The Little World

Gesundheit.

Thank you. I had a bit of a sniffle just then and when I sneezed a Macchi came out. Pass me a tissue.

The completion of the Saetta came as a surprise as I did not seem to be doing anything at all in the shed over the past couple of days. Yet, there it is. Even has pre-shading black which faintly shows through under the pale and deep greens. The RRAAF pilot is in full-dress blues.

I cannot say I like the model better than the Hobby Boss example – the brittle nature of the plastic being the main complaint. Yet, the geometry of the landing gear came out well and there are no disturbing seams to be seen.

The RRAAF fighter scheme is well supported by the Macchi, even in darker colours. If you are bored with this pre-war design thinking be patient. The RRAAF has experimented with various camouflage schemes. As a military organisation that has not had to fight anyone since 1377, it has a lot of time on its hands and this means the paint shop could get busy and repaint the fleet every so often. There was a brief period when it was suggested that this be done with every change of the seasons to maximise the camouflage effect. In reality it just gave the paint shop something to do.

Note also that the rocket armament tried out on the RRAAF Renault Caudrons was not a success. They have reverted to small machine guns. It is easier to land back at Strelitz Airfield safely with unfired machine gun ammunition than it is with unfired 60 pound rockets on flimsy racks.