ICM Fiat CR.42 CN from 377 squadriliga - completed

[Fanes]

12 hours ago, j ferguson said:

That looks like a Bosch starter magneto on the lower starboard panel. Is it?

Sharp eyes! I'm not an expert, but I guess you're right. Interessting stuff!

1 hour ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

If it helps re the seat belts, take a look at my build on this here at the bottom of page 1 and the top of page 2.  MikeMaben also contributed some good drawings of the Italian seat belts on page two of this build.

 

Great work so far.    You're making me want to build another of CR-42.   I like your engine better than mine.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Thanks Michael - I knew I had seen drawings from italian seatbelts. Hopefully my CR.42 turns out as beautiful as yours.

[Fanes]

Take a seat

Well, the paper prototype seatbelts are cut and test fitted.

So far so good:

 

The cockpit cage is just glued in place with PVA and everything seems to fit okay so far.

To check the dimensions I installed everytin in the fuselage - mostly to check the fit against the headrest.

 

 

Well, I guess my prototype is a little bit too tall since the top part should go below the headrest.

I'll fire up the Silhouette for another prototype.

 

Cheers

Joachim

[Fanes]

A first try

I'm not a 100% happy but here they are:

the backpad made from lead foil, the buckles from annealed, bent and then pressed copper wire and a test run for the chain thingy

 

The structures on th backpad are a little bit too sharp for textile - maybe some buffing/rubbing might help?

[Rick Griewski]

Excellent and interesting build.  

[Fanes]

Not a lot of words, but a single picture of my first scratchbuilt set of seatbelts:

 

It for sure isn't perfect, but there always needs to be room ofr improvement on the next build, right?

[Fanes]

A Falco resurfaces

Pleas excuse the absence of any updates so far. I was working on the cockpit quite regularily but since it were so many small steps,

I didn't bother to take photos or post them here.

So here it is all finished up, just awaiting the seatbelts which will be installed once the tub is in one of the fuselage halves.

 

 

The PE looks as usual quite flat but almost nothing will be seen once the fuselage is closed up.

Here's a dry fit:

 

The wires on the IP were added after I realized that the detail will be visible from above through the windscreen cutout.

They were painted directly after taking the photo - just forgot to do so beforehand.

With that done, the whole cockpit will be finished and the fuselage glued together tomorrow.

 

[Alain Gadbois]

Great work on the cockpit and handmade belts. 
Seems like a very fine kit.

 

Alain

[Fanes]

8 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Great work on the cockpit and handmade belts. 
Seems like a very fine kit.

 

Alain

Thank you very much Alain.

Indeed, it is a fine kit. Not perfect but a lot of fun to build!

[Fanes]

Progress is slow but steady

Remember that I wanted to close the fuselage real quick?

Well, some small stuff had to be done beforehand.

The Cr.42 has openings for the oil coolers in the root of the lower wings.

ICM only give you a blnk plate that is installed from the inside of the fuselage.

To add visible detail a small piece of wire mesh (it was from plusmodel, I think) was cut to shape and glued in place with Tamiya clear.

 

Then the gunsight was glued to the upper cowl and since it's a buttjoint, I decided to add two tabs fopr more rigidity.

Same goes for the fuselage halves but I forgot to take pictures of those.

 

The "glass" from acetate sheet will be added right before I install the windscreen. No there's too much risk to damage the part.

The fuselage went together okayishly. There's a step on the spine, but it's already gone after some scraping and sanding

 

 

The upper cowl was impossible to install without any seams. Here's the best I could achieve with carefull adjustments and glueing in steps:

 

Almost forgot to include a picture of the installed seatbelts

Here we go:

 

Right now I'm busy cleaning up all the glue seams and in the meantime work has continued on the wings and control surfaces.

It'll look like a plane quite soon, I hope.

 

 

[dennismcc]

Late as usual, but there is some great info and some neat modelling here to help me on my build when I finally get around to it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Fanes]

41 minutes ago, dennismcc said:

Late as usual, but there is some great info and some neat modelling here to help me on my build when I finally get around to it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Not to worry Dennis - I'm a slow build, so there's no too late

[IainM]

This kit has been on my radar for ages...you're doing an excellent job! I like!!

[Rockie Yarwood]

Impressive work Fanes, coming together nicely! 

[Fanes]

On 7/16/2022 at 12:50 PM, IainM said:

This kit has been on my radar for ages...you're doing an excellent job! I like!!

Do it, Iain. It's a really fun kit with so many differetn paiont schemes.

On 7/17/2022 at 8:57 AM, MARU5137 said:

Fanes,

Your meticulous and methodical  work is paying off.

Looking Awesome.  Great job.

      

On 7/17/2022 at 7:53 PM, Rockie Yarwood said:

Impressive work Fanes, coming together nicely! 

Thank you very much for your kind words Maru and Rockie!

[Fanes]

Not just warm words, but an update as well

The last weeks were quite busy (with a work trip to France) and the high temperatures weren't helping either.

But nonetheless I have an update prepared.

Most of the work was assembling, filling, sanding etc. - so I didn't feel to shoot any photos during the process.

 

The top cowl's fit was okayish but since it's along multiple panel lines filling and rescribing will povide a much more consistent look

 

the other side wasn't better and neither was the fit of the lower wings (again along a panel line). They needed quite a lot of CA to blend in. Not sure if this was my mistake, though.

 

 

The horizontal stabilizers' fit was the same but since the join isn't along a panel line, this was a simple fill and sand

 

That's it so far. I have a small tiny bit in the making right now, but forgot to take a picture of the finished thing.