The Italian Job.

[Whofan]

 

 

There are no minis in this Italian job, just 4 Italian fighters from the second world war. I started one, then began another, ran two build simultaneously, discovered the third kit was a pig, concentrated on that, and then found the fourth kit was an even worse pig and almost chcked it but perservered. All kits are 1/72.

 

Building these caused me no end of frustration, annoyance, even wonderment about the mind set of kit instruction drafters. All will be revealed.

 

 

I had picked up on impulse a Fiat G55 at a show made by a firm I'd never heard of, Supermodels. I then picked up on impulse at another show, a Macchi c.205 by Supermodels. I then thought about building them, left them, and then saw an RS models Reggiane 2006, bought that, and finally a Special Hobby Reggiane 2000.  

 

Here are the four kits as made;

 

 

From left to right; Supermodel Macchi c.205, Supermodel Fiat G.55, Special Hobby Reggiane 2000, and RS models Reggiane 2006.

 

The two supermodel kits went together well.The new RS model was awful. WIngs to fuselage, fuselage together. Much putty, sanding, pimer, sanding, putty - and the canopy shape is completely wrong at the rear for the fuselage it butts onto.

 

Similarly the Special Hobby. Fit was awful. And the same problem for the canopy as the RS model - the canopy shape is different at the back to the fuselage it butts onto.

 

Painting; well these are my fault, not the kit or the paint. The Fiat G 55 is painted with Halfords rattle can Nissan leaf silver, control surfaces with Tamiya flat aluminium for a bit of contrast and looks decent enough. The Macchi 205 was brush painted Italian mottle. Never again. I will learn lessons.

 

The Reggiane 2006; A Hycote yellow rattle can that didn't cover well in the first 2 coats, the third coat went on like a lake. I had so lost interest by then I just left it. The yellow scheme is used as the plane was a prototype.  The Reggiane 2000; I probably shoudn't have used NATO green for the uppers, it looks to dark to me. All brush painted.

 

 

 

 

 

All gun barrels and pitots with brass tube, and aerials with Uschi van der Rosten thread.

 

Oh, if you are wondering about the lack of weathering, Pilots Carlo, Giovanni, Mario and Guiseppe took the planes to the local hand wash before returning to base. Can't fly over their Carissima's homes in a dirty plane, what?

 

Onward and upward 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Whofan

[Abandoned Project]

Well done on your perseverance.

[jean]

These are great planes you have modeled, and they look really good, so congratulations are definitely in order!

Re the fit of the canopies at their rear ends, it is quite correct. They do not conform to the cross section of the fuselage, so no panic! I just hope you did not try to sand them to shape!

 

Bottom line, they look great, and Supermodel did make great Italian kits.

 

JR

[Whofan]

23 minutes ago, jean said:

These are great planes you have modeled, and they look really good, so congratulations are definitely in order!

Re the fit of the canopies at their rear ends, it is quite correct. They do not conform to the cross section of the fuselage, so no panic! I just hope you did not try to sand them to shape!

 

Bottom line, they look great, and Supermodel did make great Italian kits.

 

JR

 

Thanks. Fortunately, I decided to simply cover the gaps with glue n glaze, and left it at that.

 

I am still amazed that of the four, the 2 Supermodel, the oldest - I think '70's kits - were the best fitting kits. In fact, for such an old kit, the supermodel Macchi c.205 has clear nav light inserts.

[jean]

2 minutes ago, Whofan said:

 

Thanks. Fortunately, I decided to simply cover the gaps with glue n glaze, and left it at that.

 

In real life, there was no obstruction at the back of the canopy. Fresh air was flowing freely!

I guess nobody will ever notice your home-made blockage.

Yes, Supermodel kits were ahead of their time. I still have  Fiat CR 32 in the stash, and it is a beautiful little kit.

 

Have fun!

JR

[JOCKNEY]

Delighted to see Italian aircraft being built here and as I have a few Supermodel kits it a welcome relief to find you complimenting the fit of the parts.

Hopefully that bodes well for my future Cant 1007 builds.

 

Cheers Pat 

[Wulfman]

Lovely collection , great work on the old school Supermodels !

 

Wulfman

[Whofan]

Thanks for the kind thoughts, all.

 

@jean, it won't take a moment with a fine pair of tweezers to restore the natural air conditioning in the cockpit!

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Beautiful!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[S. Uehlinger]

Great Job on the Ities!  I have built them all as well....with the exception of the Reggiane Centauro.....its a limited run kit (Pegasus?) and looks Godawful! .   Supermodel made some good stuff back in the day!   I still have a CANT 1007, Sm81 and some others in the stash.....you've inspired me to take another look at them.....

[Whofan]

10 hours ago, S. Uehlinger said:

Supermodel made some good stuff back in the day!   I still have a CANT 1007, Sm81 and some others in the stash.....you've inspired me to take another look at them.....

 

Thanks for the kind thoughts, all.

