STEVE'S 'INSPIRED BY THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN' ITALIAN JOB

[stona]

Next up is a Fiat CR.42.

I'm planning to do one of those shot down or force landed in the UK on 11 November 1940, just outside the official Battle of Britain period, though nobody knew that at the time.

Here's the kit from Classic Airframes in 1/48.

A slightly battered pre-owned box, but the kit is complete inside.



A bag of plastic, which looks like it will need some work, some rather vague instructions and a painting guide which is completely wrong, even the unit insignia decals are the wrong colour, not sure what I'll do about that.



A pile of resin to make an engine and a load of photo-etch to drive me up the wall...so all good! The acetate sheet seems to have two windscreens vacuum molded into it, if you look hard enough.



I will start next week, out of the box, though I may see if there are any after market decals available.

Amazingly, this will be the first bi-plane I have ever built. :anguished:

[rtfoe]

I read these guys froze in their seats because of the open cockpits over Blighty. I'll get my ticket and seat for this.
Was there a similar German plane?

Cheers,
Richard

[stona]

The Luftwaffe operated several bi-plane fighters in the mid 1930s, in 1935 the only two fighters it had were the He 51 and Ar 65. They were all rapidly relegated to training roles or deleted once the monoplane fighters arrived. After March 1937 the only single engine fighter produced was the Bf 109. The Ar 197, which was a naval bi-plane, was supposed to equip the KM aircraft carrier, but never entered production.

[KarlW]

Didn't realise the fasces (sp?) on the national symbol could be reversed, but I suppose it makes sense when thinking about flags. Is there a marking option without the white circles? Seems strange to do the decals that way otherwise.
Quite a fan of italian stuff in general so will follow along.

[Dave Ward]

Steve,
nice idea I'm assuming you've seen the picture of the CR.42 standing on its' nose, at Orfordness?

- have you seen this one, from a different angle?

From looking at the two photos together, you can't see any obvious battle damage - in the first photo, you can see an undamaged prop blade - which suggests that the engine wasn't running......................
Dave

[rtfoe]

The Luftwaffe operated several bi-plane fighters in the mid 1930s, in 1935 the only two fighters it had were the He 51 and Ar 65. They were all rapidly relegated to training roles or deleted once the monoplane fighters arrived. After March 1937 the only single engine fighter produced was the Bf 109. The Ar 197, which was a naval bi-plane, was supposed to equip the KM aircraft carrier, but never entered production.

What about the Hs 123-A1? Used in the Spanish Civil War in the Condor Legion.

Cheers,
Richard

[stona]

The Hs 123 was technically a dive bomber, not a fighter, and appears as such in German production tables. It was used in the Balkans(?) and in the East at least as late as 1941/2 if I remember correctly.

The Germans produced 109 of them between October 1936 and March 1937. There were 180 in the production plans for 1937, not sure how many were actually produced. The only dive bomber to appear in the March-December 1937 production tables is the Ju 87 A, 121 of them.

RLM Lieferplan Nr. 7, which was basically a wish list for aircraft to be produced between 1 January 1938 and 30 June 1940, only includes 319 Ju 87 As and 385 Ju 87 Bs in the dive bomber category.

[stona]

Steve,
nice idea I'm assuming you've seen the picture of the CR.42 standing on its' nose, at Orfordness?
From looking at the two photos together, you can't see any obvious battle damage - in the first photo, you can see an undamaged prop blade - which suggests that the engine wasn't running......................
Dave

That's the one.

You can see it is in just a two colour camouflage, not three as most profiles show. Also the British CEAR notes that the undersides of this aircraft were silver, not grey as many profiles show. The one that crash landed near Lowestoft also had silver undersides. RAF intelligence officers knew what silver undersides looked like, the RAF had a lot of silver doped aircraft before the war.

The only issue I have is that the background of the marking between the numbers should be blue, and my decals are yellow. I may just have to go with them, as I have not been able to find an alternative.

Whoever painted this aircraft as it appears at the RAF museum today did an extremely poor job of it! I mean, they had the photos you have kindly posted, and the CEAR.

The pilot of this aircraft was Sergente P. Salvadori. The mission was an escort mission for 10 Fiat BR.20 bombers which started at about midday. Salvadori's aircraft suffered a broken oil pipe (confirmed by a British examination) and fell behind. The engine overheated, forcing him to land on the beach at Orfordness, nosing over gently. It does look like the engine was stopped before the aircraft nosed over, there are pictures of the British applying roundels after righting it, and the propeller looks undamaged. Salvadori was, apparently, extremely proud of his landing. Just after landing he was rather worried as a Hurricane came and had a look at him but in response to his frantic waving the pilot waved back before flying away. The British were not very impressed with Salvadori, describing his morale as very poor and noting that he did not want to fight and was really glad to be out of the war. He was very dissatisfied with his officers, a common theme among non-commissioned Italian PoWs, loathed the climate in Belgium and couldn't stand the food or the Germans.

[stona]

Didn't realise the fasces (sp?) on the national symbol could be reversed, but I suppose it makes sense when thinking about flags. Is there a marking option without the white circles? Seems strange to do the decals that way otherwise.
Quite a fan of italian stuff in general so will follow along.

The white backgrounds and fasces are separated because the other marking option does not, as you suspected, require the background. I won't use a white decal, I'll spray the background, it's just a white circle.

[yak face]

Nice one steve , great choice. Italeri have just re released their 1/72 version in a battle of brirain boxing too . This one looks a good kit , although I dont envy you cutting out the windscreen ! First biplane ? Youve picked a good one as theres virtually no rigging ! Cheers tony

[stona]

This one looks a good kit

The plastic is not great, some badly molded parts and a lot of flash. The lower wing/fuselage join looks awful. It's not always supposed to be simple

I haven't even looked at the resin bits!

[yak face]

Ouch , sounds involved . Got to be better than the SMER 1/40 kit though !!