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.
Click and all will be revealed:
The light grey 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.
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).
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