Fiat CR 42 LW Falco – Italeri

This was actually part of the SuperModel double kit – the Falco and the AB40 armor car.

This is Italeri’s Cr.42 LW in markings of the Luftwaffe night fighter stationed in Italy.

The cockpit was embellished with the Eduard Zoom kit.

The rest of the build was straight forward, so onto painting. The bottom wings had two color mottles that was applied freehand with an airbrush. On top, I tried to do the splotches by using enlarging the instructions and then tracing the patterns onto frisket paper. Finally using a #11 blade to cut out the patterns. Whie it worked, it was much more work than I had bargained for, so I finished the 2nd set of splotches with hand brushing.

As usual, trying to put the top wing on in a biplane is always a challenge, the structs height weren’t spot on, so some CA glue were used as fillers, and then touched up with paint afterwards. For rigging, I used EZ-Line from Bobe’s hobby store (Florida). I’m a new convert, this will be my new rigging method, the line takes to CA glue really well, the bond is secure in 2-3 seconds, no accelerator needed. Since it stretches really well, it will not get knocked off easily. The best part is for me is that I no longer have to drill through the lower wing to thread rigging material. I can simply glue it into holes drilled partly in the inner part of the two wings. No precise measurement needed either, just cut a piece about 1/2 the length you need, and then just stretch to glue. Just make sure the length is consistent, as it gets thinner with more stretching.