SM-79, CLASSIC AIRFRAMES 48th Scale

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February 19, 2017
Kit floor with strips of wire added to act as the corrugations.
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February 19, 2017
Upper wing halves with the vents opened.
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February 19, 2017
Flap and aileron lines were super glued to fill the engraved lines , then recut as one line
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February 19, 2017
Top and bottom wing halves re-engraved flap/ aileron
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February 19, 2017
Engine cowling fillet installed to main plane after heavy sanding. Leading edge air vent drilled.
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February 19, 2017
Leading edge air vent drilled both sides.
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February 19, 2017
Cockpit floor dry fit to fuselage side . At that time I was going to scratch build the side walls, i ended up installing the resin parts with extra detailing. Needed to add extra evergreen strip to the rear of the floor to fill the gap.
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February 19, 2017
Bombardiers gondola. Left is the floor, centre is the rear gondola frame before it was cut down in size. The right strip is the framework that goes around the bombardiers leg holder that extends into the airflow under the fuselage when he is bombing.
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February 19, 2017
Cut to size rear frame. The rod in the centre mounts the gun
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February 19, 2017
Bombardiers leg holder with lift handle to lift up the leg holder into the gondola. Left is magazine box i think for spent cartridges, this is positioned on right side rear window.
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February 19, 2017
Finished gondola with gun mount. Forward platform is for the bomb sight which has to be added.
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February 22, 2017
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February 22, 2017
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February 19, 2017
500lb bomb rack,this rack is removable from the aircraft to install say 12 x 250lb bombs. The triangle end faces the rear of the aircraft.
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February 19, 2017
500lb bomb rack , right side of this photo faces towards the rear. Tubes are Aluminium with evergreen plastic strips and rod to make the framework.
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February 19, 2017
Top view which has the winch cable pass through the tube to the ground to hookup the bomb and winch it back into its tube and hook at the top ready for release by the bombardier.
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February 22, 2017
Bomb bay jig made for the two rows of bomb tubes, the smaller tube is to set alignment for the bomb tube seen covering two alignment tubes,the framework is built around this
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February 22, 2017
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February 19, 2017
Trailing edge of the engine cowling has been thinned
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February 19, 2017
Having thinned the trailing edge of the engine cowling, fillers will need to be added next, one has already been done
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February 19, 2017
Kit engine unpainted
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February 19, 2017
Kit engine paint waiting for cables to detail the engine
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February 22, 2017
Propeller blade jig to set blade at the correct angle and distance apart
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February 19, 2017
Dorsal turret gun support frame for the gun and part of the top platform to load the bombs
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February 19, 2017
Brass box was made for the rear facing top gun. Gun ready to be painted (SM79 Trumpeter gun)
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February 19, 2017
Pilots seat and seat belts
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February 19, 2017
Flight Engineers panel
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February 19, 2017
Navigation equipment and radio table with morse code instrument
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February 19, 2017
Bombardiers control wheel located on the right side of the gondola on the floor of the fuselage. This is made from solder
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February 19, 2017
Bombardiers steering wheel made from solder shown previously. The rack is mounted in front of the bombardiers bomb release and instruments panel. This is the rack I think the front outside cover on the gondola slides along and into the fuselage
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February 19, 2017
Side fuselage gun transverse arm . Handle at bottom is pulled by gunner to swap sides for the gun , right to left and left to right
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February 19, 2017
The framework which is positioned across the fuselage above the gondola gun.The black box in the framework is the ammo box for the gondola gun. The two hydraulic arms are for the gondola doors.The grey strip is cable duct from the bomb release to the bomb
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February 19, 2017
Bombardiers bomb release box,top cover is open to expose piano key leavers to press to release the bomb. Photo etch leavers from EDUARD not added yet.
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February 19, 2017
Rear side of bombardiers panel
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February 19, 2017
Kit instrument panel , i replaced this with the EDUARD photo etch part , so much better
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February 19, 2017
Dorsal gun mount
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February 19, 2017
EDUARD instrument panel
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February 19, 2017
Looking from underneath up to the slide waste gun slide rail right to left , left to right to fire the gun.
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February 19, 2017
Floor windows to be mounted on the left and right side of gondola
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February 19, 2017
Black control rods from cockpit to fin and elevator
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February 19, 2017
Fuel level rods and control levers on the center board
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
Evergreen rod to make up the framework
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
The "S" bend is the cable duct from the bombardiers bomb release box up to the individual bomb. The 5 bomb hooks will be replaced to the correct bracket type mount release.
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February 19, 2017
Black vertical rod next to the black wheel on the floor is the control rod for the flight controls while the bombardier uses the wheel to steer the aircraft while bombing
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February 19, 2017
Flight control rods are black, the scissor link is to be added to join onto the top control rods. The wheel on the side wall is a trailing antennae I think
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February 19, 2017
Behind the Pilots seat and above are the two support frames which will support the forward facing machine gun
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February 19, 2017
EDUARD instrument panel installed. You dont see much detail through cockpit glass unfortunately
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
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February 19, 2017
I was always hopeing TAMIYA would build a CLEAR FUSELAGE version of this kit. Similar to the Swordfish. I can wish!
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February 19, 2017
Kit resin cockpit side walls used with additional detailing
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February 19, 2017
Pale green for the cockpit (I mixed Gunze 312 with white to obtain the colour) and light grey for the rear fuselage.
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February 22, 2017
Cockpit side walls marked out to scratch build the frame work. I decided to speed up the building by using the resin side walls as not a lot is seen.
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February 22, 2017
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February 22, 2017
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February 22, 2017
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Comments

19 February 2017, 05:02

gorby
That interior is stunningly good Bill!

