ICM 1/32 Fiat CR.42 Falco - Corpo Aereo Italiano, Ursel, Belgium, October 1940

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Very well done!

Unfortunately ICM made an error with the decals.The aircraft codes of 83a squadriglia aircraft were light blue,not yellow.From what I know Regia aeronautica aircraft never had yellow codes.They were red,blue,white or black.

https://www.italeri.com/prodotto/2919/1/2

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[Stew Dapple]

19 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great work Stew getting all together. Prop looks great.

 

Chris

 

Thanks very much Chris, I''m happy with it all so far  

19 hours ago, spitfire said:

That prop is certainly colourful, looks great

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks very much Dennis, the Gladiator props turned out nice too, perhaps I should stick to building propellers  

 

10 hours ago, AliGauld said:

Looking stunningly good.

Wish I was that organised.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

 

Thanks very much Alistair - some things you only learn after many, many catastrophes  

 

5 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said:

Very well done!

Unfortunately ICM made an error with the decals.The aircraft codes of 83a squadriglia aircraft were light blue,not yellow.From what I know Regia aeronautica aircraft never had yellow codes.They were red,blue,white or black.

https://www.italeri.com/prodotto/2919/1/2

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

 

Giampiero, thank you very much - @Zigomar and @spitfire both already warned me, and as your link shows, the recent Italeri CR.42's in 1/72 and 1/48 both have the codes in blue - and thank you all very much for letting me know before I got round to applying the yellow codes!  . I imagine the RAF Museum's Falco is at least partly to blame for this and indeed every reference I have shows the codes in yellow so ICM really can't be blamed for it, but once you look at the photo's from the CAI it is clear that the codes are the same colour as the squadron badge, which is indeed blue (as is the decal for it in the ICM kit).  As far as I know, no-one makes alternative decals for the kit (none that cover the CAI anyway) but I did get a cunning plan underway and Jamie @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies has made me a set of masks to replace the decals for the codes, so I can paint mine blue  All I have to do is not make a mess of it  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

52 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

 

Thanks very much Chris, I''m happy with it all so far  

 

Thanks very much Dennis, the Gladiator props turned out nice too, perhaps I should stick to building propellers  

 

 

Thanks very much Alistair - some things you only learn after many, many catastrophes  

 

 

Giampiero, thank you very much - @Zigomar and @spitfire@Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbiesmade me a set of masks to replace the decals for the codes, so I can paint mine blue  All I have to do is not make a mess of it  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

I'm quickly trying to make a suitable light blue for Stew which won't be a commercial product but if anyone else does want masks feel free to ask Stew There is an aspect of him not messing it up but there also needs to be proof that they work ok on the CR42's fuselage.

 

[Stew Dapple]

55 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

needs to be proof that they work ok on the CR42's fuselage

 

Indeed, there is some fabric-effect detail along the area in question, but I hope not enough to interfere with the adherence and conformity of the masks; at least it's not rivetty  

 

56 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

There is an aspect of him not messing it up

 

aye, there's the rub  

 

Thanks, Jamie, for attempting the colour match for me  After a moment's consideration I realised I wanted a blue to match the blue on the kits squadron badge decal, as I don't feel it within my grasp to repaint the blue area of the badge to match the codes. Fortunately it seems no-one at present can say for sure what the shade of blue originally used was beyond that it was a pale- to mid-blue. On the kit decal it's a fairly bright pale blue, so if nobody grasses me up I can pretend I knew perfectly well what I was doing  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Stew Dapple]

I did find a few jobs to do yesterday; first, adding the cowl flaps and masking the yellow portion of the cowling:

 

 

I know I said I prefer my kits 'buttoned up' but the cowl flaps are the one area where I always seem to make an exception... I don't know, it's a weakness, but a harmless one  

 

I also plugged the strut-attachment recesses in the underside of the upper wing with Blu-Tack, to save myself having to scrape the paint off and allow the use of poly cement to attach the struts when the time comes:

 

 

As the squadron commander, Eduardo's CR.42 carries a jaunty coloured band on the rear fuselage, in his case a red one, which I sprayed with some VVS red which I think we don't make any more:

 

 

I'll mask that prior to painting the main scheme. The fuselage band appears to have the same width as the white cross on the rudder, which turns out to have the same width as Tamiya 6mm masking tape which is serendipitous  

 

Hopefully I'll get some Aluminio on today but it's quite a busy one so maybe tomorrow  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

[Biggles87]

Good idea with the Blu-Tack, but I hope you’ve left some air holes in the plastic bag over Eduardo’s head.

 

John

[AliGauld]

8 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

I also plugged the strut-attachment recesses in the underside of the upper wing with Blu-Tack,

Coming along swimmingly,

Now, why didn't I ever think of that simple and effective solution. I'm pinching that idea for sure.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

Yes a great idea to use the blue tack . Thanks for sharing. 

