Italeri's kit is not of Hasegawa or Tamiya fit quality but it does much
better justice to this aircraft than the ancient Supermodel kit we have all seen
for years. The panel lines seem fairly accurate and are recessed except for
the ridiculous rivet detail found mostly on the wings. This is no major problem
since once it is sanded off the recessed detail remains. The cockpit detail is
not bad for the scale and I chose to add nothing here as this was to
be a "quickie" build for me. The landing gear detail is good and
the main gear wells are boxed in with some limited details. The tail wheel well
is nearly non-existent and it nearly looks like a C202 tail with a couple of
gear doors supplied! The nose section of my kit did not fit well and
considerable sanding, shaping and rescribing had to be done. I also had to drill
out the air intake and fabricate the butterfly valve for the inside of the dust
filter. I postioned mine open as this appears to be correct for engine start. On
the plus side, the wing to fuselage joint is very good.
I
finished my model using Polly Scale RLM 76 and Model Master enamels for the top
surface RLM 75/74 colors. The landing gear and gear doors should be belly color
(76) and I believe the gear wells also. Consult photos and give it your best
guess! I used Polly Scale Italy Cockpit Green for the cockpit and same
brand for the white fuselage band. The Macchi made prop should black with
yellow tips...a practice retained in spite of the otherwise German paint scheme.
The Decals are from Third Group Decals sheet 72-013 and went on beautifully!
These folks do some great work.