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Savoia Marchetti SM55 1-72 scale

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Neil Merryweather

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Well I finally finished it, and it only took me 3 years!

This was a favour for a work colleague, whose husband's grandfather flew the plane in 1933, on a famous transatlantic crossing from Orbetello in Italy to the World Fair in Chicago.
The leader of the expedition , which was made up of 24 Aircraft, was Italo Balbo ,the chief of the Italian Air Force, and this is the event that gave rise to the term 'Balbo', meaning a mass flypast.

The kit itself was by Delta, long out of production. It was an e-bay purchase which had already been half started and sprayed, so I had quite a bit of remedial work to do before getting anywhere. I blogged the build on Military Modelling, it was my first ever blog, but I wanted my colleague to understand what she had asked of me, and to know that progress was being made,however slowly.... it also helped to keep me focused as the encouragement was fantastic.
I spent a lot of time wrestling with detail in the cockpit ,using an etched set that the husband had found, and of course you can't see ANY of it!
Still, he knows it's there because it was in the blog.
I am particularly pleased with the rigging, which I was dreading. I found some rubber stuff 0.2mm thick made by MIG and it worked like a dream!

So this is the specific plane flown by Capitano Luigi Questa in 1933


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Finally got to see it and a mighty nice build it turned out to be. Can't tell that it went through some very trying steps during the construction. Well done Neil. :thumb2: Your colleague is now one proud owner.

Cheers,
Richard
 
That is beautiful Neil. So glad to see this again and with such a wonderful finish.
 
Great to see this finished. Jazz age lines shown to perfection.....
Now you’ve wrestled this to submission I expect someone will bring out a modern one in plastic :cool:
 
Neil,
I remember watching the build and the result was well worth waiting for. very nicely done.
 
Beautiful Neil! I’m so glad to see it complete and can remember some of the trials that it caused you. You should be delighted with this.
Andy
 
Neil.
Hi mate, good to see this finished and looking so top rate .
I remember there being trouble with the cockpit frame ? Love the paint job, bet your both thrilled and relieved.
John.
 
Well I finally finished it, and it only took me 3 years!

This was a favour for a work colleague, whose husband's grandfather flew the plane in 1933, on a famous transatlantic crossing from Orbetello in Italy to the World Fair in Chicago.
The leader of the expedition , which was made up of 24 Aircraft, was Italo Balbo ,the chief of the Italian Air Force, and this is the event that gave rise to the term 'Balbo', meaning a mass flypast.

The kit itself was by Delta, long out of production. It was an e-bay purchase which had already been half started and sprayed, so I had quite a bit of remedial work to do before getting anywhere. I blogged the build on Military Modelling, it was my first ever blog, but I wanted my colleague to understand what she had asked of me, and to know that progress was being made,however slowly.... it also helped to keep me focused as the encouragement was fantastic.
I spent a lot of time wrestling with detail in the cockpit ,using an etched set that the husband had found, and of course you can't see ANY of it!
Still, he knows it's there because it was in the blog.
I am particularly pleased with the rigging, which I was dreading. I found some rubber stuff 0.2mm thick made by MIG and it worked like a dream!

So this is the specific plane flown by Capitano Luigi Questa in 1933


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That's fantastic - how long did the original flight take...?
 
Thread owner
Thanks fellas!
Although I had a lot of issues to solve on this I found the whole thing very enjoyable (mostly.....).
It took so long that I am pretty sure I would have given up through boredom or something more interesting coming along, if it wasn't for the discipline of keeping the blog going and the encouragement I received from you guys.

Johnm93, the flight took 49 hours 2 minutes flying time over 15 days, according to Questa's log book.
the route was ;
Orbetello,Amsterdam, Londonderry,Reykjavik(they seem to have stayed here about a week for some reason) Cartwright,Shediac,Montreal, Chicago
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Neil,
fantastic job, on a brute of a model, again we have no modern kit of a production aircraft, but loads of what if?, non-existent planes!
Dave
 
Missed this one totally Neil. Great work indeed.
Thanks to Dave Ward for pointing this one out to me.
 
Thread owner
Well,Ian, thanks from me to both of you! It was a surprise to see it resurrected.
I'm ready for another wingy thingy, got a 1/48 Spitfire on the stocks, but I've got the Cosford under a fiver GB to do which has to be a figure because that's all I bought there.
Mind you, I need it to be a good one as an antidote from the starter kit horrors!
cheers
Neil
 
Very nice Neil. It actually looks quite graceful, well from above.
 
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