The Finnish Fiat. A 1/48 scale kit by Secter.

Secter Fiat G.50 in 1/48 scale.

Had a Group build going on at the Facebook $20 modeler's Facebook group's page, The20clubthebigshow that featured an Italian theme. What better time to add to my Finnish Air Force collection by building Oiva Tuominen's Fiat G.50!

Oiva "Oippa" Tuominen's FA-26 without spinner.

FA-26, at this time with a spinner over the prop hub.

I've had the Secter Fiat for a while. These are somewhat hard to find. Hasegawa actually re-boxed this kit  under their own label, so you may find one of those if you can't turn up the Secter kit. In other scales, Airfix made a nice 1/72 scale kit many years ago, and Special Hobby offers one in 1/32 scale which is probably very nice.

The Secter kit and some of  my references.

My impression of the Secter kit is that it's an acceptable kit, but nothing extraordinary. The instrument panel is quite nice but the rest of the interior needs a little work to make it stand out. In the photo below, you can see where I dressed up the instrument panel with a few dial decals. 

I added some PE seat harnesses and a few details to the rudder pedals and a control stick on the right side which was missing.

Interior installed, ready to close the fuselage up.

Assembly went along fine. The upper decking didn't quite match with the fuselage sides so considerable sanding was required there. The wing to fuselage fit required a small amount of filler. I cut the cockpit access doors to display them open.

Soon it was time to paint. After priming I followed my usual practice and painted the yellow recognition bands. These are always easier to do over primer than over any colors.

While that was drying, I started playing around with a few little details including adding brake lines and door handles.

Next came the fun part, applying the Italian camouflage! Sand and spinach over light gray.

I got to use my new Badger Velocity airbrush to apply the green blotches. The Velocity has an adjustable trigger stop so you can use it as a single action. This gives you a lot of control. I was pretty happy with the result. While not perfect it came out pretty well.

That satisfying moment when the masking tape comes off!

I was now time to apply decals. Secter gave you a really amazing selection of markings for this kit, over a dozen schemes to choose from! The only problem is that the decals themselves are not of the best quality. While they are printed nicely, they are quite thick and a little translucent. I tried one on my paint mule and found that they did react well to Micro Sol, so I went ahead and used them. 

Finnish Fiat in the original Italian paint weathered badly.  Large areas of paint flaked off so I tried to show that with some dry-brushed aluminum paint on several locations.

Showing some wear and tear.

Final assembly proceeded normally. The last job was to affix the antenna wire which proved to be a bit of a challenge. I used an elastic thread, Modelkasten, which worked out okay. It still gave me a few fits, but I managed to get it installed.

The antenna wires installed!

All in all, this was a pretty straightforward build. I'm happy with the result and it makes a nice addition to my Finnish AF collection.

The Fiat joins my miniature FAF!

Roden Sopwith Triplane, 1/32.

Roden's 1/32 scale Sopwith Triplane

And here's the real thing, Colishaw's two gun Tripe, N533.

The Sopwith Triplane was a remarkable development of the more conventional Sopwith Pup. The three narrow cord wings gave the Tripehound great maneuverability and rate of climb. Used primarily by the Royal Navel Air Service, the Triplane enjoyed a brief but successful career  before being replaced by the Sopwith Camel. 

Canadian Raymond Colishaw was probably the most successful Triplane pilot. He actually flew two. My model represents his second, a rare two gun model. The weight of the two Vickers had a negative effect on the Triplane's performance although Colishaw seemed to be okay with it, he downed two EA's with it.

 I decided to try the Triplane as my second attempt at a Roden 1/32 scale kit. The Roden Triplane is a very nice kit. The fit and detail is excellent. The triplane configuration has been well designed and I had no difficulty in the assembly, for the most part.

The sprue!

As usual, I started off with the interior. I used an aftermarket pilot's seat, a resin part from Barracuda that is very nicely done. I tried out Kit's World 3-D printed seat belts this time. They are tricky to use, wanting to curl up badly. It took some effort to make them settle down. I had fun with the instrument panel, adding a few instrument decals leftover from other kits. The painting of the wood components, including the propeller and struts was done at this time as well.

Interior components and propeller and struts. Note two options for the cockpit decking, one for the single gun configuration the other for the rarer two gun option.

