I realize that GB’s are in plethoric abundance lately, but I hadn’t seen this topic in a great while and I feel it’s been sort of slighted compared to other WWII topics. My feelings were to incorporate any A/C used by the Regia Aeronautica during WWII; any scale, any type of a/c, captured birds ok, PE, Resin, AM decals, anything you want to do. Stuff before the actual onset of WWII would be ok with me too. I’m not much of a stickler for rules, so this could be one of those GBs that was a little on the loose side. In terms of start/end times, I’m also pretty flexible. I was thinking somewhere alongs the lines of a mid-late Fall start and as long as 6-12 month time limit. (We’re so often kicked out of other’s secret clubs that I’ve become more of an inclusivist.) If anyone is interested in this, reply in kind and I will attempt to gather interest in a forthright manner.
In summary
A/C of the Regia Aeronautica
Before/During WWII
Any scale
Any A/C (even captured if you’ve got evidence)
Any AM stuff allowed
Start Date circa September/October/November
End Date 6-12 months post start
No bad Mussolini/Piano wire jokes
List of Combatants:
mpartric: 1/48 Hasegawa Macchi Veltro with some AM/PE goodies
Darth Vader: Sm 79 Sparaviero (J/K)
KJ200: Italieri CR42
Tho9900: decision pending
mkhoot: RE2000
rjkplasticmod: decision pending
Blackwolf3945 Take 2: decision pending
ModelDay: 1/72 Caproni Ca. 100
Textp–Me109
Wing_Nut–Veltro
Start date: 9/15/05
End date: 5/31/06
(these are very flexible)
Feel Free to add GB badge to signature before completing build.
Glad to see there is some interest in this. I will add your names to the burgeoning list of participants and you can let me know whenever which kit you will be building. In addition, I have added a list of references that I found, including a set of links to kits for sale on squadron. BTW if I didn’t make this clear earlier, a/c with different markings could be used from before the war, during, and after the 1943 armistice after which RA pilots and a/c were flown against the axis.
(this is just the 1/48 models, but there are a ton more in 1/72)
www.pacmodels.com
Pacific Coast Models seems to have a plethora of unusual RA models, including the Cant Z 1007bis Alcione night bomber that was reviewed in the May 05 print issue of FSM. At $190 I’m not expecting anyone to pick this one but it’s a cool model to drool over.
thanks for the interest.
EDIT: without any real reason, I guess we’ll start on 9/15/05 and go to 5/31/06. That gives us a few months to get our act together and nine months to complete it. If anyone wants to start sooner/later or extend the amount of time, I’m fine with that, I mainly picked two dates so I could list this in the GB guide.
The 9/15 start date should work out fine for me & the nine months should be adequate time for completion. As I recall, that.s about how long it took my wife to make our children. [:)]
Wow Matthew! You’re really going all out on this one! Thanks for the links! I am still up in the air on which I will do. I did read a blurb on the CR.42 I believe used in the battle of britain so maybe that one. Evidently they took off and got in formation almost as if they were doing an airshow. The neared a British airfield and the AA crews were so confused by the brightly colored planes it took the a few minutes to open fire. The wing then turned back content they had even been over British soil and dropped all their bombs on fields.
The new Italeri release of the 1/48 CR 42 looks very nice in the box & is less expensive than the new Classic Air Frames kit. Probably an easier build as well. But, I think I’ll do something in 1/72 just for a slight change of pace. Still mulling over the possibilities.
Tom, that’s hilarious about the BOB Italian onslaught. That’s something I knew little about until recently, and would be interested in researching it further for the purposes of this GB.
I Guess I did get a little carried away with the squadron links, but I was at work with a big downtime at night and was looking to be constructive. It beats watching Law and Order reruns on TNT.
Rick, did you use acrylics on your hasegawa Veltro? I used some testors flat acrylics on a BF 109 I did recently and they actually turned out very well, but the problem is that the color selection for this line is not good. I used MM enamels on the spit I finished in April, and I was disappointed at the way it turned out. I think I had to spray on too thickly to get the color density I was looking for and it ended up obscuring some of the panel lines. Anyhoo I was thinking of expanding my repertoire by trying something like gunze or tamiya. What do you all think?
Matthew, The Veltro was painted with Model Master enamels. It’s a personal choice thing, but I’ve never cared for acrylics, except for brush painting small details. However, I recently purchased a few bottles of the new Aircraft Color acrylics from Vallejo. These have been getting good reviews, so I thought I’d experiment a bit with them. Haven’t tried them as yet.
Let me know how you like the Rick, I’ve been using them for about 6 months or more now and have steadily been increasing my supply of them. They are easy to brush on in my opinion and as long as you use progressive coats (don’t try to cover in one or two passes with the air brush) give a VERY smooth finish! One thing I noticed is I think I am actually using less paint with these than the regular bottle and a pipette. Most of my bottles are still 1/2 to 3/4 full even after being used on multiple kits.
Matthew - most colors is an easy 3 maybe 4 coats coats with Color of Eagles acrylics (vallejo) some of the lighter colors have taken one or two extra… I just like the looks of them when sprayed on light like that, everything blends so well. With MM acrylics 2 is about average for me…
A guy at the LHS that uses them specifically showed me a SPAD he was doing with them and explained about the lighter coats and I was sold!