Regia Aeronautica Dewoitine D.520

[MrSmoothie]

Has anybody ever seen actual photos of the Regia Aeronautica Dewoitine D.520 represented in these two profiles?

 

[Capt. Vick]

I have an italian book that has many pictures of the 520 in Italian service and I don't recall seeing any painted as such. That is pretty unique for that airframe and so I think I would remember it.

 

[Snautzer01]

 

[fubar57]

I went through three D.520 specific books and a handful of Italian Air Force books and I've found one photo where the Italian D.520 was a lighter color similar to the profiles, parked beside another in "standard" French colors. White cross on the tail and what looks like a partial white fuselage band. All other photos of D. 520s I've seen are in French colors. About 60 were used by the Italians, many as trainers

 

[al49]

I've checked my books and I didn't found any picture confirming that camou on D.520. Personally I think it's unlikely because these birds started joining Regia Aeronautica in Summer 1943 and the rules for aircraft operating in Italy were already changed to "Verde Oliva Scuro 2" (dark olive green) on upper surfaces and "Grigio Azzurro chiaro" (pale blue-grey) on lower surfaces. By the way its confirmed that a few D.520 belonged to 59° Gruppo, 232° Squadriglia and in May 1944 they were located in Metato (Pisa). There is one option to be considered too: according to the book "Aerei Francesi nella Regia Aeronautica" there were some D.520 that were given a German RLM 74 and 75 style camouflage as seen in the enclosed profile. These were deployed in Tuscany (Metato?) to protect the Italian Naval Battle Fleet in port at La spezia.

 

[MrSmoothie]

Gee, thanks everybody for making the effort, even though not the answer I was hoping for. By far, all I found were photos where the original French camo was retained, or "dark" camos. Somewhere there had to be a photo with the specific aircraft number "232-12" as both artists represented the same aircraft. Or have one of you already spotted 232-12 and it doesn't look like that scheme? Again, I appreciate the response very much!

 

[fubar57]

Found this on the WarThunder site

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Now we just need the book

 

[MrSmoothie]

Thank you -- I located that War Thunder page and it seems they posted the photo. Unfortunately it's only a partial of the cockpit and cowl. You can see that the round decal was indeed applied but that's about it.

Dewoitine D520 in italian tech tree

I'm a little confused as to whether it's the same plane in both photos, as the number on the side (partial -- "21?") appears on the right-hand photo, which does not correlate to the caption or the profile art (232-12).

 

[Milos Gazdic]

I know this was discussed quite some time ago but some of D.520s were delivered to Italy by train & even a few of those that were flown in were taken for overhaul & fixing to local workshops & factories.
from what I was recently finding online S.R.A.M. (Squadra Riparazione Aeromobili & Motori) did some of these fixes. It is very possible that those airframes that went through heavier work in these local shops received a bit different paintwork than the ones that were received directly to the operational Gruppi (the following ones seem to be major users: 13º, 22º, 24º, 59º and 161º)
two of the 232º Sq's aircraft of 59º Gruppo had local serial numbers assigned: MM95935 and MM95941. It could easily be that aircraft that had those new Serials applied were the ones that that we see in the photos posted over on War Thunder page coming from the great book which I sadly, still awaiting to arrive from French book seller.

 

[MrSmoothie]

Thanks for the additional comments. I confess that I did paint my RC model as per the first profiles I posted. I've long wanted an Italian fighter (and mottled schemes are favorites) and no such fighters, like Macchis, are currently made, and this seemed my opportunity.

 

[Milos Gazdic]

Wow! Looks great. Which "scale" is this RC model?
Looks so cool

 

[MrSmoothie]

Thanks! It's approximately 1/6 scale, 71" wingspan. It's a heavily modified "ARF" kit that's no longer manufactured.

 

[Milos Gazdic]

Looks great. Hope it handles more easily than the 1:1 D.520

 

[MrSmoothie]

It's actually one of the most stable warbirds I have -- if you have it going straight and level, you could put the transmitter down and it'd probably fly until the battery ran out.