AML 1/72 Fiat G.50

AML 1:72 FIAT G.50

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 19 March 2008

Kit Details:

AML 1/72^nd scale Fiat G.50 (Kit N° 72007 ). Produced in the Czech Republic

Aircraft History:

The plane was designed by Ing. Giuseppe Gabrielli in 1936/37, following a request from the Italian Air Ministry. Two of six competing designs were chosen by the Regia Aeronautica, the other one being the Macchi Mc.200 Saetta. The G.50 was not very fast, but it was pleasant to fly and very stable. An initial order of 45 units was given to Fiat and its subsidiary CMASA at Marina di Pisa. The pilots were satisfied with their new fighters, but they did not like the enclosed canopy, so that the 2° series of 200 planes were manufactured with an open cockpit. The improved version G.50bis (450 built) had a refined fuselage profile and armour added. The Finnish Air Force was the main foreigner customer, which used them very successfully against the Russians.

The Kit:

The kit comes in a flimsy end-opening box, and consists of one sprue with nearly 50 styrene parts in ocean grey, two resin parts, one vac-canopy with reserve, a small PE plate, an acetate dials film and a beautiful decals sheet, everything bagged separately (compliments!). Panel lines are finely engraved, being of acceptable consistence. The plastic is very soft, and many parts will require patience to clean up, with some of the smaller parts (e.g. aileron weights, machine guns) being almost unusable. Sprue gates are of course very heavy. At first look, the injected parts look inferior to those produced by the MPM stable or by Sword, although AML seems to have improved a lot in their newer offerings.

Instructions:

Two A4 sheets folded into an 4-pages A5 booklet. Side one brings history/technical data only in English (!) and the sprue layout, page 2 has a colour key with generic names and references to F.S. numbers, Humbrol and Aeromaster paints and the first construction step, pages 3 to 5 shows the remaining 11 construction steps, while pages 6 to 8 show 3-1/2 painting/decaling views for 6 aircrafts, all of the Finish AF. The whole instructions are for experts only, being very unclear in some aspects, and giving absolutely no clue about what differs the series II, III and IV. The painting guides also are a hard nut to crack. Fortunately, the bottom of the box shows a good painting guide for the only Italian example catered.

Construction:

This starts with the cockpit, for which you get a resin floor (including the rear bulkhead and the control stick) and a resin seat, the rest of the interior features being covered by the PE plate. For the dials you get an acetate film which is trapped between two metal parts. The fuselage halves have some ribbing molded on, and some PE parts also find their place here. In conclusion, a tricky build. Business as usual!

The cockpit fortunately fits well between the fuselage halves, and a separate part is then glued on top of the fuselage right behind the bulkhead, which means the fuselage can also be used for a Series I plane (enclosed cockpit; AML´s kit N° 72005). The wing consists of lower half and two upper halves, the wheel wells being just cut outs with no detail at all. Of course everything is butt-joined. The stabilizers are one-piece each side, and for the fin you get two different parts, with no indication which is for what version; to check references is a must. There were gaps in all joins which required some filling and sanding, with subsequent rescribing of the damaged panel lines. Two bulges are glued on the front top of the fuselage, this being the fairings for the machine gun mountings. The wing machine guns (one each side) are very close to the wing root, and are supposed to be represented by two plastic parts which are slid into holes in the leading edges. The kit parts were very clumsy, so I used pieces of contrail tube.

The engine consists of two acceptable cylinder blocks which are glued onto a circular plate which then is presented to the fuselage nose, the whole thing being trapped between two cowling halves. Dry fit tests showed that the engine would seat totally incorrect if done “out of the box”, so that major surgery was needed here, with permanent check against reference material (I placed an extra part between engine and circular plate). I thinned down the inner rear side of the cowling, instead of using the suggested metal parts which should be glued onto the cowling, because this would look absurdly thick.

The propeller is a terrible part, with a very strange shape and encumbered with flash, mine being also bended. Having no replacement I had to use it, but I would suggest to use a substitute from the spares box or from some aftermarket producer (if any!). The landing gear looks very good, but is too short, since the plane sits somehow too low. There are small, very shallow holes on the inside of the upper wing half for the attachment of the legs, so that superglue must be used. The instructions suggest to add self-made actuators, while the well doors come from the PE plate (therefore being commendably thin). The last step is to add the fixed rear wheel, two self-made pitots (contrail rod), the vac-formed very tiny glazing and the machine guns (again contrail rod). The Amodel-like aileron weights were unusable (you know what it means to separate such parts from the sprue!) and I didn’t replace them.

I made the Italian version, mainly because I love the Italian insignia and the colorful camouflage. I painted mine upper surfaces Humbrol HI1mottle green over HI4 sand (still in perfect condition, after 25 years or so; understand why I love Humbrol Authentic?), lower surfaces Revell R75. The cowling got two layers of Humbrol H24. Johnson’s all rounder prepared for decaling and after this was done, I sealed everything with H135 satin clear.

According to the information I’ve found, the G.50 had a span of 10,995m, which translates into 152,7mm in scale. Having a span of 152,1mm, the kit is spot-on in this regard. I didn’t check the length, since all information I’ve found was contradictory. This may be due to the different arrangements of the propeller, which could use different cones or none at all. The main profile looks very accurate, at least for my non-rivet-counting eyes.

Colour Schemes:

One Italian version and six Finnish ones, the later having different camouflage schemes very hard to identify on the instructions (Italeri-like “shades of grey” guide, very badly printed). The mention of two versions as being from Series I doesn’t make things easier, since they clearly show an open canopy.

Decals:

Apparently printed by AML, they are of Propagteam-like quality: thin, dense in color and with few, very transparent carrier film. As expected, they only must stay for few seconds in warm water, and once positioned are difficult to move. Nevertheless, they performed very well.

Overall:

The whole construction was tricky and required lots of patience and persistence. Nevertheless, the result made the job worthwhile, and this kit is a great improvement against the old Airfix offering. It looks every bit like a Fiat G.50. Recommended for modelers with short-run experience.

References:

Some photos from the internet.

Footnote:

If only Humbrol would re-launch the Authentic Series! After all this years, I’ve found no substitute for some of the colors, e.g. the cockpit HD, the French HF, the Italian HI and the Japanese HJ series.

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