Andrea Manfroi

Hello Modellers, because my wife told me that she's fed up with my airplanes all aorund at home I had to take my latest on to my office at work.... Thank God I have some space and maybe in the near future i will bring also another one. This dauntless is almost OOB with just some details added in the cockpit. Painting has been done with airbrush and Tamiya acrylics. Matt finishing is also a Tamiya but spray can. Any comment and criticism is welcome . Enjoy pictures even if quality is not really the best (I took them with mobile phone...). Cheers Andy

Hello modellers, Here you are my last job, the beautiful Tamiya Sturmovik. It's a great kit that it's a pleasure to build (even if a bit expensive). The model is OOB just with few additional details on landing gear and cut of control surfaces in angled position. Paint, as well as glue and finishing spray are all Tamiya. Enjoy the pictures and feel free to comment. Cheers Andy P.S. Apologise for the quality of the pictures... I made them with my mobile phone instead of camera.

There's nothing better than starting the new year with a little nice model.... Here you are my FW190 A8 made using the Tamiya kit built almost OOB. Just some little details added in the cockpit, on the engine and cut tail surfaces to fit them in angled position. The kit is easy to build and does not give any problem. Painting has been quite funny with my old airbrush even if the Italeri acrylics are definitively not the best colours to be sprayed. They dry quickly and have the tendency to block the nozzle. Anyway at the end the outcome is not too bad in my opinion. Weathering as usual done with oil wash and pastels. Enjoy pictures. cheers Andy

Dear fellow modellers, here you are my last built of 2016: a real British classic. The Tamiya kit is not latest standard but still a good and enjoyable one. I just added some details in the cockpit,landing gear and engines, but for the rest is definitively OOB. As usual painting has been done with airbrush using Tamiya acrylics. For weathering I used oil colours and pastels. The matt finishing has been obtained with a Tamiya spray can. Comments and suggestions for improvements are more than welcome. Enjoy the pictures and happy new year Cheers Andy

Hello modellers, here you are my Fiat CR42. The model represent an aircraft of "412^ Squadriglia" based in Eritrea in 1940. This Italeri kit is not too bad, it goes together pretty well even if needs some special care to fit the upper wing. Model is 99% OOB with just few details added in the cockpit and on the engine. Paints used are Italeri acrylics applied with a 0.2 mm nozzle airbrush covered with a layer of matt Tamiya finish paint. Any comments or suggestion is more than welcome. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers Andy

Great job, very well done!

Hello Gentlemen, here you are the last of the four Japanese kits I had a chance to buy online few months ago with a good discount. The Hasegawa Shiden kit is as expected an easy and straight forward built. As usual I cut tail control surfaces and added details in the cockpit and on the engine. I was thinking also to scratch-build flaps (this plane has very interesting flaps) but I decided it was too difficult for my skills. Paint scheme is not really challenging, and I realised it with airbrush and Tamiya acrylics. I kept the weathering quite light and added engine exhaust stain using pastels. After four Japanese planes in about six months I'm pretty sure I will go back to some European stuff for the next one. Any comment and suggestion is welcome. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers Andy

HI Michael, for oil colours I normally use turpentine or sometimes a synthetic solvent. I always test the solvent on a piece of sprue first, just to make sure it will not corrode the plastic. I've currently on the bench the Hasegawa 1/48 Kawanishi Shiden. You will see pictures posted in a couple of weeks. Cheers Andy

Hi Michael, I'm very pleased about your questions and more than happy to give you some details. About painting, first of all I applied a layer of primer (using Tamiya spray can) then i made the so called "pre shading". To do this I painted lines with flat black (sometimes I use also a very dark gray) using the airbrush and following more or less panels and rivets lines. Then, I sprayed few layers of dark green. The zones painted during pre-shading remain darker then the rest and they give you the effect you're looking for. In "work in progress" forum you will find a lot of great examples much better than mine. To paint the tail I started from the blue band. Once painted the area I masked it with tape and continued with yellow bands. After masking also yellow bands then finally I painted the red colour. Then I applied a layer of clear gloss paint (Tamiya spray can) to allow a better application f decals. Later on I washed with oil colours highly diluted (a mix of black and light brown). Finally a coat of Matt clear varnish (Tamiya spray can too) fixed everything. Hope you'll find this useful. Cheers Andy

Hello modellers, here you are my last one. Honestly the Fujimi kit has nothing to do with the same subject from Hasegawa. Internals are almost zero, clear parts are thick and engine details are really poor. Anyway I had a lot of fun scratch building a lot of stuff in the cockpit and on the engine(gun sights, cowling flaps, radio equipment etc..). I've also cut flaps to put them in lowered positions as well as tail controls surfaces. The colour scheme is the very popular "Pearl Harbor" style and despite it was not very original I decided to stick with it. The biggest fun has been painting the tail. I don't know how many meters of masking tape I used! All colours used are Tamiya acrylics applied with airbrush. Finishing is form Tamiya spray can. Any comment and suggestion to improve is always welcome. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers Andy

