The Little World

The second classic Airfix kit I am engaged upon for the next few weeks is another of the SM.79 torpedo bombers the Italian air force used in the Mediterranean. One already exists in my collection in the Middle East colours of the Lebanese Air Force – it’s an Italeri kit and somewhat superior to this very old Airfix offering.

This kit, however, has the distinct advantage of being cost-free – a gift from Paul – and surprisingly adaptable. Of course it will not be a torpedo bomber by the time I have converted it to a post-war mail plane so I was delighted to see that Airfix provided ready-made covers for the machine gun positions. The whole fuselage sleeked down enormously when the open pits were covered over.

A mail plane also doesn’t need a bomb bay or windows to look out of. These could be conveniently closed with the glazing plates and then puttied in to a smooth contour. We’ll see how it looks in mock-up.

The other thing that will be fun is figuring out a livery for it. As it will serve the Royal Ruritanian Post Office there may be a crown involved in the lettering, but there is no need to use dull colours for the rest of the aircraft – it doesn’t need to be camouflaged. I shall secure a line drawing for use as a planning template on the computer and apply colours and stripes to my heart’s content until the right one leaps out at me – it’s going to be a paint scheme that the sister ship – a classic Airfix Heinkel HE 111 – will share.