Regia Aeronautica GB II (06/15/09 to 06/15/10)

Yes, well said Crusher. We are the Reggy aero elite here, you know LOL. Im sure, if the paintwork is anything to go by, noone will notice the cowl issues, theyll be too busy picking thier jaws off the floor.

...Guy

P.s, I got a cold...Booooo  

PPS, wheres Sarge?

soulcrusher wrote:

jmabx wrote:  soulcrusher wrote: All I can say is if you want to build a really nice SM 79 the Classic Airframes kit is very accurate and the complete highly detail resin interior is awesome. Along with the fact that it can me modeled with the clamshell open so you can see all of that great detail too! Oh... now he lets me know! Just kidding... I still love ya! It probally would not have mattered anyway because they have been OOP for a long time and hard to find Jeremy. The Classic Airframes kit is a short run kit and not easy to build. All of the ones I have seen build do look sweet though. Your SM 79 is still going to look cool with the nice camo you airbrushed. There are very few people that know the SM 79 good enough to notice the errors in the kit. Yours is still going to look great.                                                                        Soulcrusher

jmabx wrote:

soulcrusher wrote: All I can say is if you want to build a really nice SM 79 the Classic Airframes kit is very accurate and the complete highly detail resin interior is awesome. Along with the fact that it can me modeled with the clamshell open so you can see all of that great detail too! Oh... now he lets me know! Just kidding... I still love ya!

It probally would not have mattered anyway because they have been OOP for a long time and hard to find Jeremy. The Classic Airframes kit is a short run kit and not easy to build. All of the ones I have seen build do look sweet though. Your SM 79 is still going to look cool with the nice camo you airbrushed. There are very few people that know the SM 79 good enough to notice the errors in the kit. Yours is still going to look great.

                                                                       Soulcrusher

Read a good comparison review of the two kits awhile back.  You can find it here

The CA kit has some issues too but not as critical as the Trumpy. If you want a more accurate SM 79 you have to build the one that Guy did (from Italeri in Divine scale). 

soulcrusher wrote:

All I can say is if you want to build a really nice SM 79 the Classic Airframes kit is very accurate and the complete highly detail resin interior is awesome. Along with the fact that it can me modeled with the clamshell open so you can see all of that great detail too!

Oh... now he lets me know!

Just kidding... I still love ya!

I pulled my Classic Airframes SM79 kit fron the stash and put it along side the Trumpeter kit. The Classic Airframes kit has the cowl shape correct. I have no idea Trumpeter used for reference when they made their engines and cowls but it definetly was not any SM 79 ever build. They look like jet engine intakes instead of cowls. The should be three distinct peices. The front ring, the exhaust collector ring and then the various sheet metal panels behind the collector ring. You can see it in the different colors of metal. Look at the artwork on the Trumpeter box. It has the cowls depicted incorrectly just like the kit! All I can say is if you want to build a really nice SM 79 the Classic Airframes kit is very accurate and the complete highly detail resin interior is awesome. Along with the fact that it can me modeled with the clamshell open so you can see all of that great detail too!

Guy the QB cowls look perfect to me.

                                                                                  Soulcrusher

It does seem like the Trumpeter cowls were going to have an insert to make them the right size? Crazy for sure. I think mine have gone a little the other way, and made them a touch small.

I did a quick squizz on 'Stormo' and found a finished 'Classic Airframes' SM. They appear to have the cowls the right shape,

Im rooting for you,

...Guy

Guy - I'm going to use your images here... hope it's okay.

Notice the forward "ring" on Guy's SM79. The cowls on my kit have such huge openings it seems as if the "ring" isn't even there.

In the picture of the real deal, there doesn't seem to be a seperate "ring" at the front but there is a definite difference in colors. So my kit cowls look right other than the ultra-mega large openings.

Basically I need to tape off a wee bit of the front and also the aluminum part and spray a darker color between the two. I think I got this down.

