Ooops!
Some pictures of the 374 Squadriglia MC-202 in action:
Thank you, Captain Kurt!
Hi Wolfgang,
I must report there's a small error in the wing roundels of the first screenshot you posted. It's a recurrent repainters' error and it has to do with their orientation.
I covered this subject already in the past more than once, but I cannot recover those old thread. They probably got lost during SOH life.
Anyway, the 3 symbols inside the roundels are the ancient Roman consular symbols of an ax bundled in a bunch of sticks. It meant the law administration power the consuls had, from the lowest punishment of public lashing to the highest of death sentence through beheading.
Such consular symbol was adopted by fascists, who dreamed to bring back the glory of Roman Empire.
As a matter of fact, "fascio" means "bundle" in Italian, such as the bundle of whips wrapping the ax in the consular symbol. "fascismo" could be translated in "bundlism".
Wing roundels in Regia Aeronautica were changed to the previous red-white-green Italian Royal Air Force roundels to fascist roundels shortly before Italy joined WWII, and the roundels were painted so that the ax blades in the 3 consular bundles
always pointed outward.
In other words, viewing any aircraft from the top or the bottom, the right roundels would have the ax blades pointing to the right, viceversa left roundels would have the ax blades pointing to the left.
The fuselage coloured fascio symbol, normally painted on both sides of the fuselage or, sometimes, both sides of the engine cowls on multi-engine aircraft, has the ax blade
always pointing forward.
The first screenshot shows the M.C. 202 left wing roundel with the ax blades pointing towards the aircraft fuselage, while they should point leftward. The roundel must be turned around 180°.
The below beautiful M.C. 202 profile, courtesy of Wings Palette, shows exactly what I explained above. The first picture shows the ancient Roman symbol.
This, of course, doesn't mean whoever repaints a Regia Aeronautica livery overlooking this detail is some kind of dumb or else. It's an error I even found many years ago on plastic scale models built by Italian modellers, paintings I saw on modelling magazines, even aviation history books. It's very easy tripping on this detail, the important thing is to correct it before releasing the repaint.
Captain Kurt's splendid repaint, otherwise impeccable, would be sadly spoiled.
Thank you both, gentlemen, I can't wait to see your new effort future release.
KH 