S.M. 79-II

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davenport49
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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Sun Nov 06, 2022 12:33 pm

As I recall, and at my age that's questionable :eh: , it was targeted. Much as the Russians are doing now, the Axis tried to bomb the place out of existence. I seem to remember (there's the memory thing again.... ) they endured 3,000 bombing raids over two years. A couple of excellent videos on the siege of Malta are "The Battle for Malta", part of a series Battle Line: A recorded History of WW2, and "Malta G.C.: The Movie 1942", which recounts the siege and the awarding of the George Cross to the people of Malta. Graham White has compiled a large collection of photos from the period, including a picture of the Opera House in all its glory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-opKdsCyI . And Deja Voodoo has a fascinating compilation of photos then and now; about a minute and a half into the video you see the Opera House as it was originally, after the bombing, and now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIRuHDnUFcQ ; this one's particularly worth checking out. Here's a newsreel from the time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_75_Vp_E8Y .I was completely blown away by the island's beauty and history.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Sun Nov 06, 2022 2:58 pm

I did art classes right up to University, my dad was hoping I'd be an architect and in hindsight I should have and could have (I'm an engineer), the destruction of a culturally significant structure hits me the same way it does you. I've never felt comfortable watching documentaries that show the ruins of important structures destroyed because of war, from any country. Italy too endured this, the bombing of Monte Cassino was completely unnecessary, Italy prior to WWII was home to 70% of the world's art treasures its down to 60%, most of it looted by Nazis, Da Vinci's bridge in Florence was blown-up by the Nazis that made no difference to stopping an Allied advance. The Amber Room in Russia, St.Paul's etc. Its senseless and an utter waste. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris that recently burned down, I couldn't watch the news coverage as the building's spire collapsed. Below some photos of the Opera House in Valetta before and after it was destroyed. It was bombed by the Luftwaffe in April 1942, my guess is it was nearby an important military target or itself was being used for military purposes. The Italians and Germans coordinated most of their attacks and the specific bombing of the Opera House would have needed authorization from higher command and I doubt the Italians would have oked the bombing of a useless target since it could have resulted in the loss of pilots and equipment that the Axis were short of in this theater. If indeed the Opera House was targeted it was a German operation done without the Italians knowing about it.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Mon Nov 07, 2022 5:54 am

I understand your anguish. The list of examples is unending. It makes those which have been restored, e.g. Die Frauen Kirche, Dresden and "The Gold Room" of Augsburg's Rathaus, all that more amazing. An incredible tribute to a people's determination to reclaim their culture.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:19 am

Finally finished Hero: The George Beurling Story by Nolan, fascinating and tragic.

My build is ALMOST ready for paint. My subject is 193-1 of 87 Gruppo, 30 Stormo. As illustrated in Savoia Marchetti S.79 in Action, it appears the camouflage scheme is CB 10 B, found in the CMPR color guide. If anyone has other information, please let me know.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Icepol » Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:52 pm

Ciao!
pay attention to the slats .... if you plan to keep them open, the step that you see must be eliminated. Furthermore, if you keep the slats open, you must necessarily keep the flaps and ailerons down by about 17 degrees..... both ailerons!

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:57 pm

Thanks for the input! I think it'll be easier for me to just close the flaps. Can you point me to your information? I can use all the help I can get.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:24 pm

Good job Richard! And great subject 193a Sq. "Uomo Elettrico", Vince Biondi would like it and the camo scheme is unusual - a photo of the plane (only a partial view) is on p.37 in the Squadron Book. In fact there really isn't a CMPR camouflage chip for this scheme, the colors are as C10B but the chip is closest to C9. I would use the photo on p.37 as a guide, the large spots/patches are smoother than the spots in the profile (with jagged edges). Also note 193a Sq. 87o Gr. was a bomber squadron (S.M. 79-I). This is a complicated scheme to paint, either do it manually (paint yellow and then draw the outlines of green and brown spots/patches and fill in with your air brush) or paint brown, then apply masks, spray green, and then apply masks and then spray yellow. This is not an easy scheme to do.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Tue Nov 29, 2022 6:03 am

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the information and recommendations!!!! I really appreciate it. I was starting to wonder how I was going to tackle this. I'll keep the forum informed.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:09 am

The pattern on 193-1 is similar to the paint scheme of the 1/35 P.40 (also on some later semovente/assault guns), you'll face the same issues:

https://stormomagazine.com/Kits_Italeri_RE.htm#IT6476

Look through the net and see if anyone built this 1/35 P.40 (also named P.26) and how they did the paint scheme.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by kensar » Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:22 am

It's great to see progress with this, Richard. I'm looking forward to seeing some paint.
Interesting information about the ailerons being used with the flaps and leading edge slats to change the camber of the wing for more lift. That's how I used to set up my RC sailplanes.
I just got promoted to Comandante!

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Sat Dec 03, 2022 8:12 am

Okay, I reworked the leading edge flaps. Paint is on order. I'll do the priming in the meantime. So far, have located only one P.40 video, so really in a quandary on how I'll pull this off..... :crazy:

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:32 pm

This is one of those schemes that if you get it right it wins shows.

A third way to do this scheme is to reverse the order you would normally apply paint from light to dark, but instead start with a verde, then mask off the green patches, then apply marrone over the remaining areas and then mask off the brown patches. You'll then be left with a open network to apply light shades of giallo. Use the photo in the SS book as a template for the same area on the plane and repeat it. I would first try this approach on a sheet of plastic and see how it works out. When applying masks use Tamiya yellow tape underneath so you don't damage the paint work underneath (lift). Because you'll have so many masks, some masks will occasionally come loose, so you'll need to press down the masks frequently (tedious). Using masks will always produce the best results if you get it right.

The pattern of 193-1 looks great, it seems like an easy pattern to do but is labor intensive and difficult. If you have a good airbrush and are comfortable with it, you can apply the scheme by hand, giallo first, draw the patches with a pencil and then fill-in the patches one at a time using your airbrush.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:53 am

Thanks for the tips, Vince. I'll do some practice both ways and see how it comes out.

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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by davenport49 » Tue Feb 14, 2023 12:49 pm

It's taken a couple of false starts, stripping & repainting, a lot of practice, but I think I'm close. Before I go farther, I would appreciate some input on what I've got so far:
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Re: S.M. 79-II

Post by Editor » Tue Feb 14, 2023 9:15 pm

A very challenging scheme. I would cut out random templates of the large blotches, use photos to make some of the templates and do exactly what you're doing here and airbrush one blotch at a time. It'll take a long time to do but it'll produce the best results.

After your post on the C9 I created a C9 variant for this plane to be added to the CMPR camo chips since the scheme did in fact exist but wasn't documented by the folks at CMPR:

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The colors I used are from the CMPR Color Chips Arson-SISI (as Stefano suggested): Verde Mimetico 53192, Marrone MImetico 53193 and Giallo Mimetico 3 (53194).

Your color matching is excellent.

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