Savoia Marchetti SM 79 Sparviero aka Sparrowhawk***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

And now, just to prove I really am 'half a sandwich short of a picnic', I have decided to start yet another build! In 1967 Airfix released their SM 79 kit, and I built it shortly afterwards. I was very pleased with the result but a couple of years ago I realised that the wing dihedral was wrong so I decided to refurbish it. At that point “Murphy” struck – normally when I strip the paint off with oven cleaner the kit falls apart, but not this one! The fuselage split easily enough but the wings would not move. Faced with the prospect of sawing them part way through and putting in a wedge I put it on hold.

 

A few months ago I saw that both Airfix and Italeri were intending to re-release their versions again so I put them both on back order with the big “H”. I had hoped that the Italeri one arrived first as it is supposedly more accurate – the Airfix kit's “hump” behind the cockpit is apparently not quite right. Once again Murphy struck, and the Airfix kit has now arrived. It would be churlish of me not to at least try and build it!

In my own defence, I am one of those lucky people who are classed as needing “sheltering” so I am bored rigid, and I do have my Colourcoats Italian paints out after building the G50 and MC 200. I also have a very nice set of AM decals for the SM 79 so what the heck. It may well be a “Gobbi” too far (it was named Gobbi = Hunchback by the crews because of the aforementioned hump – the Allies on the receiving end apparently named it Gobbi Maledetti or damned hunchback according to the Osprey Combat Aircraft book on it) but I will give it a go. Here it is, though I doubt it will end up looking much like the box art, and anyway, Steve has already built one of those in this GB, albeit using a red/brown mottle!

All the bits are there and they look pretty good - bit of flash but that is to be expected I guess.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 28, 2020 by PeterB

[modelling minion]

Who would have thought that we would have two SM-79's in the GB!

Knowing you liking for Italian aircraft Pete this should be a great build.

[PeterB]

Hi MM,

 

Great build or otherwise it will have to be a ruddy quick one unless we get an extension - subtle hint!🙋‍♂️ I was thinking of doing a simple paint scheme - either all green or all grey top with grey unders, but I am sorely tempted by a rather unusual mottle finish which the Sky decal instructions says is "Scheme C9" - more on that later this week when I will subject you all to yet another lecture guide to Regia Aeronautica colours - you have been warned so get some drinks in!

 

Cheers

 

Pete.

Edited July 28, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have primed it and started work on the cockpit interior, which I hope to finish on Wednesday. I will post pics then but in the meantime, here is my usual “brief history”.

 

Savoia Marchetti produced a number of tri-motor transports and bombers from the early 1930's onwards, continuing well after most other designers considered that layout outdated (but not Junkers of course). This might have been because of the Italian aero engine industry, which was slow to develop more powerful engines, as Cant used the same formula as well.

 

The SM 79 followed the SM 73 transport and the associated SM 81 Pipistrello bomber with a fixed undercarriage, which gained some notoriety from the bombing campaign in Abyssinia/Ethiopia. First flying in 1934 as a transport but later converted to a bomber, the SM 79 had a retractable undercarriage, but the chrome molybdenum steel tubes of the fuselage were covered with fabric and plywood, and the wing structure was wood, again fabric covered. Technically obsolete by the start of WWII it was robust and manoeuvrable, and handled better than the “improved” SM 84 introduced in 1940, and intended to replace it. It was 20 or so mph faster than the Fiat BR 20 but carried less payload, usually only 2 x 1100lb or 5 x 550lb, or 12 x 220 lb bombs - the Fiat could carry 3500lb. However, the CANT Z1007 was as fast as the SM 79 ( around 275mph) and carried nearly twice the bombload, so the Sparviero was not that good a level bomber I guess. With a crew of 6 in the bomber version it carried one fixed Breda Safat 12.7mg firing forwards from the front of the hump, one in the upper gun position at the rear of the hump in a flexible mounting under a sliding hatch, one at the rear of the bomb aimer's ventral gondola, and one 7.7mm Lewis gun that could fire out of either side of the rear fuselage.