Chris

[Stew Dapple]

Thank you gents  The Blu-Tack wheeze is particularly helpful with the ICM CR.42 (or indeed the Gladiator variants they produce) as the struts don't attach to the wing with the usual 'peg and hole' attachment points but with recesses in the wings the same shape as the tops, or bottoms, of the struts. I do prefer to use poly cement for this sort of thing when I can, as much as anything for the increased adjustment time that it allows if required.

 

On Saturday @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies was kind enough to swing by on his way to Perth with a couple of sets of masks for the code numbers and some light, bright blue paint that he had mixed for me:

 

 

I hadn't seen Jamie since July last year so it was good to have the chance of a quick catch-up  

 

The red tail band was masked and, as Eduardo was the equivalent of a Squadron Leader, his was one of the three aircraft in each Squadriligia fitted with a radio, so I made the stubby little R/T mast from a bit of stretched sprue:

 

 

The struts were made into 'paint kebabs' following the sequence in which they had been allocated in the compartment box, left to right and with the coffee stirrers marked L & R accordingly:

 

 

So once they were painted I was able to restore them to their numbered compartments in the right order  

 

Finally, the 'Aluminio' paint was applied, this was Colourcoats ACLW25 - Weißaluminium, it's a modern(ish) Luftwaffe colour, but I used it on the Belgian Gladiator as Aluminium dope and I thought it worked well, so I had at it again:

 

 

I did give the undersides a polish afterwards with a dry kitchen towel, which brought out a nice but not excessive shine (wth Aluminium dope I want it to look like silver paint, not a natural metal finish) . The struts are all now safely back in their respective compartments in the box. Now I need a quick check of my references for the colours and the general arrangement of the mottling, and I can do what masking is required for the underside and get started on the uppersurfaces...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hopefully the guesstimated blue does a serviceable job on the code numbers when you get to that stage. I'm glad I stopped by - even if I did get The Cook's Tour of Dundee taking the world's longest detour around a dug-up urban dual carriageway  Ultimately we got the hired van returned in the nick of time with no irresponsible driving involved and the 35 litres of diesel I put in just before my flying visit put the trip computer within 10 miles of range-to-go when I dropped it off as compared to picking it up the night before. That felt about as satisfying as scooping up exactly the right number of tin lids 

[spitfire]

Looking good, I must make a note of that aluminium paint as I recently did a search of such paints for the George undersides.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Stew Dapple]

Whew, got a bit of catching up to do; it was a busy week with work and a lot of my time outside of that was spent pondering my colour choices for the camouflage scheme. All I really learned from that was that what little I thought I knew about Regia Aeronautica camouflage was possibly out of date and my colour choices would most likely either be wrong in colour or pattern. I did note that both Jean @Zigomar and @red baron 5 provided lovely examples of the Falco here and here respectively and both used a paler shade of Giallo Mimetico than my eyeballs had been used to - Jean was also kind enough to advise on the colours for my particular aircraft which is from a later production run than his and does not carry the same scheme. In the end I used Giallo Mimetico 4 (Colourcoats ACRA04) cut liberally with ACRA01 - Giallo Mimentico 1. The effect is rather bleached by the fluorescents on my bench, it's a bit richer and warmer in real life:

 

 

As the fairly famous picture of the Falco MM5701 nosed-over on the beach at Orfordness was part of the same series as the kit's option I thought it reasonable that the camouflage might be broadly similar; the picture of MM5701 is one of the few where you get a good look at the top wing of a CR.42 so using the Regia Aeronautica Caccia & Assalto Vol.1 book as a guide I pencilled in the outlines for the jagged shapes on the top wing; not exactly the same but following the same sort of pattern:

 

 

What I should have done of course was to make them smaller, as in overpainting the lines I got bigger jaggies than intended, but I'm reasonably pleased with them as it's unlikely I could have done them any better:

 

 

After that I got on with the undercarriage spats, lower wings and fuselage mottling:

 

 

That took me the best part of a day, in two sittings; the mottling is a bit tighter and more dense than I meant it to be, but we are where we are. Now I get to repeat the whole process with the Marrone Mimetico  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

 

[Biggles87]

You’re a brave man attempting a multi-colour mottle Stew, even in 1/32 Scale.

Looking good to me so far.

 

John

[Mottlemaster]

Looking good Stew. I think the brown will be easier as the green provides the reference points.

I am attempting a scheme with spots and my first attempt taking hours they were far too small when I gave it an honest assessment.

Hope your air compressor hasn't been stressed too much,  mine has become noisy and I'm expecting the imminent smell of burning electrics. 

Cheers Alistair

[spitfire]

That's looking really good, I must admit mottling is not my favourite pastime but it's great when you sit back and see the finished article.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

That's brilliant Stew

[CedB]

Well, how have I missed this?

 

Caught up now Stew - your usual excellence on display.

Of course I like the pilot best - jaunty, isn't he?  

