Italeri's 1/48 Scale
Fiat CR.42 Falco

by Jean Barby

When it became evident that the "Falco" could not fulfill the task a fighter was meant to do, the Regia Aeronautica made good use of the CR.42 for ground attack duties.

Two bomb racks were fitted underwings in order to hunt the vehicles columns of the allies in North Africa.

Those modifications occurred during 1942 and the camouflage rules had changed quite a bit. No more the tri colors with the intricate mottles but rather a sort of large blotches of "Oliva scurro" over a base "Nocchiola chiaro", giving birth to the so called "Lizzard scheme". The unde color was also changed from the "Griggio mimetico" to the lighter "Griggio azzurro chiaro", a light grey but with no blue hue at all!

The model is the very good 1/48 scale kit from Italeri, built nearly straight from of the box.

The wings' ribbing is a bit on the heavy side and require a good sanding to tone them down.

The aileron and rudder command were made from plastic card and stretched sprue, and the length of the tail wheel cover must be longer than proposed. Otherwise the only point I did not correct is the shape of the air filter but I was not sure of that correction when I made the kit.

As it is the same than the one used on the Fiat G-50, the kit's one is to narrow.The plane is from the 387° squadriglia, 158 °gruppo 50° stormo d'assalto at Abu Nimier in Egypt August 1942.

The colors used were from Testor's Model Master range and they worked just fine.

Decals are from an old sheet bought in Telford some years ago, from Third Group decals.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2006 by Jean Barby
Page Created 10 May, 2006
Last Updated 10 May, 2006

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