Thanks. I recently had a quick look at a mate's unbuilt Airfix & AML kits. There was a distinct difference in the cowls, Aifix's being quite a bit smaller in diameter (I believe this is a well-known failing of eh kit), and also the tail-planes seemed quite a bit smaller (although the AML kit has both large and small styles) so I'm not saying it's wrong. Also the Airfix windscreen is a bit smaller than AML's I think. I'm pretty sure Airfix's would be a quicker to build! Good luck with yours. .

Excellent build, that looks really handsome

Thanks, I must admit I happier about no the decals are on as it's looking more how I hoped it would when I first looked inside the box.

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Finished at Last!

I had a few detail parts to fabricate, either where the kit resin parts were not up to scratch or missing.

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Then the final result (not quite - I forgot to paint the oleos chrome silver, now fixed!)

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