mc65

thank you all very much, you're very kind. to tell the truth, I'm not very satisfied: Italian camo, especially of this type, are not at all within my reach, I always argue about them and I'm always left with the feeling of not having done everything in my ability to make them look their best. in particular the contours of the spots on the wings: sharper they would be too clear, softer they would be a mess, so they make my eyes cross, giving me the impression of not focusing on the surfaces involved. and, apart from the "technical" question, there is a personal aspect: my gym teacher in middle school had been a CR42 CN pilot. I learned about it by chance and decided, without much thought, to assemble the kit then available, the 1965 1/72 Revell, which - combined with my skills at the time, we're talking about 1976, I think - produced a thing that it was reminiscent of a CR42 only with a lot of good will. the madeleine effect was nevertheless remarkable, and I don't know how happy: the teacher turned it over in his hands with a heavy expression on his face which was always severe, but apparently serene. the few things he told me, I didn't dare ask much, referred to the difficulty of operating with inadequate and ill-equipped means on nights of total darkness, when it was difficult to even understand which was up and which was down. to the explicit question of a classmate present, he replied that he had indeed shot down someone: a Blenheim. the tone in which he said it shut down any further discussion on the subject. here, I would have liked, after almost fifty years and now without the fear of touching the feelings of others, to know more and build a model dedicated, however ideally, to this person, whose youthful commitment and sacrifice I probably glimpsed and only I remembered. I tried to trace the name and therefore at least the flight group, without success. so I reluctantly fell back on the well-documented and easy 300-7, but obviously that wasn't what I had in mind to do.

Looking pretty good!!

hi all, here is my interpretation of the CR42 CN visible in a film from the time of the Luce institute, from which I started to create the beautiful ICM kit. apart from a few implemented/scratchbuilt details, the dedicated Eduard set 32979 and the installation of some nanoleds, it's OOTB, perfect in shape and fit. predominantly MRP colours. The forum build thread is here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/99468-fiat-cr42-cn-132-icm/&do=findComment&comment=1455873 cheers, Paolo

Mike, I don't know how I do it: I start working with the table (a large technical drawing table) free, and I always end up locking myself in the space smaller than an A4 sheet! Denis, thanks, but never say never: the ICM biplane series is really well designed, think about giving them a chance! I think the I-153 kit is the simplest, as a biplane... I'll be able to tell you hopefully soon, it's one of the next on my list of models to make. well, after a few tweaks here and there and some unsuccessful attempts to take some decent photos, I'd say I can declare it completed. be gentle... even though I used a reflex camera for photos in the lightbox, I'm still very poor at digital photography. a few more shots in the RFI section: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/99921-fiat-cr42-cn-mm7584-300a-squadriglia-167°-gruppo-autonomo-ciampino-spring-1942-pilot-cpt-corrado-ricci/ cheers, and thanks to everyone, Paolo.

smart move, to define where the stars will go on the fuselage to delimit the two colors of the camouflage!

just W-O-W

thank you all! you are always very kind, reading the previous pages in sequence it seems that everything always goes smoothly, or almost. in reality I make messes that are increasing in frequency and importance in an alarming manner... specifically about the decals, Denis, the answer to your question can be summarized like this: Let's say I tried, but getting decent blank decal sheets, or a serious print shop, isn't that easy here in Sardegna. furthermore, living in the countryside, thanks to power surges, I have already burned two printers (as well as five shutter motors and three kitchen hood extractors) so I gave up on doing it myself or trying to turn to someone nearby. my decal sheets are processed by me and sent via email to a company on the continent, who sends them to me finished. inevitably some adjustments always have to be made, but overall I am convinced that I wouldn't do better, I would never dream of being able to create something like your "Furie" on my own. the next step would be the cutting plotter: I bought it but I haven't gotten to know it, while I see that you are way ahead, the Yak's stars are beautiful! as I was saying, I hadn't mentioned the oil dotting work done before gluing the struts, although this technique has its importance, especially on a camo like this, where the outlines of the various colors tend to confuse the eye if not aided by a polychrome glaze. then I noticed an error on the serial number: in the Istituto Luce video you can clearly see that the letters "MM" are smaller than the other characters, and I should know this well, given that I had foreseen them in the customized decal sheet... so I gently removed the large ones from the kit and put the small ones back... what a mess. and finally I glued the upper wing, holding it under pressure with rubber bands. although the joints are extremely precise, the upper wing has that bit of dihedral that needs a little help to be positioned in the best possible way. in this photo you can see (poorly, held in tension by the weight of the two tweezers) a copper wire in place to test the radio antenna, of which we'll talk about later, since it's usually the last thing I put on. once I was sure that the wing was drying well, I put just a little black and raw umber oils on the belly of the fuselage and positioned the landing gear, after soldering the corresponding electrical wires within. the trick worked, and the excess cable was pushed into the fuselage without problems. here you can also see the butterfly valves of the oil coolers, a nice detail from the Eduard set. I was then able to glue the tie rods between the external uprights: for these I had done a series of experiments with guitar string, copper, brass, tin, evergreen rods, trying to obtain the lenticular, or at least flattened, shape that they have in real life. no way. in the end I used some elastic dressmaker's thread, which itself has a flat section, taking care not to roll it up, thus obtaining a decent emulation. To make my life easier I had installed sections of Albion Alloy alu tube at the base of the struts. in this way it was enough to put a drop of superglue in the tube and then push the end of the thread into it. in this photo you can also see the aileron control arm. those in the kit are excessively thick, while in the Eduard set they are nicely thin. to compensate for the too wide seat and to have a good bond, I filled it with black superglue, which is slow to dry and slightly rubbery. The kit includes two types of flame dumpers, compared to at least four types documented photographically. leaving aside the German ones (who used the CR42 along the lines of the Soviet Po-2) I decided to install the type also documented in the Fiat original manual, even though they were not installed at the time of the reference documentary. let's say that it is a poetic license based on the fact that the group to which this specimen belonged was the one responsible for the experimentation and implementation of night hunting: if these extensions were not installed here, they were not installed anywhere else... and let's face it, they are really beautiful to look at! ...they really look like motorcycle mufflers... here you can also clearly see the now painted cockpit edge padding, the base of the antenna support on the fuselage and the eyelet which will be used to tighten the cable. you can also see a little step of the decal on the fuselage. a slightly smarter model maker would have made the lower edge coincide with the frame of the fuselage truss, disguising it better. the elevators have perfect gluing supports to position them in a neutral position. Since I wanted them a little lower, I inserted some copper pins, a little job that took two minutes. carried away by enthusiasm I also placed the venturi. whose scratchbuilding work is almost invisible, and useless, except with the macro and from this one angle! navigation lights, usual heated and colored fishing line covered with UV glue. starboard one... ...and port. and the two pitots, right and left. the ones in the kit are well made but a little oversized, I remade them in aluminum tube. well, now we could install the antenna wires to complete this job, if it weren't for the fact that I failed on this one too. and here we need to open a parenthesis regarding the radio apparatus. just skip the boring dissertation, if you don't have in mind to build a nocturnal Fiat: normally the CR42s were not equipped with one, while the CNs and only a part of the daytime specimens were. Unfortunately there is little specific documentation, in the photos you can only glimpse a few wires and a very short vertical support on the back of the fuselage. in this shot, which is the reference one for my specimen, you can see the vertical support more or less in the center of the white band on the fuselage, in addition to the already mentioned difference in size of the serial number characters. in this pic however you can also see a bit of wire and an insulator, apparently between the top of the fin and the back of the fuselage, towards the vertical support. so I got an idea, obviously wrong, also based on some drawings by Topdrawings, whereby the antenna was made up of a "V" starting from the external rear struts and whose vertex connected to the diagonal between the fin and the fuselage. I went crazy installing some eyelets in the struts (obviously making a mistake and first placing them at the bottom instead of at the top) and then finding this shot... you can see very well in the background where the wire equipped with the insulator starts from: not from the strut, but from the trailing edge of the upper wing, just before the aileron. it's a shame that I noticed it when the uprights were installed. cutting away the eyelets now (copper wire well planted in the longitudinal thickness of the strts) seems like suicide to me, I decided to leave them there, they are almost invisible. and so far so good, so to speak. I got a stomach ache when installing the new eyelets in the wing trailing edge, with the wing already glued in position! but with a little unconsciousness and apnea... now it's ok, maybe: I want to point out that this antenna is largely my invention: I don't know if it was also on the right side, nor how it was actually connected to the fuselage. so by nosemeter I imagined that the "V" was isolated at its vertices, to continue with another cable (the diagonal) towards the fuselage, where further isolated with respect to the eyelet that kept it in tension, it was connected to an insulator (ceramic ?) to enter the fuselage and reach the radio. my interpretation is also due to the details, without explanation, provided by Eduard. Well, now maybe it's finished, but before declaring it so I'll think about it a little more, and touch up all the small damages due to the above corrections. just to be on the safe side, just a quick electrical check with everything installed and closed. underwing lights: and instrument panel/gunsight/compass lights. good, good, in the next few days I hope not to find any other flaws and to be able to take some decent photos of the finished model, but let's wait to say it. cheers, Paolo

