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

[CedB]

Me too - looking very smart  

[Cookenbacher]

Spectacular paint work Stew!

[Stew Dapple]

18 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Paintwork is amazing Stew. Great work. 

Chris 

 

9 hours ago, AliGauld said:

That's incredible paintwork.

Looks fantastic.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

 

7 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

I would certainly be happy with that.

 

John

 

5 hours ago, CedB said:

Me too - looking very smart  

 

1 hour ago, Cookenbacher said:

Spectacular paint work Stew!

 

Thanks very much gents  As a bit of airbrushing I'm happy with it and I doubt I could do it any better anyway, but it didn't turn out how I saw it in my head and I don't really feel that I've made the transition from 1/72 (where by necessity you have to make the mottling as small and neat as possible) to1/32 (where you don't, at least not so much). Anyway, onwards and, we hope, upwards  

 

I used the kit transfers for the rudder cross; because you overlap the horizontal and vertical bars and the white of the decal is a little translucent, you will end up with a noticeably whiter square in the middle where they overlap; I gave the arms of the cross a couple of coats of Citadel white to balance it out a bit, but possibly an easier solution would have been to spray the rudder white, then make the cross from 6mm Tamiya tape before doing the camo then removing it at the end:

 

 

The engine and undercarriage were fitted, no issues there:

 

 

That's two struts down  

 

I thought I'd better bite the bullet and use the set of masks that @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies very kindly made for me as I had a rare moment of clarity which suggested that putting vinyl masks (and, specifically, removing them) over decals was probably asking for trouble. I think I did it in a rather more long-winded way than Jamie intended, but I'll do a step-by-step anyway... first the mask for the blue numbers was fitted:

 

 

... and the blue that Jamie was also kind enough to mix for me was sprayed on:

 

 

The 'numbers' from the mask where then re-fitted:

 

 

... and the outer mask removed:

 

 

The second mask was then added flush to the top-left corner of the numbers (apart from the 'filling' for the number 8 holes, which go bottom right so that that drop-shadow falls the right way) and the shading was sprayed (with RAF Night):

 

 

Then the masks were removed to find...

 

 

 

Success! Well, mostly. The codes on the starboard side are a little wonky. Okay, quite wonky. Okay, wonky as hell. This was of course my fault; in my defence I never masked anything more complicated than a Hinomaru with no outline before (comparatively easy: just a circle) and I was more concerned by getting the process right than I needed to be which clearly led to a concomitant drain of my observational skills  Anyway Dennis @spitfire I think you can proceed with confidence with your set, and if anybody else wants one I've still got a spare set which I didn't have to use in the end. Jamie - thank you again, you did good mate  

 

Next: more transfers, more struts, who knows, I'm just doing bits all over the place now  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

[CedB]

Great stuff Stew  

 

2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

…I was more concerned by getting the process right than I needed to be which clearly led to a concomitant drain of my observational skills

Story of my life. I can see what you did though - lined up the '1' with the next line down.

Been there.

You could try to remove it and do it again?

Or try not to see it ever again…

[Stew Dapple]

38 minutes ago, CedB said:

Great stuff Stew  

 

Story of my life. I can see what you did though - lined up the '1' with the next line down.

Been there.

You could try to remove it and do it again?

Or try not to see it ever again…

 

Thanks Ced  

 

Yeah the '1' is positioned where it should be, the '83' is one stringer higher and wonky to boot. I'm going with the second of your two suggestions; overpainting the markings and re-doing them would mean re-spraying five different colours and trying to match the existing camo pattern... I'll just make sure the port side is facing outwards on display  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[spitfire]

Hi Stew, you certainly nailed the masking process and that blue looks great, I'm sure that us modellers are a lot neater than the ground crews who painted the markings on the real aircraft.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Mottlemaster]

Looking superb Stew .  Iv just finished mine and its now sitting next to a pair of 1/32 me 163 komets to avoid any sence of organisation . Loved the kit and its superb fit .

 

Can you tell me how you would copmpare the build difficulty with the gladiator which i shall start shortly .

cheers

Alistair

[CedB]

3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

I'm going with the second of your two suggestions…

Good move Stew and completely understandable matey  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Love the camouflage Stew. As it's now been a few weeks, I can't actually remember what order I intended the masks and paint went on, but the fact it's worked out well suggests that the order you actually did it was perfectly serviceable

[Stew Dapple]

18 hours ago, spitfire said:

Hi Stew, you certainly nailed the masking process and that blue looks great, I'm sure that us modellers are a lot neater than the ground crews who painted the markings on the real aircraft...

 

Thanks very much Dennis, I'm pleased with how the masks worked out  

 

18 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

...Can you tell me how you would copmpare the build difficulty with the gladiator which i shall start shortly ...

 

Thanks Alistair; it's not been any harder than the Gladiators, which weren't hard anyway  You've got less struts, but more rigging, so it's swings and roundabouts there, and keep an eye on the orientation of the engine parts, I got caught out on one of those but managed to disassemble it and put it together properly before any lasting harm was done  

 

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Good move Stew and completely understandable matey  

 

That path of least resistance is well-worn in my neck of the woods

 

9 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Love the camouflage Stew. As it's now been a few weeks, I can't actually remember what order I intended the masks and paint went on, but the fact it's worked out well suggests that the order you actually did it was perfectly serviceable

 

Thanks mate, I've still got the instructions on the WhatsApp thing and I think earlier in this thrread but I was too lazy to look because as usual I thought I knew what I was doing  

 

So: welcome to World of Struts, incorporating Decal World:

 

We've got struts!

