Much has already been written about the history behind this aircraft. What is lesser known is that a few of these aircraft served in the Battle of Britain! Six CANT Z.1007 aircraft saw action in this famed battle with the 172a Squadriglia as reconnaissance aircraft, based in Chièvres Belgium between November 1940 and January 1941. You will note that the model is devoid of any armament as this unit was deployed on November 11 as a "decoy" force that flew with no bombs or defensive machine guns. This reduced weight, allowed them to draw British fighters away from BR.20M bombers attacking Harwich. Since I could not find photos of every aircraft of 172a Squadriglia, I took historic license to model number "5" aircraft as a twin tailed version, but other than that, the colours and markings were thoroughly researched.

The old ALPHA FLIGHT kit
There are only three model kits of this unique aircraft on the market today – two from Supermodel in 1/72, and this 1/48 beast from Alpha Flight (now out-of-production with the US company not in operation). Released in the early 2000's, the Alpha Flight kits are very accurate. But as with most limited-run resin kits, they are a challenge to complete, but nothing so daunting that patience and careful planning cannot overcome! This model is the result of a few months of much sanding, some scratch-building (landing gear), and liberal after-market parts (e.g., the engines were unusable and replaced with the excellent resin Piaggio P.XI engines from Vector Models).

Custom Unit Markings
I wanted a unique aircraft in a unique theatre, so I chose this aircraft with the 172a Squadriglia during the Battle of Britain. Custom-made "unit" numbers were done from scans of similar style RA lettering, and cut through a Cricut Maker. The resulting Kabuki number cut-outs were used as a mask to spray the unit number colours over the camouflage. Finally, a converted scan of the 172 Squadriglia emblem into vector format, resized it to 1/48th, was then printed off an Alps Printer.

The complex camouflage!
The pattern used on this aircraft was the "C10A" scheme. It can be simply described as a three-tone camouflage pattern of a sand yellow base colour, followed by small red-brown blotches, and finally olive green sprayed in a tightly connected spider-web pattern. The specific colours used were as follows:

Base colour Giallo Mimetico 3 (sand-yellow). This colour is close to RLM79 but lighter with a touch more "yellow". I mixed my own using AK paints: AK RC282 (RLM79 1941) 2 parts + AK RC064 (Earth Yellow RAL 8002) 1 part + AK RC004 White (a few drops) + AK RC007 Yellow (a few drops).

Second camo colour Marrone Mimetico (red-brown). I used AK RC66 Rotbraun + a bit of black and dunkel gelb 062.

Third camo colour Verde Mimetico 3 (olive green). I used Tamiya XF-67 (Nato Green), and XF-65 (German Field Grey) separately for variation.

Undersides Grigio Azzurro (light blue-grey). I mixed my own using Tamiya: XF-80 (Royal Light Gray) 2 parts + XF-23 (Light Blue) 1 part + XF-2 (Flat White) for scale effect.

Fuselage Yellow ID band:
This yellow band was a light yellow from RLM 27 (FS 33655) stocks supplied from the Luftwaffe. These bands appear freshly painted, and thus my model reflects that contrast. I used Tamiya X-8 (Lemon Yellow) as a very good match.