Savoia Marchetti SM.79 1/48th - 01/01 Update

[Triumph]

Fantastic work there Rich. My gosh you're having to work at it but I can say that it's all for the good. The work on the gondolier which I am very glad you did it is absolutely spot on. Hope she doesn't have much fight left in her and allows you to crack on and build what I know will be a beauty

Peter

Edited December 5, 2016 by Triumph

[trickyrich]

1 hour ago, Triumph said:

Fantastic work there Rich. My gosh you're having to work at it but I can say that it's all for the good. The work on the gondolier which I am very glad you did it is absolutely spot on. Hope she doesn't have much fight left in her and allows you to crack on and build what I know will be a beauty

Peter

 

Thanks, the gondola was really crying out for something as it is pretty exposed with the door open! There's still so much more I could have done and I've sen what is possible with one of these in a couple of other builds! But I need to get cracking on in this lull period before the mayhem that is the 2017 GB calendar starts!  I'll come close to finishing her in time, but won't be too worried if I miss the deadline.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Rich

 

Just catching up on this build, now forgive me for asking the question but with all the swapping backwards and forwards, which one are you building ?

 

Is it the British Standard beige one or the groovy grey one ?

 

cheers Pat

 

 

[Arniec]

Great work on this beast. What a lot to do.  I am still lucky that I have the Trumpeter. Even with it's short commings.

O, if you don't make it on time you can always get a extra month in the KUTA GB.

 

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

5 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Rich

 

Just catching up on this build, now forgive me for asking the question but with all the swapping backwards and forwards, which one are you building ?

 

Is it the British Standard beige one or the groovy grey one ?

 

cheers Pat

 

 

 

The British Motoring "Industrial Standard" Beige one would have probably been the easier if the two to build. Before the weekend I was seriously thinking about it, but I have made some good progress on the Panzer Grey one, so I quickly abandoned that crazy thought! 

 

5 hours ago, Arniec said:

Great work on this beast. What a lot to do.  I am still lucky that I have the Trumpeter. Even with it's short commings.

O, if you don't make it on time you can always get a extra month in the KUTA GB.

 

Cheers,

 

Hmm I didn't think about that!!! Hopefully I won't need to do that as there is the slight possibility I may be able to complete her in time if I don't stuff about next break!!!

 

So here's the update without pictures of the last bits I did before I headed back to work;

 

All the works finished now on the upper gun position and that's been closed off.

The side windows next to this position have been fitted and modified to suit the PE window frames. Just need to do some final tiding up and give this whole area a coat of Mr Surface 1200.

The elevator struts have been fitted.

I've finally managed to fit the IP, pretty dam scary what I had to do to get that to fit!!!! Just need to fit one more seat (had to scratch built that) and some painting then can close that up.

Assembled the three MG's and scratch built a 4th one, that'll go into the gondola. Plus I started sorting out the gun position above the cockpit, need to make it I can add the MG barrel later, so I don't break it.

 

My real challenge is the colour scheme! It seem that there may not have been a standard colour scheme for aircraft from 278 Squadriglia. I have come across all sorts of variations from what appears to be a solid green top to a very heavy 3 colour mottle, so the colour schemes may have varied at different times. Oh well, what's life without a challenge!. 

[trickyrich]

Well it been sometime since I last updated this or for that matter even work on her. AT my last break I decided to slow everything right down with this build, I knew I could finish her in time and I didn’t want to rush her.

 

I finally completed the cockpit area and that was closed up, the canopy fit was pretty horrible and there wasn’t too much I could do to fix it either! I finished up closing up everything else and fitted the Torpedo mounts, plus fitted the exhausts to the cowlings. And that’s pretty much all I did that break on her.

 

As luck would have it I was meant to be working over Christmas, but my plant broke down as I was heading off to work!! Best bit was the pipe that burst can’t be fixing until the end of the month….so I got to come home early and in time for Christmas as well!! 

 

So in between other projects I’ve started (well trying to complete really old ones)  painting her. First off a coat of Mr Surface 1200, this will be the primer and help smooth everything out.

 

 

 

 

The my usual wiggly panel pre-shading….one day I’ll be able to do straight lines! Plus I painted the white fuselage band as well.

 

 

Next up a coat of grey for the undersurfaces then the Tan upper surface colour.  I would have started the mottle but the paints I were going to use had gone completely off!  I’ll order them tomorrow so hopefully I can finish off the painting by the end of the week.