 

 

... and more struts!

 

 

... and decals!

 

 

... and more struts!!!

 

 

... and did I mention the struts?

 

 

... and before I knew it, I was here:

 

 

 

I would recommend the use of poly cement for fixing the struts, rather than superglue (if you were even thinking of it, as I was) - the attachment points for the struts are excellent and the struts fit very well, but there is a little play in there and poly cement's slower setting time gives you a bit of wiggle room to get everything in place and lined up nicely. I'll leave that to set for a while before giving it an overall coat of satin varnish which I hope will level the reflectivity of the paints, particularly the mottles where the paint went on thicker in some places than others.

 

The misaligned codes look less bad from some angles than others:

 

 

I'll just make sure I photograph it from those angles  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Dandie Dinmont]

This looks superb Stew, though wee Eduardo has certainly had a rough old time of it. Fantastic work!

 

Craig. 

[CedB]

Very nice Stew - good job matey  

[RichieW]

What a beautiful model, nobody will notice any slight misalignment of the code letters. Like me they will be too busy admiring the stunning paintwork. 

 

Richie

[The west wing]

A superb build, look forward to the fisished model. Just a question my mother lived in Corton Suffolk and a CR.42 crashed there on the playing field, is this the same group?

 

[Stew Dapple]

15 minutes ago, The west wing said:

A superb build, look forward to the fisished model. Just a question my mother lived in Corton Suffolk and a CR.42 crashed there on the playing field, is this the same group?

 

 

Same Group, different squadron mate - see here for pics and story

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[spitfire]

That looks great, just as I imagined it to look like.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mark.au]

Just catching on to this one and it looks fantastic, glad I saw it.

[franky boy]

Top work Stew. 
 

Looking very smart indeed. 
 

James 

[Stew Dapple]

On 5/11/2021 at 6:20 AM, Dandie Dinmont said:

This looks superb Stew, though wee Eduardo has certainly had a rough old time of it. Fantastic work!

 

Craig. 

 

Thanks Craig  Yes it must have been getting pretty rank under that plastic cover

 

On 5/11/2021 at 7:09 AM, CedB said:

Very nice Stew - good job matey  

 

Thanks very much Ced  

 

On 5/11/2021 at 9:47 AM, RichieW said:

What a beautiful model, nobody will notice any slight misalignment of the code letters. Like me they will be too busy admiring the stunning paintwork. 

 

Richie

 

Thanks Richie, it's quite noticeable to me, but it was a learning experience  

 

On 5/11/2021 at 10:25 AM, spitfire said:

That looks great, just as I imagined it to look like.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks very much Dennis, it's not quite how I imagined it would look when I started, but as a model I'm pleased with how it turned out  

 

On 5/11/2021 at 1:01 PM, mark.au said:

Just catching on to this one and it looks fantastic, glad I saw it.

 

Thanks very much Mark, I'm glad you like it  

 

On 5/11/2021 at 1:20 PM, franky boy said:

Top work Stew. 
 

Looking very smart indeed. 
 

James 

 

Thanks very much James  

 

Well after spraying the satin coat, the end rushed to meet me, before I knew it the last little jobs had been done. Wee Eduardo's dust-cover was removed and the leather cockpit edging retouched where a little overspray had got in. The canopy masking was removed, and the navigation lights, tinted with Tamiya Clear Red and Green, were fitted to the wings. The bracing between the outboard struts was pretty substantial on the real aircraft, more like rods than wires; I made mine from Albion Alloys 0.4mm Aluminium tubing, which had the additional benefit of not needing paint:

 

 

The wing and rudder actuators were made from stretched sprue, and the R/T wire from Infini Lycra Thread:

 

 

... and here we are:

 

 

 

The weather looks set to be pretty dreich today, I'll take the 'Glamour Shots' for RFI if I get some decent light later on, or tomorrow. I'll add the link here when I'm done. Thanks to you all for the advice, encouragment and flattery  It's been a hoot. The ICM Gladiator, Sea Gladiator and the CR.42 have all been really enjoyable kits to build and I recommend them to you if you wanted to get your feet wet with a larger-scale biplane  

 

Oh, and Wee Eduardo says: "Salve, ragazzi!"

 

 

 

EDIT: RFI pictures are here

 

Cheers,

 

Stew 

 

 

[CedB]

Lovely model Stew and a great addition to the collection  

[spitfire]

Great result Stew, one to be proud of.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[John_W]

Beautiful. You cant fault the Italians for their style

[AliGauld]

Beautiful,

Wouldn't look out of place on a Milan catwalk.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Troy Smith]

Don't how  I missed this.  Just the RFI, where I went WOW! 

Will read the thread later.

[Biggles87]

Superbe! 

The close-up shots show just how great a job you’ve done.

 

John