19 February 2017, 16:29

Phenix Outis
OMG, this is madness . Amazing detailling, Bill

19 February 2017, 18:38

Augie
Wow bill, that is impressive.

19 February 2017, 18:54

Alec K
This is looking great! May I ask what documentation you have to guide the interior detailing, and the build in general? I have a 1:72 Italeri SM-79 on my "future project" list, and am looking for good sources. Thanks!

19 February 2017, 20:43

Spanjaard
great interior....

19 February 2017, 21:09

Bill Spargo
Thanks everyone for your comments, they are appreciated. Alec, this aircraft is my signature aircraft, this is the one I had to build as accurately as my research information would allow me to build. Research has been from drawings and photos mainly. In fact this interior has been redone 3 times! to get it right (from all the info I have collected over a 7 year period. I am confident to say these interior photos are as accurate as my research allows. If it was me wanting to build this aircraft I would just copy my interior (thats why I have these photos here, to help other people do better than i have done, anyway you cant go too far wrong. Also bare in mind even if it is wrong 90% of what you look at will not be easily seen when built. Oh by the way I too am building the SM79 by ITALERI 72nd scale, its a good kit. You will be amazed the variety of colour schemes on this aircraft. The only info I dont have anything on is the bombardiers gondola front cover(the curved section that appears to me to protect the forward looking perspex on the gondola. I am not certain if this slides up some distance into the fuselage interior when airborne to allow the bombardier to look forward for bomb aiming. It seems logical to me this cover is to reduce the sand blasting that would take place on the underbelly gondola particularly on takeoff and landing. I do have more photos of the interior from the start . i could not find them when I started this folder, they will be added when I find them. If any one wants help for this aircraft contact me I would love to help you and look forward to seeing more of this colourful aircraft built.

19 February 2017, 22:05

Alec K
Bill, thanks very much for the info. Your work is superb, and will definitely be a guide when I get to this project. Any specifics you can capture regarding materials, paint colors etc. with the pics would be greatly appreciated (I realize that all this on-line stuff takes away from the bench time, so it's of course merely a humble plea to be ignored at your leisure). In any case, the Sparviero is a beautiful machine, and your rendition will surely be a contest winner. Best of luck, and I look forward to more progress pics.

19 February 2017, 23:48

Michael Hickey
That interior is probably the best I have ever had the pleasure of seeing you do, out of all your detailed work this is by far the best and I am thankful that I have it already done in my SM-79. Now I'm just to scared to go on with her for fear of not doing her justice.

20 February 2017, 04:43

Bill Spargo
Hey Mikey, We are all scared of not doing our models justice. Sometimes we just have to "Do it" and things will flow from there. Just do your best, thats all anyone can ask for, at least you have given it a go.

20 February 2017, 04:49

Michael Hickey
Your right Sir, I think I will add her to the next list of 20 kits.

20 February 2017, 04:57

Hubert Kendziorek
Bill, even if most of what we all look at will not be seen when built, we still know it is there. Watching with great interest, what you show here is the essence of this hobby. Best regards, Hubert

22 February 2017, 10:45

Bart Goesaert
modelling till the last detail... wonderfull craftmanship...

22 February 2017, 10:57

Alec K
Great progress, Bill 👍. It is a shame that it's all going to be closed up at some point. But at least there will be the photos to go back to. I read somewhere that the British admiralty had detailed models of their Man'o'War ships made, with complete interiors. But since, as far as I know 😉, there was no photography back then, it was all hidden when done. Could this madness be genetic??? 🤔 😄

22 February 2017, 12:17

Bill Spargo
Hubert, yes the research is half the fun and the internet has made it possible for me to obtain reference photos of the aircraft thankfully to other enthusiasts who publish their photos for someone to use. Without my reference photos I could not reproduce what I have done. I am in debt to them. Thanks guys for the kind words.

22 February 2017, 21:07

Album info

SM-79, CLASSIC AIRFRAMES 48th Scale, Kit No. 452. Scratch built interior for my third favourite aircraft. This is my modelling inspiration from when i was 7 years of age when i saw my uncles Airfix SM79 on the book shelf, it left a lasting impression on me to strive to do the best i can in building models and hopefully one day build a SM79 as good as my uncles model. Well here it is.

Oh my favourite aircraft are the B-58 with a very close second the Aussie MIRAGE 111O.

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