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Gábor Szabó
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Reggiane 2000 serie III. 1:48 SMER (ex Artiplast) + scratch

May 1, 2016 · in Aviation · · 23 · 5.1K

Hi Everyone!

I started this kit as an experiment as I always wanted an 1:48 copy af this little fighter, but beside ( originated in the early '60s) the only kit in this scale is from CA. I saw this week a Classic Airframes Reggiane 2000 kit on evilbay but when I clicked away to safer sites (i.e. where I can't buy model kit) that tended somewhere well over 90USD - holy c...p! The ex artiplast is notorious as a bad kit that doesn't build well and You can't see it built often (but there are some good examples on the net). The experiment was on that how bad is this kit in reality and what can I do with this?

There were a lot of work to achieve this but to be honest with the product the basics are there and at least I could hone my scracthbuilding and updating skills. I only kept the main parts and altered heavily nearly all parts. Made new interior, engine, canopy, wheel wells, landing gears, rescribed/riveted the whole thing, altered the engine cowling etc... As Hungarian AF used this type in the WW2 in Russia heavily I will made a serie I from another kit and also a Hungarian built MÁVAG Héja II which based on this type (but You have to REALLY change a lot of things so I try to collect some mojo for that). So I made resin copies all of my alterations so I can use them later on my other builds (I hope).

I didn't want to alter more the kit hence the serie III. and Italian painting scheme. I really like this colorful appearance (it's just like a kind of parrot isn' it?). The plane used by the 377 Squadriglia in Sicily in 1942 as a night fighter. The Sezione II. painted their planes' cowlings red while Sezione I. painted theirs black. I thought that the black cowling would be too "Zeroish" so I chose red. On these planes the early three colour scheme were touched up heavily with (most likely) Verde oliva scuro 2 (dark olive green - Italian sounds great!). Hope You like it, all C&C are welcome as usual 🙂

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

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23 responses

  1. Wow...almost like an entire "scratch-build", huh...? It certainly turned out well. Excellent work on that paint scheme.

  2. My Comment-Wow. Helluva paint job. A Model Master man, I see. Most everybody is jumping on the acrylic bandwagon. Great model and silk purse from sow's ear.

  3. Excellent work!

  4. Another example of your incredible craftsmanship Gábor! I'd never seen the red-cowl version - love it, and will build my 72 scale version with that same scheme! Give a little variety to the (already varied) Italian camo schemes.

    • Thanks Greg for the kind comment. What I like in this scheme is the four color upper surface camo: almost too much for a military machine 🙂 Which 1:72 kit do You have? I heard that Italeri's new Re2000 is a little gem - I had a Supermodel ages ago but I wasn't so impressed with that.

  5. Gabor, a lot of detail packed into a small airframe. Well done and thanks for posting this unusual project.

    • Thank You Rob! Re 2000 wasn't a particularly succesful design so You can not see often as a modeling subject. A fun fact that Great Britain wanted to purchase 300 of them just before the outbreak of the war as an interim type to support Hurricane squadrons until Spitfire manufacturing really ramps up. 🙂 When Italy entered war on Germany's side naturally the orders are cancelled but that it would have been interesting to see these machines in British livery fighting against Messerschmitts 😀

  6. Terrific work on this difficult project, Gabor, and thanks again for sharing.

  7. I often wondered how the Italians could have come thru with their offer to the British. I know they built some for the Swedes, and there were those Caproni light twins sold to the French and the Swedish.
    IMHO, they'd have been hard pressed to deliver.
    Like the old joke, Mussolini sends Hitler a telegram, requesting help. Hitler replies "Tighten belt". Mussolini responds "Send belt"!

  8. Nice work Gabor - great to see the finished result !

  9. That's outstanding. Great subject, terrible kit, loads of creativity, and a fine paint job. Well done!

  10. Gabor, isn't this the only one in anything close to 1/48th? They had a catapalt version, as well.
    Love the paint job!
    I think I still have one of these, in an Artiplast box. Boy, am I old...

    • Classic Airframes made an attempt years ago - wasn't bad but terribly overpiced and now very rare so as an affordable kit SER (Artiplast) is the only game in town. The catapult vesion is the default in the Artiplast box (the four holes in the fuselage and the two protrusion beneath the center of the wing represent - poorly - this version). Hey, I had a CR 32 in Artiplast box also - I build that guy to show him how is the boss so an old kit in the stash means nothing to worry about 🙂

  11. Excellent work,from any point of view.Congratulations Gábor!

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