Pacific Coast Models 1/32 Fiat G.55 Centauro

[Thunnus]

Hello everyone!  Just thinking about what to do next.  I have a couple of in-progress builds that I've not finished yet including the Infinity 1/32 D3A1 dive bomber and the Great Wall Hobby 1/32 Curtiss Hawk Flying Tiger.  I promise to work on and finish those two but right now I feel like starting something new.  Looking at my stash, I decided to pull this one out....



As a WW2 buff, I've always appreciated the graceful lines of the Italian designs, of which the Macchi Folgore and Veltro are the best known.  Like the Folgore and Veltro, the G.55 was powered by the German Daimler-Benz DB605 engine and featured a very sleek and elegant airframe.  The Pacific Coast Model version of the G.55 was released in 2009.  It was produced in limited numbers and is no longer available.  I stumbled onto this one in used condition on Kitlinx last year.  As a short-run kit, execution/engineering can be a little rough.  For example, there are no locating pins on any of the parts.  Overall, this looks to be fairly simple kit with no representation of the engine provided.


The kit is molded in very shiny grey plastic.  Surface details are very crisp and fine.  As my kit was pre-owned, some of the major parts were already separated from their sprues but luckily, I did not see any major damage, only superficial scratches and scuffing.

The lower wing assembly is non-standard with the center section as a separate part.



Note that there is no slot or tab for the horizontal tail surfaces... butt joint only!  I'll have to beef up that connection.

Styrene part count is low (less than 100), compared to most modern releases and there are molding ridges and flash to contend with.

Clear parts are intact and in good condition.



The resin parts provided look very detailed and include the cockpit floor, sidewalls and instrument panel.



Eduard photoetch is also provided.  Pre-painted metal seat harnesses are not ideal but I'll try to make it work.




I've never seen this before... the instrument faces for the IP are provided as tiny pre-painted PE parts.  I don't think I like this approach either so I'll be looking at using Airscale decals as an alternative.



Cartograph decals (big thumbs up) are provided for four marking options.  I've not decided which one to depict but leaning towards the experimental splinter or the RLM74/75/76 mottle.



Right off the bat, I started futzing around with the resin and removed the exhaust stubs from their casting block.



These are a tight squeeze into the openings in the fuselage and can only be installed from the interior side.  So these will have to be glued in before the fuselage halves are put together.



The rest of the resin parts were separated from the casting blocks.

[scvrobeson]

Awesome new project John! It is a really nice kit, I think you'll get along well with it.

 

 

 

Matt 

[dennismcc]

Nice one John, a fine looking subject, I built the same kit way back in 2010 and it turned out fine with the usual PCM sand, test fit, and sand again process.

I also had a problem with the dihedral when assembling the 5 piece wings, they fitted together well but when I checked the dihedral I had to take them apart and install some shims.

I always fit the exhausts after the main camouflage so I had to fit blanks inside the fuselage halves to permit this.

Have fun, I'm sure you will do a fantastic job.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Troy Molitor]

I'll be following along as usual.  

[Biggles87]

Me too.

 

John. 🇺🇦

[James Rademaker]

This looks like a nice kit. I’m looking forward to seeing your build progress.

Jim

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I'll keep an eye out on that wing assembly, Dennis!

 

I've noticed that the fairing in front of the exhaust stack is solid resin but it should have an opening.

 

So I drilled a hole.

 

One of the things you often see on short-run kits are large ejector pin marks and the cockpit has some very visible examples.  Here is a protruding ejector pin on the firewall that needs to be chopped down.

 

The seat had an ejector pin mark of the depressed kind that needed to be filled.  The edges of the seat were also trimmed to reduce the clunkiness.

I'm not a fan of the pre-painted Eduard seat harnesses.  Too straight... too sterile.

 

The large "pad" has been replicated with lead foil.  The stitch marks are created with the teeth of a micro saw.  It's a simple matter of gluing this over the PE and I think it helps make the harness assembly a little more realistic.