here I am! forgive me for the time between one intervention and another, I can let time pass through my fingers like water in a stream... after completing the camo I had given a very light veil of yellow on the wings, to make the colors uniform compared to the trend of the same in the fuselage, more shaded and mixed together. and then I masked and gave it white, always MRP: before applying a coat of pre-decal clear gloss I very gently sanded some areas to highlight the rivets, for example near the cockpit, where I also made some scratches to suggest the passage of pilots and specialists. and then... decals! as I was saying, I had a customized decal sheet printed for the creation of various subjects, including this one. so apart from the fasces and the technical data on the tail, the rest is up to me. whose film is a bit thick, while those of the kit are discreet, even if they made me think the worst, then and there. sure, they could have been applied a little more... let's say that the decals are not the strong point of this kit, as far as I'm concerned. the savoy coat of arms is outrageous, anyone does it better. I should have a Special Hobby sheet somewhere, but I couldn't find it, ergo I went to cannibalize an Italeri one. the writing with a shadow relating to the serial number is well done, except for the detail of having provided the decal sheet of the serial number "XXXX" instead of a series of numbers to be assembled or even just four numbers at random. my solution was 50% successful: the serial number is correct, the dimensions are also correct, but they have the black border on all sides! I tried the only thing I could try: touch up with a brush with gouache. and to think that my mother was worried about me losing diopters thanks to Edwige Fenech! even the fasces in the fuselage, damn... alright. gouache, triple zero and a little luck... other dividends from the custom sheet, the stickers on the propeller blades. the first one here is good, I'd say. another small problem was getting the subalar fasces to talk to my electric contacts... here I risked doing serious damage, but it went well in the end. oh, all this done, and after a further coat of gloss, sanded (all repeated a couple of times at least, with some further application on the sides of the fuselage) I gave a coat of satin and began to position the struts, preparing even the few lines provided. in reality I proceeded in pairs of uprights starting from the center: positioned a pair, checked the correct position with the upper wing resting, glued them at the bottom. pause for reflection, another couple and so on. in the necessary intervals of time I dedicated myself to something else, for example the gunsight mirror. or the position of the spotlight in the cockpit. Having archived these two little things, I placed the only transparent one in the kit, very well made and very precise: even just the thickness of the paint in its seat bothered it, I had to bring the contact surfaces back to the bare styrene. once the windshield was in place I created the padding with two coats of vinyl glue, easy peasy. and I implemented/rebuilt the generator for the underwing lights and the venturi tube, changing the propeller blades on the first and rebuilding the second from scratch with brass, aluminum and styrene. and that's enough for today, I would say... coming soon upper wing, landing gear and various trinkets. bye bye, Paolo