 

 

Though this GB has finished I’ll keep updating this build until she completed.

[trickyrich]

Ok all my good work the other day with the painting was…..well a complete stuff up!!

 

I got my colours completely wrong, for some reason I just used the same colours as I used for the Macchi’s! But as so often is the case there wasn’t a standard set of colours for all aircraft! Each manufacturer basically had their own colour mixes, so these colours were completely wrong for SIAI produced aircraft! Plus each manufacturer had their own camouflage pattern as well and they even varied them!

 

So with the right paint in hand this time she was repainted! This particular aircraft had a “Schema C” pattern which was a network of small mottles in two colours; Verde Mimetico 53192 and Marrone Mimetico 53193 mottle over Giallo Minetico 3 (Camo Green & Camo Brown over Camo Yellow).  The underside were Grigio Mimetico (Camo Grey).

 

 

I still have to redo the undersides, they need to be slightly darker in shade, plus I need to touch up the white band. She so needs her panel lines done, plus I need to do plenty of weathering to help fade the paint more.

 

 

I’m super happy with the finish, she took ages to do, if I had to comment at all on it, then may be to say the mottle might be a bit too much on the large size. But there was a lot of variations in the patterns between aircraft so I’m not too worried about that.

 

Hopefully progress should be pretty quick now the last major job is done!

 

[Arniec]

That is some great work on the paintjob. O, don't bother with trying to do straight lines with the pre-shading. 

It is better to be uneven or else it will look fake and unrealistic.

 

Can't wait to see the decals on.

 

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

This is still humming along nicely, the decals are on now.

They weren’t that easy, they went on ok but trying to find out the correct style of wings markings to be used wasn’t easy. Besides this Squadriglia having a multitude of colour schemes over its life the national markings also changed at some stage. They went from having a white background to having none sometime in 1941. So for this aircraft in this colour scheme I just wasn’t sure which way to go. In the end I went for a time period around late 40, early 41, which would make this combination correct.

 

I have yet to do the panel lines, I’ll do them this afternoon, then she’ll have a coat of Flat clear.

The cowlings are nearly done but the Bronze looks way too copperish so I may have to redo this with a blend.

 

The undercarriage will be fitted next as well as it’s nearly complete as well.

 

There really isn’t that much left to do, I’d like to finish her before I start the F-16’s!

 

 

[modelling minion]

Looking very good indeed Rich.

 

Look forward to seeing her finished.

[Basilisk]

Looking great Rich. How long did it take you to airbrush all the dots and what paint did you use?

 

Cheers, Peter

[trickyrich]

thanks

 

...... arrr quite a long time!  I had to do it in two session as I was almost seeing dots after each. I used a mix of two acrylic paints, Tamiya for the green and Mr Hobby Aqueous for the brown. Both were quite thinned down with Tamiya's acrylic thinner, I do like that stuff! 

 

The flat coat sound go on today which will really help.

[Basilisk]

51 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

thanks

 

...... arrr quite a long time!  I had to do it in two session as I was almost seeing dots after each. I used a mix of two acrylic paints, Tamiya for the green and Mr Hobby Aqueous for the brown. Both were quite thinned down with Tamiya's acrylic thinner, I do like that stuff! 

 

The flat coat sound go on today which will really help.

Thanks for sharing this Rich. Not surprised that you saw dots after each session - and most likely dreaming about tots as well But the result looks great.

[rob85]

She looks really nice Rich, lots of spots  ! It will be nice to see it finished

 

Rob

[trickyrich]

4 hours ago, rob85 said:

She looks really nice Rich, lots of spots  ! It will be nice to see it finished

 

Rob

 

thanks, unfortunately she may have to take a back seat for a while, as the build year has started and it'll be a busy one for me. Plus I had a few modelling dramas recently with paint jobs and a near miss with this one (I have to repaint the wing tip!). But I hope to done some more to her over the next couple of months.

[Triumph]

Hi tricky rich

any update on this one?

 

Peter

 

 

[trickyrich]

14 hours ago, Triumph said:

Hi tricky rich

any update on this one?

 

Peter

 

 

unfortunately I haven't managed to get back to her, actually quite a few projects have been slipping behind schedule!!

 

There are however a couple of projects I'd like to complete before the end of the year, and she is one of them. There's not a lot left to do so I may start work on her once the OSA-1 Missile boat is out of the way...plus the two GB projects I have going at the moment....and the X-15, Gripen, G6 Rhino, A-222 Bereg...etc etc etc......