Modified Italeri 1/72 Cant Z.501

From the archive (2010):

It is fortunate be able to find a good livery for a plane that you like but don’t want to model as it is conventionally represented.

The Cant Z.501 is one of such planes, in the form of the record-braking prototype, I-AGIL. "Cant" stands for Cantieri Rinuiti dell’ Adriatico, "Z" stands for Zappata, its designer, “500 series” because it was a seaplane, opposite to the “1000 series” which were land planes.

With help from Fabrizio D’Isanto (a very knowledgeable fellow enthusiast) I was able to round-up some missing data and could proceed with the project..

Paolo Miana, the aviation writer that published a book on the Savoia S.64 also helped.

To get the Italeri Cant Z.501 old kit wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be; the few I found were running for pretty stiff prices. Finally fellow modeler Christos P. from Floridian, helped me to get a kit at a fair price. My thanks go to all these friends.

I-AGIL was powered by an Isotta Fraschini ASSO 750 with an almost circular radiator front. It established two straight distance non-stop records, one flying from Monfalcone to Massawa and later from Monfalcone to Berbera. Some differences in appearance can be spotted along its life in the available photos. The Italeri kit would need some adaptations; the most conspicuous differences being the canopy and front engine areas. The fore and aft openings on the hull and engine gondola were apparently faired over for the first record flight but the aft fuselage position can be seen open and with a windscreen for the second flight.

Italeri’s model has fine raised panel lines, few of them because the plane was mainly made of wood. They were sanded and replaced by engraved lines. The “fabric” detail in the control surfaces definitely needs to be toned down. The general feeling, being this a very old mold, is on the slightly chunky side, but is a nice base upon which the modeler can exercise some...well....modeling.

Some struts were supplemented or replaced by Contrail and Strutz streamlined stock. The front of the engine gondola was replaced by scratched parts. The record version had a different instrument panel and control wheel arrangement which I made and substituted for the kit parts. Regarding the canopy, Italeri offers a transparency that bridges a large gap of the fuselage and gives support to some of the wing struts. I-AGIL had two side-by-side independent canopies. That area therefore was re-constructed with styrene sheet and a master was created to vacuform the separate canopies. The interior was kept simple since almost nothing can be seen –as it is often the case- through the exiguous canopy openings. Parts 50/51 are depicted in the instructions without a pair of knobs that are supposedly used to hold parts 52/53. The latter will only mess the assembly, since they are bigger than they should and will open the struts’ angle too much, preventing them to rest in their marked position on the fuselage. Radio masts are not not needed for I-AGIL. The hatches are not a good fit, so be warned. Struts 38 and 39 need their “handles” removed, but there was a probe on the original on the left side strut (as the pilot seats). There was a navigation light at the tip of the fin. The ailerons in the kit have a line that divides them in two surfaces. Those dividing lines were filled and control horns were glued there and to the rudder. A wind-driven generator was fashioned and glued to the fuselage spine. Painting ensued, the sub-assemblies were kept separate to facilitate this stage and later decaling.

Once the main components were ready the wing struts were glued to the fuselage. Beware that those struts are sided, and that there is one (slightly shorter) that goes forward. Floats were then added to provide rigidity and the right geometry. After decaling the vertical stabilizer the horizontal stabilizer halves were glued, and then their supports. I opted to glue real short tubes to the upper exhaust rows and to drill the ones one the sides of the engine gondola. Parts (2 of them) 32 are diagonal strut cross members -kind of hidden in the instructions- and they are absent in most of the models I have seen.

The wing was then glued to the fuselage and struts, and I have to say that it was a good fit.

Minor details, about thirty lengths of rigging wire and decals were added and the record-braking plane was ready to cruise on the skies.

With a little work you can convert your “all-look-the-same-to-me” model into something different and more stimulating meaning-wise.

Give it a try.

