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S.B.S. Model 1/72 FIAT G.50 Freccia (Arrow) by Richard Mendes |
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Although produced in fewer numbers than Macchi aircraft of WWII, the Fiat G.50 nonetheless draws as much interest, particularly amongst scale aviation modelers. The most interesting use of this aircraft was in the clash between Finland and Russia in 1940-1944. In the hands of Finnish pilots, the Fiat G.50 achieved remarkable success and was responsible for 101 Soviet aircraft shot-down for the loss of only two Fiats. These successes mirrored the Italian performance in southern Russia using the Macchi MC.200. The total production of Fiat's amounted to 791 of all types, and although only briefly employed by the Regia Aeronautica as a frontline fighter, the type was used extensively in its designed role by the Finns until 1944. Many Finnish aces used the type at one time or other and Oiva 'Oippa' Tuominen scored the majority of his 44 kills with the G.50. The Fiat G.50 was designed by the young and gifted Ing. Giuseppe Gabrielli in 1937 and he drew upon this experience to design one of the war's most potent fighters, the Fiat G.55 Centauro. He later designed the highly successful Fiat G.91 multirole combat jet aircraft. The Fiat G.50 was the first Italian low-wing monoplane fighter with enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear, the majority built with open cockpits in response to pilot objections regarding the alleged poorly designed enclosed cockpits of the first 45 production aircraft. The main production G.50bis variant with open cockpits saw service with the Regia Aeronautica, Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana, Finnish Ilmavoimat, Croatian Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, Spanish Ejército del Aire and the Yugoslavian Zrakoplovstvo vojske Kraljevine Jugoslavije WWII air forces; Prototypes and variants included the G.50bis/A Regia Marina Aquila aircraft carrier fighter, G.50ter, G.50V/G.51 Daimler-Benz DB 601-powered, G.50A/N night fighter and G.50B two-seat advanced trainer, all built between 1937 and 1942. |
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The 2018-vintage S.B.S. Model SBS-7017 FIAT G.50 Freccia "Regia Aeronautica" kit is the first of a series of 1/72 scale G.50 kits along with the SBS-7018 "Finish Air Force", SBS-7019 G.50bis "Regia Aeronautica", SBS-7020 G.50bis "German and Croatian Air Force" kits featuring common resin, white metal and etched brass parts with different water decals, SBS-7018 featuring different 12.7mm machine gun and mount castings. Featuring detail rich well casted resin parts the S.B.S. kits are the best available of the G.50 in 1/72 scale though large upper fuselage-wing root and engine mount gaps necessitated considerable puttying & sanding work. The fuselage to engine cowling machine gun trough mount part for my build came up short on the fuselage side though the unpainted assembled S.B.S. model shows a perfect fit, highly disconcerting given I’d painted and glued together engine parts and cowling in place onto the fuselage beforehand! At over U.S. $45 the kit is expensive so chose to build only SBS-7017 in 150 Squadriglia colors and markings with Humbrol, Model Master and Testors enamels with Polyscale acrylics for weathering. |
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Aircraft: Fiat G.50 Manufacturer: Fiat S.A. Type: Fighter Year: 1939 Engine: Fiat A.74 RC 38, 14-cyclinder radial, air-cooled, 870hp Wingspan: 36 ft (10.98 m) Length: 25 ft 7 in (7.80 m) Height: 9 ft 8 1/2 in (2.95 m) Weight: 5,280 lb (2,395 kg) (Loaded) Maximum Speed: 294 mph (473 km/h) at 19,685 ft (6,000 m) Ceiling: 35,200 ft (10,700 m) Range: 420 miles (675 km) Armament: 2 x 12.7mm (0.5 in) SAFAT machine guns Crew: 1 |
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June, 2019 STORMO! © 2019 |