 

@S. Uehlinger, If the two Supermodel kits I did are like yours, you'll have some work, but you'll enjoy them!

[AdrianMF]

Nice foursome!

I was on tenterhooks reading through to find out which ones were the good builds… I’ve just completed a Revell Macchi 200 and I’m having a bit of a Google in front of this little lot:

 

Thanks for the heads up, and I’m glad the Supermodel kits worked well! I got all four of these for 50%,of the sale price, seven bucks for four kits, back when there were about 2 bucks to a pound! There’s a FROG Macchi 202 in the stash as well, so my Xmas Blitzbuild is going to be one of these.

 

Are we allowed to say “knocking up a supermodel for Christmas”? 🙄

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Whofan]

Adrian,

 

thanks for the kind thoughts.

 

overall, I was impressed with the supermodels kits, and I hope you will be, too.

 

Of course you can knock up a supermodel for Christmas !! (Fnaar, fnaaar!!)

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Well you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! 😂 

Lovely selection Sir!thanks for showing them! Regards, Andy.. a fellow Who Fan to boot too! 

[Hopesdaddy]

Have had the old supermodel kit in my stash since the mid 90's, still pretty impressed with it as I believe it dates back to the 70's. Really disappointed that the rs model kit is such a pig as I was thinking about buying one myself (the reggiane 2005) to complete my 5 series of Italian planes

[Graham Boak]

RS kits vary.  I have two Kawasaki prototypes and they were both lovely, plus a Yale which looks good except for the interior framing.  I also have some of their very early kits, a Bucker 131 and an Arado 76.  I haven't started the Bucker and the Arado has gone together well but I dislike the darkness of the 02 paint "out of the tin" so have yet to face up to the more difficult bit of getting the parasol wing to fit.  I know that their P-38s have caused problems (lots of P-38 kits used to) but I wouldn't expect particular troubles from their most recent kits.  Just treat them like any other short-run kit.

[Whofan]

On 03/12/2022 at 15:26, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

Well you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! 😂 

Lovely selection Sir!thanks for showing them! Regards, Andy.. a fellow Who Fan to boot too! Thanks Andy, always nice to hear from a fellow Who fan😇

 

[Whofan]

On 03/12/2022 at 22:52, Graham Boak said:

but I wouldn't expect particular troubles from their most recent kits.  Just treat them like any other short-run kit.

Grahame, 

 

I have a couple of newer RS models kits and on the spruces the parts look a lot better.

 

I’m hopeful that increasing modelling skills ( 🙄 ) and better kits will be a winning combination.

[Whofan]

On 03/12/2022 at 21:52, Hopesdaddy said:

Really disappointed that the rs model kit is such a pig as I was thinking about buying one myself (the reggiane 2005) to complete my 5 series of Italian planes

As Graham Boak says, the newer RS model kits are better than the older ones, so the Reggiane 2005 might well be a lot better to build.

 

Good luck with it!

[georgeusa]

You did super with the build of these kits.  I agree, the Supermodel kits are really well designed and pretty easy to build.  I have a love/hate relationship with RS model kits in that I usually love their subjects, but hate their kits due to the buildability of them.  Special Hobby, with their older kits, is a toss-up as to what you will get.  Their more recent kits, especially in 1/32 are quite nice.  From the look of your Italian air armada, you could not tell you had any difficulties in the build.  I also cannot believe you voluntarily chose to do an entire aircraft in yellow.  Yellow is so hard to get right.  But, I do feel your pain in trying to get a good effect out of a rattle can.  In spite of it all, great builds and way to go.  Thanks for sharing.

[Whofan]

19 minutes ago, georgeusa said:

You did super with the build of these kits.  I agree, the Supermodel kits are really well designed and pretty easy to build.  I have a love/hate relationship with RS model kits in that I usually love their subjects, but hate their kits due to the buildability of them.  Special Hobby, with their older kits, is a toss-up as to what you will get.  Their more recent kits, especially in 1/32 are quite nice.  From the look of your Italian air armada, you could not tell you had any difficulties in the build.  I also cannot believe you voluntarily chose to do an entire aircraft in yellow.  Yellow is so hard to get right.  But, I do feel your pain in trying to get a good effect out of a rattle can.  In spite of it all, great builds and way to go.  Thanks for sharing.

George, 

 

thanks for your encouraging words. I am pretty sure if I saw another Supermodels kit I'd pick it up, but I suspect they are getting rarer and rarer to find.

 

RS models do some great subjects,  I;ve done several in 1/72 now and have had great fun with most of them, especially as they have been slightly unusual subjects; one in particular was excellent, 

 

I also have 4 of their newer kits of somewhat obscure Japanese WW2 aircraft, which should be better.

 

It's still down to me though to make the kits, and to work out the best way to overcome any flaws. We've all heard the saying "a bad workman always blames his tools" and smiled at ourselves 🙂 

 

Each model finished improves the skill set - I hope !