Converted 1/72 ICM Tupolev TB-3

From the archive (2006):

Oh boy. What a massive modeling project. As many of you, I saw this beast advertised time ago. As some reviewers were getting hold of the model and started to comment about their impressions, it was obvious that this was not an easy one. The sheer number of parts, the minute size of some of those components and the complexity of the building system -closer to a flying model than to a plastic static model- just makes for a long-breath, care-demanding, non-forgiving enterprise.

ICM is now well known among most modelers. They usually have an excellent surface treatment, detail-oriented engineering and, apparently, very tiny injection equipment. This could be the reason for the excessive count of parts, especially in the wing area of this particular model.

What can be seen here is a almost unbelievable level of craftsmanship in the making of the master molds, unfortunately coupled with some production problems. Among the many glitches encountered were the variable thickness of the supposedly matting edges -making difficult the use of plastic card tabs to help alignment-, the insufficient and less than perfect notches and locator devices in building the wing structure, and the interlocking system of parts plagued with minor inaccuracies that unfortunately translated later into major misalignments, very, very difficult to solve.

Click on images below to see larger images

I have seen on the Internet some awesome TB-3 models, product without doubt of unimaginable dedication and skill. Some of these models departed from the versions originally offered and added yet more parasite fighters hanging from or on top of every conceivable place. A few of these models exemplify for me the epitome of modeling.

Being myself a much modestly gifted modeler I decided to go on with a demilitarized, ski-equipped version with enclosed cockpit of which I just had a side view from the Internet. I confess that some educated guessing was done here and there, coupled with some extrapolation of data from other variants of this plane.

The level of detail I found in this kit was beyond my expectations. I was delighted with every bit. Some little flash was present and some parts were very delicate and difficult to remove from the sprues without braking them.

The propellers have -even with very tiny rivets- the metal guard on their leading edges. The engines are well detailed as are the cowlings, but the spinner doesn't fit at all on the propeller, so you will have to work on both to achieve a decent fit, and the same goes for some parts of the engine compartment assembly.

Many sink holes were found, and, as some of them are on parts were the corrugated surface is represented, they are difficult to correct. The engines, being solid casts, had also magnificent samples of sink holes too.

As I was making progress in the first stages of building the model. I experienced a sense of satisfaction, being able to tackle most of the challenges, until I arrived to the point were you have to deal with the wings.

Oh dear. The above-mentioned interlocking airplane-like system of ribs and spars looks good but doesn't perform that well. The skin of the wing is composed of many (too many, I may say) panels, The thickness of the spar-rib (airfoil) combo seems to be too much, and the skin plates fall short in some places. The four parts that make for the central area of the leading edge don't match with their counterparts. Neither do the parts that make for the fixed part of the trailing edges. Since all of these parts have micro-corrugated detail, you can not just simply fill, sand, of scratch with a blade, without leaving a mess that would be very difficult to deal with afterwards. So, a careful adjustment of the parts is mandatory and that will take a loooot of time.

I must say that the only sector of the plane were I felt really frustrated was the wing. Fuselage, tail unit, interior details, although demanding and requiring adjustments, were a very pleasant building experience.

In some images you can also see the covers for the machine gun positions in the fuselage and under the wings. To fill these holes and to create the new enclosed canopy I used plastic and aluminum corrugated sheets from a model train store.

A new glazed cover was made for the "bow" of the fuselage also.

I used both, acrylic and enamel paints, and some oils for the weathering/washes/stains on a Future layer.

That I am aware of, there are two photo-etched detail sets for this kit, from Extratech and Eduard, but I decided to go on without them, realizing that surely I had enough to worry about with the kit itself.

Wing aside, this project wasn't as terrible as I thought, but it is definitely not for the ones that are not willing to do some serious modeling-.

I hope that ICM gets in the future a huge machine to produce really large parts, and keep doing these wonderful kits with a more reasonable break-down of the parts, and, if possible, consistent thickness.

Anyway, the TB-3 surely looks the part if you are into the subject, with its pterodactyl-like stance and all the unmistakable flavor of the 30's .