Great job. I'd like to build one myself soon. cheers Andy

Hello modellers, I had recently the opportunity to buy some Hasegawa japanese subjects at a very interesting price, so this year will be full of rising sun planes. The first one is the Ki44 Shoki from Hasegawa. The building was really a pleasure as everything comes together almost without putty. I enjoyed adding some details to the cockpit cutting some panels, cutting and re-assembling tail control surfaces and detailing the engine (even if at the end this is not very visible). I used decals from the box, choosing for a quite challenging painting scheme that I manage using Tamiya acrylics and my old airbrush. A light weathering has been done with oil wash and pastels. I have to admit that I'm quite happy about the outcome. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for looking. Cheers Andy

Great job. I'm planning to build a 1/48 Shiden and I will definitively take your as reference. cheers Andy

Hello Modellers and happy new year. I've just finished my Fiat G50 representing the aircraft of the commander of the 20th Group of Italian Regia Aeronautica operating over Britain form October 1940 till February 1941. It is quite interesting to note that in about three months of operations the G50's never had the chance to fight directly against British fighters. The model is built almost OOB with some details added to cockpit and engine. Flaps also have been cut away and re-assembled in lowered positions. Painting has been done using airbrush and Tamiya and Italeri acrylics. In particular I had some problems with Italeri coolurs because they are quite dense and need special care to be properly diluted for airbrush. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for looking. Cheers Andy

Great subject and excellent built. Cheers Andy

Hello modellers, just finished my first seaplane. Mostly OOB with just few additions in the cockpit and cut of tail control surfaces. The hasegawa kit is not the newest but definitively great quality and really enjoyable. just the decals were a bit out of register but nothing dramatic to adjust. Painting has been done with airbrush using Tamiya Acrylics and Tamiya spray for finishing. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for looking. Cheers Andy

Good morning gentlemen, this time I decided to build a more colorful model, so I choose the Harvard Italeri kit. I would say that it is not too bad, just some room for improvements and a little scratchbuilt in the cockpit. Decals are nice but clear parts are definitively a bit too thick. The best would be to replace them with vacuform parts ... but I was too lazy for it. The paint scheme is the one typical used by Italian Air Force in the early sixties for training and service aircraft. Later on it was modified into orange on all surfaces. Some of T6 on display in museums and as gate guardians have this last scheme. This particular aircraft was used in 1962 by the headquarters of the southern Air Region in Brindisi. Model has been painted with airbrush using a mix of Tamiya and Italery acrylic colours. Inparticular this time the Italeri orange has been a nightmare for my airbrush, so I decided to go for a Tamiya sray can that I had from some previous works. Despite not a top quality build I hope you enjoy it. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Cheers Andy

Yes, there are two 1/72 kits (Ro.57 and Ro.57 bis) both from Special Hobby. Have a look here: http://www.cmkkits.com/en/aircraft/index.php?fSort=3&fSeries=0&fScale=15&fNationality=89&fEra=6&fMaker=0&from=10 cheers

Great job and very unusual subjects! cheers

Well, the Ro.57 was in fact builtby IMAM (Industrie Meccaniche Aeronautiche Meridionali) the aeronautical branch of Alfa Romeo: the famous Alfa Romeo logo is clearly visible on the propeller blades. The story of this almost unknown italian warbird is very short and for those interested there is something available on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAM_Ro.57 Interesting characteristics were a very particular landing gear design and engine intruments positioned in two small panels mounted directly on the nacelles and visible from the cockpit. The Special Hobby 1/48 kit is quite basic and a lot of work is needed to add details. In this case I added scratchbuilt details in the cockpit and landing gear bays, cut flaps and tail control surfaces and re-built canopy with clear evergreen plastic sheet. Camouflage is not very exiting, just the standard italian dark green and light gray ... anyway I tried to make it a bit more interesting with pre shading and pastels. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers Andy

Simply fantastic!

Very nice and unusual. I like all of them. Cheers Andy

Hello friends and greetings from Italy. As the summer weather is too hot here, there is nothing better to stay home with air conditioner and do some modelling... So here you are my last built. Sorry not to be very original, but I wanted to try a classic this time. The Italeri Kit (Hasegawa reboxing) is not too bad. I've added some cockpit details, cut the control surfaces on the tail and scratchbuilt the flaps in extended position. Some other small details have been added on the rockets. Decals are OOB and represent an aircraft of 247 sqn. in France just after the D-day. Painting (including invasion stripes) has been done with aibrush using a mix of Italeri and Tamiya acrylic paints. Overall finishing done with Tamiya spray can. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers Andy

Very nice job indeed! I should definitively build one of these G50. cheers Andy

Hi friends, here you are my first built of 2015. There's nothing better than a little kit to start the new year in the right way. The Hasegawa Raiden is a nice and easy built and has been airbrush painted with Tamiya acrylic colours and Tamiya spray finishing. Decals are from the box. Here you are my pictures, hope you like them. So, here you are the OOB the Hasegawa Raiden with british roundels of the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit - South East Asia as it appeared in few pictures just after the war. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Cheers Andy