SM 79 interior color questions

[Peter Sig]

I am embarking on building Italeri's 1/72 SM 79 (281st Squadriglia/132 Gruppo Autonomo A.S, Rhodes 1941) and have some color related questions....

I suspect seeing color interior pictures of a SM 79 is probably a holy grail type thing... The only one I've found online is of the Lebanese museum example. The aircraft doesn't look to have been restored. The interior cockpit color is clearly "interior green". I know it is generally accepted that the interior color is gray. I'm curious if the cockpit area was green and the rest of the interior gray?

I am also curious if the interior floor/deck was made of wood (I'm guessing the answer is "yes)? If so, was it left in a natural wood finish, or was it painted the interior color? If painted the interior color, I suspect it would have worn, and the natural wood would have been partially exposed in spots.

The torpedo color seems to be described as "aluminum". In numerous period b/w photos it appears to have the tip of it painted a distinctly different color. I'm leaning towards gray, but could it be yellow, red, or some other color?

Last question for now .... Would the "aluminum" finish of the wheel wells have been bare metal, or an aluminum painted finish?

Cheers,

Peter

[Editor]

Welcome to Stormo. Try reading through Richard's thread below, he posted it a few days ago and it contains some useful information for the interior colors of the S.79. The wheel wells of the S.79 were painted GAC1.
https://stormomagazine.com/phpbb2/viewt ... =26&t=1568

For a general reference here's Peter Dixon's 281a Sq. S.79-II:
https://www.stormomagazine.com/ModelArt ... PD_1a.html

There were color codes for bomb colors although these codes seemed not to have been applied to Italian Whitehead torpedoes:
https://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAer ... b%20Colors

The nose colors of Italian torpedoes varied but in general were left unpainted in a polished light metal color, steel body and white stabilizers:






This photo shows a torpedo nose with a painted surface:


This photo was taken at Vigna di Valle, it shows a painted red surface extending well back of the nose with a dark gray body. I don't know the sources that were used to paint this torpedo (if re-painted at all), it could be an afterwar torpedo.


Here's a photo of 281a Sq. S.79s armed with torpedoes:


There is a well known color photo of ground crew pulling a torpedo on a trolley and the nose appears gray, however the nose is likely an unpainted metal surface.

Here's Jean's S.79-II:

[Stefano]

Hi Peter,
The S.79 was built by other factories other than SIAI, namely Reggiane, AUSA and Macchi. Light gray (i.e. Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 - FS 36307) was the standard finish for interiors, even before 1941, but it's known that at least Reggiane and Macchi often used instead their own Verde Anticorrosione, each one in different hues. You should know which MM is the example you choose, so you can find the match.

The floor was made of small tubes welded on a metal plate, so to have a "corrugated" anti-slipping floor. They were unpainted NM, but were easily soiled during active use.

Torpedoes came by two factories: Whitehead (W) in Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) and Silurificio Italiano (SI) in Naples. They were made in gray bronze, and in active use they were greased with mineral oil to prevent salt corrosion. W torpedoes were totally metal, while SI ones - which had an ogival head - had a hemispherical cap painted light blue. That color in orthocromatic b/w films appears very light, but the use of yellow, orange or red lens filters progressively darkened it, and this explains the different tones in images. Aerial torpedoes had a wood detachable fin which stabilized the flight before the dive. This was painted aluminium. W and SI had different fins.

Wheel bays and legs were painted as undersides, so aluminium paint for aircraft built until first half of 1941, then GAC1. They however could have been repainted gray during overhauling.

Stefano

[davenport49]

Stefano,

Thank you so much for the information. It's very helpful for my current build.

[Peter Sig]

Stefano, thanks for all the great info. Take a look at the color photo (link below) of the cockpit of one of the two museum examples. To me the decking clearly looks like wood. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this as it relates to your previous observation that the deck was all metal.

https://www.eaf51.org/Photo_22_S.79.htm

Cheers,

Peter

[davenport49]

Peter,

I'm personally following Stefano's lead re: cockpit decking. Nevertheless, I'm THRILLED you posted the link. A LOT of photos I've not seen, especially the restoration, which directly relate to my current build. They're going to be a tremendous help.

[Editor]

The color photo of the cockpit is of a restored plane and a wood surface appears to have been added over the metal decking, you can see cut marks around the metal posts and bars if you expand the photo.

[Peter Sig]

That is a fair assessment of the restored example. I am always skeptical of restored aircraft and/or colorized photos….I will go with Stefeno’s advise regarding the metal flooring. I will probably add some west on the paint and some grime on the low spots.

[Editor]

Here are some original color photos of SM.79s and a SM.84 armed with torpedoes. The SM.84 is armed with two torpedoes although that wasn't common because it affected the planes performance. In the fourth photo, the application of mineral oil over the torpedo is evident but is not applied over the head of the torpedo.











The wooden detachable stabilizer:


Painted tip torpedo heads, note the striped torpedoes that were used for training and the light blue tipped Silurificio Italiano torpedo.


Drawing of the torpedo rack:

[Bruno P]

Hi everyone
I'm reading just now this post and I wanted to add a testimony regarding the SM.79 interior colors.
Here attached a couple of photos that I had the opportunity to take about 25 years ago: the plane is the Trento one. The interiors, as you can see, are original and you can see how Anticorrosion Green was applied to the metal parts and then covered with Grey. Of course, this appened only for metal covered areas while fabric areas were just painted in Grey.
Furthermore, and this is just for a modelling note, the entry fuselage door wasn't perpendicular to fuselage (please, do not care about the one sitted on bombing station: was me when I was younger). This because I've saw many models with this error.
Greetings

Bruno

[RetiredInKalifornia]

Hi Peter,
The S.79 was built by other factories other than SIAI, namely Reggiane, AUSA and Macchi. Light gray (i.e. Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 - FS 36307) was the standard finish for interiors, even before 1941, but it's known that at least Reggiane and Macchi often used instead their own Verde Anticorrosione, each one in different hues. You should know which MM is the example you choose, so you can find the match.

The floor was made of small tubes welded on a metal plate, so to have a "corrugated" anti-slipping floor. They were unpainted NM, but were easily soiled during active use.

Torpedoes came by two factories: Whitehead (W) in Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) and Silurificio Italiano (SI) in Naples. They were made in gray bronze, and in active use they were greased with mineral oil to prevent salt corrosion. W torpedoes were totally metal, while SI ones - which had an ogival head - had a hemispherical cap painted light blue. That color in orthocromatic b/w films appears very light, but the use of yellow, orange or red lens filters progressively darkened it, and this explains the different tones in images. Aerial torpedoes had a wood detachable fin which stabilized the flight before the dive. This was painted aluminium. W and SI had different fins.

Wheel bays and legs were painted as undersides, so aluminium paint for aircraft built until first half of 1941, then GAC1. They however could have been repainted gray during overhauling.

Stefano

...Was Rosso 8 officially authorized for painting torpedo caps & forward body before & during WWII? I've seen wartime photos with & without painted caps & forward bodies, didn't like painting them for any of my aerosilurante builds. BTW, unlike my RAF, Luftwaffe & USAAF aerial bomb builds mindlessly painted Regia Aeronautica Italiana aerials black, white or both only comming across Internet posts about their colors c.2019 after I'd built near all those airplane models with them. I'd thought about prying them off past model build shackles & repainting them though doing so would had wrecked near all of the shackles - Ainsi va la vie!