Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

[Second Air Force]

During the forum upgrade I made a good deal on a Classic Airframes Fiat with floatplane option:

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

Fortunately the normal landing gear is still part of the kit and the floats will go into my spares box. My intention (and for a long time......) is to build this as one of the Belgian fighters. Specifically I'm intending to build R-17, and Draken has been kind enough to send me a fantastic color profile of R-17 and R-7.

Just a test-fit here:

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

[No.1]

This will be very something!!!

[draken35]

My pleasure to help you Scott!

I'm impatient to see your work!

Fiats CR42 were the Belgian most efficient fighters during the 18 days campaign of 1940: Hurricanes were ground destroyed at the beginning of the campaign; Gladiators just too weak against Me 109's; Renard 38 not yet in production and Brewster Buffaloes delivered too late... Fairey Fireflies and Fairey Foxes were just "a mouse for the cat" as we say in French.

[modellius]

wow, very nice subject, looking forward to see this done !

[Second Air Force]

There has been very little time to work on any of my model projects lately, having family visit last weekend and so many gardening and bird-feeding duties..... Finally last evening I was able to set aside several hours to continue with this little Cr.42. The cockpit assembly is just about finished now, only a couple of extra levers and detail touches left and the fuselage can be joined together:

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

[No.1]

Nice interior!!

[draken35]

Well done, Scott!

[modellius]

excellent, like it a lot !

[Second Air Force]

Thank you, friends!

Anyone who has built a Classic Airframes Cr.42 knows that the next step is the second hardest in building this kit--fitting the nice cockpit resin and PE into the fuselage.  On this one I used my experience with the Swedish Fiat from some years ago and did much trial fitting first. This pays off later in an easy joining without interfering with either of the instrument panel sections.

[Second Air Force]

Further movement here.....

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

[draken35]

Great!

[Second Air Force]

Thanks!

I'll mention now (too late really) that I again added a .030" strip of styrene on the fuselage upper joint right in front of where the windscreen sits to widen the fuselage. One of the complaints about the CA kit was that the windscreen is too wide to fit, so I simply added some thickness to the fuselage opening to rectify it. It worked well on the first build and equally so here. The machine gun access panel that sits on top of the fuselage still fits just fine!

[No.1]

Beauty coming

[Second Air Force]

You all must think I am semi-retired from working on models, but I assure you I'm still here. Some small work on the Fiat this weekend allowed me to assemble the upper wing and the forest of struts. I did this one just as the first I built, by installing the jury struts first and aligning the wing struts after. They're fully fixed to the upper wing now and ready for primer and paint. After the struts it was time to unpack and study the resin engine and build-up the cowling assembly:

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

Classic Airframes CR 42 Belgian

[No.1]

This is most sensitive part of work and as I see you run it with great precision