Bondo, I don't have the book you are referring to. I'll have to do an internet search and see what I can find with the braces.

Jeremy its starting to look fantastic. Id try maybe misting some well thinned down brown, 95%-5%, on. As there is definately a brown look to them. I think over the top of the ally colour it should work a treat.

Heres my SM.79, which has QB cowls on it. It shows the lines Bondo was on about,

and heres a goodun of the real deal,

I bought the 2 kits i needed so my devious plan is still on, just as soon as i get this crooked winged millstone from around my neck LOL,

...Guy

I think it's a great model. I also think Trumpeter, as usual, missed a key detail. There should be another seam around the forward part of the cowl, maybe 6" in scale back from the opening. just about lines up with the front edge of the exhaust pipe fairing. Which by the way is a real work of Italian art. That front-most ring might be the right color as painted, and so is the cowl back of the seam they did provide. It's that area in between, I'd just give it a coat of Alclad smoke  and you are good to go.

One other detail you'll want to add. There's a fairly delicate three spoked spider of a cowling brace. Look at page 41 in the Squadron S.79 in action if you have it. I'm pretty sure that's on the machines with the big Piaggio's.

Thanks Summit! After seeing your 202 in your reply to "stupid question-on ways to achieve italian cammo effect"... the compliment means alot coming from you.

I actually mixed floquil old silver with some black and rust color and ultimately ended up with what you see. I brush painted alclad aluminum on a piece of cardboard and then brushed my "custom" color next to it before it went on the cowl. It seemed to be a bigger difference then when I sprayed it on... darker. Maybe the black seperated some from the silver between mixing it up, breaking out the airbrush and spraying it on... although I thought I had it mixed pretty darn good.

Perhaps maybe adding a drop or two of blue or bronze in the cup for a darker hue ? Try it on a test subject first though..

The Camo paint Looks Fantastic to me though

Well... this didn't quite work as planned. I was hoping for a bigger contrast in colors between the aluminum and the "heated" aluminum. In pictures of the SM79 it's a very noticable difference.

Do you guys think I should tape it off and try again?

Bondo... you seem to have some good ideas on this matter. What are your thoughts?

Appreciate any help!

Yippers, now that is a frightening thought    I will release you from all and any homework, if you promise to keep you clothes on!! We only have room for only one Hunk in this GB (Apart from me that is) and thats Scott Baio.

Im off tomorrow and one of my missions is to try to sort this 109G-4 problem. What im going to do is buy 2 kits to make a G-4, I going to get a late 'F' and a G-6 and make a G-4 from the 2. Hows that for a plan. Oh and change the rear tyre of my Dads Enfield. Busy busy busy,

...Guy

bondoman wrote:

Now, to this collector ring business... The forward lip is discolored by heat, its aluminum... I go with a metallic gray... burnt metal colored.

I had copper paint in hand when I read this. So Bondo can't say that nobody heeded his advice, I've got something in the works for the SM79 cowl. I should be pulling the tape off tonight and will give a sneak peek... hopefully it came out the way I wanted it to.

Luftwoller wrote:

Noooooo, my eyes.....Wheres the bleach, they need a rinse STAT!!!!

Sorry for torturing the eyes Guy! I want you to be able to make more of those splendid models and I'm sure you need good eyes for that.

Maybe I should take the dress off and send you a pic of that?

(Sheesh... I thought I looked fabulous !!!)

Noooooo, my eyes.....Wheres the bleach, they need a rinse STAT!!!! Even with them shut, i can still see Jeremy in his french maids outfit. I think we need a video next for sure. But please no French maids outfits (From you anyhow LOL)

Crusher, bummer about the G-4. No worries though. Ill have to do the Piaggio next and wait till i come across one at a show or on Ebay.

...Guy

Guy I have the 1/48 Hasegawa Me 109 G-2 and a G-4 but I would really like to hang on to them as they are very hard to come buy. Sorry Even though you are ace and all I do not want to have to track these kits down agian.