A peek at the Barracuda pilot's seat. Really nice looking item, with Kit's World printed belts.

Nicely done Clerget.

The main components primed.

...and painted.

Decals on! If you've ever built a Roden kit, you know this is a big deal!

Assembly started and the maddening rigging is begun!

Landing gear on! These seemed a little sturdier than the Albatros' landing gear, but I still got a little lean to port.

Rigging finished! Quite the chore.

A peek in the office.

Here are the glamor shots of the completed Triplane.

 To sum up; This kit went together nicely. Most of the problems I encountered were self-induced, nothing new there!  There is one minor problem which I did not address; There is a gaping void behind the pilot's seat! I should have come up with some sort of panel to fill it in but I had forgotten about it so the gap remains! It's not too noticeable for the most part.

One other major screw-up on my part was with the lovely molded-in inspection panels on the Triplane's wings. I thought I'd use a super glue to simulate glass over the sculpted pulleys but unfortunately the glue I used only resulted in an opaque mess that I had to cover with black paint! Too bad, because Roden had done a good job there.  

Hobbycraft Israeli Avia S.199, 1/48

Hobbycraft Avia S-199, 1/48 scale.

A survivor on display in Israel.

 The story of the Avia and it's unlikely service as Israel's first fighter is pretty interesting. The Avia itself was produced in post-war Czechoslovakia. There was a factory building Me-109G's there. After the war, it seemed like a good idea to keep cranking out the fighters to generate a little income. Unfortunately, the supply of the excellent DB-605 engines was destroyed in an fire. The Czechs had a lot of Jumo power plants however and with a little modification, they installed them into the 109G airframes. Sadly, that powerplant was totally unsuitable for the airframe, with handling characteristics described as being vicious!  

As it happened, the new state of Israel was desperately in need of combat aircraft. An international arms blockade kept them from procuring any decent fighters, but Czechoslovakia needed cash so the deal was made and Israel procured 25 of what may be possibly the worst fighter of that decade.

The Avias soldiered on during the first critical combats the new nation fought with it's neighbors and incredibly, scored some successes. But attrition was high and eventually Israel was able to buy surplus Spitfires and Mustangs and the Avias were sent to pasture.

This build was in response to Facebook's $20 Modeler's Club IDF build. I've had this kit in the pile for a while and was looking forward to assembling it. I also came across an Eduard PE set for it to help me along.

The Eduard PE set for this kit is a very extensive one. It includes a complete cockpit tub with sidewalls and pilot's seat. I soon discovered I was not skilled enough to integrate the entire tub but instead I used the PE sidewalls and assorted other bit combined with the kit parts.

Hybrid cockpit construction.

The Eduard instrument panel is very nice, I reinforced it with a bit of sheet styrene. 

First paint attempt with RLM Grey. I didn't look right, so...

The 2nd try was a mix of Khaki and RLM Grey, it looks better to me.

Sadly, the kit's decals, while looking beautiful, had not aged well. The first roundel on the fuselage shattered, forcing me to go for a slightly different scheme from the one I originally planned. Eventually, my scheme is a bit of a hybrid, probably not dead accurate for any one A/C, but representative of the type.

Well, with great care, I was able to use the other roundels but the rudder stripes and fuselage band were hopeless. I had to mask and paint those. I was able to use the various data stencils, and with great difficulty, the walkway "dots". I used the black ones since I destroyed the red ones which were also included on the sheet.

Masks on...

Masks off! Came out pretty well.

Another problem  encountered was with the canopy. My kit included the "blown" sliding canopy found on the later Czech Mules. To be accurate for an Israeli version, you need an "Erla" style canopy found on the later German 109's. I stole one of these from an old Monogram 109G-10 I have. It fit pretty well.

Installing the Monogram canopy.

Early in the build, I had broken off the barrels to the underwing 20MM cannons. I found some extra barrels with the spare parts left from the old AMT G-6. These turned out to fit quite well and were easily drilled out to look a little better.

All done! The AMT gun barrels worked well, as did the Eduard RDF ring atop the fuselage.

Here's a comparison with an AMT 109G-6.

Overall, this was a pretty straightforward build. It's a very interesting version of the venerable 109 and a credit to Hobbycraft for putting one out. I have a Hobbycraft Buchon in the stash which will make a nice companion to this version.