Caproni 311 / 311M / 313 / 314

Alec K
Interesting build! I am in 👍

Transall NG
Me too !

Lost_Erik
Fun challenge you have selected.

Chris
It is strange and funny doing the same things again and again and again. Three of the kits are almost the same.

Lochsa River
checking this out...love the all clear fuselage and want to see your masking....its in the stash here

Finn
Nice! So which one is your favorite?

Chris
It might sound amusing: I like the old Italeri 311 kit most, which has a decent buildable interior. The radial engines look impressive compared to the narrow and small ones on the 313/314 models, which have almost no interior. The new 311 kit from Special Hobby features a clear fuselage, which is fantastic, but it took me two days to mask the inside and outside. The photo-etched parts, such as levers, handles, gauges, seatbelts, and chains, look good but are challenging to handle and become invisible once the fuselage is closed. On the other hand, there are exquisite resin parts included.

That's my current perspective. Perhaps you can ask me again after I finish assembling the four planes.

But, shh! Let me share a secret with you: "I actually like all four of them!" 😉

Villiers de Vos
Booking my seat.

Nicolas
Joining in.

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Doubtingmango
Great fun! Watching…

boywellum
Great thread, especially for a beginner like me. Thank you.

I've got about 60 WW2 RAF, RN etc, 10 Luftwaffe and then an old Supermodel CANT Airone, an old Supermodel Pipistrello, an old Airfix Marchetti, an Azur IMAM Ro 37 bis on order and an old Italeri one of these, the 313/314. I really like these Regia Aeronautica planes, the camo schemes are very interesting. I've scoured all the versions in every scale to find different and interesting paint jobs for each plane. I'll be really interested to see how yours come out. They're looking great and as the instructions aren't the clearest, seeing how you make yours will help me a lot. I was thinking of making each side of the fuselage, wings and all separately, so I could then prime them and then stick the windows in afterwards without the need for masking, then paint the interior before sticking the two halves together, but I'll have to see. I'm very much looking forwards to seeing what paint jobs you choose. Great work, all the best,

Rich 🙂

Chris
I'm excited to see what they'll look like in the end. Painting before gluing the fuselage-halves together was no option, because there was a need of filling and sanding. I have to admit, the instructions are poor in lot of details, but it can be done. I too have a lot of italian planes waiting and I love them too: Fiat BR20, Cant 1007 Bideriva, Cant 1007 Monoderiva, Cant 501, SM 79, SM 81 and some of the Reggiane and Macchi hunters.

45 years ago the first two kits have been the Caproni 311 and 313 from Italeri. That is the reason to build them at my restart after a long pause. I still have the old models and the cover of the project shows the two old kits.
I am happy to have a lot of people sitting here watching the process! 😄

Cuajete
Well done so far.

Cuajete
Good progress 👍

I would like to know how those silicon brushes for masking work.

boywellum
Dear Chris, loving your work, I too am very interested in how you are doing your masking, I have only ever used tape/kabuki masks. I'm new to modelling so would you mind explaining to me exactly what you are using to mask and how you are doing it? It would be really helpful for me on some of my rarer planes that masks are hard to find and it also might work out cheaper for me, any help would be much appreciated. Thank you, Richard 🙂

Chris
underneath the album you can see the kits and the mask-set I bought. As it is not expensive I wanted to give it a try. All single masking-parts are cut and so I only have to take it and stick it to the canopy. That is ok for flat parts, but rounded windows are not good as the masking flim is not that adhesive. There comes the way I do it usually: with masking fluid. A long time I used tooth-sticks to apply it and lead it in the corners but now I use silicon brushes to apply the fluid and that is, I think, my preferred method.

Next weekend I will make a short video so you can see how I do it and how the silicon brushes work.

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

Cuajete
Many thanks, Chris 👍

boywellum
Thanks Chris that would be great to see, much appreciated, all the best, Rich 🙂

Chris
Here you can see, how I use this type of brush: silicone-brush youtube.com/shorts/D6KoAt0rHF4?feature=share

boywellum
Thanks Chris you are very kind 🙂

Alec K
Very interesting masking method, thank you for sharing and making the video. Curious about the end result 👍

boywellum
Totally off topic but I'm really happy to see the support for Ukraine in peoples profile pics 🙂

Gordon Sørensen
Great looking builds, Chris! Interesting to see the differences (and similarities) between the Italeri and SH kits. Interesting video on the masking fluid. I assume it works best if the canopy panel lines are prominent and well-defined.

Cuajete
Thanks for the video. Much cleaner and better than with a normal brush 👌

Chris
Yes, the panel lines must be very prominent. And they are very good on the Italeri kits. Just enough to hold the rubber fluid but almost invisible. No more waste-brushes 😉

Joseph Russo
All looking great I have the Italeri kits as well I cannot bring myself to mask those massive canopies

boywellum
I paint everything by hand, I sometimes use masks if there are ones on the market but generally I find painting canopies isn't that difficult by hand. A thin stiff straight brush, then you can scrape off any slight mistakes with a finger nail.

Moreno Baruffini
I don't know how it's possible that I missed this! Really a super interesting project and thanks for the video about masking fluid!

Pietro De Angelis
What an assembly line!
These Caproni kits from Italeri and even before Italaeri fascinated me a lot when, as a young man, a few centuries ago😅, i admired them behind the window of my favorite modeling shop, thanks so much for sharing.
Good work!