Supermodel 1/72 Aermacchi MB.326

SUPERMODEL 1:72 AERMACCHI MB.326

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 16 July 2007

Kit Details:

Supermodel 1/72^nd scale Aermacchi MB-326 (Kit N° 10-011 ). Produced in Italy

Aircraft History:

Together with the BAC Jet Provost and the Fouga Magister, the MB-326 is a classic offering in the trainer genre, and was in production for more than 2 decades. The design began in 1954, and the first prototype flew on December 10^th 1957, equipped with a Rolls Royce Viper 8. The second prototype and further 15 pre-production units built for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana had the more powerful Viper 11 turbojet.

The main airframe, designed by Ermanno Bazzocchi, is simple, roughened and strengthened to accept +8/-4g. The well-equipped cockpit has two tandem Martin Baker ejector seats, making the plane able to instruct new pilots on all levels. The first MB-326 entered in service on February 1962, and 85 units additional to the pre-production planes were built for the AMI .

Aermacchi also offered the MB-326A, a ground attack version, equipped with 6 underwing pylons, but the AIM showed no interest. Ghana and Greece acquired eight MB-326B and nine MB-326F respectively, both very similar to the MB-326A. Four MB-326D civil trainers were built for the Alitalia, the Royal Australian Air Force acquired 87 units of the MB-326H, and the Australian Navy got 10 units of the same version. All the Australian planes were built / assembled at CAC, and were heavy armed. South Africa also got 40 MB-326M, with another 125 being built by Atlas Corp. The version MB-326GB, with the more powerful Viper 540 and reinforced airframe, had twice the armament capacity as the former versions. Eight units sold to Argentina, 17 to Zaire, 20 to Zambia and 170 being built by EMBRAER in Brazil peaked a very successful career for this elegant airplane.

The Kit:

The kit comes in a sturdy, end-opening box, containing a plastic bag with 55 ocean gray styrene parts in two sprues (some parts being specific for certain versions), one small acetate sprue with three parts and an extensive decals sheet. The parts are flash-free, well molded and with smooth surfaces. The canopies are very clear and distortion free. Panel detail is finely raised, while the control surfaces are etched. Small parts like landing gear, control columns and seats are well detailed, making this to a kit which, without a doubt, was absolutely top-quality on its days.

Instructions:

One lengthy paper sheet folded 3 times, printed on both sides. One side brings a short history / description in Italian, English, French and German, together with 3-view painting / decaling diagrams for 4 versions. The painting guide is a bit confusing, as always when the “shades of gray” codes are used (the same way Italeri often does, if you know what I mean). The other side shows construction in 6 clear steps, with detail painting color callouts given by letters. All codes are listed with FS-numbers.

Construction:

A few dry fit test runs at the very beginning showed me that I would have no major problems with this kit. I started gluing the two instrument panels to the cockpit tub, and while this was drying I glued together the two halves of each wing, and got a fantastic alignment in both cases (please notice the alignment of the upper and lower fences on the photo). The wheel wells are boxed in, and the main well doors are molded closed, which is also correct for the wheels-out position. The air intakes will allow no looking through, so that just painting them black inside will do the trick.

I painted the cockpit gray FS36231, according to the instructions, while the seats got some green, leather, black and yellow, with the molded-on belts painted khaki. I glued the two fuselage halves together with the tub trapped in, and the fit was perfect. Further, I had made a blanking in the rear fuselage section to avoid looking through (there’s no nozzle). I left it all to dry overnight, and the next day I glued the wings on. A small gap was visible between the air intakes and the wing roots, but it was enough to fill this with glue, knowing that the paint would do the rest later. The wingtip tanks are two halves each, and after gluing, drying and sanding them a bit, I presented them to the wing tips. Interestingly, they are butt-jointed, and a bit of trimming was necessary here to get a good joint. I knew that, without locating pins, it would be hard to convince these tanks to stay quite while drying, so that I helped myself with a pair of super glue drops amidst the contacta glue; this functioned very well.

Next step was to glue the tailplanes, again without problems. The next day I filled some small gaps here and there, sanded them and made last corrections with Mr. Surfacer. Then I placed the cockpit decals in (for the instrument panels and side consoles), and went on to deal with the glazing. A dry fit test showed a perfect fit (believe it or not) but, oh God!, while dealing with a certain small part, I spotted the beautiful, absolutely clear canopy with super glue. No sanding, no polishing, no Klear could save the dam thing; the cyanacrylat penetrated the acetate making it look milky. You see: the devil never sleeps!

Well, the show must go on, and I masked the clear parts, the air intakes, the wheel wells and the rear outlet preparing for airbrushing. Whilst the box cover photo shows an orange very close to Gunze N°24, other photos on the web show many different shades, up to salmon red. I took my decision and used Humbrol´s H18, giving the model two thin layers in two days instead of one thick layer (H18 is gloss, and gloss paints dry very slowly, tending to flow by means of gravity). After decaling I sealed all with a coat of Humbrol´s H35 gloss clear. The final step was to glue on the beautiful detailed landing gear, the remaining well doors and a couple of small “fittings”. Regardless of the damaged canopy, I was very pleased with the finished model.

Versions:

MB-326, Scuola Volo Basico Iniziale AMI, overall orange FS11246.
MB-326 Impala Mk-1, N° 83° Squadron, SAAF, overall aluminium FS37178.
MB-326GB Pelicano, 1° Escuadrilla de Ataque, Argentina, upper surfaces (stone)brown FS30318 and green FS34079, lower surfaces gray FS36472.
MB-326, Central Flying School, RAAF, apparently a combination of orange FS11246, white FS17875 and yellow FS23538 (fin) for the upper surfaces, and aluminium FS37178 for the lower surfaces/upper wings tail edges.

Decals:

Beautifully printed, they were a bit reluctant to leave the sheet, but once applied they performed very well. Only some droops of Micro Sol were needed, and there was no silvering.

Overall:

What a great little kit! Whit a bit of care it works out into a beautiful model, and will sure also delight the super-detailer. Unfortunately, Supermodel kits are long out of production, but maybe some producer will re-launch it some day (Revell did with the B&V138). Warmly recommended for all levels, and especially for you Aussies (it´s part of your Air Force history!).

References:

www.ams.vr.it/AircWalkAround/Ghedi/Aermacchi%20MB%20326/Aermacchi_MB-326.htm

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