FIAT G.55B Two-Seat Advanced Trainer

[Inactive]

The Fiat G.55 Centauro (Centaur) designed by Giuseppe Gabrielli (1903-1987) arguably was the best World War II Italian fighter flown by the Regia Aeronautica Italia (RAI) & Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (ANR). During its short wartime operational service primarily with the ANR this powerful, robust & fast cannon-armed aircraft clashed on equal terms with RAF Supermarine Spitfires, U.S.A.A.F. P-38s, P-47s & P-51s engaged in bomber escort & ground attack sorties over Northern Italy during 1944-45 though only a few dozen were operational at any time.

No G.55 trainers were available during the war but soon thereafter Gabrielli designed the G.55B (Biposto lit. twin-seat) & G.55A single-seat advanced trainers the former first flying on February 12, 1946 latter September 5th. Utilizing left over stocks of incomplete G.55 fighter airframes, parts & 1,475hp FIAT RA.1050 R.C.58 Tifone (Typhoon) inverted V-12 license-built Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 engines presumably well as converting surviving wartime G.55 fighter aircraft FIAT produced 19 G.55A & 10 G.55B trainers for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI) well as 30 G.55A & 15 G.55B ones for the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA - Argentine Air Force) during 1946.

The 2007-vintage Special Hobby SH72104 1/72 scale FIAT G.55B injected-plastic kit with vacuform plastic, resin, etched brass parts & water decals for AMI & FAA versions is the only one available in that scale, interior detail rich it was a relatively easy build despite noticeably poor fuselage-upper main wing root fits well as no pitot tube nor radio antenna masts for the type these I’d had to scratch build. The kit decals depict AMI G.55B MM.91170, presumably a rebuild of the G.55 Serie I single-seat fighter one of 144 originally ordered by the RAI in 1943, as it appeared on “rollout” per surviving photos in 1946, various Humbrol & Testors enamel paints being used for the build.

[GTX_Admin]

 

[elmayerle]

Gorgeous!!

[Brian da Basher]

 
Brian da Basher

[apophenia]

Lovely    And a great subject.

[Inactive]

S.B.S. Model FIAT G.50 "out of box" resin, my next to last G.50 build, absolute last will be the Italian Kits Wings G.50V to be rereleased next year if not sooner.

The Late Spring 2019 "big subject" build is the resin SEM Model FIAT G.12T transport, trimotor slightly smaller than a Boeing B-17, large display case currently being fabricated for it, will get to it after the G.50.

[Old Wombat]

So planned!

[Inactive]

S.B.S. Model FIAT G.50 "out of box" resin, my next to last G.50 build, absolute last will be the Italian Kits Wings G.50V to be rereleased next year if not sooner...

Bulk of the build done insofar as Fuselage, Main Wings & Engine Mount sections glued together. S.B.S. kit is "click-click" insofar as close fitting resin parts though large upper Fuselage-Main Wing Roots & Fuselage-Engine Mount join gaps required significant amounts of Tamiya White Putty to plug them up (great product, wished I'd started using it years earlier). The Cockpit is detail rich though wished S.B.S. included molded oxygen bottles et. al. details given there was ample space to glue them in; San Giorigio Tipo C Reflecting Gunsight lacked a recticle so fabricated one from clear styrene sheet. Tomorrow will spray on the Giallo Mimetico 3 upper base coat with Humbrol 63 Matt Sand + 10% Testors Flat Yellow +36% Flat White for shading.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

If you had not stated that these models were 1:72nd scale I would have been led to believe they were much larger.  Great work!

[Inactive]

If you had not stated that these models were 1:72nd scale I would have been led to believe they were much larger.  Great work!

Thank you! The Special Hobby G.55B is a good kit though would had been nice if it had separately molded wing moving surfaces. The 1950s to early 1970s Airfix kits in particular made that a nice feature crude as they were; my future Battle of Britain Luftwaffe build series mostly are "1st Generation" 1/72 Airfix & Revell kits "newest" being the 1970s-vintage FROG Heinkel 111H-1/2 & Matchbox Dornier 17Z-2 sans moving surfaces. I'm also going to build one each of the 1960s Lindberg, FROG & Revell Heinkel 219s ghastly to good in that order; failed miserably building the FROG & Revell kits when they came out, gave up on the Lindberg immediately seeing how toy-like terrible it was. I'd successfully build the Revell kit c.1979 but passed on the others, this go-around may build all three at one time to save on paint mixing, just need to get good decal sheets for them. All these builds hopefully will be in 2021 after am done building the "Italians", much as I love Luftwaffe subjects these come before everything else.