I had to design and print quite a few decals for this as the kits decal sheet was lacking in registrations and I did not want to mask off the top of the hulls
My interest in this aircraft type was kindled about 20 years ago when I came across some original photos. I did a bit of research and discovered the pretty amazing feat of the round the world flight by a fleet (a "Balbo") of Italian Flying boats to attend the Chicago World Fair.
Finding a kit was difficult, these are as rare as rocking horse doodoo and even though quite crude fetches quite high prices. I was very lucky to get one at a reasonable price from Larry Schmidt at Hyperscale about 5 years ago. After I finished my SM75 I-TALO I thought it needed a compadre in the cabinet so I pulled this out... A challenging build.
Each aircraft carried civil type registrations under wing (both wings) with the letter "I" for Italy and the first 4 letters of the aircraft commanders name. I picked the Formation leader Italo Balbo's aircraft as my subject. In my research I found an Italian documentary of the flight and took a couple of screen grabs of it. The lead aircraft was equipped with some blind flying aid which looks remarkably like a head up display projection! Not bad for the age:
