Dear all, here I post some pictures of the first model built in my new modeling life.
The famous Italian (design and built) reconoissance plane
Ansaldo SVA 5.
The one I decided to make is one of those which flew over Vienne in August 1918 throwing leaflets to the citizens instead of bombs...
That was a great move and impresse a lot the local population, although it did not decide anything about the war outcome, it gave a lot of confidence and new psychological energy to the Italian soldiers and especially to the population which was obviously worn-out.
11 pilots took off from the air base near Venice but only 8 came back, but not because they were shot down, just for mechanical problems.
Only one of them had to make a emergency landing near Vienna and was taken prisoner by the Austrians.
My plane is the one that you can see in the Vigna di Valle Italian Airforce Museum, and was piloted by Lt. Giordano Bruno Granzarolo, he arrived to Vienna and successfully came back.
The kit OOB was a Red Army plane, Ansaldos were sold to Russians in the 20s so I had to draw and print myself the decals.
The quality of the kit was horrible, so I had to scratch build most of the details, the other pieces were heavily corrected / reshaped.
This is the artwork I did myself for the base
This is the base with the plane
Here we go with some pictures
OK, there is a gross mistake: the lower wing was not camouflaged, but I discovered this too late!
Then the upper wing broke while being put in place and now appears to be bent.
All in all I am satisfied by this work although there are a lot of things to improve!
Thanks for your attention and excuse me for such a long post.
Ciao
Antonio