Jeremy I do not know what to say about that pic. I am hoping that was Halloween and not some weird fetish The missus does look in blue though.

The computor went into an uncontrolable spin last night from 15000 feet and I was unable to recoved from it. She went in hard and there were no surviviors. I managed to grab a great deal on a shiny new HP tower with alot more speed and storage at a great price so now I justhave to set the whole thing up the way I want it. I did manage to get the landing gear on and painted along with some other small details last night when I could not sleep. I think one good long session and I can finally complete something!

                                                                                     Soulcrusher

bondoman wrote:

That's sweet!! Gotta love a wife who'll let the guy put up a beer plaque over the fireplace.

Then the Superwoman outfit isn't just for looks!!!

So it seems that a little incentive goes a long way in this group build.

By all rights, this belongs to Bondo.

Thanks for the help!

The rest of you can deal with this...

This is all I could come up with Guy...

Ebay Bf109 G-4

...shipping is kinda pricey though.

They seem awful scarce.

Aah, i see sort of. I wonder why they wernt painted then? Another poser for sure.

I have a request from my lovelies (You lot). Im trying to find a Me 109G-4 for my next mega extravaganza, but here in the UK, i cant find one. Not even a snifter. If anyone knows of the whereabouts of one in the states, id appreciate it. My Credit card is itching with excitement.

...Guy

Bondo, i always thought they were copper? I wouldnt have thought that alluminium would be up to the job in any form. For 1 it would seriously deform due to the heat and possibly even melt and for 2ndly it would discolour like heck if on the deck of a carrier with 3 weeks at sea (As in the Swordy)...I could be wrong, probably am....Now wheres that picture Jezza/

...Guy

Sir Bondo is correct. Only the early SM 79's had that type of exhaust collector rings on the startbooard engine that faced inward toward the fulselage. I do not know if Trumpeter did this because it was easier to mold all three engines the same instead of a different mold for the port engine or out of just plain stupidity. They excell at both so its a toss up. So where are the pics now Jeremy?

                                                                                                   Soulcrusher

simpilot34 wrote:

Because it's a sleeve valve engine.

My original point was that the Piaggio that Jeremy showed  for his S79 torpedo bomber resembles a Bristol 14 cylinder engine in no meaningful way, except for that collector ring.

IE the pushrods were not a part of Bristol technology for a while before that point.

I cannot think of a case where the Axis countries used sleeve valve engines after the war started. A very dependable technology, too.

Now, to this collector ring business, since the Stranraer from hell has to be right; the visible cowling lip is made of aluminum. The actual collector ring is a manifold you can't see, just behind it.

Ditto all this stringbag stuff. But back to the pasta airforce. The forward lip is discolored by heat, its aluminum, and it was painted in the original roll out. 

Where the locomotive comes off the rails is that like in most things, models get based on "restorations" which are crap.

I go with a metallic gray.

OBTW my second source is my Father in Law who owned two Beaufighters and spent countless hours making them fly. Now he's color blind and also didn't pay a lot of attention to what he climbed into, flew and escaped etc from, but he will tell me that they were burnt metal colored.

I so want that picture!

The exhaust on the starboard engine should be on the starboard side. It was on the port on the prototypes, but ruined the night vision of the gunner in the belly gondola. The window frames are natural aluminum.

No one of you seems to know what's the main diffy between a Bristol 14 jug engine and a Piaggio of the same #, or a Pratt, or a Wright, or a BMW for that frigging matter. Good God men what is the one salient feature of Bristol radials that made them so reliable, so dependable; and no, not those exhaust collector rings that you all paint, incorrectly, copper? 

A reminder (that's the Bristol, and why don't those heads have rocker arm covers?), and a puzzle.

Excellent looking engines Jeremy!!!! Really coming along now!!!!

My answer is Black, i don't want to get it right this time!!!!