New Mexican Bandits

Historical Background

In 1964, Soviet mathematician Pyotr Ufimtsev published a seminal paper in which he showed that the strength of a radar return of an object is relative to its edge configuration rather than the actual size. He demonstrated that he can calculate the radar cross-section across a wing's surface and along the edges. Therefore even a large aircraft can be made invisible (so to speak) to radars. However applying the theory would mean an aerodynamically unstable aircraft, and the computing technology of the 1960s were simply incapable to make an aircraft 'invisible' and flying at the same time.

By the 1970s, computing power had sufficiently advanced that Lockheed Corporation decided to look into Ufimtsev's research again. In 1975 they initiated a 'black' project with a model named Hopeless Diamond (a play on the (in)famous Hope Diamond because of its appearance) The following year the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) awarded a contract for two low-observable (stealth) demonstration aircraft codenamed Have Blue. In 1977, following the success of the program, the US Government increased its funds for operational stealth aircraft, under the codename Senior Trend and in 1978 Lockheed was awarded the contract to build them.

The Senior Trend aircraft (now designated F-117) remained secret until 1988 when a single grainy photograph was released to the public. The announcement confirmed the existence of the Stealth Fighter and also put to rest the earlier speculative 'F-19' designation and its 'Blackbird'(Lockheed SR-71)-like appearance. The F-117 were first used operationally during Operation Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama when two of them bombed the Rio Hato Airfield. The type's 'finest hour' came during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Its stealth characteristics enabled it to fly to Baghdad and bomb strategic targets with virtually total impunity. In fact Iraqi AAA fire only started AFTER the bombs hit their targets. Even then, television coverage showed that the shots were undirected as the radars were unable to find the elusive aircraft. The Nighthawk served in further conflicts and were finally retired in 2008. One was shot down by a Yugoslav SA-3 'Goa' SAM during Operation Allied Force in 1999. A total of 59 airframes were built.

The Kit

This is Academy's rendition of the Stealth Fighter in 1/72. The parts were moulded in black plastic and the clear parts were moulded in smoke-coloured plastic. Parts count is low, not surprising in 1/72 scale. The fuselage were moulded in upper and lower halves in its entirety. The ruddervators were in one piece whilst the wings are also in one piece with separate control surfaces. The parts for the weapons bay were simplified. Armament options consist of a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder, a pair of Mk84 2,000lb GP bombs and a pair of  GBU-10 Paveway II LGBs. I was disappointed that Academy did not include the more normally used GBU-27 Paveway III LGB as in their 1/48 Nighthawk. Decals were provided for two aircraft : a machine from the 415th Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Nightstalkers', 37th TFW and 416th TFS 'Ghost Riders', 37th TFW. The latter option is adorned with 'bomb-door' art and mission markings underneath the cockpit coaming.

Construction

Out of the box, the cockpit is rather sparse. The control panels were represented by decals, which I shuld say, quite nice for the main panel but looked very decal-ish for the sides. The HUD however is a solid block of plastic. There is the clear plastic to represent the combiner glass. However since it was moulded in that smoke-coloured plastic, I decided to leave it off. I cemented the clear parts for the FLIR and DLIR apertures (in real-life, they are actually fine wire mesh rather than clear transparencies), the bomb bays and the wheel wells before closing up the fuselage. I have to put the landing gear in place (less the wheels) as it would be quite impossible to put them after the fuselage has been closed up - so I have to be extra careful during the painting and decaling stage. The simplified bomb trapeze were however left off until later. The elevons were butt-jointed onto the wing. However fit was not perfect so I have to put them at a slight downward angle.. Off to painting stage then....

Painting and decaling

Apart from a few of very early Senior Trend aircraft and on certain airframes later in its career, the F-117 were only seen in one colour : black.  I used Gunze H77 Tyre Black. The interiors and landing gear were painted XF-2 Flat White. And ironically the tyres were painted Tamiya XF-63 German Grey! I originally used the kit decals and I chose Col. Al Whitley's 'The Toxic Avenger'. As I have mentioned elsewhere, Academy's decals were hit-or-miss affairs; in this case a miss. They were rather thick and did not respond well to setting solutions. Thankfully an alternative was available at Hobby HQ : TwoBobs' 25th Anniversary Bandits sheet. So I stripped off the kit decals and substituted them with the aftermarket decals. I chose the markings for airframe 85-819, a machine assigned to the 8th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing based at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Printed by Microscale, the decals were beautifully thin and responded well to Mr Mark Softer.

