Hi all - up front, please pardon my terrible Italian (despite my Italian heritage I don't know the language)...! I need a quick build to try and finish more than one model for the group build, so with only 6-7 weeks left, I searched through the stash for something relatively quick (i.e. not complex) and I dug this one out:
I think it probably fits in with Des' love of the obscure
The Caproni Ca.20 is considered the first true fighter plane, and was (apparently) the first to mount a machine gun (in this case a Lewis gun) over the propeller arc, aligned with the line of flight (making shooting relatively easy). There was only one prototype, flown in 1914. It was evaluated and apparently performed quite well, being faster than contemporary German and Austrian designs. The aircraft was not put into production by the Italian military, as they wanted Caproni to focus on bombers rather than fighters - imagine what could have been if it had gone into production...
The prototype has famously survived in its original condition and resides in the Seattle Museum of Flight, after the Caproni family kept the aircraft stored away safely in a dry environment for 85 years -
http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/caproni-ca20There are some interesting things to note when viewing contemporary photographs versus the preserved prototype - the aircraft was clearly modified at some point. The cheek panels were removed at some stage, and ailerons added. The spinner also looks to have had some fairings added over the propeller blades. The kit looks to represent the earlier version of the aircraft, with metal cheek panels, no ailerons, and no fairings over the propeller blades. I intend to model this earlier aircraft (as Spin Models have done).
This kit is by Spin Models and is limited run. There is lots of flash and clean up needed, as well as quite a few bubbles to deal with all over the air-frame. Nothing too difficult for someone who has a couple of limited run resin kits under their belt. That being said, there is some nice finesse in the representation of the fabric and cowling louvres.
So far progress has been limited to cleaning up of the major air frame components, and starting on the cockpit. The kit comes with some nice rib detail on the interior (sadly marred by lots of bubbles), but the rest of the details are relatively sparse. There are no photos of the general interior arrangement that I could find, so I made up some structure to supplement that in the kit. I also borrowed a CMK resin wicker chair. There's a decent opening behind the seat which i'll fill with structure and bracing wires.
The kit instrument panel looks like a flat board with two lewis gun drums mounted on it; I think that this is probably speculative. The one photograph of the instrument panel shows some instruments, a compass, and a map board (probably of the later machine, but better than nothing as a reference), but no sign of lewis drums. I've made a start on this and will add the instruments and compass once some paint is on.
The next logical spot for additional lewis drums is the cockpit floor, so I made a couple of bins in which to place some drums (I figured there wouldn't be too many drums as weight would have been critical this early on).
With the fuselage and spinner cleaned up, it doesn't take much to see what this little airplane is going to look like:
Here's hoping I can get this one done in the next 6-7 weeks before the group build closes... at my galacial pace of building, even something simple will be a challenge to finish!
Cheers,
BC
