1/48 Planet Models SIAI Marchetti SF 260 C

Gallery Article by Paolo Re on May 13 2011

 

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famous air cruiser led by Italo Balbo, when twenty-four S.55X seaplanes took off on 1 July 1933 from Orbetello (Rome) to the United States, in the 80's, the SIAI Marchetti has organized, an air raid.

On July 3, 1983, at the end of the Vergiate Air Show, nine SF-260C left Italy and flew for more than 8000 kilometers to Chicago, following the same course the previous polar cruise of Italo Balbo. The aircraft were white with the Italian flag painted on the left wing and horizontal planes of the corresponding queue. They had written, on fuselage, the names of the Sponsors: Nordica, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Volare. On their arrival in Chicago, Mr. Pat Ford, official speaker of the event Shovv Air and Water as announced: << Warning: this is the Italian patrol: the public remain seated and lower their heads>>. And indeed six hundred thousand people on Saturday 16 July and the next day more than one million of person were spectators of the spectacular aerobatics of Italian patrol, ispirte to the legendary Frecce Tricolori, from which came many pilots. 

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The kit, very nice and detailed, is the Planet Models, 1/48 scale. For the coloring I used the spray Tamiya pure white. I myself, based on some photographs, I designed and printed decals with ink-jet ink on special paper products for this purpose by the English firm Expert decals-choice. 

The base is made from a frame. I bought the grass in a model railway shop. 

I dedicate this kit to my father, at time manager of flight line of SIAI Marchetti Vergiate airport, and to all the pilots and personnel of that wonderful team.

Paolo Re

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Photos and text © by Paolo Re