The Regia Aeronauitica had its grand days way back in the 1930´s. Three of the SM.79CSs, which became famous as “i sorci verdi” (the green mice) due to their insignia, were modified to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach Brazil. They took off on 24 January 1938 and landed in Dakar 11 hours later, then headed for Rio de Janeiro arriving at 22:45 local time on 25 January, however, one faulty aircraft landed at Natal. The aircraft remained in Brazil and were donated to the Força Aérea Brasileira.
Here is my model of one of these “adventurous aircraft with adventurous pilots”!!!..those were the days in which aviation was front page of newspapers all over the world…yes, “those were the days”…
The Model: Scale 1:72
Solid Wood: Onion Mahogany
Engines & wheels: Plaster of Paris
Landing Gear and other parts: Bamboo
And: Paper, Filing Card, wire, etc…etc…
Paint: Regular home spray paint…Price: Around $ 6.00 includding the spray paint.
Plus…sweat, more sweat and lots of love!!!__________________
The Pilots:
The Main parts are cut to “general shape”.
Is this what I want?..well, more or less…
A little more work and the pieces begin to take some shape.
Finished the engines and the plane is beginning to look fairly well…
A coat of “soluble” water paint to check general shape and surface situations (?)
I make a test of the color “spray”…lots of work on details to go…
Work should continue for about 30 more days or so…
Herre is my Classic Airframes ‘Three Green Mice’ next to the Trumpeter SM.79. The mice are on the right. Yours is looking great, I could never build one from wood like that. Looking forward to seeing it completed.
Thanks guys, happy to know you´ll liked the " Gobo" (Hump). Once I find some old films of it on the net ( I lost the URL) I´ll post it here so you can watch actual film of these and many other incredible “old” films of many known and unknown planes online…
Swanny and Manstein´s…your models look great!!!, notice that the main difference in the model C, the ones used by the Green Mice before the war did not have the “hump” which was
placed in them in order to accomodate better the machine gun and the guy manning it…otherwise they were alike except for more powerful engines…If anyone goes to Rome, take a trip to Vigna di Valle Museum and you will see one there…
Will look into this. Most well known Italian pilots of the 30´s went to war and sorry to say
most died in combat. The Regia was disimated both in planes and men during the war.
Sorce Verdi is Italian slang of the period for something amazing or impossible to conceive. Alnong with the later use of the Sorce Verdi symbol on wartime SM 79’s. If you look at the markings for the 51st Stormo (351, 352 and 353 Squadriglia) you will see the black cat trying to catch three green mice! There was one aircraft of this unitthat had several green mice instead of the three on his M.C. 202 in 1942 which might have been what the unit felt like facing the Allied air units.
Most often with the Regia Aeronautica in WWII probably the more proper slang would have been "Quattro Gatti" which translates as four cats. The slang expression implies that the worker has no supplies or tools left and only 4 cats to accomplish his work with, an impossible feat!
