Airfix 1/72 Fiat G50bis

AIRFIX 1:72 FIAT G50bis

Reviewer: Dave McDougall (crustyoldseadog@aol.com)
Kit Review submitted: November 2000

Aircraft:
In 1935 the issue of a specification for an all-metal monoplane fighter for the Regia Aeronautica attracted at least six competing designs. Though the Macchi 200 was ultimately to become dominant, the initial winner was the Fiat G.50, the first major design by Ing Guiseppe Gabrielli (hence the designation). Its flight trials went smoothly, an order was placed in September 1937 and deliveries began early in 1938. About a dozen of the first production G.50s were sent to reinforce the Aviazone Legionaria in Spain where their good qualities of speed and maneuverability were manifest. On the other hand, pilots disliked having a sliding cockpit canopy, which was not easy to open quickly and interfered with vision and in the next production batch an open cockpit was adopted. The poor armament was not changed, but fairings for the retracted wheels were added. Production got under way in 1939, with deliveries replacing the C.R.32 in Regia Aeronautica fighter squadrons (not always to the pilots’ delight), and a further 35 being flown to Finland where they gave admirable service. The main production version was the G.50bis, with reprofiled fuselage giving improved pilot view, armour and self-sealing tanks. About 450 were built.

The Kit:
This Airfix kit comes in a nice and compact box. Happily sealed in a plastic bag are 32 pieces molded in light grey plastic and one transparent cockpit windscreen.

Copy of the older boxart for this kit - note the omission of 'bis' in spite of the same action scene

Quality of the moldings is okay. There was a small amount of flash on the undercarriage pieces, but everything else was fine. The cockpit windscreen was in with the other pieces so I was expecting it to be scratched but luckily it wasn’t. Detail is average/poor. All panel lines are raised, but I’m glad to say there are no “golf ball” sized rivets anywhere. There’s not a lot of detail on this kit but at least the various parts look like they’re supposed to.

Instructions:
The instructions come on a single folded A4 sized sheet. Side one gives some minimal information about the aircraft and the usual warning messages in about five million languages. Side two comprises a four-stage exploded view construction diagram that’s nice and clear. One sheet of decals is provided. The painting and decal instructions are shown on the bottom of the box in colour.

Options & Versions:
What options do you get? Erm, one, and that’s it. There are no optional parts. The paint scheme and decals provide for a “Fiat G50-bis Freccia of the 51^st Stormor, 21^st Grappo, Italian Air Force 1941”.

Construction:
This is a skill level 1 kit that’s simple and quick to build. I followed the four stage exploded view and encountered no real problems building it, so I will go through construction briefly and touch on a few points.

The fuselage is assembled first. No cockpit detail is provided except for a basic seat. (You also get a pilot figure which I didn’t use.) However, the G.50 has a tiny cockpit opening, so you’re not going to see much (if anything) so the lack of detail is no real loss.

Stage two sees you building the engine. I assembled the two-part engine and painted it and the engine cowling separately. I then fitted the completed engine into the cowling. Be careful when you do this. – Don’t push the engine right to the front of the cowling. It actually sits further back. If you do fit it right at the front, you’ll end up with a propeller that protrudes some scale 4 or 5 feet from the front of the aircraft. After I painted and fitted the engine I did the same with the engine exhausts. It’s not clear from the instructions which way round these are fitted, so I advise looking at some reference material to make sure you fit them the right way round. I also painted the propeller at this stage.

Next up were the wings and tail. In this kit you get separate port and starboard top wing pieces but the bottom piece is a single molding. The top wings fit onto the bottom leaving a space for the fuselage to slot into. I much prefer this type of wing setup as opposed to having to attach the wings to the side of the fuselage as this way you don’t have to worry about attaching the wings at the right angle. The only concern is that the fuselage fits properly. I had no need to worry here as Airfix have done a good job. The wings and fuselage came together perfectly without the need for any sanding/filler. I also had no problems with the tail.

I then attached the completed engine assembly to the fuselage. Make sure that you fit this at the correct angle. – Once fitted the cowling should follow the same lines as the fuselage. If you glue the cowling a bit too firmly onto the fuselage you’ll end up with it mounted at the wrong angle.

As I was modeling a ”wheels down” aircraft, the last bit to do was the undercarriage. This was straightforward but note that you don’t get any detail (or sidewalls) in the wheelbays, so if you want this then you’ll have to scratchbuild it.

Painting & Decals:
Onto the painting and decals. Airfix have only provided decals for one aircraft. These are nicely printed. – They’re in register and have crisp edges. They do however have one flaw which I discovered when attaching the roundels to the wings. – They are very transparent. As white is the largest colour component of these decals, this was bad news. I didn’t think it very likely that I could obtain aftermarket decals for this aircraft so I was forced to use the kit ones. One further note of criticism. – This particular aircraft has a white band on the rear fuselage. Airfix have provided a decal for this but it’s a bit unusual. Rather than provide a decal with a slight curve to it, they’ve supplied a decal that has straight edges but is angled in three places. There are no instructions showing how this is supposed to fit on the model and I couldn’t work out the correct way it should be attached. Eventually, after much gnashing of teeth, I gave up, got the masking tape out, and painted my own. Either this is a case of Airfix being a bit too clever for their own good, or my stupidity. One of the two.

Accuracy:
Is it an accurate kit? According to the information I have, the wingspan/length should scale out in 1/72^nd to 15.14/10.83cm respectively. The Airfix kit measures 15.4/11.00 which I think is not unacceptable. I only have a side view of the aircraft so I’m don’t know whether Airfix have captured the look of the wings correctly or not. The fuselage looks fine except for immediately to the rear of the cockpit. - This doesn’t quite capture the look of the actual aircraft.

Overall:
Summing up, it’s a basic Airfix kit. It was easy to build and makes a reasonable model as long as you’re not a stickler for either 100% accuracy of the sort of detail you get in a “Tamagawa” kit. The decals are a pain though.

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