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Hello all, A, hopefully, easy question, though I have not been successful finding the answer... Can anyone tell me if the Italeri 1/72 SM.81 Pipistrello kit is the same as the Supermodel offering? If so, has Italeri improved the kit at all, or just repackaged it under their label? Thank you.

Now that I have your attention 😉 my entry will be this lovely Italian biplane which will be in the markings of the leading Spanish Nationalist ace Garcia Morato. Box and contents. Note in the bottom right hand corner the prop broken on the sprue. The spinner is loose in the box. First thing to do is fix the prop. I did this by simply cementing the spinner back on to the blades using the sprue as a jig. Next thing, following @jean’s lead was to fill the deep panel lines on the fuselage. I used sprue gloop. Thanks for looking. AW

Hi everyone, I should not even be writing this post. I haven't finished a kit in a GB for yonks, and as a result my shelf of shame grows longer and longer... Oh well... Who knows, I may even be able to finish this one on time. If size is anything to go by, it should be a breeze. So I am throwing my hat in the ring with the Supermodel Fiat CR 32, in 1/72 of course. Here are a few photos, as required by High Command: Starting with a minimalist box art, which I like very much. Next is the state of the art notice. Definitely computer designed! A really interesting set of decals. The Austrian ones were tempting, but I finally settled for the Regia Aeronautica. Tomorrow they will be moved behind the glass window of my shed, hoping they will lose their jaundiced hue. Next are the two sprues of green-grey plastic. A mix of delicate details and coarse trenches... Some corrective work to be done, no doubt. And last, but not least, a tiny windscreen and a beautiful Supermodel stand... Well, there you have it. A beautiful little plane, terribly enticing. I think I will go for the plane of the 410a Squadrilia. Diablo Rosso with a pith helmet. Pretty cool. Have fun! JR

Hi, Now I have finished the builds in a couple of other GB I can get back to this one and get my "Monty's Caravan and Daimler Dingo" finished. However, a few weeks ago I swapped a few kits with Pat in Scotland and as a result acquired this beauty – thanks Pat! I don't know if this is true, but I have read that a couple of Italian brothers who were modellers, fed up with the lack of proprietary kits of Italian planes, decided to set up their own company to build them – Supermodel. The company produced an initial batch of kits in around 1973 of which this was one, the others being a mix of Fiat, Macchi and Reggianne fighters plus both versions of the Cant Z1007 bomber (Monoderiva and Bideriva or single and twin tails if you prefer) and also the Alcione floatplane. Later in 1977 they released the Bv 138 flying boat I built a year or two ago and which impressed me enormously given its age. Reviews say this earlier kit is a bit iffy in terms of fit and the 2 page instructions leave something to be desired but I will see what I can do. Italeri seem to have acquired at least some of the moulds later and have re-released this, apparently with some improvements. Once the kit arrived I started thinking about including it in this GB. By the time WWII started it was being phased out of bombing duties as it was replaced by the SM 79, but it did make a few bombing raids from African bases, mostly at night. Later it served as a transport, and I have the paints to do the normal sort of camo on it at that period. However, the scheme I am considering doing it in is potentially somewhat more tricky. During the war in Abyssinia in 1935 onwards SM 81 bombers were painted in an all over "cream" colour and on the upper surfaces of the wings they had the so called “anti-camouflage” stripes painted in red – they were apparently both a recognition marking and also helped to locate any downed planes in the desert. The box art is a bit misleading as it shows an Alpha-Romeo engined one in this scheme in the foreground with a solid green/brown camo a bit like the RAF alongside it. However on the back of the box the painting instructions show the cream one with Piaggo X engines and also a torpedo bomber in a light/dark green mottle pattern. In fact this could have a wide variety of schemes as it served in numerous theatres of war – East Africa, Libya, Russia, Spain, Metropolitan Italy, the Balkans and the Aegean to name a few. The decs are a little sparse and do not include either the wing red stripes or the big tricolour for the tail, but given their age I suspect they could have been a problem anyway so I am going to have to rely on masking. I will probably end up using tape but first I am going to try an experiment on one wing using some frisket film which I have printed a life size image of the wing stripes on – probably won't work but worth a try. Looks like fun - I must be mad! Pete

Another step in my RAN 1/72 collection, this time the Macchi MB326 from 724 Squadron, Nowra in the 1980's. It's the old supermodel kit in the Italeri boxing. Aftermarket includes etch from RCR models, a pair of Pavla Martin Bakers and decals from Hawkeye models. I had a disaster right at the end of the build when I put the final semi-gloss coat over the completed model. I used a Tamiya rattle-can lacquer for a quick result and it ate away at the Tamiya acrylic blue paint. If you look closely, or if I dared post higher resolution photos, you'll see what I mean. I touched it up as best I could but in the longer term may end up sanding it back and re-doing the paint scheme. Any way, I'm calling it done for now but have learned my lesson about mixing lacquers with acrylics.