Historical Background
In 1972, the Aeronautica Militare Italiana awarded a contract to Aermacchi to study a replacement for AMI's MB-326 trainer (also from Aermacchi). A lengthy study was made, comparing seven all-new designs, powered by different engines (designated MB-338) with an updated version of the MB-326, designated MB-339. The MB-339 design was selected over the MB-338 as it was considered to meet AMI's requirements in addition to being cheaper than the all-new design proposals. The MB-339 first took flight on 12 August 1976 with the first production aircraft delivered to AMI on 8 August 1979. It has conventional layout, and shared much with the MB-326's airframe. It has tandem seats, and low, unswept wings with tip tanks. Unlike the MB-326, the forward fuselage was redesigned to raise the instructor's seat to allow visibility over and past the student pilot's head. The MB-339 also have enlarged fins and was powered by a Piaggio-built Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet, producing 4,000-lb thrust in its Mk.632 version. The MB-339 can also employed as a COIN / light attack aircraft and for that purpose, it can carry a wide variety of weapons, from SNEB and LAU-series of FFARs, Mk.80 series of free-fall bombs, AGM-65 Mavericks and DEFA gun pods.
Apart from the basic MB-339A, Aermacchi also produced several other variants. These include the MB-339PAN for the Freece Tricolore aerobatic team (with smoke generators but without the tip tanks); MB-339RM for radio and radar calibration duties; MB-339C with new, digital avionics and the one-off MB-339 T-Bird II for the USAF JPATS competition, MB-339B with more powerful Mk.680 engine and the MB-339K Veltro II single-seat attack version. Sub-variants include the various export customer specifications with the RNZAF's MB-339CB having Sidewinder and Maverick capability. The MB-339 had enjoyed good sales orders with Argentina being the first overseas customer, ordering 10 MB-339A for the Comando de Aviacion Naval Argentina in 1980. Other users include Nigeria, Malaysia, Eritrea, Ghana, Peru, UAE, Dubai and New Zealand. Argentina and New Zealand have retired the type, while others continue to use their A versions or replacing/supplementing them with the MB-339C.
Despite their primary usage as an advanced/weapons trainer, the MB-339 had seen real combat. The Argentinian MB-339s took part in the Falklands War in 1982 with six of them located at the Port Stanley Airport and the rest located at Almirante Zar, Bahia Blanca and Rio Grande, Terra Del Fuego airfields. Two of CANA's MB-339s were lost: one in a controlled flight into terrain while the other was shot down by a Blowpipe missile. A MB-339 flown by Lt Owen Crippa became the first Argentinian aircraft to attack the British forces when he attacked HMS Argonaut on 21 May 1982, causing light damage. The MB-339 was also used by Eritrea during the conflict with Ethiopia in the late 1990s. Attacks was made on 5 June 1998 on the town of Mekelle; on 7 June 1998 during the fighting around Erde Mattios and on 12 June 1998 and 5 February 1999 against Adigrat. A single MB-339CE was claimed as shot down on 6 June 1998.
In 1983, the Royal Malaysian Air Force purchased 12 (another aircraft was added later on as attrition replacement) to replace the elderly Canadair CL-41G Tebuan in the advanced training and light attack role. The RMAF Macchis were distributed between PULATIBANG III (3 Flying Training Centre) and No.15 Squadron, both were then based at Butterworth. Eight airframes survived today (2011) and the Air Force had ordered 8 MB-339CM to supplant and eventually replace the A models.
Actually I have never heard of this brand, even though it actually hit the market in 1993. Well, what can I say, my hobby took a hiatus during the college years. Spread over three sprues (two light grey and one clear), the parts have no flash although I found sink marks on the two ejection seats and at root the tail planes. There are no locating holes and posts - all the parts are butt-jointed. Even though dating from early 90s, this kit was moulded with raised panel lines. Cockpit detail is very basic with just decals for the instrument panel.
