When I build a model, I tend to build one that for some reason or another holds some kind of meaning for me, as I’m sure many other modelers do. Perhaps I’ve flown a particular aircraft, been a passenger on a certain airline, or owned a particular vehicle, amongst other reasons. One way or another, there is usually some sort of association with what I build beyond just liking the looks of a kit. Being that I’m of Italian extraction, it is not surprising then that one of the kits I’ve built recently is an MB339A of the Italian Air Force’s aerobatic team, the Frecce Tricolori. The 1/48 scale offering from Frems was their first release, and for this they choose the Aermacchi MB339A PAN. The kit is molded in grey plastic, features recessed panel lines, though they are perhaps a little over done, and has a positionable speed brake and flaps. This kit has since been released in trainer markings of the several different air forces.

I built the kit straight out of the box adding only seat belts made from scratch. The kit goes together easily for the most part though I did find a few fit problems when I closed up the fuselage, particularly around the cockpit. Before closing up the fuselage halves, dry fit a number of times. Also, nose weight is needed to keep the plane on all three wheels. I found the cockpit goes together well to produce a good looking assembly, though I was a bit surprised that there were no seat belts, molded in plastic or as decals (I guess that comes from building a lot of 1/72 scale aircraft). I made some home made straps out of masking tape and 0.005 styrene. Though the buckles are clearly over-sized for the scale, it does dress up the seats nicely and completes the look of the cockpit.

The rest of the kit went together as advertised, for the most part. Some care was needed in building the landing gear because the parts are not “handed”, which they were off the sprue and painted, made assembling them a bit of a task. Also the axle on the nose gear fork has to cut to allow the wheel to be mounted. This is not too difficult because the plastic does have some give to it but don’t force it or else the part will break. And while I’m on the topic of breaking, I ended up knocking off a couple of antennas that are molded as part of the fuselage. A better solution, because the parts are large enough, would be to make these antennas separate pieces like the pitot tubes.

The instructions list RAL paints for finishing, which meant nothing to me. For the top coat of blue I used Tamiya’s X-3 Royal Blue paint, which was then sealed with Future Floor Wax. For the underside, MM non-buffing metalizer over a base coat of Floquil Bright Silver was used. The black intakes and nose cone were finished with Humbrol satin Coal Black, and MM Flat White was used on all leading edges. The one thing I found about the Tamiya paint is that it has a potent smell. It is the only paint I have used so far that I can smell through the respirator I use when painting.

All the stripes for the aircraft wings and pin striping were provided by the decals. This is where I had the bulk of my problems. The decals are well printed with solid colours that are all in register. The are, however, a little on thick side which required the use decal solvent to get them to sit down. I use Micro Set and Micro Sol for most of my projects, but for these decals it wasn’t enough, so I stepped a notch and bought some Solvaset. This seemed to work initially but after the decals had set I found that the decal at the base of the rudder still hadn’t sat down completely, even though I had tried to force them down while they were still wet. A second problem with the decals was that the white underwing stripe does not wrap around the bottom edge and side of the intake as it should. I was lucky to get a hold of an additional set of decals and used bits of white from them to complete the intakes. Once the stripes were on and dry, they were then trimmed to fit as they are a little over sized of the wings and horizontal stabilizer.

So my overall impressions of the kit are:

Positive

1) Good overall shape
2) Good looking subject and one that can be built in several paint schemes
3) Recessed panel lines
4) Nice cockpit detail and canopy
5) Fairly easy to build with only some minor fit issues

Negative:

1) Panel lines a little over done
2) No seat belts
3) Instructions, though clear and easily readable are mostly written in Italian
4) Decals are a little thick and slightly over sized
5) Decals for the intakes do not fit well

Since I bought my issue of the kit I know they have made some changes to it. The decals have been redesigned somewhat in order to better fit around the intakes, and extra lengths of white stripes have been added. I can only hope that Frems has also made a similar update to their instructions. I must stay that the company itself is quite accommodating. During the construction process I had a minor flood in my basement and as a result my decals were destroyed (amongst other decal sets). I wrote to Frems to request a replacement decal set and they were good enough to actually send me two. That’s what customer service is all about.

The Frems MB339A is a good kit. It goes together well and produces a nice looking airplane. The decals are a bit of task to put on, but since there are other versions of the kit available the possibilities open to a builder are numerous. This is a kit that I would recommend to any model builder with some basic modeling skills under his belt.