damn how long! the wait for the colors was long, and honestly I don't know how worth it it was: I wanted to try the MRPs, which are very airbrushable and already diluted, but not very opaque, with a thousand thousand shades that are difficult to manage, for me who have the eye denied with colors. furthermore, once given they are absolutely not "revisable" like acrylics... with the latter if you are really not satisfied you arm yourself with Chante Clair and a toothbrush and start from scratch. with these NO. they cling to the styrene of the model (or to the primer, it's the same) with the same obstinacy as the old Humbrols. However, they have a very high fineness of pigments, so even by applying several passes, thickness is not created. okay, enough chatter, let's see what I've done? before seeing the colors in action, a small "technical" parenthesis: to connect the lights to the ground I found this solution. I stripped a wire from a phone charger cable and soldered it to a 1mm brass tube. the tube crosses the wheel from side to side, so that at the bottom I will have a hole in which a powered pin can provide the electrical contact, as well as stopping the aircraft at its base, while at the top I will have the flexible cable and in a position which will allow me - I hope - to be able to play on its length simply by rotating the wheel. the width of the landing gear leg will finally allow me to be able - if necessary - to stow the extra cable that I may not have been able to fit back into the fuselage through the lower wing. a lot of talk for little substance, in short. well, we were talking about the colors: the four samples on the left are MRP, the fifth on the right Lifecolor, while on the model there is a first layer of MRP sand. I think you can see clearly how none of the MRP "giallo mimetico" corresponds to the only Lifecolor proposed in the regia aeronautica's color set. here on the right the Lifecolor and on the left the MRP closest to it... in the end I decided to mix two of the MRPs to obtain a more or less credible base, the one now on the model, but not yet saturated. here it is after at least four (!) glazes. For me, used to the building thicknesses of Lifecolor or the covering capacity of Tamiya, Gunze or AK, it was brutal, having to apply so many coats just to get a decent base. given that, in addition to being poor with colors, I am also incapable of managing camouflage like this freehand, so I traced the spots in pencil at least on the upper wing. even the spots turned out to be a PITA a notable source of caltrops: both colors are a mix, and this is the third edition after several retouches, always with the remote help of my helpful friend, the color master. paradoxically I am more satisfied with the stains on the lower wing, done in a haphazard manner without much study. It's true that here the surfaces are tiny and therefore easier to manage. the spots on the fuselage are at least simpler, having a completely different pattern and documented by the photos. here the problem lies in the fineness of these colors: each splash must be passed over at least three times to give it a minimum of consistency, which requires skills that I obviously don't have, unfortunately. the nose is a completely separate matter, in period photos you can see a pattern of more or less horizontal lines, apparently darker than the blotches on the fuselage, which thickly and roughly cover the lower part of the engine cowl. in the upper area there is a color that could be black or dark blue grey, the two colors used by the regia for night fighters. now it's drying well, then white for the band on the fuselage and the cross on the tail, and the transparent gloss in view of the decals, either from the box and custom created ad hoc for this little project. see you soon, I hope! cheers, Paolo

I'm following and enjoying this wip silently: great show here! 'bout the landing lights structure, obviously you know the Brengun item BRL32015, I guess...

thank you all, it's a pleasure to share the two little things I do, although I must say I'm starting to worry, it's more nonsense than the right things that I've been doing lately. but I don't want to sadden you with stories of ordinary senile dementia, let's instead see what I got right: before closing the half fuselages I remembered to position the Yahu IP in place, and even to build the back of the instruments behind it, which perhaps will be visible from under the windshield. then before gluing I did a test of the lights in the cockpit, here before touching up the colors of the nanoleds. forgive the terrible photo, but with one hand I held the contacts, with the other the model, with the other (?) the phone, all in the dark... and finally I glued the fuselage and soldered all the contacts, making a cable come out from each wing in correspondence with the respective landing gear. test operation using the aforementioned underwing cables well come on, not bad at all, especially considering that this photo was also taken in the dark! now would be the time to paint, except that despite a million-dollar order of colours, I managed not to order the right yellow to use as a base for the upper camo. bravo, really bravo. in reality the UA 529 and the MRP 306 could be fine, with some small corrections. but the former is Lifecolor and I would like to use a less thick base, while the latter...has disappeared. I can't find it, mystery. so I did another order, and i'm waiting for. in the meantime I found something to replace the Bredas supplied with the kit, a horror, with these, which would be for a Hellcat, but let's say they're fine, given that nothing else is available in /32: and then, having got the propeller hub wrong twice, I arrived at the hopefully definitive solution: aluminum shaft, styrene body, iron core (a pinpoint) which by tapping on a micromagnet positioned in the engine should guarantee its held in place and aid rotation due to minimal friction. maybe. remaining in the engine sector, we are starting to reap the benefits of the Mk.II custom decal sheet: Fiat logo on a blue background and plate with engine data. we are far from perfection, but rather than nothing, better rather, right? coming soon... well, let's see when these colors arrive. cheers, Paolo

