Artiplast 1/48 Aermacchi M.B. 326

ARTIPLAST 1:48 AERMACCHI M.B. 326

Reviewer: Sheldon Rampersad (clyde_rampe@tstt.net.tt)
Kit Review submitted: 2 September 2006

Kit Details:

Artiplast 1/48^th Aermacchi M.B. 326

Aircraft History:

A small two-seat jet trainer. The M.B.326 is a small straight-wing design, powered by a small jet engine. It became the standard jet trainer for the Italian air force and was also exported. Later the M.B.326 was made suitable for attack missions. A dedicated single- seater for attack missions was also built, the M.B.326K. 761 were built, of which about half in Italy and the rest in licence.

The Kit:

The kit is fairly simple. The few parts of the kit are moulded in orange, white and one clear piece for the canopy.

Instructions:

The instructions consist of one (1) solitary drawing showing all the parts in the position they are to be assembled.

Construction:

Construction starts by painting the inside of the fuselage halves around the cockpit grey and then cementing the two fuselage halves together. This simple task completed we can paint the inside of the air intake white and cement the wing halves together. You will have to do a little trimming of excess plastic which over laps at the tip tanks. The wings and horizontal stabiliser can be cemented to the fuselage and the camouflage pattern applied. I decided to build a Royal Australian Air Force version of the M.B.326. The underside was painted light grey and the upper surfaces dark grey and olive drab.

The pilots are absolutely necessary in this kit. There is no cockpit. The cockpit area is sealed with two rectangular holes for the pilots to fit in. there is no cockpit floor, no instrument panel, nothing absolutely nothing!

Glue the wheels onto the main gear struts and then cement the gear assemblies to the aircraft. The wheels are facing outward on the gear, which is angle backward to the base. The gear doors are on the inside of the gear strut with the leading edge straight vertically and the trailing edge sloping backward and widest at the base.

You will then need to weigh the nose. I did this by placing a small ball-bearing ball in the nose, through the gaping hole the pilot is to occupy and kept it in place with “play dough” putty. The pilots are placed in their respective holes. They are kept in place, since there is no cockpit floor, by a hook on the rear of their ejection seats, which fit into a hole in the plastic, which surrounds them.

Gluing the canopy in place and the wing strakes completes construction. The wing strakes have a guideline on the upper wing to assist with proper location. The strakes however do not match the curve of the wing and there are noticeable gaps. The kit provides two rockets without the appropriate pylon to attach to the lower wing. I elected to not attach these.

Options:

No options available for the kit. One training version for the Italian Air force only.

Colour Schemes:

One scheme available for the Italian Air force but there were many other users such as the RAAF, SAAF, Brazil, Ghana, Paraguay, Togo, Tunisia, UAE, Zaire and Zambia I choose a 76 Squadron aircraft from the RAAF.

Decals:

The decals are water slide decals and adhere well to the kit. I used Clearfix decals for the RAAF markings. These were different from what I’m accustomed to but I found them to be satisfactory.

Accuracy:

The kit seems to portrait the shape of the M.B.326 but it sadly lack any form of detail. Some detailing would make this into a much better kit.

Overall Recommendation:

A good kit for a first timer to model building.

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