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ALENIA M-346 MASTER/LAVI

First look at Kinetic Gold 1/48 Alenia M-346 Master/Lavi

I

must confess that the Alenia

M-346 was not a type that I

was particularly aware of, but

it did look strangely familiar, as I

had seen a number of builds of the

Zvezda Yak -130 in 1/72 scale and

there is a distinct resemblance.

This is not really surprising

as Yak and Aliena Aermacchi

joined together in 1992 to design

a new advanced trainer with a

ground combat capability.

The partnership was dissolved

eight years later, and the two

companies individually carried

the design forward, Alenia with

the M-346, which had its first

flight four years later. To date,

68 examples have been delivered

to Italy, Singapore, Poland,

Turkmenistan, and Israel with

more on order. A dedicated ground

attack aircraft is in development

but with no orders to date.

Unfortunately for Alenia,

Yakovlev has produced over 160

Yak-130 airframes, most of which

are in service with the Russian Air

Force. This production mismatch

may change, however, as the

M-346 is entered in the United

States Air Force T-X program,

which is looking for a replacement

for the T-38 and potentially the

A-10 in the ground attack role.

THE KIT

At the US Nationals in Phoenix we

were shown late test shots of this

kit, the first in a new brand name

from Kinetic called Kinetic Gold.

New kits using this brand name

will feature a superior standard of

fit and details than Kinetic’s older

kits, though there will be some

kits released that will combine

old and new tooling (like the

F/A-18C ATARS, which will follow

the M-346 on to the shelves).

The improvement in fit is

obvious with a test fit of the major

parts. Everything just clicks

into place and I think you might

actually get away without filler.

The instructions are also

superior to previous kits, being very

clear with no doubt where the parts

fit. A small sheet of etched brass

provides parts for the ejection seat

and the inside of the canopy, as well

as the vanes on the long nose probe

42 • NOVEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

FIRST LOOK!

040-45-FirstLooks-1118.indd 42 12/10/2018 15:59