Ho Tolga, nice (and challenging) kit's choice! I did the very same subject a couple of years ago, another bug is about the guns position on the wing's leading edge. let see if I find my wip... here:

well, I have to say that I really like this kit: it's simple and clean, leaving room for improvements if you really want them. where we were left... the engine: I just added a little black oil wash to give depth to the cylinder cooling fins, and positioned the spark plug wires. I decided to detail only the front part, given how the kit is designed, detailing anything else would just be a waste of time and energy. then I definitively assembled the parts that make up the cockpit, adding improvements inspired by the photos of the manual and surviving examples: the pulleys of the pedal cables are Eduard, while the floor, flares holder (I guess) side tank, cables and controls are the chef's fantasies. and reverse shot. here the cocking handles of the machine guns are Eduard, while the panel on the right is a mixed bag: Yahu base (in the excellent dedicated set there are also the two instruments beyond the control stick and the instrument panel divided into two parts which we will see later) with on Eduard details, the two gray boxes recovered from the kit panel, home-built clock. and finally the seat belts. oh god, rather than safety I would say restraint... but how can you think of such an abstruse system?? oh well, I used a tube of anchovy paste for the fabric parts, and leftover HGW buckles. always coming from the same set I recovered the details of the sewn reinforcements. I hope that with a little dirtiness they blend in with the rest, now they are a little too obvious. during the breaks in gluing the cockpit components I moved the fuselage forward. first a little Alclad aluminium, which seems too dark to me, I think I'll lighten it. then I glued the lower wings in place and prepared the electrical giblets. try it dry... I'd say it works. the fit is precise and clean despite all the extra junk I wanted to cram into it. before closing the half fuselages I thought about improving the rear wheel, making it steerable. it was enough to add an internal partition onto which to screw a metal screw, which will act as a match for the magnet installed on the spare wheel fairing. if that doesn't work, a drop of cyan and off you go. and that's enough for today too, it was a long day and I'm well tired, at this point. soon we'll start gluing the main parts, I'd say. cheers, Paolo

wow, so much interest! Thank you all for coming here and for the encouraging comments. the idea of throwing in a bit of electronics is a small thing, we'll see in the end if it's worth it (in any case a small thing, I decided to avoid motorized propeller and position lights). while I'm playing with the lights, I'm thinking about something about this specific aircraft: given that you can't distinguish the black of the lower surfaces from that of the engine cowling, it seems strange to me that by having to autarchically "nightize" an airplane born as a daylight fighter you use two distinct colors. I mean, supposed that the upper naca was black as the lower upper wing, I find the lower part interesting: why go so hard, over the entire lower surface, if the cowling had been previously camouflaged? It makes me think that instead it was all bright yellow, as it was in many contemporary CR42s. in this case it makes sense to dirty it so heavily, maybe with green (and pheraps with anothe color) not wanting to make the hood all black. so I wonder, in this sense, if the base wasn't in bright yellow... what do you think about that? while we're thinking, I've moved forward a little: I've given up on the motorized propeller and position lights, but do we want to put a couple of lights in the cockpit? the only one I found in the manual was adjustable, fixed on the left wall. and here it is, a ducted nanoled like the ones I put on the 262. here the resistor is 330 ohm, while for the subalar ligts I used 470 ones. there should also be a light on the compass, which is right under the collimator, so... I don't know how much will be seen, objectively. In the meantime I have prepared them, then we'll see (or not see). having established that the searchlights can work, I took care of housing the contacts and resistors in the lower wings, making the cables come out so that they emerge into the fuselage. To power all the lights you only need two 1.5 batteries, or a mobile phone power supply. the idea would be to join all the contacts in the fuselage and then have the two poles come out from under the wheels, thanks to the faired landing gear. Fingers crossed, I'm trial and error. To make the painting job easier I thought they could be detachable, a convenience at no cost. despite the large scale, it is still a minimalist sesquiplane, so I had to reduce the internal thickness of the wings a little to comfortably accommodate the resistors. and voilà, ready. yes, but what about classic modeling? here it is, wait a moment... a bit of paint and dry assembly of the basic cockpit structure. and the engine under construction. just to confirm that I'm getting stoned at the speed of light, I have in order: -lost the airbrush needle protection. disappeared, probably romantically escaping with the cockpit seat -given too aggressive spray can aluminum, which slightly wrinkled the affected surfaces. I thought I had tested it, but no. bravo. -I put n-thousand photo-engraved nuts, forgetting that I had stocked up on resin ones, which were decidedly more three-dimensional. In the downtime of the above-mentioned nonsense, as well as trying to recover the self-esteem, which I think is holding the candle to the two fugitives, I riveted the few surfaces involved. as I was saying, the plastic is soft and receptive, perfect for riveting, just less so for engraving new lines. fortunately there are few new lines, and overall it was a quick and painless job. the bulk is in the front part of the fuselage, the rest is practically all canvas. and for today I would say enough. soon scratch building of the seat belts complex, a poorly documented little medieval nightmare. cheers, Paolo

