1/300th Italian Fighter Aircraft in North Africa

Time for some more Italian targets aircraft for my Desert Raiders project. These are 1/300th models from Heroics and Ros. As with the Bombers I painted up a few weeks ago the primary purpose of these is as objectives for my LRDG and SAS raiders to destroy. As with the larger planes these models do not have undercarriage modelled and as I want these to represent parked aircraft I had to improvise with small wooden blocks underneath. Although you can see these in the following pictures from above (the normal viewpoint of the wargamer) they can't really be seen.

I have painted two types of Italian Fighter planes that saw service in North Africa leading up to the period I am working on (Late 1942). First off are three Breda Ba.65's, an all-metal single-engine, low-wing monoplane used primarily for ground attack roles. These were on old aircraft by 1942 having first seen service during the Spanish Civil War. Most had been destroyed by 1941 but a handful continued in service beyond that date. I decided to have a small group because their ground attack role compliments the Bombers I have already painted. 

The Breda Ba.65's armament was primarily machine guns in the wings with two 12.7 mm (0.50 cal) heavy machine guns and two 7.7 mm (0.303 cal) general purpose machine guns, plus up to 500 kg of bombs in the internal bomb bay and on wing racks.

Next up are three Fiat G50 fighters. First flown in February 1937, the G.50 was Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable Undercarriage to go into production. Like many Italian aircraft of the period they were very manoeuvrable but lacked fire-power (two 12.7 mm (0.50 cal) Breda HMGs). They were far from useless however and in the hands of skilled pilots could be deadly.