Falcon 1/48 Reggiane Re.2005 "Sagittario"

FALCON 1:72 REGGIANE RE.2005 "SAGITTARIO"

Reviewer: Chris Busbridge (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 20 December 2001

Manufacturer: Falcon
Aircraft: Reggiane RE.2005 "Sagittario"
Scale: 1/48
Medium: Low-pressure injection kit, with white metal parts and 2 vacform canopies.
Pros: Finely engraved surface detail, accurate proportions.
Cons: Poor quality decals.

Aircraft:
The RE.2005 is considered by many to be the finest of the Italian so-called "Series 5" fighters of WWII (the others being the Macchi C.202/205 and Fiat G.55). The "Sagittario" was the ultimate development of the Reggiane fighter series, using a DB605 engine and a completely revised airframe and undercarriage system. Orders were placed, but the infrequent delivery of engines restricted the production rate and ended with only 49 being built.

The Luftwaffe were suitably impressed with this aircraft and commandeered a few, but their fate is unknown. In Italy, they saw limited service as a home defence fighter and a few made it into the ANR after the Regia Aeronautica was disbanded. Eventually all were lost, or scrapped, and now only the rear fuselage section of one aircraft remains. A sad end really.

The Kit:
It has been completely ignored by all major kit manufacturers, although quite a number were made by a variety of smaller companies. After tracking down Falcon's 1/48th RE.2005 (RA) model, initial inspection shows that it is an injection moulded version of their vacform kit and has the thickest, crudest looking sprues you'll ever see. The slightly translucent looking plastic is very hard. This means spending an evening or two cleaning up all the parts and test-fitting them before assembly can start. The assembly instructions themselves are well written and includes very useful period b&w photos of the cockpit and wheel-well areas.

Construction:
The surface detail is very fine and the fit of most parts is very good. Some extra scribing can be done to give the control surfaces more definition and there are many flow channels that need to removed, particularly between the upper and lower wings.

All cockpit detail is well moulded, the side walls in particular. AeroMasters Acrylic Verde Anti-Corrosivo is a recommended colour to use here, with the instrument panel and various switches etc picked out in black. The armoured seat was Aluminium, as was the joystick which had a black grip. There is a neat white metal gunsight as well.

The shallow fuselage machine-gun troughs need to be deepened to get a more convincing appearance, even though the guns themselves are not visible. The small fairings on the nose gun access panels are supplied as separate pieces and are added after the seams are cleaned up. Do not forget to add the white metal exhaust parts before closing the fuselage halves. The carburettor intake is best left off until the wings are attached.

The wings are supplied as a one piece lower wing, which is glued to the fuselage first, before adding the two uppers. There is minimal filling to do here.

The combined radiator and oil cooler fairing needs a fair bit of thinning on the inside in order to get it to fit over the radiators, which are moulded integrally with the one piece lower wing section. It also needs a splitter plate, which can be made from plasticard.

The white metal undercarriage is a bit tricky to assemble and needs to be shortened to get the aircraft to "sit" properly. The white metal wing machine-gun barrels are replaced with brass tubing (incidentally, the barrels passed through the wheel well, in the style of the FW 190's). The tail wheel is a little crude, but it as it is partially hidden by the tail wheel well doors, its not too much of a problem.

The spinner is moulded as a solid piece. This means doing some precise drilling, otherwise the separately moulded propellers will not align properly.

The vac-form canopy is perfect (it is Falcon after all) and there is the added bonus of a spare.

Painting & Versions:
The RE.2005 came in any colour you like, as long as it was Verde Oliva Scuro & Grigio Azzruro Chairo. Humbrol 91 is used for the dark olive green and Xtracolor X134 for the light grey. The upper surface colour appears to wrap around the nose and the rear fuselage. It also wraps over the leading edge of the wings in the usual Regia Aeronautica style. The edge of this demarcation line appeared to be fairly soft. Photos show that the finish on this aircraft was quite shiny and because it had a fairly short service life, there was probably very little weathering.

Decals:
The decals that came with this particular model are very poor, but Skymodels have produced a 1/48th generic decal sheet covering all Reggiane types, including the RE.2005. I have since bought Falcon's Luftwaffe/ANR version of this kit and the decals are much better.

Overall:
In summary ...for the time being, this is the only 1/48 kit that I'm aware of and is well worth seeking out. I'm sure there are still a few out there. One could hope for a Classic Airframes release, especially after the recent success of their RE.2001 (which has already sold out). Misterkit are rumoured to be releasing a Sagittario, but nothing has been confirmed. Also recommended is the recently issued Ali d'Italia monograph, which has very good scale plans in both 1/48 and 1/72. This prompted a re-build of the OOP Pegasus RE.2005 1/72 kit that was languishing in the un-finished pile and now looks much better as a result.

Experienced modellers should be able to complete this model without too much hassle, although those brought up on a diet of Tamiya/Hasegawa will probably run the other way...very fast!

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