Styrene

Styrene

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Caproni Ca.310 civil raid plane completed

Here is the civil Caproni of the London-Cape Town attempt in all its Italian redness.
For the step-by-step building article please go here:
 My thanks to Fabrizio D'Isanto who provided useful input. He is not responsible for any mistake I may have committed.
I have to thank Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals for the magnificent work he did on the decals I commissioned, since none were found in the market for the civil variants, and I didn't want to use the civil option provided with the kit (LN-DAK), but the more appealing Italian marks (I-ENEI), registration that was used with a completely different scheme, also appealing, in ivory/red/green/metal and red regs.

























 As I mentioned before, there were several Caproni 310 civil machines that participated in raids, record attempts and long distance flights: I-BFBA, I-BFBB, I-BFBC, I-LIRA, I-MANU, I-ORSA, I-LUAL, I-META, I-MOTO, I-ORSA, I-LUPA, I-ABMI, I-GARA, I-SVSB, for some of which you may find photos online. Details vary between them. 
 There is a clip showing the machines at the Saharian Raid here:
 All these other machines wore an ivory/metal scheme with most likely black regs.

Many drab military models offered in the market can be easily converted into their civil counterparts (and again, in this case the manufacturer fortunately did include at least one "civil" option, although not really civil) for a more appealing result.
This kit has very good detail and external parts' surface. The resin and P.E. accessories in the box are also nice.
It is good that with some modifications this well done kit can be converted into many options for the raid civil versions of it.

Three Italian Redbirds. The Corsa -based on the old Airfix kit-, the Breda 33 -a rather pitiful Dujin kit, and the Caproni -nice Azur rendition; together to give a comparative idea of the size:


























4 comments:

  1. Do you know what happened to this plane ? The accounts I've found are conflicting. One said it crashed during the flight and another said it was withdrawn before the flight due to mechanical difficulties.
    Anyway, looks great.
    Regards, Roger

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  2. It crashed en route to London, the starting point, before the attempted flight,
    most likely in Le Bourget (I have a newspaper photo and some clippings, but it doesn't allow me to paste them here).

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  3. Thanks. Somewhat ignominious. I have read accounts of the 310 in Peruvian and Norwegian service and there were constant reliability problems. Some countries like Hungary rejected them soon after delivery. I always like to have a clear knowledge of the history of these things...

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