but what, another night fighter? well yes, and there will be others if I make peace with the work table! the specimen I chose, MM 7584, is the protagonist of a short sequence present in a documentary by the Luce institute: from what I have found, Captain Ricci, who is credited with the assignment of this aircraft, was a veteran of the Spanish civil war and of the African front, before being tasked with forming and commanding the first unit specialized in night fighters, based in Rome Ciampino. the ICM kit made many modelers happy, giving the possibility of having a very honest CR42 (as well as other models absent from the shelves) on a large scale. several boxes have been edited, I think as many as six, with different liveries, insignia and roles. after having struggled a bit with the yak I decided on another project that wasn't too demanding, I still don't feel in the right state of mind for things that are too complex, and I did well, it seems: I didn't even start and I immediately made a mess, in fact, step 2 of the instructions involves assembling the seat, in three comfortable pieces. and I thought it best to lose the seat, on the clean and tidy work table, moreover. dismantled everything, spent hours on all fours on the floor... nothing. let's start well... in the end I gave up and did it from scratch, amen. then I immediately started playing with the dedicated Eduard PE set. the kit itself is made up of not many pieces in a soft plastic that many don't like, but I find it comfortable to work with when wanting to make improvements such as rivets or other small modifications. so few pieces that it makes you want to complicate your life a little... for example, the CN version has these two beautiful spotlights under its wings. big stuff, in 1/32. and if... ...I tried to stick two LEDs inside? ok, they go in, what if we turn on the power? mmmmh... working on it might make sense, just for playing. of course you have to put a diffuser in front and shield the sides of both the LED and the body, otherwise it becomes an abat-jour. but nothing that can't be solved with a bit of heat shrink tubing and some adhesive aluminum: Well, well... we can improve it, but I'd say we're there, and they also make a nice light! of course now I will have to resolve the question of how and where to pass the wires to power them, but I have faith, I can return to the path of classic modeling in the meantime, possibly without losing any more pieces. see you soon, cheers, Paolo

Denis, you like to live dangerously, I see... I have a suggestion: buy a new stainless steel strainer to replace the one you "borrowed" from the kitchen before being questioned about it, and search online for flour strainers, they have thinest mesh and in brass, it works much better! arf a mo'... https://www.ebay.it/itm/113267506121 https://www.ebay.it/itm/225420255173 Cheers, Paolo

It's always a pleasure to see a Dora built! If I have my say on the springs on the retraction arms of the landing gear, tightly wrapping two wires around a metal tube of the arms' same diameter (I use the tail of the drill bits) will produce springs with the coils evenly spaced between them. Done that all you need is "unscrew" one of the two wires and then trim to the right length the resulting perfect spring!

