1/72 ICM Chato

Gallery Article by Greg Kerry on July 15 2020

 

      

Main impetus for this diorama was to finally use up the Airwaves white metal Spanish Republican figures which I must have originally bought about thirty years ago. They are very fine castings. Also excellent is the fuel bowser - another long-ago purchase whose manufacturer I can now no longer recall.

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Alas, I cannot use the same positive adjectives for the ICM kit. I don't believe I've ever had such a small model give me such a huge amount of problems. It's like a typical limited run model - ie with a complete lack of locating points yet the thing includes a high level of detail (especially in the cockpit). With such a lack of location points and mediocre instructions squeezing all the supplied parts into the cockpit pretty much defeated me. 
Even getting the seat in the right position was really difficult.

Then there's that one-piece upper wing. Get this wrong and the model will never look right. Aargh.  And only butt-mountings for wing and undercarriage struts. Stick, check, pull apart. Stick, check  . . . you get the idea.

Finish utilized my normal Tamiya acrylics, brushed on.

Wanting to make this diorama typical for time and place, a little internet research brought up pictures of dusty, sunny places often with some kind of bomb shelters. Thus my inspiration for the part-structure on the right. It's just made from expanded polystyrene covered in white glue-soaked tissue with front façade and steps from plastic card.

Greg Kerry

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Photos and text © by Greg Kerry