| Italeri 1/72nd MC. 205 Veltro |
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| One of the most aesthetically pleasing Italian aircraft of
WWII, the Macchi Mc.202 & 205 have been somewhat underproduced in kit
form compared to say, those pesky German types. Having already acquired
the Hasegawa Mc.202 years ago I never bothered to pick up the Italeri version
when it came out a while back. When the 205 hit the shelves a few weeks
ago I decided to take a chance and plunked down my hard earned £2.99.
This is one of Italeri's better efforts - in fact I would say it's their
best so far - so I guess it was three quid well spent. |
The light gray parts have fine recessed panel lines, adequate detail
moulded on the cockpit walls and a reasonable attempt at fabric control
surfaces. The elevators are the exception here as they are a bit on the
heavy side. Dimensions and shapes fare very well compared to the plans
in "Aircraft Archive Fighters of WWII, Volume 2". Fuselage and
horizontal stabs are pretty much spot on whereas the wings are about 5
scale inches too short - certainly close enough for me. The leading edge
of the fin is noticeably undernourished but shouldn't be too difficult
to correct with a bit of sheet plastic and putty. There are two sets of
horizontal stabilisers incuded, one set not being needed. I assume these
are for the 202. |
| Clear parts aren't too bad, but what's this?! They are folded
inside the instruction sheet instead of rattling around loose like the broken
bits I got in
Italeri's A-7E. This could have been by accident I suppose but I like
to think Italeri is actually listening to its consumers (or just got tired
of replacing broken canopies) and is making an attempt to improve the packing
of their kits. Their re-issue of Esci's CF-5A has the clear parts packed
in a little plastic bag - now that's more like it. |
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A small but nicely printed decal sheet (plus a correction sheet for the
handed fascias on the wings) contains markings for three aircraft. One
is for an aircraft of 1° Gruppo Caccia in three tone gray camouflage,
which I assume would be Luftwaffe colours. The second scheme is a more
typical sand, green and light gray 205 from 6° Stormo. Both of these
are from the Italian Republican Air Force and have the Italian flag on
fuselage sides and black fascias on the wings. The third scheme is from
378° Squadriglia, Italian Co-belligerent Air Force. This is also in
sand, green and light gray and has Italian roundels in six positions. |
| All in all a very nice bit of plastic for a very reasonable
price. Now if I could just get a new canopy for my A-7 my faith might just
be restored in Italeri..... (finally replaced - 12/11/02). |
