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Reviewer: John Wilson (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  9 January 2006

Kit Details:

Special Hobby #48109 “Luftwaffe & Hungarian AF” Nardi F.N.305

Aircraft History:

The cantilever low-wing monoplane of mixed construction made its first flight in February 1935 and was intended for duties such as training, liaison and racing and came in both single and two-seat versions.  The first example was a two-seat F.N.305D which flew from Rome, Italy to Ethiopia non-stop, a record flight for an aircraft of its type.  An updated version was bought by Yugoslavia to undertake its own non-stop flight but this was aborted.  

A two-seat prototype was installed with a new engine and this was designated F.N.305A which became the standard production version for the Regia Aeronautica (Italian air force) to be used as trainers and liaison aircraft.  A total of 258 aircraft, which included single-seat F.N.305B with open cockpit and F.N.305C with closed cockpit versions, were built by Piaggio because the Nardi workshops were not big enough to undertake the production.  

During the period 1937-1940, F.N.305s participated in a number of races, contests and rallies and often won prizes for the firm which provided popular publicity to other countries in the region.  This resulted in a number of orders being placed by countries such as Romania and France, the latter having a handful of aircraft delivered before Italy declared war on France in 1940.  These aircraft found themselves in the hands of the Luftwaffe, repainted and reused by them during the occupation of France.  Hungary was the final purchaser of the type with fifty aircraft.

The Kit:

I thought this kit looked all too familiar a few months ago when it was touted as a new release until I realised that it is a reissue of the first quarter-scale F.N.305 with a new decal sheet allowing for Luftwaffe and Hungarian markings which is the only change in the kit that I can make out.  This is the type of thing Hasegawa were notorious for doing.  Inside the box are a mixture of resin, plastic, etched brass and vacform.  Including the 3 resin and 10 brass there are about 40 parts total to this kit so there is not a lot.

Instructions:

Czech and English text with brief history, sprue map, easy to follow exploded assembly views although some require a bit of study for precise placement and the usual Humbrol call out for the four view colour and marking diagrams.

Construction:

Firstly, a thorough clean up of the parts is needed first to remove the small amount of flash, seam lines and the various ejector pin marks that are prevalent on the plastic.  The plastic needs to be carefully detached from the large sprue gates and the resin parts were also delicately removed from their casting block.

For a quarter scale kit I was disappointed with the amount of detail the kit supplies in resin and plastic and etched brass for the cockpit.  Much of it other than the bare necessities were added in myself and with the two seat size of the canopy, there’s plenty of room to make an impression.  The multimedia aspect of the kit makes the fit fairly poor and a fair amount of trimming and dry fit runs is a must.

Once this is accomplished the construction process moves on quite swiftly and the fuselage halves can be closed.  The join areas need to be prepared first for a flush fit and then the join lines sanded smooth afterward.  There was no escaping the need for a little bit of filler to aid in smoothing out the joins and curves.

The upper wing halves were glued onto the lower wing piece which was inserted into the belly cavity.  This proved to be a rather problematic fit and after some dry fit runs, trimming and then filling and sending a nice finish was accomplished with some work.

There are two vacform canopies supplied so one is a spare but the option there is to obviously have the cockpit open if you are good at using scissors on these things.  The frame lines are hard to see but easy enough to replicate from the instruction sheet.

Versions/Decals:

There are two air force options from the kit, which the boxtop indicates, being Luftwaffe and Hungarian, which have identical dark green over dark grey schemes.  The decal sheet is in excellent colour register and looks thin.  I chose the G6+37 Hungarian scheme for something different and had no problems with the decals bedding down with aid of setting solution.  However, I recommend doing some research and being prepared that the decals are not as large as the instruction sheet would have you think.  The red outline on the port side “3” for instance covers only half the number presumably because the remainder of the number as well as the trailing “7” overlap the yellow fuselage band.  Unfortunately it doesn’t because the band is not wide enough.  The fin and tailplane flashes also need some careful placement and trimming to fit in their allocated areas.

Accuracy:

My reference material is not overly indulged with photos and information on this quite widely used aircraft which surprised me.  However, from what I do have this kit looks all the bit the plane it is supposed to represent and there is nothing that is obvious to me that would be a significant flaw.

Overall Recommendation:

I was disappointed with the amount of detail that the kit provides, I thought more could be added especially in this scale.  The kit itself is a limited run mold so care needs to be taken throughout the construction process as it will not simply fall together.  Aimed at the modeller who has the confidence to tackle a multimedia limited run kit I would certainly recommend this as a choice as it was a relatively straightforward build and a great result, with a bit of extra work can be achieved.

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