The
Reggiane Re.2007 interceptor jet fighter was a never built nor official aircraft project of
Officine Meccaniche Reggiane SpA it in fact being a post WWII design concept despite embellished accounts of it having been underway as a Reggiane project since 1943 by American, British & Italian aviation writers.
Rightly belonging in the “what-if” aircraft category the Re.2007 possibly had its origins in the wartime
Reggiane Re.2005R (Reazione – Reaction) motorjet “paper project” submitted to the
Regia Aeronautica Italia Stato Maggiore by Reggiane’s top designer
Roberto Longhi of a redesigned
Daimler-Benz DB.605-powered Re.2005 fuselage fitted with a 460hp
FIAT A.20 V-12 engine powering a high pressure compressor pushing air into a tail-mounted fuel combustion chamber providing jet thrust, its sleek post-war swept-winged turbojet-powered design traced to a certain
Pellizzola who’d made drawings of it based upon speculative reconstructions derived from another Reggiane engineer's supposed descriptions of the aircraft concept:
After the war Longhi attempted to procure two
Junkers Jumo 004 turbojets stored in
Udine Ronchi dei Legionari (Trieste – Friuli Venezia today) airport since early 1945 as spares for
Luftwaffe Arado Ar 234 Reconnaissance Aircraft “for conducting experiments” of an undetermined nature but instead were obtained by the reformed
Società Aeronautica Italiana Ambrosni, possibly the origin of stories regarding Reggiane supposedly having obtained them to power the Re.2007 prototype their fates unknown.
The Kit BuildAmongst the most intriguing “what-if” aircraft subjects ever scale modeled the early 2000s-vintage 1/72 scale
RS Models 72123 Reggiane Re.2007 resin kit with vacuform clear plastic canopy is the only one available in this scale. Probably if not likely based on Pellizzola’s post-WWII drawings the kit despite its small size is well casted with molded-in pilot cockpit detail lending itself to extra detailing.
The pilot cockpit “box” centers on u-shaped part with port & starboard outward “wings” joystick & pilot seat placed inside aft bottom, flight instrument panel glued on wings forward of joystick. The kit’s joystick disintegrated whilst removing resin flash, fabricated stronger replacement with sheet styrene plastic. The kit lacked rudder control bar, fabricated one from styrene sheet plastic glued it on forward of joystick; kit lacked pilot seatbelts fabricated them from cut off strips of Scotch Magic Mending Tape sprayed over with Humbrol 29 Matt Dark Earth enamel paint buckle ends hand painted Testor Flat Aluminum enamel. The model lacked a gunsight, fabricated generic one well as gyrocompass unit mounted on fuselage aft of pilot seat from styrene sheet plastic. The kit included oxygen bottle & radio parts too large for placement anywhere inside box set them aside.
The pilot cockpit box rests atop semi-circular protuberances molded inside fuselage halves with bulkhead aft of box though no aft space to “seat” latter, gouged resin off protuberances & trimmed bulkhead sides to do so. The kit comes with nose landing gear stow box, jet engine nose air intake stake & exhaust tailpipe parts (drilled hole through latter) they, cockpit box & bulkhead were glued in place on inside port fuselage halve.
The fuselage halves & mainwings easily glued together and on, much seam puttying well as building up trailing edges around fuselage-mainwing joins necessary, tailplane easily glued on upper rear fuselage, rudder-sail over tailplane & upper rear fuselage, much puttying filling in large gap between rudder-sail and tailplane. The kit lacked a Pitot tube, fabricated it from styrene sheet plastic gluing it on portside mainwing. No Venturi tubes were added, uncertain whether post WWII Italian jets continued using pre-war types.
The adequately detailed though brittle vacuform clear plastic cockpit canopy was bear working with, sideways slanting crack formed halfway around it 2 millimeters from aft end whilst trimming flash off starboard side, filled it in with cyanoacetate glue sanding both sides of still visible seam with machine oil soaked fine grit hobby sandpaper, polishing it with plastic cleaning compound followed by extensive size trimming, filing & sanding to snugly fit it over & either side of cockpit. The canopy couldn’t be cut apart to glue cockpit portion in open position, closing gaps between it and fuselage cockpit area entailed fabricating & gluing shims on fuselage leaving seam scars, puttying & sanding work to hide them not worth the effort.
Painting the model entailed using an assortment of spray or hand painted on enamels:
• Pilot cockpit fuselage area insides, landing gear nose box & mainwing wheel well interiors Humbrol 78 Matt Cockpit Green scale lightened with Testors Flat White.
• Instrument panels Testors Flat Black & White “special mix”, instruments Flat White, Yellow, Blue, Aluminum & (Model Master) Red.
• Pilot seat, flight deck top, joystick, rudder bar, jet engine nose air intake stake, fuselage halve interior areas around engine exhaust “can” Testors Flat Aluminum,
• Exhaust “can” insides spot mix Testors Flat Steel + “special mix”.
• Fuselage dorsal spine either side of cockpit canopy & canopy frames “special mix”.
• Landing gear struts Testors Flat Aluminum & Silver, wheels Rubber + Black + White “special mix”.
• Entire model overall including outsides of landing gear covers Testors Flat Aluminum, mainwing navigation lights Testors Flat Green & (Model Master) Red.
The cockpit canopy needed to be glued on over the fuselage cockpit area before spraying aluminum over the canopy frames, was able to do this but not without getting the aforementioned gaps between the canopy and fuselage cockpit area.
Rightly being a post WWII aircraft design SKY Models (SM) 72-014 Macchi C.202 Aeronautica Militare Italiana cockades, SM 72-008 & Tauro Models 72/522 Reggiane fighter manufacturer logos & aircraft data water decals were used, not wanting the model to appear toy-like dispensed with over-spraying it with clear lacquer.
- > Fuselage interior assemblies:
- > Fuselage Halve Test Fits:
- > Mainwings glued on fuselage, tailplane & rudder-sail parts glued on upper rear fuselage, large gap between rudder-sail & tailplane parts puttied filled:
- > Completed Model Photos:
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