This all started with a lovely, bagged 1/72 Airfix Fiat G.91 Gina a good friend sent me recently (thanks a million, hamsterman!). Mine just came in a bag with no card, but this is what it looks like.
You've got to give Airfix props (turbo-props even hehehehe) for such great art. Their early kits have some of the best in my opinion. While this kit is incredibly simple by modern standards, it was probably one of the first G.91 kits made and certainly captures the unique shape of this aircraft well.
Of course, mine was going to be a bit different. Upon opening the bag, I noticed the nose cone was a separate piece and could be replaced with the prop from an Airfix P-40 to make this a turbo-prop. There's not enough turbo-prop fighters if you ask me and this baby was ripe for such treatment. I started by blanking off the intake and inserting a slice of plastic to cover the gap below the prop.
The main weak point of this kit is the tail which just has a hole that runs the entire length of the fuselage for the burner can. This needed an upgrade and a left-over butane nozzle came to the rescue.
The rest of the build was entirely stock except for filling in the gaps in the wings' leading edge with bits of landing gear struts for those two 31.1 mm Steyr Mannlicher auto-cannons and covering the pylon holes with card.
After this it was off to the paint shop. The old hairy stick was loaded up with a lot of acrylics, Polly Scale Light Blue on the bottom and Polly Scale Gravel Gray and Model Masters Feldgrau on top.
The canopy was tinted on the inside with Testors Gold and the guns were given a custom mix. The exhaust pipe was done in Model Masters Drab with a top coat of Jet Exhaust.
Decals were all bits and bobs from spares. The Habsburg Empire flag on the rudder was chopped up from Suez Crisis markings.
It took me four days to build this model and I had a blast the whole time.
Before I forget, here's a couple of "money shots" (U.S. penny for scale):
I'd like to thank Bill for sending me this cool little kit. I couldn't have done it without you!
I'd also like to thank Señor Ysi for moderating this GB and the rest of you playing along or just stopping by for a look.
Brian da Basher