1/48 Heller Fiat G91-R3 "GINA"

by Franco Giacon

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Hello guys, I'm here again as promised with an old Heller 1/48 Fiat G91 model, coming from an Ebay auction for a few euro.  Well, the quality of the kit is really bad, the worst part is the cockpit and the seat, absolutely without any detail.  So, nice challenge !!

First of all I decided to upgrade the ejection seat and the cockpit utilizing only scratchbuilt accessories.  So, safety belts are strips of a  thin lead foil, (coming from a wine bottle) all the hooks and ejection commands are made with electrical wires of different diameters.  Also the cloche is a rigid copper wire.  I added also the collimator, built with 2 small metallic wires plus a drop of Kristal clear.  In the end, the result was not so bad and I decided to keep the canopy open, adding the rear view mirror.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

Building the rest of the model was not so difficult, considering that the kit is very simple, with not too much putty was used.  After a first airbrush painting with Humbrol enamel and 2 coats of Future, I prepared for the decals, absolutely terrible and with the colours out of register.  Ok, no problems.  After all the decals were applied, a new coat of Future and a weathering sessions utilizing oil colours in white petrol.

 

The  scratchbuilt items I added were the position lights (Kristal clear drop painted with a permanent marker), the pitot (hypodermic needle + guitar string), the guns (Hypodermic  needle), the camera windows on the nose (squared hole + Kristal clear).

The result is not so bad, and overall I learned a lot of tricks building this model.  And this is the only positive thing in this product!!  If you can, avoid it!  Next model, a very old Matchbox Vickers Wellington, 5 euro in a old things market.

See you soon.

Franco

Photos and text © by Franco Giacon