Airfix 1/72nd SM. 79

[Bish]

I have had this kit well over 20 years. It was bought with the aim of building it in German markings of a profile i saw in the frist referance book i got in the mid 80's. A number of years ago i found a set of Kora decals for that same aircraft, so no fancy Italian paint scheme on this (thankfully).

 

 

Ashide from the decals, i also have an old Eduard PE set which while rather basic, does fill out the spartan pit on the kit. The upper pieces is the pit and rear compartment and the gondola.The radio behind the pit is flat, but as the fuselage wilkl be closed up it won't be an issue, as long as there is somthing visible through the small side windows.

 

 

 

The PE set didn't include seat belts, so i pulled a set from my Lutftwaffe spares box.

 

 

I then closed up the fuselage and fitted the wings. There is still more filling to do and clean up the seams, some large gaps around the dorsal hump.

 

 

 

The undercarrage legs have been left movable as Airfix designed them. This way i can fold them away and mask before painting. Once thats done i can add the rear braces and fix them in place.

 

 

Construction is done after quite a bit of sanding and filling. Around the hump was especially bad. The clear pieces were a pain. The 2 side pieces behind the cockpit came out when i applied masking tape so i had to prize off the hump, refit the clear parts and refit and sand the hump. The main canopy was especially interesting in that i would be interested to know what kit it was designed for, because i am sure it wasn't this one. But its in.

 

 

Its since been primed and the first coar of yellow went on this morning.

[Bish]

Time for some paint and decals. I started out with the yellow surfaces and then the RLM 70/71 on top. Theres a few areas i would normally redo. The rudder is a bit patchy and theres some yellow over spray. But in this case i decided to leave it. This was re-done in the field over the original Yugoslav scheme. And the Germans did not hang onto these for long as they were soon handed over to the new Croat air force, so i decided to leave it as it was.

 

Paints are all Xtracolour and are rather shiny.

 

 

 

 

hen it was time to add decals, fit the engines and sort the undercarrage. These Kora decals go down nice but are delicate. The sheet is one decal so you have to trim each one to remove the folm. But in handeling the sheet i nocited some of the black coming away from the decals under my fingers. So i had to be extra careful. The portion of decal over the lower side windows has been cut but i will remove that with the masks after the flat coat which will hopefully prevent damaging the rest of the crosses.

 

 

 

 

 

Got the wheels and exhausts to finish off and fit, them some exhaust staining and light weathering.

 

[clive_t]

Great modelling so far 

[dogsbody]

Not meaning to urinate on your parade, but the orange colour on the cowling fronts should be a duller colour and less uniform. These are actually the collector rings for the engine exhaust, just like on Bristol redial engines. Alfa-Romeo had a license to build Bristol engines in the 1920's and just used the technology when they developed their own engines later on.

 

 

Chris

[Bish]

Thanks Clive.

 

Cheers for that info Chris. The Kora instructions were not clear, just showing what i thought was a red ring, so i painted them RLM 23. All the colour profiles i have seen just show it yellow.  I have noticed other modllers who have painted them different colours, but pics of real ones in museums seem to be bare metal.

 

Thanks for the info, i'll give it some thought.

[Martian]

A good tip on the undercarriage legs. I shall use it on my build.

 

Martian 👽

[John]

I have extremely fond memories of this kit, being a somewhat exotic design in the early 1970s. I remember my friend Barry having one finished overall in Humbrol gloss enamels more or less matching the kit scheme, with the fronts of the cowlings pained red and white because we thought it was a unit marking of some sort. It would be a few years before we discovered that the engines were based on Bristol designs.

 

Somewhat more historically, my Great Uncle William Chalmers served in the Royal Artillery as a Bofors gun layer throughout the Siege of Malta. He's actually in one of the well known photos. I remember showing him my model when I had finally scrounged enough to buy one and he was dismissive - "one hit and they fell to bits". Uncle Bill was badly wounded in an air raid on St Andrews Barracks and was eventually evacuated back to the UK.

 

He never had a full night's sleep again in his life.

 

John