 

Tests were made with torpedoes on the SM 79-1 version which had 3 Alpha Romeo 780HP engines, but it was underpowered so the SM 79-II version had 3 x Piaggio 1000HP engines (usually - one batch had Fiat engines). As with the kit the bomb bay was removed and it had crutches for 2 x 450mm torpedoes but usually only the port one was used as crews felt that a pair of fish reduced performance too much. With its decent speed and excellent manoeuvrability It made a reputation for itself as an effective torpedo bomber in the Med sinking many allied ships, and one advantage of its “old fashioned” construction was that it floated well! The torpedo version, or Aero Silurante (AS) had a crew of 5 and was operated by at least 6 Squadriglia in various Gruppi and Stormi.

 

The poor performance of the SM 84, resulted in it being replaced by the SM 79-III or Bis, which was cleaned up aerodynamically with the ventral gondola removed and about 20 mph faster so in the end the SM 79 it outlived its replacement (like the Fairey Swordfish and Albacore), though very few entered service before Italy surrendered. Another little known version was the twin engined (2 x 1000HP) SM 79B, a few of which were exported. Romania liked theirs so much they asked SM to produce a version for them with Junkers Jumo 1220HP inline engines - the SM 79-JR.

 

Info mostly from one of the two volumes of Famous Bombers of WWII by William Green I picked up cheap in the early 1970's in a book sale at my then local branch of W H Smith. Excellent value for about 60p each!

 

Looks like we are now going to have 2 Airfix Wimpys so I guess 2 SM-79 is only fair (assuming it gets finished)!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 28, 2020 by PeterB

[modelling minion]

Another great potted history there Pete.

 

I have always liked the SM-79, it's 3 engines and humped back make it stand out from most aircraft from WWII. I have the Italeri kit in the stash and really must get around to building it at some point.

[PeterB]

Airfix were it seems beginning to take a bit more interest in fuselage/cockpit interiors by the time they released this kit.

You get 2 seats, 2 control columns, two bukheads, a floor and an IP, and there is a dec for the latter in this release which I don't think was in the original I built. There should also be seats for the wireless operator and the flight engineer in the compartment behind the cockpit, but as it will be modelled on the ground, I will be putting the roof section on so they won't be that visible and I am not entirely sure where they were positioned - must see if I can find a pic.  Besides the pilot and co-pilot, Airfix provide a standing figure to work the upper gun, which fits into a socket on a bar going across the fuselage - you can see the pivot for the bar behind the rear window. They also provide the Lewis gun for the "waist" position which can be mounted on either side, and there are two hatch covers for when not in use, just above the row of floor level windows which presumabaly are to let light into the bomb aimer's gondola. As you can see the hatches are solid but I suspect they may have been transparent in real life on at least some machines. One strange feature is that both the floor windows and the gun hatches/windows seem to have had a silver frame around them on the outside - quite an old fashioned touch. Incidentally it looks like some later SM 79 had another hatch/window behind the original as one book refers to the "new waist gun position",

 

As to the colour of the interior, I was going to paint it in the same "Verde Anticorrosione" green I have used on all 4 of my Italian fighters, but in the Italian build Heather is doing on the Battle of Britain GB, Giorgio has pointed out that the green was just a primer and, depending on which manufacturer made the plane, it was often overpainted in grey. Airfix specify Hu64 which is a light grey and as my primer is fairly close to that I have decided to leave it, rightly or wrongly!

 

I have filed the rear bulkhead down a little and the fuselage now fits together pretty well. Once I have decided whether or not to put more seats in, I just have to trap the rudder and tailwheel in and glue it together. There is a small transparent part under the nose, but I will use Krystal Kleer on that.

 

Next I will sort out the wings. This is one of the kits Airfix gave a "working undercarriage" to. In some cases such as the B-24 and Hudson, it worked well. In others such as the Ju 88 and Halifax, it was a bit silly as the wheel doors did not move. I remember trying various way of providing them with pivots when I was a kid, but did not have the resources in those days to make it work. Normally I leave the u/c until much later to reduce the risk of breaking it, but in this case I will have to fit it during wing assembly. Hopefully it can then be swung up out of the way until glued down after painting. The other problem with this type of moving parts is that the undercarriage is often greatly simplified, but in this case it looks fairly accurate.

