Zio's Fiat CR.42 Falco

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #1 05-26-2019, 09:05 AM

Hi friends.

It's been some time since I put some stuff here on the forum. Sorry! Busy with real life, and while I still visit the forum regularly and also still build stuff, I mainly post stuff on my own blog and I kind of neglect this fine place. At the moment I am working at a big 1/96 shuttle stack and it goes quite well. But sometimes I need a quick result so that is when Fabrizio Prudenziati's fine models come in handy. I have made about 20 of his models and I enjoy every one of them. They're just a ton of fun. And you get a quick result.

This one is no different. A little harder, because it is lacking an instruction sheet. The fuselage, as always a one-piecer, is easy to get wrong. There has to go a strip between the two top halves, even though they are very close together to begin with. Often this strip is placed on themodel sheet right between these halves but now it is prependicular roght above it. I almost went wrong there.
Wings too are a little different than expected, the pointy part has to face forward. So you have to find a way to curve the leading edge and glue it. I used an inner glue strip along the leading edge. The pointy part comes together really nice.
The prop and engine section need to be glued to the protruding nose strip I mentioned earlier. The rings should be edge glued, I suppose, but I made a couple of inner glue strips to get a better grip. The prop was equipped with a sewing pin and some beads to make it spin free. A single semi-reinforcement circle inside the cowling took care of the stability of the 'prop shaft".

The rest is just like any Zio plane. I often use some three-views or photos online to guide me. I decided to make the wing struts myself from doubled up grey 375 gram card. Hardest were the wheel covers. Small and lots of curves. I did what I could. I didn't use the half-wheels of the kit, though, I quadrupled up some card and used the half wheels as outsides to get them into the wheel wells as far as they had to. I used a little drop of CA to tack the wheel struts into place on the wing.

So here it is. Zio's Fiat CR.42 Falco. Just one sunday of clearing my mind, thinking about as less as possible, a little music on the background, and a nice result.

**Rubenandres77** · #2 05-26-2019, 09:18 AM

Nicely executed.

**ashevilleangler** · #3 05-26-2019, 11:02 AM

Very nicely done! These little models are always worth the extra effort required to overcome the quirky construction of the fuselages.

Curt

**Don Boose** · #4 05-26-2019, 11:13 AM

Nice work!

Don

**Philip** · #5 05-26-2019, 02:19 PM

Nice piece of work.

**Rata** · #6 05-26-2019, 04:57 PM

Not seen a Prudenziati on here for a while- nice work. And good to see a night-fighter version of the Falco too. One of the other versions Zio gave us is one of those that flew with Italy's involvement with the Battle Of Britain.

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #7 05-27-2019, 08:19 AM

Thank you all for the kind words!
@ Curt: after about 20 models I am quite used to his weird fuselages and actually really enjoy them. One of the remarkable things of this hobby to me is that you can create a complex shape out of a single cut-out piece of paper. Zio's models are great examples of such a thing.
@ Rata: The Battle of Britain - thing I didn't know Thanks for the enlightenment! I just liked the colour of this one, it stood out between all the camouflage planes.

**Vinalssergio155** · #8 05-27-2019, 08:36 AM

Great job PK! Several years ago I made this one that still survives. Look how I put the wings, the reverse !!!

**Fifi2200** · #9 05-27-2019, 09:42 AM

i've all the products of Zio on my computer, after long research on the net - i'm sad to discover him just after he left us for another world.
Done some of his planes and 2 knights - when i see them, i think to this smiling old man...

Very nice biplane.

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #10 05-27-2019, 01:29 PM

Hi Sergio! yes, I made the same mistake and had to reprint. The counter-intuitive wing-folding makes it look that the pointy end should point backwards. Why would a leading edge be so hard? Well, because Zio made it like that. And there's no instructions. Only when I realised the little "bite" out of the wing was meant for the cockpit side I knew I was wrong.
Fifi, Zio lives on in his models. From my point of view, people only are really dead when they are forgotten. Zio left us an unforgettable heritage with his models. (-: