Reggia Aeronautica - Bombers

 Having done some fighters, the Italians needed some bombers. Unlike the Luftwaffe and RAF, they didn't seem to have specific light bombers or ground attack planes (although using fighters as fighter bombers was pretty common) .

I already had an SM79 in SCW colours, but I wanted to keep that as it was, so I bought a couple of new planes from H&R.

I ended up with these. On the left an SM 79, and on the right a Fiat Br.20 Cicogna (Stork). The SM 79 was fairly ubiquituous throughout the war so I could have bought two of those but I fancied something a bit different so I got the Br.20 as well.

The SM 79 was the standard Italian medium bomber for most of the war. Clearly, having three engines made it better than two engine bombers. Another H&R model, this one was nice and clean with very little flash. It is a much bigger plane (and much heavier model) than the British Blenheim and Baltimore though.

The colour scheme is one of many available for the SM 79, but this was used by a squadron based in North Africa and makes a change from the green/brown/sand spray finish seen on a lot of Italian planes. Not much glazing on this, just the main canopy. The sky blue highlight over dark blue looked OK on this one. The wing markings were nice and big on this one, so much easier to paint and finish off with the micron pen.

The Cicogna is also a hefty aircraft, if it didn't have that wierd tail (with struts holding up the tail fins) it would almost seem quite modern! The BR.20 wasn't produced in huge numbers but it did serve in North Africa, and very few were left operational by the time of the Italian surrender.

This one is done in the more usual green/brown/sand scheme which took a bit of work to make into something presentable.

Like the SM 79, the wing markings are nice and big so a bit easier to paint. This one has a lot more perspex than the SM 79, but I think it came out OK.

Off they go across the dining table. The reinforced flight stands easily supporting the vast weight of lead in the models.

This time with a fighter escort. You can see how big the bombers are, the CR42 looks absolutely tiny next to them.