 

With luck it should be ready for painting by the end of the week - then the fun really starts!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

Edited July 29, 2020 by PeterB

[John]

Fond memories indeed. Was the original boxing one of those that had a black and white instrument panel printed on the instruction sheet for you to cut out and stick on? I'd forgotten all about those until I saw your comment about the decal. 

John 

[PeterB]

Hi John,

 

I know that the Lanc, Wellington, Do 217 definitely had cut out paper ones though as I have said before, some were blue and white and my Wimpy was red and white - depended on what colour ink they used for the instructions. My Ju-88 still has a panel printed on the instructions too! When I built the Monogram F7F Tigercat a few months ago that had a panel printed on card for me to cut out and fix in the cockpit - so Airfix were not alone in this, but they gradually either included a decal, or else moulded instruments to paint - sometimes both! Not sure which actually works best.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 29, 2020 by PeterB

[John]

Red and white, never seen one of these but yes, I do recall the blue sheets.

That's interesting about the Tigercat.

John 

[PeterB]

The fuselage itself went together pretty well but the optional rear of the hump was a poor fit, so I have filled and sanded it.

I have also sanded down the hatch for the waist gun after seeing this pic!

 

I mentioned the "moveable undercarriage" earlier. Well, when I glanced at the instructions I assumed it was like the first Airfix Dakota or the Anson - both main legs and rear bracing struts pivoting so that it could be folded up. However, as you can see it is yet another strange variation from Airfix - the leg pivots but the bracing strut is not actually attached to it and just "plugs in" to sockets in the upper wing, so in the down position the leg just rests against it, and in the up you have to remove the brace. Not a problem for me as I will be gluing it down, and I decided to put some Italian green in the wheel bay for a change. Savoia - Marchetti did licence production to both Macchi and Reggiane I believe but not Fiat according to Green, so maybe the interior of the fuselage should also have been green - over on Heather's build that I mentioned, Giorgio did say Fiat used green, but no mention of this lot of manufacturers!

 

Looking at the pics I have, I think the problem with the hump is that it is actually too shallow and too streamlined at the front. Oh well, not to worry! I will close up the wings and see how they fit. Might even be able to get some paint on tomorrow. Better dig out a front view so I get the dihedral correct this time. The wing upper surface is horizontal but last time I  ended up with the lower surface horizontal, which makes the wings look to droop a little.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 30, 2020 by PeterB

[modelling minion]

That hasn't taken very long Pete has it.

I really do like the shape of this aircraft and will have to think of an excuse to build my Italeri one.

[PeterB]

Hi Craig,

 

No, it has gone fairly quickly as I am pushing 3 builds against the deadline at the expense of my BoB GB builds. The wings are on - not too good a fit as I suspected from my earlier effort but filing, packing, filling etc has solved the problem fairly well. I will sand it down and re-prime on Friday and with luck the camo colours can start going on, at which point it starts to get a little complicated as there were apparently over a dozen possible paint schemes, but more on that later. Presumably your Italeri one has a more accurate hump? I have read somewhere that there was resistance to the continuing production of tri-motors as the Italian Airforce wanted an uncluttered nose to stick guns etc in, but the designer felt that the SM 79 was fast enough for a head on attack to be unlikely and that the single fixed 12.7mm MG would deter anybody thinking of trying that anyway - in his dreams!

 

And yes, it is quite an attractive machine .

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[stevehnz]

Getting along nicely Pete, I always enjoy a SM79 build, my 45 plus year old one still languishes patiently waiting for a rebuild & a decent paint job. ( What do you mean you want your underside painted, your plastic is pale blue isn't it, that'll do surely! ) I'm sure I can get some inspiration from your build, & some camo info.

Steve.

