Possibly
one of the finest shapes in the air ever, the Reggiane Re 2005 Sagittario
(Archer) was slowly developed during WWII around the German DB-605 engine.
Though
the same engine also powered the Macchi Mc.205 and the Fiat G.55, my personal
interest has always been focused on this machine because of the sleek fuselage
and the shape of the tailplanes. Style applied to a war machine!
This
aircraft didn't change the war. Only 32 units were built, which mainly
fought against the B-24 bombers which were bombing the areas around Rome
and Neaples. For sure a Spitfire was downed and also several B-24's. Today only
the rear section of the fuselage of one of them survives.
While
there are several kits available into the smaller scales, none has ever appeared
in the 1/32nd scale which I'm currently preferring most, neither in resin nor as
vacuform.
This
is why I attempted my first "scratchbuilt" model. Possibly it's not a
real scratchbuilt model, but it's not far from it!! It's a puzzle of parts
coming from a wide range of models, and the only parts not modified are the
propeller's blades. All other parts used for the model have been at least
heavily modified from their original shape or built from scratch. Decals have
been printed by a laser printer, drawings made by me.
I
used parts from several models in 1/32nd scale:
-
Spinner: P-40E, Revell
- Propeller: P-35, Williams Brothers
-
Engine section: Ki-61 Hien, Revell
-
Exausts: Me-109G (Moskit)
-
Main fuselage: resin copy of a vac of the Macchi Mc..202, ID Models
-
Rear fuselage: A6M Zero Revell (upper) and P-35 (lower)
-
Tail: F-14 tailplane (Monogram, 1/48)
-
Tailplanes: P-47D, Revell
-
Movable tail surfaces: P-35, Williams Brothers
-
Wings: P-35, Williams Brothers
-
Karman joint between fuselage and wings: He-111 (Lindberg, 1/64)
-
Main wheels: F7F Tigercat (Amt, 1/48)
William
Brothers offers both the P-35 and its racer version, the S-2. The former has a
'step' wing (more or less like a Texan or a Dauntless), while the latter has a
continuous dihedral wing. This wing has the same basic design of the Reggiane
fighters, since Mr. Longhi, who drew the earlier Reggiane Re 2000, has worked at
Severski's in the late 30's. The Re 2000 is more or less a copy of the S-2 and
the Re 2005, though with a much different inner structure and landing gear
retraction system, has inherited the basic wing shape. That’s why I started
from this kit.
For
the fuselage I made a resin copy of the fuselage of a Mc.202 vac by ID Models.
It has been flattened on its sides and the large fairing aft of the cockpit has
been largely reshaped. The green upper rear part of the fuselage comes from an
A6M Zero. The white part comes from the P-35.
The
engine section is a resin copy of the cowling of a Revell Ki.61 largely
reworked; exausts come from the Moskit range.
The
spinner is a much reduced section of a P-40's spinner. The small bumps over the
fuselage are sections from resin bombs, all panels and rivets are already into
place and the gray primer which was used to reveal defects and scratches is
Gunze's Mr. Surfacer 1000 airbrushed by my Badger 150. Nice primer!
Tail
comes from an F-
14 in
1/48th (one of the tailplanes…), tailplanes are those of a P-47
much reduced in size, all tail movable surfaces were enlarged by plastic sheet
from those of the P-35.
The
main landing gear well has been made of plastic sheets and resin details. The
"waves" ceiling of the well is a plastic copy of the ceiling of the
bomb bay of a B-
26 in
1/48th. It has the correct number of 'waves'! Landing gear legs are those of
the P-35, much reworked. The tailwheel strut comes from an F-14 while fork and
wheel come from a Me-109E.
The
large radiator under the fuselage has been scratchbuilt with plastic sheets.
Canopy
has been vacuformed of a resin master. All cockpit parts come from spares or
have been made from scratch. The seat is a vacuform copy of the one in the
FW-190, modified for the purpose.
The metal and fabric ailerons and tail sections have been simulated by the use
of Mr.Surfacer.
I airbrushed a heavy coat of it after having masked by tape the 'fabric' areas.
Later everything has been sanded slightly. This way, the metal structure stands
out because of the thickness of the putty.
They
leave a step, not a scribed or rised edge. Both ways of reproducing this effect
onto models would be wrong!
To
get the right effect, again I used Mr. Surfacer. I put some tape along the panel
joints, always on the lower side of the joint, then I airbrushed the putty onto
the tape’s edge. The putty blends over the upper panel and leaves a step
towards the lower panel. No need to send anything and a beautiful scale
rendering of the real thing, especially on the rear fuselage.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Rivets
were made by the use of pouncing wheel, I bought a set of 3 from Micromark.
Larger rivets were scribed one by one with a needle.
The
colors I used are all enamels.
Green is Humbrol 75 (flat) mixed with a 50% of gloss clear.
Light Gray is Molak (an Italian brand) LI 5.
Italian
paints had a high content of natural resin and were very gloss.
However, the quality was low and they faded very fast, loosing much of
the brightness.
All
the decals were printed by a laser printer onto clear and white film decal
sheets.
The results are not 100% as if I used 'normal' decals but... this way or
nothing!
For those interested, I simply used MS Paint and MS Word to draw them.
I
didn't buy all available references, I mostly used these ones:
- Ali D'Italia Series No.16: Re.2005, by Gregory Alegi
- Monografie Aeronautiche Italiane No.66
- Aviazione Giovani No.45
- Airkit News No.7
- Reggiane, by Delta Editrice.
- Notiziario CMPR 1/93
The
best drawings available of the Sagittario are those included in the first
reference book.
However, matching them to the pics, I noticed a few mistakes:
- Tail trim actuator is not present on both sides as in drawings but only at
left on the real aircraft.
- The upper metal shrouds surrounding the engine exausts on the left side of
aircraft is larger then the one on the
right (they are the same size in the drawings). Possibly it
was to avoid gas to enter the supercharger intake.
- The two small indicators of gear in lowered position are missing from all
drawings.
- A series of "holes" are missing from the inner area of both flaps.
They are instead on the real aircraft.
Being
built in small numbers and with only a few pics available today (most of not
good quality), with only a section of the real aircraft still existing, there
are lots of doubts about details and colours of the Re 2005, especially about
the interiors. I painted my model following the ‘main stream’ but still have
a few doubts.
Special
thanks to Giovanni Carlassare who helped about the pilot's harness, Riccardo
Vestuto who showed me the Ripetitrice Patin and to Claudio Matteini, a very fine
naval modeller, owner of the digital camera I used to take most of the pics!
Luca
Click on
images below to see larger images
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