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Trumpeter 1/48 Savoia-Marchetti S.M. 79 I Sparviero (Sparrowhawk) - Bombardiere by Richard Davenport |
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192, 193 Squadriglie, 87 Gruppo, 30 Stormo The SM 79 was first received in 1938 and used in Albania the following year. On 12 June 1940 an SM 79 of 193 Sq carried out the unit's first sortie of the war - a ninety-minute reconnaissance of Tunisian air bases. Bombing began the next day, in the same areas. Operations over Malta began on 6 July, two aircraft being lost over La Valetta harbour four days later. The island's shipping routes were also attacked in July. As Sciacca was unsuitable for use at night, training for such duties was done at Castelvetrano. Night procedures subsequently used the latter for night take-off, and Sciacca for day landings and maintenance, The first of these sorties was made on 23 July. From 13 to 23 August the unit was busy training new crews. An escorted day raid over Malta was made the next day. More training then continued until 20 September. Between January and March 1941 the unit was the only Italian bomber unit assisting the Germans in operations against Malta. With the night raids, armed reconnaissance and day raids on shipping, the unit was kept very busy until August when it withdrew to Italy. Following re-equipment and training with the Z1007bis the unit moved to the Aegean. Thus began a period of night raids on such targets as Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria and Cyprus. It also resumed day and night attacks on shipping in the eastern Mediterranean, along with reconnaissance for ships and aircraft missing in that area. In July 1942 five SM 82s of the Sezione Bombardamento Largo Raggio (Long Range Bomber Section) joined the unit for operations against Alexandria. From 15 December the Gruppo also made raids on Beirut, Tripoli, Tobruk and Haifa. From January 1943 armed reconnaissance missions were flown along the Syria-Palestine coastline together with convoy escorts and anti-submarine sorties in the Aegean area. These remained the regular duties of the unit until it disbanded on 25 August.[1] References: [1] Dunning C., "Courage Alone: The Italian Airforce 1940-1943", Hikoki Publuications, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2009 [2] Gentilli R. and Greer D., Savoia-Marchetti S.79 in Action, SS1071, Squadron/Signal Publications, Texas, USA, 1986 |
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This is the Trumpeter 1/48th Savoia-Marchetti S.M. 79-I “Sparviero” (Sparrowhawk) (kit #02817). It represents 193-1 flown by the squadron commander of 193° Squadriglia 87° Gruppo, 30° Stormo, Regia Aeronautica, at Sciacca, Sicily, early 1941. The kit was supplemented by the “Savoia Marchetti SM79 ‘Sparviero’ - Correction & detail set for Trumpeter TOTAL KIT” by 3D Models Kits (#3d-79000) which is 3D-printed resin. The cockpit was painted Verde Anticorrisione from Ammo by Mig Jermenez (A.Mig-0273). Engine cowls were painted AlClad White Aluminum (ALC 106) and Model Master Gelb RLM 04 (#2072), with Testors Brass (#1182) for the exhaust collector ring. The locator tabs on the exhaust collector rings don’t fit within the cowl and had to be ground down so the ring would fit flush. The hatch on the upper fuselage above the bomb bay had an incorrect curve and I had to gently heat and reshape it in order to fit so I could close up the fuselage for painting; afterwards the hatch would displayed open. Fitting the wings to the fuselage requires cutting a notch out of the back of the port wing locating tab to accommodate the cockpit/bomb bay assembly. The vertical stabilizer lacks the third cable, so this was added. The underside was painted with Mr. Color Dark Seagray (331). The base for the upper surface was MRP (Mr. Paint) Giallo Mimetico (MRP-325). The camouflage patches are MRP Bruno Mimetico (MRP-322) and MRP Verde Mimetico (MRP-327). Decals are Microscale from the Classic Airframes kit (48-452). To paint the camouflage, I took the thin, stiff plastic of a report cover and drew the pattern with an ultra fine point Sharpie. I then cut out the pattern with a scalpel blade. I used very small spots of Aleene’s Tacky Glue to secure the pattern on the model a section at at time. I installed the 0.2 needle in my Paasche Talon airbrush and set the air pressure at 30 psi. Using very short bursts of very fine spray, I filled in various patches of the pattern with one color, then switched the color to complete the pattern.
Applying the exterior camouflage scheme C9SL (Verde Mimetico 53192, Marrone MImetico 53193 and Giallo Mimetico 3 (53194):
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Aircraft: SIAI-Marchetti SM.79 Manufacturer: SIAI-Marchetti Type: Bomber Year: 1937 Engine: Three Alfa Romeo A.R. 126 RC 34, 9-cylinder radial, air-cooled, 750 hp each Wingspan: 69 ft 7 in (21.20 m) Length: 53 ft 2 in (16.20 m) Height: 13 ft 5t in (4.10 m) Weight: 23,180 lb (10,500 kg) (Loaded) Maximum Speed: 267 mph (430 km/h) at 13,120 ft (4,000 m) Ceiling: 23,000 ft (7,000 m) Range: 1,180 miles (1,900 km) Armament: 4-5 machine guns; 2,756 lb (1,250 kg) of bombs Crew: 6 |
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