Lately I seem to be gravitating to lesser known/unique (IMHO) aircraft. I saw a picture of this Italian bomber and had to research to find out what it was. An old kit obtained on eBay is complete, lacking interior detail (fairly typical of old kits) but the sprues are well molded and exterior detail is sufficiently good and somewhat fiddly. I had to order after market decals; which are not for this aircraft (apparently none exist) but rather for a similar aircraft - my fingers are crossed that most of them with be usable.
A rendering of the CANTZ cockpit shows the in line pilot seats off center to the port, but other than seats and simple crew figures, not much detail. There are no instrument panels per se, but blank inserts and no instrument decals - my first DIY challenge. Also, note the right side has a lever with what appears to be a conduit running to it.
The blank stamp bulkhead has been painted with flat black and a interior green custom mix. Attempting to emulate the artist rendering I pin drilled into the blank in as close to the pattern on the drawing, stippled in a bit of white and massaging with the end of an xacto blade. There is a blank for the co-pilot panel on which I employed a similar process. Interestingly the compasses pictured (little nubs on the sprue) have been included!
Identical pilot "twins" in uniform (faces painted later), along with what I thought was the cockpit floor plating. In reality this is the bomb bay bulkhead and the pilot seats are just suspended by attachment to the port fuselage half!! Well, we can't have that so more DIY is required.
The photo is from the internet showing a cockpit floor that I need to make.
Here are the pilots in their seats "suspended" over the bomb bay floor.
And here is a cockpit floor made from cardboard covered with foil, etched and painted.
Here is the front bulkhead/Instrument Panel installed on the starboard fuselage half per instructions. Oh yes, I did DIY that lever and conduit I mentioned above. I cannot yet close up the fuselage as I have to install the side windows and machine guns which have to be mounted from the interior.
At this point I should caution all about the printed instructions. As with many old kits the instruction consists of an exploded view of the entire model showing numbered parts with arrows indicating what part is to be mated to what other part. No order of construction is included and is up to the builder to organize the construction (or when painting is to be done). A picture of the sprue with part numbers is included and it is important to match the part numbers to the port and starboard sides of the model, as indicated in the exploded view, for proper fit.
This is the first kit I have built where the entire tail assembly is separate from the remainder of the fuselage. The stabilizer halves are glued then the rudder attached, followed by the tail and elevators and lower support struts. Holes are molded into the upper tail surface and stabilizer to accept some other support wire, but nothing is included in the kit and no instruction provided to guide the builder, so I pulled out some thin (26 gauge) silver wire.
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Next I moved to the landing gear assembly since it is incorporated into the lower nacelle half which is latter attached to the wing. This will facilitate spraying the nacelle and wing underside with the required light gray after which interior color can be applied before attaching nacelle with gear to the wing.
The two pieces of the gear and two halves of the nacelle must go together all at once for all pins and receiving holes to line up - very fiddly holding gluing at the same time!
Using gunmetal and the interior green and silver the Piaggio P.XI R.C. 40, 14 cylinder radials are painted as well as the following Breda-SAFAT machine guns.
The guns are supposed to be 12.7 mm in the dorsal turret and ventral window with 7.7 mm at the fuselage windows. As one can tell they are simple molds and all the same. I could spend big $$ on brass or resin aftermarket guns, but am choosing not to do so.
The wheels in the background are painted and ready for insertion later, but the point of this photo is to show the propeller marked with the masking tape. If you look closely you can tell that the blades are oriented for counterclockwise rotation (the port motor). The Starboard and center motors are oriented for clockwise rotation. There arrows in the instructions exploded view show this - another important reason for using the correct numbered part. I find this attention to detail in the molding of this old kit pleasantly interesting😍
This test fit was to determine the degree of difficulty getting instrument panel/bulkhead to fit past the pilots feet and the control yoke. I am able to do it, and the cementing of the fuselage should be fairly easy - WHEW! However; there are many interior items that have to be installed before the fuselage can be closed - rear door, 7.7mm guns, even the dorsal turret has to be completed first as it has to be positioned in the receiving slot (for rotation) as the halves are brought together.
Out of the spray booth as all bottom/lower surfaces receive the required aircraft light gray.
Now comes the completion of interior fuselage parts. Here is the port 7.7mm "window" glued in place (note the door opening next to it which will also be secured from the inside with window glue).
Speaking of window glue, I will always prefer to use it instead of supplied clear styrene for small openings, such as the bottom wing landing light lens.
