Fiat CR42 CN 1/32 ICM

[mc65]

 

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

Edited February 18 by mc65

[Uncarina]

Impressive start Paolo!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Borsos]

Great idea adding an actual light source into that 1:32 spotlight!

[scvrobeson]

Awesome start and way to liven up the build with the addition of the lights

 

 

 

Matt 

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Hello Paolo

It's a great idea to fit a little spotlight on this CR42

 

Gilles

 

 

[mc65]

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

 

Edited February 19 by mc65

[Martinnfb]

Beautiful detail Paolo. 

[mc65]

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

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific work, Paolo!

 

Kev

[Dpgsbody55]

 

Great work here, Paolo.  I'm enjoying this build a lot.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[spyrosjzmichos]

Lovely work Paolo!

And awesome progress!

[Uncarina]

Very precise and thoughtful Paolo! I love the work you’ve put into this, including the riveting.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Beautiful work Paolo

Your riveting is so nice .....

 

Gilles

 

 

[mozart]

Wot the uvers say…..^^^^^^^^……..brilliant! 

[mc65]

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