 

The landing gear "pin and dimple" arrangement will be replaced with axles cut from brass tubes.  This will allow the wheels to be mounted without damaging paint and rotatable so I can align the flat spots properly.

 

[scvrobeson]

Great start John!  Really like the leather pad added to the seatbelts.

 

 

Matt 

[steelbender]

Hi John, very curious to see the cockpit finished! 

Do you have the Reggiane RE 2005 kit form PCM?

[Thunnus]

1 hour ago, scvrobeson said:

Great start John!  Really like the leather pad added to the seatbelts.

 

 

Matt 

Thanks, Matt!  That little change looks much better right?  I may look at doing something similar with the other fabric components of the harness and just keeping the metal bits of the PE.

 

 

57 minutes ago, steelbender said:

Hi John, very curious to see the cockpit finished! 

Do you have the Reggiane RE 2005 kit form PCM?

The cockpipt resin looks pretty good but we'll have to check to see how it all fits.  And no, I do not have the Reggiane RE 2005 kit.  I really like the G.55 airframe and have built a 1/48 version of it...

 

So when I saw the Kitlinx had the PCM G.55 in stock, I jumped on it.

 

[amurray]

Great choice for a project!  Will love following this!

[Thunnus]

Thanks for the comment!

 

 

As usual at the beginning of a build, I am jumping on different things randomly as they grab my attention so sorry for any confusion.  The molding ridges on the landing gear bothered me so I decided to clean them up.

 

Typically, I will use an x-acto blade to scrape off the molding ridge but I'll use a scriber at the junctions.  I also use a razor saw to lightly score around the junctions to give definition at the edges.  This removes remnants of the molding ridge and also help hold a pastel wash when it comes to that point of the build.

 

Next I took a look at the gun barrels.  This aircraft was very well armed with five guns: one 20mm MG151 cannon firing through the spinner, two 20mm MG151 in the wings and two 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns above the engine.  The engine cowling has the gun troughs molded in but no opening for the gun barrels.

 

The shallow depth of the troughs limited the size of the drill bit.  I used as large a drill bit I could without blowing through the top of the cowling.

 

The trough ideally needs to be deepened but that is beyond the scope of this particular project so I'm just going to glue in short sections of brass tube into the drilled openings to represent the gun barrels.

 

Oh... and that raised circular port between the gun troughs was bothering me so I shaved it down in height.

 

The wing gun barrels are enclosed within an aerodynamic fairing. The sink marks need to be filled and the molding ridges cleaned off.

 

I used black CA glue to fill the sink marks.

 

The spinner has a hole to accommodate the cannon blast tube.  

 

I drilled a hole within the hole and placed a short section of brass tubing for the blast tube.  The plastic barrel tips for the wing guns were cut off and replaced with brass tubing.

 

Jumping over to the horizontal stabilizers, I've glued them together.

 

I want a more positive connection for the stabilizers to the fuselage so I thought I'd use plastic rod (actually plastic tube) for this.  First, holes were drilled into the fuselage parts, two for each stabilizer.

 

The stabilizers were then attached using tape, making sure they were in the correct position and perfectly square.

 

I then sprayed black paint through the holes on the interior side.  This will mark the exact locations where the plastic tube will go.

 

Little sections of plastic tubing were glued into the holes to serve as mounting pins.

 

Now, I have a much more positive connection for the stabilizers.

 

A quick check to see if the stabilizers are perpedicular to the tail.

 

I noticed that the trailing edges of the stabilizers were very thick and I want to thin them down a bit, without destroying the fabric detail on the control surfaces.  The first step is to glue stretched sprue along the trailing edges.  This needs to completely cure before I move on to the next step.

 

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Hello, John
A very nice start to this new project, with the usual attention to detail in the finish.
I'll take a chair

 

Gilles

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work, John.

 

Kev

[RCPlym]

Another rabbit hole to be investigated.

I have never made a model of any Italian aircraft.

I like the look of this one, so out with the card again... 

 

Following. 👍👍