My progress so far

Posted on 6/30/2015 in blog

It's been a couple of months since I came back to aircraft modelling and one month since I started the Regia Aeronautica Project.

Let's see if I can take stock of what I've learned...

Spitfire Mk.VII

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VII Royal Air Force – No. 131 Squadron, NX-L/MD172, June 1944 (1:72 Hasegawa 02096)

This was the "comeback kit". I used an airbrush on a plane for the first time, used weathering techniques I developed working on Warhammer 40k figures and built a fancy little display base. Overall, a decent first effort, even if I didn't adventure into the aftermarket world...

New stuff

  • Airbrush painting
  • Display base

Messerschmitt Bf109G-6

Messerschmitt Bf109 G-6 Luftwaffe – JG50, Obtl. Alfred Grislawski, August 1943 (1:72 Hasegawa 00267 (+Aires 7008))

Speaking of aftermarket, this kit had a highly detailed resin cockpit. This was my first approach at working with photoetched parts, and I have to say there's more work to be done in that area... I also used the airbrush to lay down the primer and - while it worked really nicely - I'm not sure it beats significantly the convenience of the Tamiya primer spray can.

The other challenging aspect was the painting: I used a LifeColor set of RLM acrylics for the initial scheme. Mottling the sides of the fuselage, however, was a disaster; mostly because I had yet to figure out the right way to use an airbrush to do detailed work. I also learned how to remove dried paint from a model (protip: Q-tips dabbed in airbrush cleaner :) ). Eventually I managed to "aspirationally" replicate a faded camo scheme on the sides that is ok, for now.

Last new thing here was the use of Pledge floor polish for the gloss finish. And also another nice display base.

New stuff

  • Mottling
  • Resin cockpit
  • Pledge floor polish

Aer.Macchi C.205

Aeronautica Macchi C.205V "Veltro" Serie III Regia Aeronautica – 360ª Squadriglia, MM 92160, Tenente Martinelli, Monserrato (Sardinia), Summer 1943 (1:72 Squadron Products 10-013)

Then I started my grandiose Regia Aeronautica Project with a kit that I considered a throwaway test. I got this at the Skyway Model Shop in a ziploc bag, with a blade of the propeller broken. The kit is fairly old, so it doesn't have all those modern touches like detailed interior or finely etched panel lines. Actually, the panel lines were raised, so I sanded them down and rescribed the wings and the fuselage.

Also, the intake of the air filter was missing from the kit, so I had to rebuild it with a plastic rod, properly sanded down to shape.

The next challenge was executing the weird camo schemes that the Regia Aeronautica used during WWII. Doing it properly with the smoke rings effect was still beyond my capabilities, so I used a similar - but mostly fictional - scheme, with some kind of green polka dots.

New stuff

  • Scribing panel lines
  • Parts scratchbuilding
  • First attempt to Italian camo scheme

Fiat CR.42

Fiat CR.42 "Falco" Regia Aeronautica – 162ª Squadriglia, 161º Gruppo Autonomo Caccia Terrestre, Maritsa (Rhodes), Greece, 1941 (1:72 Italeri 1260)

It was then time to take this camo painting seriously. The candidate for this experiment was another kit I got at Skyway Model Shop, this time in its box but with most parts already cut (ah, the joys of trying to do non-mainstream stuff...).

Building the kit itself wasn't a big problem, except for the proper alignment of the upper and lower wings. The key thing here was properly executing the D3 camo schema of the Regia Aeronautica.

After a lot of trial and error, I was finally able to achieve that. Maybe not at the standard you can see at the highest level, but it's not something I would have dreamed two months ago.

Progress :)

New stuff

  • Regia Aeronautica D3 camo scheme
  • EZ-line rigging