Just to be differant I started building a couple of Italian Machi fighters and plan to do more Italian and also some French aircraft. One problem I’ve found is little selection from “known” companies (at least known to me anyway). Heller and Italeri each have a few (Heller French and Italeri Italian), Hasegawa and Revell also have done a couple.
So my question is how would you rate the following companies to these 4?
I have only built/bought(MILF!) a few jets by SMER and Maquette. The Maquette kit apparently is a former Frog (remember that brand?) Fairey Delta 2. You could say it is a dog because there’s flash all over and some off the smallest transparencies are not in the kit etc etc. On the other hand, the detail that IS there is rather subtly recessed. Oh, btw: no cockpit tub but a 1/72 pilot bust to glue in instead[:O]. Are you getting the picture here? Having said that, the newest releases from Maquette seem to be A LOT better. Try Googling for one of their latest kits.
I think I have bought a SMER SM-79 Sparviero in 1/48 once… Let’s just say I shouldn’t have. The quality was about comparable to the Maquette FD-2… maybe[xx(]. Quality varies though, some of their kits are apparently better nowadays.
My best advice would be to find a specific kit you’d like to build, and then look for some reviews of it via ARC, Google, or asking here. Or do what I do (these days!) at my LHS: look in the box before you buy[:D].
Azur’s are deffinitely worth the expenses, but those are slightly more ‘garage’ kits than what you find in the typical Heller or Italeri kits… Just for originality, I’d give Azur 15 out of 10. The detail is very good but the sprues are sometimes thick and removing bits from them can be tricky.
Aermodel used to have a great selection of Italian birds too. I know I’m talking about suff from the late 70s and early 80s here but they were decent enough!
Special Hobby has some 1/72 Italian and French WWII stuff in its catalog, but you can expect to be working with typical limited run kits here, resin, photoetch and larger sprue gates than usual. On the upside, Special Hobby kits are quite good quality compared to some other players in the limited run market and you can find some quite esoteric stuff in their line.
Smer is a bit of a grey area in models as far as I’m concerned, some of their kits can be positively ancient in origins or just porr copies of someone else’s. I had their 1/72 Dewoitine D.520 a few years back and nothing went right with it.
I’ll see if I can dig up a few other options for you.
There’s a couple of Italian fighters in Pavla’s range, www.pavlamodels.cz
Pavla isn’t bad stuff, you sometimes get some photoetch and resin and can usually expect a vac form canopy. They are typical limited run and require a bit of time and patience to get right.
You can check out Special Hobby’s line up at www.mpm.cz
I got a look inside the box of their IMAM (Romeo) RO-57 twin engine fighter kit the other day and its a real beauty, I’m considering picking one up for myself.
One thing I can say, Stay well away from Airfix’s old Fiat G.50 bis kit. Its spare parts box filler at best.
Good luck in finding something thats suits your tastes. Italian and French WWII subjects are not covered nearly as well as they should be in this hobby.
Thanks, sounds like I’ll stick to Heller and Italeri except for those available in no other form (or the 1 or 2 Revell and Hasegawa have done).
Pavla / Octopus is another brand I was wondering about, they have an F7F-N Nightfighter I’ve been thinking about. I have a Pavla Bell 47 I got off of ebay which is a combination of photo etch, thick plastic and a vacuform canopy, but it looks like it will be a chore to build. I’m hoping this is not representitive of all thier kits because they have an interesting selection.
I’ve built Pavla’s 1/72 Siebel fh-104 Hallore and it didn’t present any real problems. The photoetch was a bit softer and more pliable than I might have expected and I did replace some of the photoetch parts with stuff from my spares box. It took me a couple of months of work to get it right, but I’m satisfied with it.
I read a review of the F7F-N in a British modeling mag a number of months back. They built it up nice, but definitely challenges abound.
Thats what you have to expect with limited run outfits, they don’t spoon feed a kit to you likt Hasegawa or Tamiya. Limited run doesn’t fall together, but for the Italian and French WWII subjects you’re after, it is often the only choice.