Finishing

I attached the bomb trapezes, wheels and doors to their respective places. As I have said before, the kit did not include GBU-27 Paveway III LGBs. I have the option of bashing Hasegawa's GBU-24 Paveway III in my spares box into a -27 by cutting off the tail and grafted a new tail from spare GBU-10s and shortening the cuff between the bomb body and the seeker head plus shortening the canards. However I felt that this was too much for me and decided to simply replace the kit GBU-10s with Hasegawa's GBU-10 Paveway II.

Conclusion

A simple kit for one of the most significant combat aircraft in history. Fit is good although I have reservations towards its decals (then again maybe it's just me). OOB its good enough and is a good alternative to the more expensive Hasegawa kit. My biggest gripe were concerned with the lack of GBU-27 bombs and the solid air intakes.

Note

1. Prior to 1988, the Nighthawk was speculatively known as the F-19. The reason was that it filled the gap between the F-18 Hornet and the (ultimately defunct) F-20 Tigershark. Artist impression showed to be a blended-body type aircraft  la the SR-71. The F-117 designation, although out of sequence of the contemporary US aircraft designation, actually helps in its then secretive nature as the Soviet aircraft evaluated by the USAF were given designations in the 'Century Series' range (the MiG-17 and -23 were known as F-113, for example). So the F-117 can then be simply dismissed as another Soviet aircraft.

Latin Arrow

Historical Background

In 1936, the Regia Aeronautica issued a new specification to Italian plane manufacturers for a new monoplane fighter powered by a single radial engine, a top speed of 500km/h, climb rate of 6,000m in 5 minutes, a flight endurance of two hours and armed with two 12.7mm MGs. Macchi's renowned lead designer, Mario Castoldi responded by designing a modern monoplane fighter with low-set, all-metal cantilever wings, retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpit. Power was provided by the 870hp Fiat A.74 radial engine. Flight testing started from December 1937 and production started in June 1939. The plane was shown to be highly maneuverable although underpowered and once the shooting starts, undergunned.

Mario Castoldi was the Italian equivalent of Reginald J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire. The Saetta was actually the descendant of Macchi's pre-war Schneider racers, the same way the Spitfire descended from Supermarine's S.6B. However, unlike the Spitfire, the relatively low-powered engine  (just 870 hp) and poorly-designed cowling restricts its performance. To make matters worse, the official requirement emphasised visibil Dtormo.ity over aerodynamics resulting in an ungainly hump-backed appearance. Nevertheless the Saetta has the best performance among the first-generation Italian monoplane fighters. The first batch of the C.200 (now nicknamed Saetta - 'Arrow') was delivered in August 1939 to the 10° Gruppo of the 4° Stormo. The pilots of this elite unit however opposed the adoption of the C.200, preferring the more manuverable Fiat CR.42. The fighters were then transferred to the more receptive 6° Gruppo of the 1° Stormo and 152° Gruppo of the 54° Stormo. Early series of the Saetta were equipped with fully-enclosed cockpit with sliding canopy. However the pilots, having transitioned from open-cockpit biplane fighters such as the Fiat CR.32 and Fiat CR.42 Falco initially disliked it. So much so that aircraft from serie VII onwards were given a partially open cockpit.

The Saetta saw combat in June 1940 and gained a healthy respect from the Allied pilots. Basically having similar performance with the Hawker Hurricane, it possessed a better climb rate and could out-turn and out-dive the latter. The Saetta was later developed into the MC.202 Folgore with the Daimler-Benz DB601 engine with improved performance figures. 1,153 units were built  between 1939 and 1943 and fought over the skies of the Balkans, Mediterranean, North Africa and the Eastern Front. At the time of Italian Armistice, only 33 were available of which 23 were transferred to Allied airfields in southern Italy. The Saetta were only used for a sort time by the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force although they soldiered on as training aircraft until 1947, despite severe sparts shortage. 