[modelling minion]

I think the Italeri kit is supposed to be more accurate than the Airfix one but that is hardly surprising given the amount of years between the two kits, I don't know specifically about the hump but I presume that it falls into the same category.

You really are spoiled for choice when it comes to schemes to paint them in, if you can find it the Sky Models Decals sheet for them has quite a few options on it in a wide variety of different schemes. I am thinking of building mine as a machine from the Spanish Civil War.

[PeterB]

Hi Guys,

 

Got the wings on so it is time to paint.

One wing fitted well, the other needed a bit of work, but I have cleaned up the joints and they are reasonable - I used MSG to "prime" them after sanding, hence the different colour. So here comes my take on Italian colours - you were warned!

 

The “Sky Decals” SM 79 sheet I bought a few years back has markings for over 60 machines, both bomber and torpedo. They mention 4 basic groups which they call Schemes A,C,E,F, but there are likely to be others, and then these are further sub-divided into a number of variations. Essentially these are either schemes with a yellow sand (Giallo Mimetico 3) base or with a green base -Verde Olivia Scuro (dark olive green) or maybe one of the Verde Mimetico range, though in the Osprey Combat planes book I have also seen ones with a Grey (Grigio Azzuro Scuro) base. These can all be over Grigio Mimetico or the paler Grigio Azzuro Chiaro unders - the plastic in this release is grey Steve!.

 

Having said that there is a wide variation on the colours that might be used over these bases. For example Marrone Mimetico 3 and a Verde Mimetico over sand in various sized mottles, sometimes with a light grey nose as far back as the upper gunner's position. Green mottles on their own over sand, red/green streaks (Scheme A3A), and even large bands similar in a way to the RAF style (Scheme A3). With the green base there are less variations, but one is a light grey large mottle (Scheme E8), another a sand mottle (Scheme C5), and so on. The kit box scheme of medium to large green mottle over sand may be Scheme C2, though the painting guide shows green and marrone mottling, but I have decided to go with the fairly rare and perhaps experimental scheme C9 used by several Squadrigli based at Benghazi which has large blotches of both Verde Mimetico 1 and 3 over Giallo Mimetico 3. I think I will try a unusual technique I used when I built my first Revell Macchi MC 200 - it may be a mistake but we will soon see as I will try a test on my paint mule! The plain green uppers or grey uppers would be quicker but when have I ever taken the easy option? As I am using Colourcoats enamels this will be quite a slow process I expect.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by PeterB

[Heather Kay]

[PeterB]

One thing I forgot to mention - how do you decide which colour is actually the base? Take my 2 Saettas for example.

With the one I have just done in the foreground the base was clearly green and then I painted the "poached egg" mottle colours over it - first Bruno Mim the Marrone Mim. However, with the original 1960's kit it looks very much as if I painted it brown first then painted in green lines to create the mottle! As I mentioned in another build in this GB, I find the biggest problem is getting the mottling correctly sized and spaced, and with the Sparviero, the large mottles in two shades of green must cover around 80% of the surface so I have decided to try using the lighter of the greens as the base - I can always overpaint it in Giallo Mim 3 (or maybe 4) if my experiment does not work on my old Blenheim wing! It will be a bit slow and rather tedious painting in the "sand" lines, but with luck I should be able to control the pattern of the mottles better that way, and it does help that the boundary between the colours was sharp, rather than blurred as on most Luftwaffe mottles, and it should be easy to correct bits locally should the need arise. Then all I have to do is fill in alternate mottles with the other green - or at least that is the theory.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

PS. Mim stands for Mimetico or "camouflage" - the Italian "standard" range of paints.

Edited July 31, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Ok, this is just a rough test shot.

If I try it for real I will have to thin the Giallo Mim 3 down so it flows better, and pay more attention to the actual pattern, but I think it might work,

though I am wondering if instead I should just paint the darker green blotches on and then go round everything with the Giallo? That might actually be easier.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 31, 2020 by PeterB

[CliffB]

 

8 hours ago, PeterB said:

I am wondering if instead I should just paint the darker green blotches on and then go round everything with the Giallo? That might actually be easier.

