Hello everyone,
Autumn has finally arrived here in Japan, bringing pleasantly cool temperatures and beautiful weather. After the long, hot summer, it is a wonderful season to spend time working on models and exploring aviation history.
While researching the history of Japanese solid modeling, I recently came across something that I thought might interest the members of Solid Model Memories.
Thanks to Vitor, a fellow aircraft-model researcher in Brazil, I was introduced to the digital archive of Gruppo Falchi Bergamo in Italy. Among its historical publications, I discovered a collection of the Italian modeling magazine Modellismo, published during the years following World War II.
49-Modellismo---Feb.-1953--1.png
To my surprise, several issues contained articles and drawings devoted to wooden aircraft solid models.
Some even used the Italian expression modello solido — literally, "solid model."
So far, I have identified material relating to ten aircraft published between 1945 and 1955, including the Macchi C.202, P-80 Shooting Star, Spitfire, B-36, Beechcraft Bonanza, Grumman Panther, F-86 Sabre, MiG-15, Fiat G.49, and Macchi Castoldi 72.
The construction methods are remarkably familiar. Fuselages were carved from solid blocks of wood, wings were shaped separately, and drawings included the fuselage sections needed to reproduce the aircraft's three-dimensional form.
One detail particularly surprised me: the February 1953 issue presented a Fiat G.49 solid model at 1:50 scale. I had not expected to encounter this particular scale in an Italian solid-model construction article.
49-Modellismo---Feb.-1953--17.png
The drawings themselves are also fascinating. Several include three views, fuselage sections, and other details that would have been immediately useful to anyone accustomed to traditional solid-model construction.
49-Modellismo---Feb.-1953--16.png
Of course, similarities in construction methods do not necessarily mean that Italian and Japanese modelers influenced one another. At present, I have found no direct historical evidence of such a connection.
Nevertheless, these old magazines show that comparable forms of wooden aircraft solid modeling existed in different parts of the world.
For those of us who have spent many years carving aircraft from wood, it is especially interesting to discover that modelers in another country, more than seventy years ago, were working with such familiar materials, drawings, and techniques.
I have included some original pages from Modellismo to illustrate these discoveries.
I hope you will enjoy this small excursion into the history of solid modeling in Italy.
I would also be interested to hear whether any members have encountered similar wooden solid-model construction articles or drawings in old European or American modeling magazines.
Perhaps these discoveries will help us gradually build a broader picture of the international history of solid modeling.
Best regards,
Kenji
Thank you for posting.
Louis
I admit, I know very little about the history of solid model building, but I'm certainly enjoying it in the present. Thank you for sharing this historical artifact!