Sword's 1/72 Re.2002 Ariete

[VanceCrozier]

Well, with 3 kits in various stages of "almost-done-ed-ness", my brain got sidetracked and on Friday I decided I NEEDED to start this one as well:

It'll make a good side-by-side comparison with it's Seversky cousin.



Decent instructions...


Good clear parts...


Nice decals...


Markings options - first and second are the same airframe, one with the original Fascist markings overpainted. Kinda diggin' that one.


Pretty small parts count, but everything looks pretty good...











What's MISSING, though? Fighter-bomber, with no bombs. [doh]

[VanceCrozier]

Wow, liking how quickly this kit shapes up! Most cockpit painting taken care of last night, did a little more this morning, will take some detail pics later today.



Anybody remember that FSM build a few years back? Weekend Warriors? I picked up that super-simple Airfix Hawlker Hunter, that took me like 3 weeks to deal with Whodda thunk it, a short-run kit from the Czech Republic would have been IDEAL for a weekend run.

[VanceCrozier]

So, the missing bomb has been addressed. Checked through the stash, looking for some odd-shaped bombs I remembered having from an Airfix Mirage F1 kit, thinking I could add those stabilizer tubes to, found this:



I think it is a 250-pounder from a 1/48 Hasegawa kit, that came with Russian markings. Painted up:



Rivet-counters beware! But this machine supposedly carried a heavy bomb on the centerline, looks the part to me. My daughter has declared that her name is to be scribbled on the bomb, groundcrew-style.

Yeah, sure, why not?

Shoulder harnesses, using masking tape & tiny little bits of wire bent to shape:



Trying to find out if the Italian machines still used chains for the lap-belt portion or not.

Anybody notice a strong family resemblance to the Seversky P35??

[VanceCrozier]

And as far as the kit itself is concerned, This is my first crack at a Sword kit, and I'm pretty impressed so far. Good detail, low parts count, good fit on this particular machine at least. The price is decent as well (although I think I got mine on sale?), and they seem to have some of the lesser-known aircraft that I'm interested in.

Being in that limited-run zone, there are no locating pins, which seems to be a big complaint among some folks. But, the parts are engineered in such a way as to make the pins unnecessary. The tails of the fuselage halves sorta notch into each other in only a certain way then you just need to make sure the halves don't have a step. Cockpit parts, are left with gaps & boxes etc that can really only go in a certain way, etc It seems really well thought out. Based on this one sample, I'd by another from these folks.

[VanceCrozier]

Interior details before closing her up:




All kinds of room on the fuselage underside, so I ignored the suggested assembly sequence, got the fuselage halves mated up & cleaned up, then dropped the cockpit and instrument panel in from underneath. (that much less opportunity for sanding dust etc to get inside the office!) Dry-fit the glass, all seems good there.


So… how small are these 1/72 kits?? Italian coinage for scale! At least Bsyamato will be able to tell...






Cockpit in place & sealed up. As good as the detail is, there is likely room for more detail to be added. That being said, the cockpit opening is NOT all that big, and the sidewalls bulge out, hard to see much in there.


Tiniest of steps at the rear fuselage-to-wing join, will need a little putty.


Everything dry-fit really well so I assembled the wings, then added the assembled fuselage. Seemed a little tight, so I sanded out the fuselage portion a touch, changed the arc to better fit the join at the wing.


A little touchup to the rear control surfaces & I'll be ready for primer.

[VanceCrozier]

Need to do some math & measuring. The bomb seems a touch large to me now that it is sitting side-by-side with the assembled model.

[Manny1943]

Need to do some math & measuring. The bomb seems a touch large to me now that it is sitting side-by-side with the assembled model.

A "touch" large??? What are you doing---outfitting this thing with Fat Man to fly over Nagasaki???

[VanceCrozier]

Need to do some math & measuring. The bomb seems a touch large to me now that it is sitting side-by-side with the assembled model.

A "touch" large??? What are you doing---outfitting this thing with Fat Man to fly over Nagasaki???

Special ops! Yeah, it was in the spares, no loss, I was just hoping it was close enough. DOHH!! Anyway, I'll keep looking around. Still need to find a good clear pic of one of these bombed-up, they seemed to photograph them clean a great deal?

[BsYamato]

A "touch" large??? What are you doing---outfitting this thing with Fat Man to fly over Nagasaki???

Special ops! Yeah, it was in the spares, no loss, I was just hoping it was close enough. DOHH!! Anyway, I'll keep looking around. Still need to find a good clear pic of one of these bombed-up, they seemed to photograph them clean a great deal?

Good work till now Vance, i did the supermodel 2000, 2001 but not yet the 2002. I'm not sure about the pale green in the cockpit but is too lsate to correct easily it was in light grey

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[VanceCrozier]

Yep, I've seen all sorts of variations in model form, dark green , gray-green, gray.... much of it isn't seen once the fuselage halves are closed up anyway so I'm not too worried about it at this point. (I have since tracked down the Squadron publication on Reggiane fighters, just starting to look through that this evening, rather late in the process.

I also have a Re.2000 from Special Hobby, with Swedish markings, in the stash.