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LF Models 1/72 Caproni Ca.331 O.A.(osservazione aerea) & C.N. (caccia noturna)
This extremely elegant aircraft was a joint winner of an Italian Air Ministry request for twin engined aircraft suitable for the air observation role (the other winning design was the more purposeful looking Cansa FC20). It was of all metal construction, a break from the traditional materials then employed by Caproni, on aircraft such as the Ca.310 thru to Ca.314 series. The O.A. (osservazione aerea) protoype, M.M. 427, was first flown on August 31 1940, after which it was flown to the Guidonia Experimental Centre for further testing. A variety of senior pilots were given the opportunity to fly it, among them Werner Moelders, all of them expressing delight with the aircrafts handling. The Germans were so impressed, even Goering was invited to view the aircraft when visiting Guidonia and was treated to a spirited flying display by col. Quarantotti. One of the problems encountered during development centered around the Piaggio propellors, so much so, they were replaced by electronically controlled Alfa Romeo units. By the end of April 1941, work on the second C.N. prototype, M.M.428, was complete and a year later in May 1942, M.M.427 was converted to the C.N. configuration, the elegant canopy glazing being dropped in favour of the more conventional stepped design developed for M.M. 428, but ruining the aircrafts elegant lines in the process. A third prototype was built, but was used for spares. All three fell into German hands after the 1943 Armistice and were eventually dismantled when they were found to be unserviceable. Despite the obvious qualities of the design, political in-fighting and poor logistics all played their part in preventing this aircraft from ever reaching full scale production.
LF Models must be applauded for choosing such an obscure subject as I'm not sure if many people know of this aircraft. They have kitted both the O.A. and C.N. versions in seperate boxings. They are quite accurate scale wise but are rather weak on detail. With an expensive price tag (55USD each) modellers have every right to feel a bit short changed when seeing the contents for the first time... me included! The instructions are easy to follow but the colour notes and are diagrams less so. A very good (and necessary) source of reference is issue 76 of Aerofan which has a detailed article on the Ca331 and provides all you need to detail the model as well as how to treat the mottled camouflage correctly for the O.A. version (the kit instructions were no help at all here). It would be logical to assume that LF Models could and should have used this article when researching the kit.
First job was to get all the main parts off their moulding blocks. It was quite an effort and a fair amount of cleaning up of the mating surfaces was needed to get a clean join, particularly the fuselage halves. I also reduced the edge thickness of each of the fuselage openings, to get to something like scale appearance. The fuselage interior, which is devoid of any detail, is then given a coat of interior green. The whole of the airframe can then be quickly assembled before any work is started on the cockpit. The wings are solid items, so the wheel wells will not have the correct depth to them. A small amount of filler is needed to smooth out the fuselage contours, especially around the wing to fuselage join and the lower fuselage. The long fairings on top of each engine cowl are moulded as separate pieces. For the the O.A. model they will need to be shortened. To get a closer match to the Alfa Romeo propellers and spinners, I borrowed the Italeri Ca314 kit parts. The cockpit detail is rather simplified and is rather like that found in the Italeri Caproni Ca.311/3/4 kits. Using the Aerofan article is an opportunity to add more. The most nerve wracking part of either assembly is trimming the vacform pieces for the canopy & fuselage windows. The O.A. has a three-piece main canopy and getting them to all fit together turns out to be a real exercise in patience! For the C.N. there is the one piece main canopy and 7 other smaller windows to trim and glue into position. I used the turret detail taken from the Ca.311 and the dome itself is replaced by the Falcon Cant Z.1007 moulding.
After masking the canopies with Tamiya tape (yet another exercise in patience) grey primer is applied. This gives a chance to check any missed filling or shape errors. The white areas can then be sprayed, including the base colour for the yellow cowls for the O.A. After the yellow was applied, the fuselage band, rudder crosses and cowls are masked and the grey undersurface sprayed with Xtracolor X134. When that had dried, the demarcation lines were masked, using the photos in the Aerofan article as a guide, in readiness for the mottled upper scheme of the O.A. Using a base colour of Humbrol 63, mottles of Xtracolour X109 and Humbrol 66 were applied, using a dense green pattern with small amounts of brown. The C.N. is the overall verde oliva scuro with slightly different demarcation line along the fuselage.
Other painting notes missed by LF Models were the black areas painted on the lower portion of each of the undercarriage doors to hide the exhaust stain from the Delta engines. The front of the propellers were painted a pale blue although some photos of the C.N. have been in black. They should have Alfa Romeo badges in the center but they were not present on the decal sheet and could not track any down in the spares that were the right size. The decal sheet is OK, just a crudely drawn set of generic markings commonly used on all Regia Aeronautica aircraft. I decided to use better quality decals from spares, the wing markings for example are too small for the O.A. I completely ignored the kit instructions for their placement as they are quite wrong. For example, the position shown for the fuselage fasce emblem was below the upper turret, which is correct for the C.N. version, but not the O.A.
In summary, a very interesting experience. It was hard to resist building such a beautiful looking aircraft, but the poor level of detail and weak colour instructions were a major disappointment, being more of a hindrance than a help. The chance discovery of the Aerofan article saved the day and enabled me to press on and finish each model to a satisfactory standard. However, I could not help but think that it could have been so much better.