Fiat CR 32 of Col. Grandinetti

[The Migrant]

I'm currently building CA's Fiat CR 32 in the colours of Col. Grandinetti, Commander 4￾˚ Stormo. Both CA and the Chris Busbridge decal sheet have decals for this.

My question is one of colour. Looking at the photo on P.31 of the Ali D'Italia CR 32 book it's clear that the forward nose section is a darker colour, although this isn't shown on either set of painting instructions. To me it looks too dark to be either the brown or the green, and I'm almost tempted to paint it a dark metal colour. Does anyone have any thoughts/insights? The colour profile on the book's inside front cover shows it to be brown but as I'm a bit dubious about the accuracy of the rest of the camo scheme I'm also hesitant about the artist's rendition. Any comments would be appreciated.

Mike

[Hartmann]

Mike in looking at the photo on page 31 It appears to be Bruno Mimetico as depicted on the color plates on the front flap. The sun appears to be playing tricks with shadows because you can barely make out the Giallo and Verde demarcation line near the exhaust on the nose. The way the shadow is cast the front of the airplane is in direct sunlight. Maybe Vince might have some input on this . Good luck and post it when you are done. I would like to see this striking paint scheme done. - Tom

[Editor]

Hello Tom and MiGrant
I'm not sure what the color of the nose of the CR.32 is, and there seems to be some variation on what it is. It could be marrone mimetico since there's a red shade to it and red shows up as dark gray in orthochromatic film, refer to Stefano Lazzaro's artilce on this site:

http://www.stormomagazine.com/Articles/ ... lands.html

My first impression looking at the CR.32 on p.31 was that the nose was Grigio Azzurro Scuro (dark gray), however there's no photographic or documented evidence of its use on CR.32s or that it was even stockpiled by Fiat (ie., during production of daytime fighter CR.32s; GAS was used later for CN fighters). The color may very well be marrone mimetico. A good question for Riccardo or Stefano.

[The Migrant]

Thanks for your replies, Tom and Vince. My only contention with the Bruno Mimetico proposal is that the nose colour appears to be somewhat darker than the brown area of the fuselage camo, whereas you'd expect them to be the same tone in the photograph. Admittedly different reflectivity of fabric and metal, as well as the positioning of the aircraft in relation to the light source etc, might account for the differences. Any idea why they'd paint the forward nose section a different colour?

[Stefano]

I agree that the colour of the engine cooler cowling appears similar to the darker colour of the camo pattern in some images, even darker in others. I don't know the reason why it was painted not following the band pattern. An hypothesis is that it wore a heat protective paint, possibly a dark grey, since in most photos the part is entirely painted with such colour, but otherwise in other images the bottom of it is aluminium as the rest of undersides.
To be honest, I'm still not completely sure that the colours followed the pattern I reproduced -from CMPR's 1st edition book- in my article, and I exposed some doubt in the caption. Please note that CMPR just deduced this pattern from official indications about the use of three colours, and the hues came from an official factory drawing on band camo BR.20 (which actually had five colours!), assuming they were used by all FIAT aircraft. As far as I know there is no such a drawing about CR.32, and the '32 factory wood model painted with original colours (in mottle camo) analyzed by CMPR is recorded only for the green spots similar to Verde Mim 53192 and undersides in aluminium. I put the above mentioned scheme in my article because it is the only 'reasoned' scheme we have today, lacking official indications, and I find it is logical and probable.
But I should add, even this could give more confusion, that the author of Vitocharts (who we now know took chips of the original aircraft paints during the war) stated the use of four colours for band camo in CR.32:
VERDE AZZURRO SCURO (dark blue-grey) Methuen 25-26F4, FS34092 plus a point of blue, similar to Verde Mim 2
VERDE MIMETICO FIAT 1940 (camo green) 28E8, slightly darker than FS34138, similar to Verde Mim 53192
OCRA O.M.S. (Spanish War Operations ochre) 5C7, between FS33275 and 33434, slightly darker than Giallo Mim 3
TERRA D'OMBRA (raw umber) 4C-D4, more greenish-yellow than FS33440, darker than Giallo Mim 2
Since the two latter colours could appear similar in b/w photos, it is not easy to confirm this pattern, but judging by some photos it seems that four colours could really exist.

