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Kit: Eduard (1:48)
The first aircraft to submit is the Capitano Giulio Lega Hanriot of the 76^ squadriglia Royal Italian Army Aviation 1918 the reproduction is the Eduard model in 1/48 scale. Lega was an ace with 5 confirmed kills a former Granadiers officer and because the blazing granade was the simbol of his former unit a stylized version was painted on the sides of the Hd I On the model I made a stencil and use an airbrush to paint it. The cowling on contemporary photos seems dark so some historian suggest it was green but because the Grenadiers colours are red and silver so seem more logical the cowling was red... The only complain are the Alitaliane decals Hanriot part1, those are Alps printed and fixed with a Future wax coat and if you left the decals soakin in the water only some seconds more than needed the colours begin to fade! The model is basically OOB.
Kit: SMER (1:48)
The Nieuport 10 was born like a fighters but in my model was a late war trainer,I was thinking about it when I saw the profile in the Nieuport page a related link of this site so large surgery operation begun on the SMER 1/48 Nieuport 11 (after all if I was not successful with this project it wasn't a big loss).
The wing chord must be enlarged and then the ribs should be rebuilded but the biggest problem is the fuselage enlongement and the cockpit area scratchbuilding, here a large collection of plasticard is useful. A word must be spent about the colours; I choose the bright yellow tipical of that period (is possible to see how bright is the doped linen on the beautifully restored SPAD VII at italian air force museum) with blotches of a dark brown but possibly it was green like the restored Nieuport 10 preserved at Caproni Museum.
Decals came from various sources but the numbers are the F 14 Aeromaster decals serial numbers.
This is the Eduard 1/48 Nieuport 11 representing the five kills ace Capitano Alessandro Buzio mount. The kit is basically OOB and painted in the white linen fabric typical of that period of war only the forward upper fuselage is in a darker colour,the fuselage band in the national tricolours was an attemp to increase the identification by the AAA gunners that in the highlands were rather "happytriggers".
Kit: Special Hobby (1:48)
My next effort is the basically OOB Special Hobby 1/48 Spad VII, the kit really went together the only rough stuff is the double bay wires because all the principals wires are doubles.
The markings are the Alitaliane Alps printed decals, so my advice is to use just some water drops to soften the decals or the pigments will fade away and absolutely no decals softer like Microset or sol.
This example represent the mount of captain Fulco Ruffo di Calabria a 20 confirmed kills, 91^ squadriglia march 1918 and is the same represented at Italian Air Force Museum and is the oldest SPAD survived at WWI throughout the world and after I did some talk with the restorer decided to paint the model in bright yellow for the linen area and a light beige for the metal area (the original samples were just in front of me!).