Now for completion of the bottom half nacelle/landing gear assembly. Look closely at the left hand side fender support. It is a 22 gauge wire cut and bent to replicate the plastic kit part (like the one on the right) that provided the Carpet Monster a light snack!!!! I seriously looked and it is as if the part simply vaporized!
Anyway, all is well and I can hardly tell the difference between the kit part and the wire.😂
With guns in the dorsal turret I closed up the fuselage.
Dry fit the tail, canopy and cowl. Not bad!
Installed the motor and prop assembly and tested. Spins freely! One down and two to go.
This is the second motor and prop assembly. This is a cautionary tale as the process for motor two is different from motor one (the video above). Motor one was assemble as follows - insert front seven cylinders and cement; drop in prop shaft retaining ring; inert prop so the the end of shaft is in the hole of the retaining ring; carefully ad a small drop of thin cement. The prop shaft and retaining ring are thus fixed together and rotate within the motor housing. The prop spins freely as evidence by the preceding video. I repeated this process for motor two; however I immediately noticed the prop not rotating and so pulled the assembly apart. Too much thin cement was applied and the capillary action pulled the cement down the shaft into the motor body. Fortunately my fast action saved a permanent fax pas! I cleaned up the cement mess from the parts. This time I applied a thin coat of petroleum jelly to the inside of the motor housing; laid in the retaining ring; inserted the prop and put a small drop of cyano on the end of the prop shaft/retaining ring. The prop now freely rotates but will not spin like number one due to the petroleum jelly layer.
With motor three I again attempted the initial thin cement procedure since I could tell that the retaining ring fit tighter around the prop shaft than in motor two. It was successful!
While I fiddled with the motor assemblies the putty applied to the fuselage seams dried such that I could sand off excess in preparation for painting. I have also added the compass to the forward instrument panel and set the canopy in place.
Window glue seals in the canopy and the tail assembly has been attached using thin cement. It is beginning to look like an aircraft!
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Put bombs together and left the sprue nubs on for fuses (silver). I dabbed on a bit of yellow and then when dry jabbed with the xacto tip - sort of like warning message. Eh, it's alright I guess.
Bombs have been added to the wings and the nacelles and cowls are ready to be added as well.
Just about ready to complete since I have finally chosen to use Testors Tan/Beige out of the jar. It dries darker which is more the base color I was looking for.
Due to the molding of the canopy, hand painting the frame went fairly well.
With wing assemblies completed it is time to attach!
For the proper dihedral I had to set the wheels on a small pad. The port wing fit was very loose and gluing only seemed that it might be insufficient.
Fortunately no pinning was required. However; I did layers of window glue (3) to the seams to secure and close the gap(s). I waited 24 hours and the base coating began. Although time consuming I hand paint in small sections, between panel lines. This minimizes paint lines between the sections as the paint dries. It is rather therapeutic for me.
With the base tan on the fuselage and tail, I decided to apply decals that would not need camo to be first applied. The old kit decals I considered useless and I was correct with the exception of one that I really wanted to work - and it did.......
....the CANTZ circle went on in one piece and dried perfectly!
The tail cross and overlay are the new decals that I had to trim to fit the rudder (using the kit cross as a template).
The fuselage stripe I painted on as shown on the box art (although not included in the instructions).
I put the new roundels on the bottom. This shows the complete underside with gear, bombs, ventral and bombardier windows.
Progress is slow but steady for the base coat.
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Base tan is done! Now it is time to develop a technique for the camo!
I started at the tail. I attempted using the small foam tip that I had cut to form a template/stamp but quickly realized this would not work. The randomness of the camo would required 10-20 foam tips, plus the ability to "stamp in" a pattern would be near impossible (for me). I turned back to my trusty little stubby brush and started with the dark green.
I moved forward to the to the access door, spotting in the green and filling in with the rust. It is challenging to maintain an even pattern both in size and separation.
More new decals added as seen in the box art. There was an 18-7 to which a added a "1" . Note that the new roundels have been applied on the upper wing surface.
I added a "7" to the cowl to match the 118-7 on the fuselage (as seen in other model and historical photos). Camo has been added to both wing engine nacelles.
Camo has moved to the wings. This shows the application of the green first.
Here is where I am at along with stubby brush that I use.
I completed the outer wing portions and gave her a dullcoat.
I think the close in photos turned out better than I had hoped. IMHO, this is a good effort on my part. It was worth the time and effort I put into it,
That's all there is,
