I am looking for specifically 1/48 scale decals for Italian Co-Belligerent P-39Q’s. There is a common error with the decals out there (including the Eduard kit). The script name on the decals is listed as 4oBarracca which is incorrect. After the Armistice the reformed 4th Stormo changed the name on their aircraft to Lucchini (their former CO)from Baracca. In the same flowing script, it can appear as similar. I have seen about four companies issue decals for this airplane and they all make the same error! The photos below show real aircraft as marked. Below them is a drawing of Lucchini’s M.C. 202 before the Armistice. Note that the first photo is the one Eduard’s kit decals are based upon.
My last resort will be to learn to copy that script and paint it on myself.
Mike T.
Bell P-39 Aircobra, number 33 of 84th Squadron, 4th Stormo.with Italian Co-Belligerant Air Force. On the nose is painted the signature of Franco Lucchini, top fighter ace of the Regia Aeronautica, MOVM.
I have been thinking about that, but isn’t white lettering hard to do on a computer printer? This lettering doesn’t have a black surround outline either.
Hmmm… You could, with computer, make an island of color to match the fuselage area where it’ll be stuck and create white script graphic over it. Make a decal of that. i.e.:The decal made in that fashion will have a clear ‘window’ of your script text. Then paint a white target area on your fuselage, apply the decal over it. Maybe careful trimming and a little touch up and will result in what you are going for.
It might just be as easy to practice copying the lettering. Our use tracing paper to copy the marking. Trace over the copy with an exacto knife then use a white colored pencil over it. Follow that with a fine brush with white paint.
But it shows that these companies should care more about their research if they repeat an error like this over the years. One or two profile pictures of this aircraft containing the error seemed to have stop people from reviewing the photos.
Look carefully at the wording of the decal. I believe that Eagle Strike also had this in error. See if it says the correct Lucchini, not the incorrect Barracca.
Whatever you do to make this build, it’ll be really interesting. I was thinking the only American airplane export to be used against the Allies in World War Two was the P-36 Hawk.
Actually Trexx, these aircraft were supplied to the Italians fighting alongside the Allies after the Armistice of 1943. Note the Roundels that Italy still uses today. They were used primarily against German forces in Yugoslavia giving air support to Tito’s forces. This was so that Italians would not fight against Italians. Even so, the Italians still called this period a civil war with the Fascist supporters in the north and the Allied supporters in the south.
They used the term “Co-belligerent” instead of “Allied”. This was to designate the Italian “Royalists” fighting for the Allied cause versus the Fascist “Italian Socialist Republic” (RSI). As Italy was a country split against itself and its occupied status, it couldn’t be considered an Allied nation.
It is said that many Italian pilots flew for the ANR (the RSI’s air force) did so, not because they were fascists, but because their families were in the north of Italy and they were worried because of retribution against them if they joined the Co-belligerent forces.
Many Italians believed that the Fascist government had them fighting against the wrong people. They felt more akin to the Americans than the Germans, plus the nearly 10 years of constant fighting in Spain, Ethiopia and elsewhere had worn down the population. It was fighting for Mussolini’s glory, not for Italy’s.
