I built this
excellent kit with a few enhancements that my research showed that the kit
lacked - like the oil cooler inlets at the root of the bottom wing and trailing
edge outlets. The Ali D'Italia CR 42 book was a great help, as it has excellent
drawings in 1:48 scale showing everything you need to know. I also drooped
the elevators and offset the rudder. I fabricated control horns for the
rudder and ailerons and used invisible thread treated with aluminum metalizer
for control cables - it looks more realistic than the photo-etch parts included
in the kit. I made the tapered gun blast tubes from aluminum tubing on my
poor man's lathe (drill motor and file). I used wire for engine pushrod
tubes instead of the photo-etched part - (tubes are round, not flat). I
also added ignition wiring, although it is almost invisible since the wiring
harness ring is located at the rear of this engine and the wiring visible from
the front is barely noticeable. I made the pitot tubes on the outboard
struts from 25 ga. hypo needle and fine wire. The nav light lenses are
small glass beads painted with Tamiya Clear red and green. Rigging of the
outboard struts was done with .008" guitar wire. Paint is Model
Master enamel and Alclad II on the front face of the prop. I have since
learned that the prop may have been pale blue instead of polished
metal. Such is life.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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This aircraft, coded
13-95 with serial MM5701 was forced down on a beach near Orfordness, England by
a ruptured oil line during one of the few raids by the Regia Aeronautic during
the Battle of Britain in November of 1940. The pilot, Sargente Pietro
Salvadori, was said to be relieved to become a POW. His aircraft now
resides at the RAF museum at Hendon.
Chas
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