[Stew Dapple]

22 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

You’re a brave man attempting a multi-colour mottle Stew, even in 1/32 Scale.

Looking good to me so far.

 

John

 

Thank you John, perhaps when someone else does it, it seems like bravery, but when I did it, it felt a lot like stupidity  

 

21 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

Looking good Stew. I think the brown will be easier as the green provides the reference points.

I am attempting a scheme with spots and my first attempt taking hours they were far too small when I gave it an honest assessment.

Hope your air compressor hasn't been stressed too much,  mine has become noisy and I'm expecting the imminent smell of burning electrics. 

Cheers Alistair

 

Thanks Alistair; I found it pretty difficult too to be honest, years of working in 1/72 conditioned me to make the mottles as small and tight as possible when I could have been a bit freer with them, I think. My compressor seems to be holding up okay, perhaps it's saving itself for the Big Bang  

 

20 hours ago, spitfire said:

That's looking really good, I must admit mottling is not my favourite pastime but it's great when you sit back and see the finished article.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks Dennis, it did take a really long time and some of it was hard work (in modelling terms at least; it's not like I was breaking rocks), but now and then I did slip into some sort of state of zen-like calm where it became almost automatic  

 

20 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

That's brilliant Stew

 

Thanks very much mate, the paint finish on the mottles doesn't bear close inspection, it's a bit uneven and though I found the sweet-spot on the airbrush settings from time to time it seemed to keep shifting and I'd have to make adjustments and re-start, but it's done and I won't have to do it again (until I have to do it again )

 

10 hours ago, CedB said:

Well, how have I missed this?

 

Caught up now Stew - your usual excellence on display.

Of course I like the pilot best - jaunty, isn't he?  

 

Hello Ced and welcome  He does have a certain... hmm, what's the Italian for panache...? Doesn't he? However he''s been a pain to fit and mask around and he hides nearly all the cockpit detail, in all honesty I wouldn't use him (or a facsimile) for a second build  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

That's it though Stew isn't it? This is similar to my ships in some way. The modeller themselves is fully aware of where every little bump in the road is but nobody else studies each individual mottle appraising them for consistency of paint application. It just gets lost in the noise same as little kinks in photo etch bits and bobs do.

 

It's a cracker of a model so far and it's going to look great beside your Gladiators.

[Zigomar]

Hi Steve. Mottling is part of the Airbrush quest for Graal! You can't get away! Wether it is German , Italian , of anything else, it is an initiatic passage! I have used a couple of tricks and I do not mind sharing as it could help someone in doubt. When I have to do such an exercise, I first take a look at as many pictures as I can of the bird, just to print the patterns in my subconsciousness. Then when comes the time to paint, I let my hand goes freely with the airbrush, thinking that I am the real painter, and that te cold beer is near as it is half past eleven! Be creative, thing outside the box and the result will be yours, and not a pale copy! Hope you 'll understand it's already time for a beer! Cheers.

[Mottlemaster]

Just got the decals on mine . Gosh they are good and thin but do take lots of care and dont like to move around too much when on .  Reading your posts it looks like you may be useing masks . I guess you have plenty of experience with ICM decals after doing the two Gladiators .

 

Iv chucked my two guns away by accident . Cleaning up the bench of all the bits of rubbish that had accumilated and i didnt notice them   I skhal use your picture as a guide to scratch some new ones .

 

Watch out for the struts . They take some time to get right . If you want a pic of mine inplace before upper wing is attached let me know .

 

Cheers Alistair

[Stew Dapple]

Thank you gents  

 

@Mottlemaster Alistair, sorry to hear about your guns mate, hope these help:

 

 

 

 

Those are 1cm squares on the cutting mat.  The full length of the part fits exactly diagonally across the square, those of you better versed in geometry than I am will be able to work out the length from that, or you could just make yours to fit diagonally across the squares on your cutting mat  

 

I got the Marron Mimetico applied; it didn't turn out how I saw it in my head beforehand, and I'm not that happy with the overall effect - too dense and too fussy, as it should be given that it probably took me about 4 times as long to do as a contemporary Fiat employee would have had to do a full-sized Falco. However I'm not stripping it off and starting again as I would probably do all the same things again and lose two further weekends in the process

 

 

I remembered to do the wrap-around camouflage on the upperwing underside, though I did use masking tape and I believe it would have been freehand on the original full-size aircraft:

 

 

I didn't remember to do it on the lower wing undersides and the tailplanes though, so I haven't quite finished:

 

 

Hopefully the decals and markings will distract a little from the mottling once they are applied. Next after that will be starting to fit the sub-assemblies together, now including The Joy of Struts  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[bigbadbadge]

Paintwork is amazing Stew. Great work. 

Chris 

[AliGauld]

That's incredible paintwork.

Looks fantastic.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Biggles87]

I would certainly be happy with that.

 

John