Decals are provided for four planes : two Italian (camouflaged Scuola Volo Basico Iniziale Aviogetti machine and an overall grey 61 Brigata Aerea one), one Argentinian and the Aermacchi/Lockheed demonstrator aircraft for the JPATS competition. The decals have good colour saturation although the Italians roundels are slightly off-register. The writing on the warning panel decals under the canopy were not only illegible, it actually look more like squiggles! For this build however, I will use VFA Productions' 'RMAF Strike Fighters' decal sheet, which provide markings for RMAF's Macchis and BAe Hawks. Printed by Microscale, the decals were an improvement over the kit decals. While the same warning panel decals was barely legible (because of scale), they are still recognizable as alphabets and not mere squiggles!
As usual construction starts with the cockpit. No issues here except for the lack of detail and that nasty sink marks which were filled with Tamiya putty. I have no idea of the interior colour of the plane so to play safe, I just painted it Gray FS36231 overall. The decals representing instrument faces and dials were then applied. The colour for the ejection seats (which I believe to be Martin Baker Mk10) were sourced from the internet. When dry-fitted however, there was a gap between the cockpit tub and the rear cockpit bulkhead, so I have to close the gap using a piece of plastic strip. Before closing up the fuselage, a ballast (I used plasticine) of roughly 10 grams was inserted into the nose cavity. Then the fuselage was cemented together using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and contrary to my expectations, the fit was very nice. The tailplanes were then cemented to the fuselage although the blade aerials on the fin were left off at this time.
The assembled wings were then cemented to the fuselage. A little putty was however needed at the wing root joint at the wing roots. There wasn't any need to drill holes for the wing pylons as they were butt-jointed to the wing undersides. While three were provided for each wing, I decided to place just one in the middle. What I found most lacking was the abscence of the DEFA 30mm gun pods, which was used by Argentina during the Falklands War and also by TUDM for gunnery training and/or strafing attacks. The ventral fins were then cemented to the fuselage. Like the pylons, they were also butt-jointed to the fuselage without any positive locating tabs, making assembly quite fiddly while the cement dries. Finally, the wingtip fuel tanks (incorporating part of the wing tips themselves) were assembled and cemented to the wings.
RMAF Macchi 339s were painted a camouflage colour of Dark Yellow and Dark Green with nose, tip tanks and fin tips in orange (for early service machines). The topside was painted a camouflage pattern of dark green and tan using Tamiya XF-13 IJA Green and XF-60 Dark Yellow. The bottom half was painted Gray FS36375 using Gunze Sangyo Acryclic H308. I decided to do a late-service machine so the orange was not painted. The anti-glare panel and the tyres were painted flat black. I marked my plane to represent airframe M34-12 belonging to 15 Squadron based at RMAF Butterworth (at that time)*. That particular airframe was displayed during the RMAF College Open Day in 2007 wherein I took the opportunity to enter the cockpit. The actual aircraft had a round insignia whereas the instructions have them square-shaped.
Finishing
As usual, the landing gears were fitted first. While no problems were encountered with the main landing gears, the nose landing gear was either having the locating peg too large or that it was too tall. This resulted in a nose-up attitude whereas the real aircraft is perpendicular to the ground. I end up cutting down the nose landing gear so that it was down to the correct height (more or less). The VOR aerials on the fin was first painted and then cemented to the fin. They are best replaced with scratchbuild replacements as they really are too thick. Being an advanced trainer and having secondary attack capability, I wanted to hang weapons on the underwing pylons. However the kit does not include many weapon options, with just a pair of MATRA rocket pods (not used by TUDM Macchis) and underwing fuel tanks. I however managed to find a pair of LAU-3 rocket pods from Hasegawa Weapons Set I and these were hanged on the wing pylons, after having been painted XF-13 JA Green.
Sometimes it was these small players such as Supermodel which fills the need for less glamorous types. Even though not perfect, with various shortcomings (plus raised panel lines!), the kit can still be made into a good representation of the MB-339. Plus the build process is not that taxing compared to certain other brands (especially those of the short-run type). Local companies such as VFA Productions should also be congratulated for bringing us the local flavour in the aftermarket goodies market.
*
As of 2016, M34-12 has been retired and is now an exhibit at the RMAF Museum in Kuala Lumpur.