 

Hi Pete

I made this little 1/72 Vickers tank a few years ago.  For what it's worth I found it easier to get consistent black lines by painting them first and then painting up to them with the paler colours.  Good luck though, whichever way you go.  It'll be a great looking model I'm sure .

 

 

 

Cheers

[Jinxman]

Hi Pete, I think I am right in saying that you use enamels? If you tried some acrylics you might consider this method?

 

I have recently acquired some paint pens, (https://www.montana-cans.com/en/marker-inks/acrylic-marker-ink/acrylic-empty-markers/montana-acrylic-empty-marker-extra-fine-0.7mm), for use with acrylic paint. On first test with thinned down Airfix starter paint they did a pretty good job. (I also got some cheapo variants from eBay which do pretty much the exact same thing)

 

I saw this chap get great results, though I am sure he has practised the method quite a lot; 

 

 

HTH

[modelling minion]

31 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

If you tried some acrylics you might consider this method?

Thats very interesting, I can think of quite a few uses for that where I wouldn't have even dared try to use the airbrush.

[Jinxman]

22 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Thats very interesting, I can think of quite a few uses for that where I wouldn't have even dared try to use the airbrush.

I have tried out the method briefly, and I was pleasantly surprised - like you say there are a wealth of possible uses.

Still to try it out with better quality acrylics, but I can only imagine that will improve the results?

[PeterB]

4 hours ago, Jinxman said:

Hi Pete, I think I am right in saying that you use enamels? If you tried some acrylics you might consider this method?

 

Hi JM,

 

Whilst I am generally using acrylics these days, Colourcoats only come as enamels at the moment, and I suspect it would be an expensive and difficult excercise for Jamie to change to acrylics, even without the current situation. Yes, the new generation of "paint" pens are very useful - I currently have white, black, gold  and silver versions as well as a superb chrome Molotow pen. That certainly is a nice wellenmuster scheme, though it would need to be grey or maybe light blue for my forthcoming Ju 188.

 

Nice tank Cliff. I have some pics of the Vickers taken in the Tank Museum years ago and your kit matches it well. I still prefer to paint the lines first but I found with my test shot that I will have to plan the layout more carefully as I end up with the wrong pattern of colours - actually painting in the other green would allow me to better control where they actually are so I don't end up with too many of one colour next to each other as on the test shot. I can see there will be quite a bit of repainting/touching up requred as I go along.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Progress report - sunglasses may be required!

 

In tribute to the very old film "How green was my valley" which was shot 5 or 6 miles up the road in Gilfach Goch, I present "how green is my Savoia"! I have to say that with the right brushes - 1.6cm wide thin flat in this case for all but the detail parts, my old White Ensign version of Colourcoats brush on beautifully. I suppose the old Humbrol HS206  "grass green" would be a fairly close match to this Verde Mimetico 1, or maybe LNER Apple Green, and though you can't see it the Grigio Mimetico is on the underside - the green wraps round the leading edge of the wing. Under the masking tape is the white fuselage band.

 

So, with two weeks to the deadline if it is not extended, I have 2 of the 4 main camo colours on. The next bit is trickier and I will take a bit of time to try and get it right - I have a profile showing how the colours are on the fuselage, but the wings will be guesswork, but I can always correct anything that does not look right - it will just take time waiting for the enamel paint to dry, but in this weather that is only a few hours. The engine cowlings will be a bit of a fiddle as they have camo on them, together with a brass exhaust collector ring at the front and a white decal stripe behind that. It could be quite close time wise, but with the Dornier 217 finished and the Wellington getting there it should be possible, barring mishaps (oh dear, how many times I have said that and regretted it)!

 

Bye for now.

 

Pete

 

 

 

[Jinxman]

9 minutes ago, PeterB said:

..maybe LNER Apple Green,

That has come together very well, the closest I've got in my Gloy Authentic stash is LNER Darlington Loco Green R213 - it looks like a pretty good match.