Alpha Flight's 1/48 Scale
Fiat BR.20

by Jean Barby

Here is my 1/48 scale Fiat BR.20 from Alpha Flight.

I will not go in to the history of one of the main Italian bomber of WW2. There are good books on the subject, the best being to my knowledge Lela Press title.

The model depicts the modified version, thus the "M", as the previous one had shown some weaknesses, in power and in defensive fire.

The model is not "easy", but it is a much better one than the CANT I dealt with some time ago. An average modeler can find his way through, and with a little bit of scratch can achieve a tremendous result. The hardest part os the joint with the clear acetate parts for the transparencies and the fuselage. It requires a lot of dry fit and imagination, remember: measure twice cut once!

Propeller hubs were absent from my box and no answer ever came from Alphaflight, so A. Saccocio came to the rescue and he did the job with his usual talent, and because he was in a good day, he made the blades too! You can see the result on the pics.

The other extra are the Italian MG available at l'Arsenal, resin stuff, great rendition.

As you can imagine the paint job took me some time.

I used as a model the color pics from "Wings of Italy" to give my pattern of blotches a realistic shape. Mr Kit Giallo Mimetico 3, Verde Mimetico 2 and Marrone Mimetico were used for the upper surfaces, Griggio Mimetico for the underside.

The decals are very good and they are made by Cartograph. They went without any problem on the model which depicts a plane from the 1st sq. 11°gruppo, 13° stormo, serial n°MM21815.

My Italian bomber collection is now complete and I deserve a good antipasto. Cheers to all.

 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2006 by Jean Barby
Page Created 18 October, 2006
Last Updated 21 February, 2007

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