Sorry I have no more infos on this question
Stefano

[The Migrant]

Thanks for that info, Stefano. That 4-colour scheme would look quite different on a Fiat CR32 model...

[Rick]

I want to highlight that the color drawing of the Br20 which shows 4 colors for the upper surface is the FIAT drawing n°3644 dated April 20th 1936 and is visible on the rear face of the cover of CMPR Notiziario 2/05; I think that this pattern can be compared with the color photos of band camouflaged Br20 that appear on "Nei cieli di guerra"; the visible gray bands on the upper surfaces in the photos have the same position of the above mentioned drawing even if in the photo they have a greenish shade; I have a photo of a Ro37 model , but I don't know the year it was built, which shows a four color band camouflage and the fouth color is grey; I think the same is applicable to Breda 65 K14; what do you think about?
Riccardo

[Editor]

Yes my thoughts also after Stefano mentioned the four color camo scheme, I recalled the color pics and CMPR drawings of the Fiat BR.20 finished in a similar splinter pattern, and the fourth color being none other than grey. The only other thing I would add to this discussion is that the dark-shade of 'gray' seems to be restricted to the nose area only, which suggests that it might have been a heat protective paint? Probably worth keeping in mind Fiat Cr.32s in the three tone camo schemes that used giallo mimetico 1-4 and also applied to this area and were not heat protective paints as far as I know, and showed no noticebale distortation due to the reflectivity of different materials, metal and fabric.

[Chris Busbridge]

I know this is a rather late relpy! On page 16 of Postiglioni's Colori e Schemi book there is a photo of a partially camouflaged Cr.32, with camouflaged wings and an aluminium fuselage. Could it be that in this instance panels on the foward section of Grandinettis fuselage are unpainted (possibly as a result of repairs?) They do appear to have a shiny, more relective finish compared to the rest of the airframe.

[Stefano]

I don't think it was merely a replacement, since it was present in most band-camouflaged CR.32s I've found, and sometimes it had the bottom part painted aluminium, as you can see in img 23 of my article on Balearic FIATs. You can see another example, for instance, at page 17 of Postiglioni's book. The most logical thing is that this one-piece part had a heat-protective paint. I believe there is no reason to use a camo colour only there and not following the oblique band pattern.
By the way, comparing various images we can see that the colours changed their position in each aircraft, as you can see in the above mentioned photo at page 17.
So, at last, after the question of Mike I realized that:
- the colours were at least four
- the cooler cowling was often painted in a darker color, the hue and reason why are still unknown
- the camo hues suggested by CMPR are only supposed
- the camo pattern suggested by CMPR is uncorrect at least before the windscreen, on lower wings and tailfin
- the pattern was fixed but the colour position often varied
Does anybody still believe that the final word on RA camo has been written?

Stefano

[Grahamb]

Hi,

I just thought I might add something to this discussion. Regarding 4-colours on Cr 32 on page 31 of Ali d'Italia just look at the middle photo opposite on page 30 - I would have thought this aircraft also shows quite clearly four colours on fuselage. As for page 31 - the lighting conditions on the forward fuselage are the same as for the rear (beyond the wing's shadow) and the tones are distinct.

As for the nose band has anyone considered that it could be a squadron colour - red for instance, and not a mimetico paint?

Cheers

GrahamB

[Stefano]

That's what I meant. Another evidence is at pages 13 and 28 of same book. Take a look to aircraft no. 4, for instance: the oblique band in the middle of upper wing has a tone similar to that of fuselage band passing across the black disk. Since on the wing there are three light colours (the pattern of which is faintly visible), the darker colour passing across the white number is the fourth colour.
About the hypothesis of a squadriglia colour on the nose, although interesting I believe it is unlikely; it was not a common practice in RA and, when applied, it was usually limited to the spinner. Moreover, the nose colour had the same tone in aircraft of different units.

Best wishes
Stefano