Thank you all for your interest and encouraging comments! especially thanks to Denis, it seems that by pure chance I placed the telelevels in the right position. John, the Yahu indicators fit perfectly into the kit's wing holes (unlike the supplied lenses, which would have needed grinding to fit properly). inserting a plasticard disc to make thickness and a transparent styrene disc will be much better than those supplied by the kit. well, I'd say we call it FINISHED, decent photos needless to say, obviously, for the moment some shots, ugly as usual of the last details added to complete it: on the original flight manual page you can see the reference painted on a blade to align the gunsight. just a simple white cross. again taking inspiration from the original manual, I improvised the two handles (black) to open the sliding canopy and the one (red) for jettison it in case of emergency. the mechanical indicators of the extended landing gear... the thermoformed rear transparent with armored glass and pass-through antenna cable (bad pic, just trust me) the damage on the clear part, fortunately not very visible with the canopy open. the antenna tensioner, the microbial stencils with the aircraft serial number (present in a dozen units) the position light made as usual, with a "bulb" of heated fishing wire and the glass of UV glue. view of the belly with the flaps adjusted completely arbitrarily to 30° and a couple of overviews. I redid all the details which included tubes with brass, aluminum and syringe needles: pitot, machine gun and cannon muzzles, various vents. and that's it. I had much less fun than I hoped, but I must say that the basic kit is good, I'm the one who needs to start using my hands and head properly again. cheers, Paolo

claro que sì! obviously I'll try until the end and beyond, even if this model is driving me crazy. in several places you can still see the film, and here and there some silvering, but I got bored of it, so I switched to oil weathering. few and targeted washes, given that since the Yak-3 were mainly made of wood, there are very few paneling lines and rivets here. then dot technique, again in oil. and exhaust fumes, airbrush oil. a little too much... better. silvering around the red line that delimits the walking area, and fuel level indicator... wrong, I'm afraid: there are no indications in this sense, but being right and left mirrored, I imagine that the minimum level was downwards, i.e. towards the wing's trailing edge. obviously I noticed it after placing and gluing everything, backwards. just as I noticed only by presenting them in position, that I inverted the internal and external colors of the tail wheel doors. but how good! to establish the correct angle of the trolley legs I made myself some cardboard templates, since the measurements are a bit fluctuating. then I listened to the leg retraction levers and messed up everything. a genius. overcome by the desire to remove it from before my eyes, I immediately placed the flap boxes and then the internal parts. it wasn't very simple, perhaps the best technique is to place the boxes in the wing and build the interiors directly in the wing. Now I have to find a way to eliminate the visible slots between the internal truss and the boxes. I placed the rear clear part, and mysteriously the glue damaged it. it seems that the plasticard frame, although painted, has lost some of the white on the transparent. oh well, this thing was really born badly. However, I managed to connect the radio and the antenna connection with a cable, which is not very easy to do, also considering the presence of the armoured glass in the middle. well (let's say so) one more effort and I'll close this chapter... cheers, Paolo

hi all, I'm arguing with this kit more than expected. but it wanted to be a gym, and in this sense it is doing its job, above all excercising my patience. not the best for rediscovering the mojo of modeling, but everything serves the purpose, as it said. so, what has happened since the last time... I put the cutting plotter aside for the moment, it was becoming frustrating, and I only need one caltrops at a time, so I decided to rely on the kit decals and peace, all the more that in any case I would have used them for stencils and personal and squadron insignia, and then they are Cartograf! here, exactly. Murpy strikes again: It took them over three minutes to detach from the support in warm water, and this alone should indicate that something was wrong... maybe they were old? the result is a series of big and little bubbles, pleasantly mainly on the irreplaceable decals. and perfect stars, obviously starting from the less visible ones. all of them, however, if they haven't blown bubbles, have a film as thick as a pig's rind. ...which I did not trim with the intention of using it as a springboard to drown it in the Future and then plan everything with abrasive pads according to the well-known technique. a great success: maybe if I didn't use brand new pads it would be better... the super bizarre thing is that the pizza in the wood-fired oven effect manifested itself not only after the application, but also after a session of Mr. Softner, a night's rest and a coat of Future! the only thing I could think of doing (besides whistling it in the plastic garbage pail) was to pierce the leavened parts and insist on the softner in a targeted manner. it's a shame that while doing this I got distracted and when I looked back at the model I found chasms dug by the liquid that should help them, the decals, damn the world! and then touch up, resurface, repaint with future, and start again... now it's less than remotely good, but I'll carry it on like this and bye bye, augh. the other more than bizarre, but paradoxical thing is that I would have liked to make the mask of the spiral on the spinner with the plotter: apart from the fact that it is a little chubbier than the historical photos, I was afraid of applying this snake to such a mangy surface. and yet here she is, docile as a little lamb. of course, the film is always steep as already said, but I can wax it by immersion like in candy gel, if it's really necessary. in short, I'm not even a little happy with what I'm doing. I don't give up on it due to ringworm and because, as mentioned, it wanted to be a tool, rather than a result. However.... cheers, Paolo

