Small Scale Military Headquarters

As noted on the thread about an "interesting" diecast SM-79, I went and bought the 1:72nd scale "diecast" but really resin SM-79s that were being sold and found them flawed but certainly workable platforms for code 3 s. As a reminder, here's what the first SM-79 looked like:

And the underside:

Of course, that apple green had to go and various flaws---mainly gaps----as well as omissions like the loop range finder, missing pitot heads, etc. needed to be added. I also opted to replace the more obvious machine guns.

Since some of the panel lines were painted on, I simply sanded those areas as well as the markings on the wings down and painted over them. The upper surface got a faded olive green and the lower surface became a light gray. As for the white fuselage band, I have found a number of pictures of planes from this squadron. Some show the white band without any mottle, wrapping completely around the fuselage; others show it with blotching and one seems to indicate that the top and, perhaps, the bottom was not white at all---as replicated rather crudely by the Old Cars model. I chose to complete the white band full circle around the fuselage, then heavily mottled it with green.

Finally, you will notice traces of a light blue-green color indicating wear and tear on the upper surface olive green at various places---window frames, leading edges of the wings, etc. Since the main cabin's canopy frames were about the same color, I left them as is, but completed a missing frame or two.

OK, so here's a picture of my handiwork. The model is about 99% finished with only a few small touches to be added:

Another angle:

From the front:

The other side:

A going away view:

Finally, the underside:

That looks alot better Ed.

terrific job as always, Epap. Looks super! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the other one.

Thanks, guys. And again to Af for finding these for me. Amazingly, I wound up with three of them at about $75 apiece---plus shipping.

Much improved Ed.

Think a decent 1/72 SM-79 would do quite well in diecast. Know it is on a lot of peoples wish lists.

Thanks, Snake. I agree that a 1:72nd scale SM-79 would probably be a big seller if tried by an Altaya type manufacturer as part of a larger subscription line, then sold individually in the diecast "after market" a la Oxford. I doubt that it would work for a Corgi or HM, unfortunately, as then, it would have to stand on its own.