Misterkit 1/72 Fiat CR.42 Falco

MISTERKIT 1:72 FIAT CR.42 FALCO
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Johan De Wolf (rec.models.scale)

Aircraft: Fiat Cr.42 Falco nightfighter
Kit: Mister Kit # PMK 72-02
Scale: 1/72
Parts: 27 injection moulded, 30 resin, 2 vacuform, 15 etched, 4 film.
Decals: 2 options
Surface detail: very finely engraved
Accuracy: excellent
Price: 23.25 euro

Aircraft:
The Fiat Cr.42 is a rather well known aircraft so I wont indulge on a history.

The kit:
As is usual with this kind of kit, it comes in an end opening box. It is a true multimedia kit. Injection moulded parts are courtesy of MPM, etched parts signed by Eduard, resin by CMK and decals printed by Sky models. The avid modeller will recognize these names as pretty much the best producers in this branch of models. The injection moulded parts are in light grey and need a bit of clean up as usual. The resin parts are absolutely state of the art with no bubbles anywhere. One of the cowlings was a bit oval, but nothing a dip in warm water won't cure. The vacuform windscreen comes with a spare. In my kit the spare was crushed so I better not mess up the remaining one. The decals are top quality. Etched parts made by Eduard. Need I say more? A ten page A5 size English/Italian instruction booklet, that leaves virtually no doubt about what goes where, complements this kit.

Accuracy:
Both length and span of the upper wing are spot on, lower wing is 1mm short. The rib detail on the wings and rear fuselage has been very delicately reproduced. The kit captures the elegant lines of the Falco well. Especially the cowling with all the small bumps is excellently reproduced. Only the tailwheel fairing needs a light sanding to make it a bit less square.

Options:
This kit is meant to be built as a night fighter/bomber. However it contains all the parts to build either a Cr.42bis, Cr.42AS, Cr.42CB, Cr.42CN or a Cr.42LW. For the bis it contains a normal cowling and short stub exhaust. For the AS a cowling with dust filter. For the CB two bombs including bomb rack. For the CN the early style short, and late style long exhaust with flame damper. The searchlight pods and wing mounted generator that where experimentally used on some Italian nightfighting Falco's are also present. And finally for the LW version, built specifically for the Luftwaffe, there are the hedgehog type flame damper exhausts and the same bombs with rack as for the CB and the cowling with dust filter.

On top of these versions you can choose for a prop with a long spinner, usually seen on the machines with a tropical filter. A prop with a short spinner, most common. Or one without spinner, this was rarely seen. Hold on I'm not done yet. For the landing gear again you have three choices: spatted wheels, most common. Short spats, as used by the Germans. Or no spats as seen on a lot of trainers. So it is possible to build as good as any Falco right from this kit.

Construction:
The instructions start with a warning. Since it is a short run kit you are expected to scratchbuild some parts yourself. Ok fair enough. There are only a few places where you need to do this though. The first place is in the cockpit. The drawings clearly show you where to place some internal structure inside the fuselage halves. Also you need to make the compass, oxygen tank and rudder bar. All else is provided for. There are a bulkhead, a floor, a beautiful 4 piece seat (including belts), control stick (very nice resin cast), a side console with levers and one with instruments, 3 etched parts with film backing for the instrument panel and an etched mounting for the compass and gunsight. The instructions tell you to fit the top two instrument panels to the bulkhead, but in reality they stand free of it. So its better to glue them to the cockpit coaming. Colours are given for all the details. Before you start building up the cockpit, make sure the lower wing fits perfectly under the fuselage. It only takes some light cleaning up by scraping away some excess plastic, but once the cockpit is installed it will be very difficult to do it without breaking anything. Also if you fit the cockpit floor to the lower wing, as per instruction drawing, I think it will sit too low inside the fuselage. Therefore I will try to slide the completed cockpit assembly inside the fuselage before I fit the lower wing.

The cowling and engine are both beautiful resin casts. The cylinder heads need to be sanded down a bit to get the engine to fit inside the cowling. For all versions you can fit the standard stub exhausts. The flame dampers will connect to these, as seen on the real aicraft, but they can be left off until most painting is done. The prop is injection moulded as one piece and needs a bit of cleaning up.

The most difficult part of this kit will be the wings. All struts are provided as separate items. Though it will be more tricky to get right, it will sure look a lot more realistic than Revells approach. Since this is a short run kit there are no location pips or dips on either the struts or the wings. Now before you run away screaming, it's not as bad as it seems. All you need is patience and blue-tac. I have a big blob of the stuff (about 3 packs worth) on my desk. It comes in very handy when you are short of hands. The drawings give you exact measurement on where to place the struts. Mark these places on the wings with a pencil. Now take a strut, put it on the appropriate mark on the lower wing and put a blob of blue-tac next to it to keep it in place at about the right angle. Do this for all the for all the struts. Again using blue-tac stick the upper wing upside down to a book, a box or a jig made of Lego (best toy ever invented). Do this in such a way that the blue-tac can easily be removed without putting pressure on the wing. Now put the fuselage and lower wing on top of the upper wing and hold it place with, ...you guessed it, blue-tac. Do this in a way where the struts touch the upper wing but are not resting on it. Blue-tac is sticky but flexible, so you can push the struts and fuselage gently till everything is correctly aligned. Once you are satisfied, use a toothpick to put small drops of CA glue where the struts meet the upper wing. Do not use a gel type CA but the fast drying liquid version. The capillary effect will suck the small drops in between the wing and the strut thus creating a strong bond. Let the CA glue thoroughly harden before you proceed. Now you can carefully remove a blob that held a strut to the bottom wing and place drop of CA glue on the joint. Repeat this process until every strut is fixed. Although this method is quite time consuming, you can spot right away if struts are too short or too long and there will be no unpleasant surprises afterwards.

With the wing construction out of the way, the rest is straight forward. Choose the landing gear that is correct for the aircraft you want to model and fix it to the lower wing. The bracing struts have to be made from stretched sprue. After that all that remains to be added are the small details and the items specific for the version you are modelling.

Decals:
There are two options. The first is for an all black Italian Cr.42CN with the early style exhausts. This machine belonged to 377a Sqn. and was based at Palermo-Boccadifalco airport in the summer of 1942. The second option is for a German machine camouflaged in RLM 76 lower surfaces and RLM 74 upper surfaces with an RLM 75 mottle. This machine belonged to 2.NSGr9 and it was based at Tourin-Casalle airfield in May 1944.

Conclusion:
If you want an accurate Falco in your collection, this is the one to get! The price may seem a bit steep, but you get what you pay for, a state of the art mixed media kit. It is not for the beginner due to the separate struts. If you have a one or two biplane kits under your belt already, this one shouldn't pose any problems especially since rigging is minimal on this Fiat. After completing this kit there will be enough parts left over to spruce up the old Revell kit you might still have in your "to build" stack.

A separate kit with decals for a daylight fighter/bomber is also available (#PMK 72-01)

References:
Air Enthousiast #20
Profile publications #16
Regia Aeronautica vol 1, Squadron/Signal publications
Ali d'Italia #1

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Matchbox 1/72 Fiat CR.42 Falco

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