The Kit

Italeri released it's new-tooled 1/48 kit in 2011. The kit was laid out on two grey styrene sprues, one clear sprue, a small PE sheet and a small-ish decal sheet for four marking options (despite the 'Super Decal Sheet' claim on the box). Parts are nicely done (on the sprue) with clean (if a little deep) panel lines. The PE sheet is mostly concerned with the seat belt / harness, landing gear cover mounts and the alternative parts for the cockpit console. In short, a simple, nice kit to add to the rather neglected Regia Aeronautica  - but more of this later. The four markings options are :
1. 369a Squadriglia / 22° Gruppo Autonomo CT, Russia 1941
2. 365a Squadriglia Gruppo Autonomo CT, Napoli, Italy 1940
3. 85a Squadriglia / 18° Gruppo, Araxos, Greece 1942
4. 150 Gruppo Autonomo CT, Tirana, Albania 1941

Construction

As usual, construction starts with the cockpit. I elected to use the combination of decals and PE parts for the console. The interior was painted pale green using a mix of Tamiya XF21 Sky and XF5 Flat Green. The PE for the harness was the bended into shape and painted using XF64 Red Brown and XF16 Flat Aluminium. Once completed, the fuselage halves were closed up and it's here that I realize that something is not quite right with the fit. However, a little bit of filler sorted out the fuselage seam lines.

Add caption

Skipping the engine/cowling step first, I decided to do the wings. And this is where I realize that the trailing edge is rather thick and that there is quite a gap between the main wing structure and the flaps. When the tailplanes were attched, I also realized that that forward edge is rather out of scale. I chose to ignore them as this is an OOB built anyway. The engine and cowling were next. The parts for the engine were actually quite nice. There were some slight gaps for the cowling assembly its Ok with some filler. The fit of the entire assembly to the fuselage however was quite tight but I shaved off some plastic from the male joint on the fuselage and everything were alright. When I joined the wing assembly to the fuselage, the biggest gap occured at the trailing edge. Large enough that I spend quite a bit of filler and super glue to cover it. The easily breakable parts such as radio aerial, landing gears and pitot tubes were painted but were left off the model for now. I did dry-fit the MGs and to my dismay, I found that the the guns cannot be fitted parallel to the fuselage as the cowling was in the way, so the guns were later fitted in a slightly oblique angle.

Painting and markings

Italeri, like Tamiya has a habit of only quoting their own range of paints in their instruction sheet. However, since Tamiya also released this kit under their flag, I managed to get the Tamiya equivalents. I decided to do the first option with its 'scrambled egg' camouflage pattern. Besides, it was also the one with the most colourful markings. The underside was painted a mixture of XF66 Light Grey and XF2 Flat White. The green was painted using XF67 NATO Green. The scrambled egg pattern were painted XF59 Desert Yellow and XF64 Red Brown. The cowling was painted XF3 Flat Yellow.

Once dry I started to apply the decals. The kit's decals were printed by Cartograf so the quality is great. I'm not sure about the 'title plate' (my description of the inscription 'Macchi MC200' and the empty and full weight info) at the base of the fin, though. Photos on the internet shows that it is yellow whilst the kit decal is in blue. The decals were then subjected to the Mr Mark Softer treatment.

Finishing

The small bits such as pitot tubes and radio aerial can now be attached - less the venturi tube on the starboard side of the fuselage, which was devoured by the Carpet Monster (Arggh!). This was followed by the propeller and the cockpit transparencies. The windscreen is OK but the side windows have less than perfect fit. The almost complete kit was now subject to sludge wash and afterwards I subjected the model to a final spray of Flat Clear.

Conclusion
Despite its shortcomings, Italeri should be congratulated for bringing another of Regia Aeronautica's mainstay fighter during the early part of the war. Previously, the only Saettas in this sclae are the limited run Pacific Coast Models and Classic Airframes kit. Having said that, Italeri should really pay better attention to their quality control - I heard that their Reggiane Re.2002 Ariete were terribly received by modelers....