L'asino Rabbioso(the Rabid Donkey)

[gooberliberation]

...or, how to spend six months on a shake-and-bake kit.
Link to SSGB thread

The Breda Ba. 350 began its life as a request for a single engine ground-attacker, dive bomber, light torpedo plane, high speed courier, reconaissance plane, pratroop transport, patrol bomber, and reusable air-raid decoy.

Armament was to be no less than four .5in machine guns(two of which in a remote control turret), four 20mm cannons, two 30mm cannons, and at least 10,000lbs of bombs, torpedoes, rockets, or naval mines. The airplane, including armor, was to be pulled aloft by a single 1,000hp piaggio radial. A maximum range of 4,000miles and a speed of 440mph was required.

Not wanting to be caught with another embarassingly bad airplane, Breda managed to eliminate pretty much every intended role except for ground-attack, the requirment that the aircraft be single-engined, and most of the required performance and bombload specifications. As luck would have it, FIAT scored a license to produce the BMW 801 radial engine. Breda went and scaled and beefed up their Ro. 67 trimotor fighter design for the job, resulting in the Ba. 350. Even during initial flight testing, Ba.350 prototypes were flown with ballast representing the weight of heavy armor and weapons, to avoid raising false expectations of performance. Nonetheless, the 350 was had a the respectable top speed of nearly 340mph.

A hulking brute of a plane, the 350 did have its flaws. Excessive engine torque and less-than-ideal forward visibility were common complaints. The horribly overworked interruptor gear for the middle engine was also prone to failure in early production models. Heavy fighter, dive bomber, and unarmed and dearmored photo reconaissance versions were planned but none built.

Rabid Donkeys(a term of affection, surely), entered service in 1942, where they proved to be formidable attackers. By the end of the war, all surviving Ba 350s had been siezed by the Luftwaffe and were being used in the eastern front. One captured Ba 350 is on static display in the Музей кораблей с забавляя именами(museum of vehicles with funny names) in Moscow.


Turret(yep, it rotates, really) has two .5in machine guns.


Experimental dual barrel 75mm antitank gun.


By far, the biggest headache in building the model was scratching the cooling fans for the outboard engines.


The final paint job isn't totally satisfactory(for me), but it sure was fun to do. This was the first model I've done in years in which I painted the whole thing by brush. Also the first model I've painted since I've officially changed religions from enamel to acrylic paints

I had originally intended to use three inline engines, which... would've really saved me a lot of trouble, but I went for radial engines for the sake of survivabilty. At the moment, I thought that making armored radiators would be tooo hard.    :dum:

If I actually stuck with watercooled engines, I would've ended up with something resembling a Ro.67, the existence of which I just discovered yesterday

Many thanks to chap, who sent me a superb tamiya Aichi M6A Seiran kit. One of these days, I'll build one like I'm s'posed to. B) Seriously, it's a really nice kit of a fascinating aircraft. Build includes components from an... Aichi M6A, Me 410, Ju 188, Fw190, Su-22, and F/A-18

[nev]

You got a real Crimson Skies thang going on there  B)  

[ysi_maniac]

       
Really five stars.

[Archibald]

Brilliant!    

[Rafael]

I really wouldn't like to see that menacing, hulking burro rabioso anywhere near me. I bet the recoil of those 75mm was a kick so strong that it earned it the name.

Really impressive work Goober.

Rafa

[Brian da Basher]

That's really awesoem goober! I really like the cool trimotor configuration, huge double 75 and waaay cool camo scheme and markings! My hat's off to your imagination and ingenuity! Two thumbs up!

Brian da Basher

[Chap]

Great work Goober , in every aspect! Much better than collecting dust in my model stash.

~Steve

[Glenn Gilbertson]

It would certainly scare me!  

[Sisko]

Yep definitely Crimson Skies.

Especially with that BFG! B)