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Savoia S.21 "Porco Rosso"


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Hi folks,

This is a very late entry and is competing for time with a club build which is due on the 27th, but it might work out! I'm going to try and do Porco Rosso's beautiful sea plane in 1/48. I originally wanted to do a beach diorama for this as well, but I think that's far too ambitious for the GB deadline so it'll have to wait until later.

Anyway, here's the unstarted kit. It looks pretty nice in the box - not too much there, quite a bit of interior detail which might be unseen on completion, and a simple airframe. The shape of the fuselage is just lovely.

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(click for bigger)

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I'm hoping to stick some interior parts together and spray them brown today, we'll see how that works out. I think I may need to learn how to do wood grain, which should be fun.

Cheers,

Will

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That looks fun. I've got the DVD of the film and quite impressed with the fairly recognisible aircraft in it although they look fictional. Look forward to seeing how this turns out.

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Thanks guys! Having had a play it looks like I can finish on time. There aren't too many bits, and the fit is amazing, so good that I likely won't need to mask the bottom of the fuselage, I can just slot the whole thing in later :)

So far I assembled some interior parts and gave them a basecoat just ahead of the rain. I'll paint some details and photograph it tomorrow if all goes to plan.

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I think you're right, although my capacity for self-inflicted disaster is not to be underestimated :D

I got the rest of the interior together and painted the details this evening. It's quite small!

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(click for bigger)

Much of it is covered up unless you leave the access hatch for the guns open - that might be an option, but it does spoil the lines, so I'm not sure. But I built them anyway, the bits are too nice not to. You can see a reasonable amount of the cockpit as this shows:

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My tiny weeny brushwork is not super-neat, but I think it'll do - adding some washes should sharpen up the edges and bring out the dial detail which was too hard to paint. I also need to wash and weather the rest of the interior and try and liven up the wood a bit.

I've assembled some of the airframe sections but it's not all that exciting yet, I'll wait until I've cleaned up the seams and got it largely together and take some pics then.

Cheers,

Will

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Bit more progress to show today and yesterday: The oil paint on the bottom finally dried and I was able to paint the other panels (I painted them A-B-A-B style, so the grain wouldn't line up across the panel joins). The B panels haven't been varnished yet, and they need a good dusting before that happens.

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(click for bigger)

Dust aside, I'm happy with the wood grain given that it's my first try. It's nice and light and doesn't stand out too much, which sits well with the anime where the bottom of the plane is just a plain buff colour.

I also tidied up the IP, but I still need to weather and highlight various details in the cockpit and put some "glass" in the dials.

On the airframe I masked up the wings and tail in preparation for the Italian colours. These had a patch of Tamiya white primer, with a light overspray of gloss white on one half, green on the other.

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The red is still bare plastic, I'm not going to prime that so that when I polish the paint it won't matter too much if I go a tiny weeny bit too deep. Need to think of the deadline and all that.

When I unmasked the panels I wasn't that happy with the result - overspray :( I took more care with the first set of masking, less when I reversed the mask for the green after the white, and I think that has brung me low. Still, the colours are really nice and I think it may sand out if I take care with it. We'll see. It's only the green-white divide that actually matters, the outer edges are on panel lines and will clean up with a wash later.

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The fin came out a bit better, which is good - the markings are under the wing so they won't be too noticeable if I don't do a good job of fixing them :D

I'm not sure at the moment what to do with the reverse of the wing where the ailerons fit - it's just flat, so I wondered if it should be wood coloured rather than the red skin colour?

Will

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Great! Haven't seen one of these in a long time - and you're doing some nice work there! I too, enjoyed the film. And those 1920's Schneider Cup racers, despite the added drag of weaponry were slick!

F

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Thanks guys, I just hope I can get the last bits done in time. For the future, I wish the big pirate planes were available as kits, they have lots of personality, if not the elegance of Porco or Curtiss's machines...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I didn't quite make it - my daughter's birthday party, lack of weather and work all contributed, but the main thing was that Porco was vying for attention with the Enigma I was building for a club group build and sadly that won.

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I got some paint on the fuselage and upper wing surface on Friday and I like the colour very much, but the finish is a bit scruffy and having sanded and polished I think it'll be going back for a re-coat later this week. I also still have to paint the engine pod and floats, and the various sticky-out bits.

Still, it was a good try and I am at least well on the way to being done with the little flying boat. I even bought the kit with this GB in mind!

Well done to all those who *did* finish!

Will

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Thanks! Freed from the time constraints of the GB I got all the red paint on at the weekend, and sanded and polished it. But when I looked at the close-ups today I cried a little (dimples in my gloss) and have just finished sanding it back for a third coat. I could re-polish most of it from where I am, but the markings have lost their edge a bit and I think I'd be better off getting a good top coat of new paint on there first.

By the way, is it possible to transport this thread into aircraft WIP as-is, or should I start a new one there and link back to this one?

Cheers,

Will

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