marvelous! now you need to check that the position of the stabilizer is consistent with the indicator in the cockpit! regarding the front mouth of the engine cowling... I hadn't noticed this error in the kit, now I should take courage and correct it, thanks for this report!

I understand the concern about dirtying the transparencies with glue while building the internal structure. it's definitely not something I would do after placing the masks*. but by using the flex-i-file extremely sparingly, it's a job that can be done, I swear. *having drawn them and cut them with the plotter! I admit I'm deeply envious, I received my Silhouette before Christmas but at the moment it only serves as a dust catcher. I won't be the one to tempt you by telling you to try to do the internal structure, no no... but if this old man with stone hands did it, well, I'd give it a thought! note: let it be said without any flattery: so far your work is definitely cleaner and more organized than mine, really.

it's beautiful, and a source of inspiration, I have to decide to get mine down from the attic!

Hi everyone, little update, I've worked on the upper colours, lightening the AK colours, which in my opinion are a bit dark. I started using some Patafix masks which however did not satisfy me, so I retouched using cardboard masks, still obtaining strange halos and irregularities in the end I went with low pressure and freehand, obtaining a mediocre result, but I'll make it work and I'll play the rest with weathering. I finally freed the seats of the fuel level indicators instead of using the parts supplied by the kit, whose lenses are not only over 1mm thick but also larger than the hole in diameter, I would have decided to use the dedicated Yahu parts, with scratchbuilt flanges and lenses. everything assembled should come out like this, taking care to color the external flange like the surrounding wing surface. actually Yahu provides three types of indicators, of which only one is dedicated to the Yak-3, while the kit instructions provide two, without specifying which is good for which version of the yak. I will use this, following Yahu's directions. next step, decals! cheers, Paolo

thanks everyone, let's see if I managed to fix it: I made a plaster cast of it, equipped with a handle to better use it. considering that the original piece is slightly narrow compared to the fuselage, I will print on the outside of the original piece. obviously I printed a certain number of them (4) one will be sacrificed for the various tests, two others as a reserve, and one, the best, will go on the model. the problem of the base frame here is a bit complex, having a rounded and angled shape. I traced it on the original piece with paper tape, and then I returned it on plasticard, it's that sort of white "U" on the wing. well, as measures we should be there. now I could glue the frame to the transparent, and the whole thing to the fuselage, BUT masking such a thin transparent makes me worry, so I would have decided this way: I glue the frame to the fuselage, and only after having given the camo's final colors will I fix the transparent inside. mmmmh... the smiley face with the fingers crossed is missing. then I glued the frame in its final position, dirtying the radio in the process, bravo. and then I gave it a coat of AMT-12, which will cover most of the clear area. then I tried to improve the gunsight provided by the kit. not that I succeeded, or much is understood, in all it is "large" about one cubic mm! in addition to having glued it in position, I also placed it under the shelter of the canopy, in view of the colors of the upcoming camouflage. along the way I stripped the radio for the necessary repairs. and that's all for today, we're getting closer to the colours, the phase in which I usually do huge damage... cheers, Paolo