3 Hanriot HD1 78ma Squadriglia 1/144

[Bughunter]

All my friends, we need to be careful here! We seems to have a virus in this forum, since now a second one starts to build biplanes in a 3-digit scale!
Some month ago I simply would not believe the existing of such biplanes as kits.

Andonio, I wish you a sharp eye, a steady hand and the ability to breath like an apnoe diver! And good luck 

Cheers,
Frank

[andonio64]

Let's cross our tweezers Frank!

:-D

[andonio64]

Hallo friends, as I already wrote in one of my previous posts I have added a third 78th squadriglia HD1 to my project here, it's Antonio Chiri's mount, it was in silver with the black tail.



The extra plane I got as a present from Václav Lomitzki of Valom had the engine cowling fragmented in 4 pieces so I took some time to restore it, then it came out well enough and so I decided to go with tht third plane.

Sorry for being so late, but I'm having very little time to model at the moment, so far I have closed the three fuselages, glued cowlings and motors and that sub assembly fixed on the fuselages. I also painted the bottom and top wings of the three. Photos ASAP!

Antonio

[andonio64]

Just to complete the set here is the only image I was able to find online of the plane flown by Guido "Giulio Cesare" Nardini on a minisite dedicated to his memory.



It show the red pennant and a black devil nose-thumbing towards the tail making a mockery of the enemy.
The black devil was painted over the cockade that should have the red circle outside.

The same type of cockade should have been the one painted on Antonio Chiri's plane, as the silver doped planes were typically coming from France (and not in Italy on Macchi-licence build) and they overpainted only the blue central circle in green.

Ciao

Antonio

[andonio64]

Hallo friends, here are some pictures illustrating the state of the work on this build...

Here are the three little brothers as they were friday evening, the one on the right shows the cowling that arrived fragmented in 4 pieces, I was able to restore it but it was very brittle and was not able to reshape the inner border, so you see the lower right border straight and not curved.
THe other cowlings had similar problems but I was able to shape them with the mini drill at a low nuber of RPM.



View from the top



Painted wings (Fucini's wings are in the middle)





Lower wings glued to the fuselages



Fucini's livery:



The trio







Thanks for watching, now I'll start working on the cabane struts...

AnDonio

[RAGIII]

Really nice progress on some very interesting paint schemes!
RAGIII

[andonio64]

Thanks Rick!

[andonio64]

Yesterday evening I finally found some time to dedicate to the micro-HDs...

I made from scratch the cabane struts from zinc wire 0.44 mm diam (they were flat photoetched and they were conceived as a unique W shape, while the external struts (not yet in place at this stage) were not in continuity with the central cabane shaped as a reverse V .

I also decided to build from scratch the MGs, those provided by the kit are not satisfying, they look like a hunting rifle with the stock tilted downwards.

HD1 of Mario Renato Fucini:

I used the decals from the box. On this plane Fucini had two MGs outside the reverse V struts.

HD1 of Guido Nardini

I used the decals from the box. One MG on the left side.
Here the cabane struts are not perfectly aligned, I'll see if it will be the case to replace one when glueing the topo wing...

HD1 of Antonio Chiri

Decals were self printed, Chiri had one central MG

Thanks for watching !

Antonio

[RAGIII]

All are looking terrific Antonio! I am looking forward to seeing the new struts and Machine guns!
RAGIII

[andonio64]

All are looking terrific Antonio! I am looking forward to seeing the new struts and Machine guns!
RAGIII

Thank you Rick, I have corrected now the struts of the Nardini plane, here is the photo:

.

Have a relaxing weekend everybody!
 

[jeroen_R90S]

Tiny -but cool!

[andonio64]

thanks jeroen!

[lone modeller]

I think that you made three Hanriots before but in the true scale. Is this a trick to try to get the rest of us to drop down a scale - so that WNW kits will become 1/48 etc?

Simply wonderful Andonio - just how you manage these tiny models and yet keep them looking so good is quite beyond what I can think about.

Stephen.

[andonio64]

Hi Stephen,
thanks for your appreciation, yes I made three HDs in 1/48 and working on these microbes is indeed difficult to me, I have not the hand and precision level Ondra reaches on the same scale.
I know you were ironic, but of course I don't want to get anyone modifying the scale preferences!
I love this forum because there are so many different minds with different ideas!

Ha ha, I don't wish WNW kits to become 1/48, I wish they keep doing their fantastic 1/32 kits at those highest quality levels. 1/32 is not a scale I feel very close to, I know I have many limits in my modeling skills and such big planes would magnify them, but I am sincerely admired by WNW kits and the fantastic modeling many of our forumites achieve. For 1/48 that is my preferred scale there is a good choice of high level kits by many great producers such as CSM, Eduard itself and even SH and I hope they keep kits coming.

What I have understood so far during this build started in parallel with the work on the Breguet XIV is that I can't bring 2 different work together because while I make one I think to the other and this is no good for both!
So I decided to take the three microbes to the end and then take back on the Breguet.

[andonio64]

Hallo, here are some news on the three micro-amigos of the 78th Squadriglia.

I glued the top wing on the center cabane struts (on all the three planes) then, after many trials and errors, I succeeded in putting in place the outer cabane struts of the Nardini plane.
Then I made from scratch the wing struts and put them between Nardini's wings:










Here are the top wing in place with decals on for the other two amigos:

Chiri





Fucini






I am not sure I will rig these microbes, for sure I won't follow the clever solution Ondra suggested me at the beginning, It would have meant to have the cables hanging from the top and bottom wings while trying to put them into position and inserting the struts, this scared me because of the small dimensions of the spaces to handle.

But never say never, let's see after completing cabane and wing struts for the other two planes and then I'll take a decision!

Wheee this was a very tiresome step ahead, but all in all I'm happy with the result.

Ciao and thanks for watching!

Antonio