Fiat CR-42 cockpit colours

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

I have acquired a Classic Airframes CR-42 kit and know almost nothing about them. What colour would the cockpit interior have been painted?

 

Trolling though on-line pics of museum examples I am a little wary

 

The overall colour appears to be a blueish grey, and assume it is grigio azzurro scuro-can anyone suggest an equivalent acrylic colour please?

 

The instructions are pretty vague. The a/c fuselage had a metal tube frame with fabric covering and metal panels around the engine. The doped fabric covering does not appear to have the reddish hue on the intewrior side as per allied aircraft?

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Edited December 15, 2023 by Pappy

[spitfire]

All you ever wanted to know about Italian modelling colours is here.

https://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_VitoCharts.htm

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Tomas Enerdal]

There is a CR42 in the Swedish Air Force museum. I do believe I have pics of it and notes about the colour somewhere. Will let you know next week when I can reach my references. 

[Giorgio N]

All grey: the steel tubular structure was painted in grey over a grey primer, the aluminum panels were painted in grey and the fabric areas were painted in grey over an aluminum or a grey primer.

The grey used by FIAT was very similar to the later Grigio Azzurro Chiaro. If for acrylics you mean water based ones, the one I use is Lifecolour's.

[Pappy]

8 hours ago, spitfire said:

All you ever wanted to know about Italian modelling colours is here.

https://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_VitoCharts.htm

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Hi Dennis,

 

That was extremely hwlpful, thank you

 

5 hours ago, Tomas Enerdal said:

There is a CR42 in the Swedish Air Force museum. I do believe I have pics of it and notes about the colour somewhere. Will let you know next week when I can reach my references. 

 

Hello Tomas, that ias very kind of you, no rush but I am leaning towards the Grigio Azzurro Chiaro now 

 

5 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

All grey: the steel tubular structure was painted in grey over a grey primer, the aluminum panels were painted in grey and the fabric areas were painted in grey over an aluminum or a grey primer.

The grey used by FIAT was very similar to the later Grigio Azzurro Chiaro. If for acrylics you mean water based ones, the one I use is Lifecolour's.

 

G'day Giogio, I have never had succuss spraying Lifecolour. Still, I can use that asa reference point to match in some other paint range. The Stormo site suggests FS36307 as an approximate match in one of their tables - that one I have!

 

Thank you all for the prompt replies,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Tomas Enerdal]

Found the pics (old paper prints, not digital) and notes; Pics show a light gray similar to Grigio Azzurro Chiaro, the notes tell me the same. As far as I know it has never been repainted inside. 

[dov]

But, the a/c type in question had in early 1945 a life as GHOST BOMBER of the Luftwaffe in Italy. Did they have the same painting or reversed to RLM Standard?

ICM instruction, or any other companies. I didbit long time ago in RLM 66.

Hapöy modelling 

[GiampieroSilvestri]

According to the instructions of the Italeri model aircraft used by the Luftwaffe as Nachtschlachtflugzeuge were painted in verde oliva scuro with splotches of marrone mimetico and RLM76 with the underside in RLM76 overall with splotches of RLM74 and RLM75.I do not know if the cockpit was repainted but painting the inside of an aircraft is much more difficult so most probably they were left in Italian colours.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[tempestfan]

On 12/15/2023 at 12:36 PM, Pappy said:

G'day people,

 

I have acquired a Classic Airframes CR-42 kit

IIRC they had two tools, the initial one being among their first releases. My prayers are with you it's the second tool... I bought the first one much-reduced, and soon found out why, and why they felt a need to replace it 😉 

[Giorgio N]

On 12/19/2023 at 12:46 PM, dov said:

But, the a/c type in question had in early 1945 a life as GHOST BOMBER of the Luftwaffe in Italy. Did they have the same painting or reversed to RLM Standard?

ICM instruction, or any other companies. I didbit long time ago in RLM 66.

Hapöy modelling 

 

I have checked the Ali e Colori book dedicated to the CR.42 and they include one such aircraft. The aircraft, of which I also have a picture, is said to feature RLM 74 and 75 sprayed irregularly over the original camouflage. In this case the original camouflage is the so called "ramarro" (lizard) style, with blotches of Nocciola Chiaro over Verde Oliva Scuro.

Pictures of other CRs in Luftwaffe service also show this as original camo, that makes sense as it was the one that Fiat had earlier applied to aircraft refurbished at the factory. One picture however seems to show a much "muddier" original camo that would hint at the previous 3-colour scheme.

Undersurfaces are said to have been probably repainted in 76, although there's no way to verify if this was the case. The various squiggles in the German greys also covered part of the lower surfaces..

As the German camo was applied over the existing Italian schemes, I'd say it's extremely unlikely that any change was made to the cockpit colours

[GiampieroSilvestri]

2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 

I have checked the Ali e Colori book dedicated to the CR.42 and they include one such aircraft. The aircraft, of which I also have a picture, is said to feature RLM 74 and 75 sprayed irregularly over the original camouflage. In this case the original camouflage is the so called "ramarro" (lizard) style, with blotches of Nocciola Chiaro over Verde Oliva Scuro.

Pictures of other CRs in Luftwaffe service also show this as original camo, that makes sense as it was the one that Fiat had earlier applied to aircraft refurbished at the factory. One picture however seems to show a much "muddier" original camo that would hint at the previous 3-colour scheme.

Undersurfaces are said to have been probably repainted in 76, although there's no way to verify if this was the case. The various squiggles in the German greys also covered part of the lower surfaces..

As the German camo was applied over the existing Italian schemes, I'd say it's extremely unlikely that any change was made to the cockpit colours

You found the same things I did on Tuesday!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero