Scale Aviation Modeller International – April 2019

N

ever quite as

successful as its

predecessor the

M a c c h i M B .3 2 6,

the AerMacchi MB.339 jet

trainer and light attack

aircraft was nevertheless an

excellent design. It entered

Italian service in 1979, but

also saw use with Argentina,

Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana,

Dubai, New Zealand, the UAE,

Eritrea and Peru. Including a

couple of prototypes and the

Aeronautica Militare (AM)

MB.339PAN display aircraft,

a total of 193 MB.339A-series

aircraft were built. There was

one only MB.339B, involved

with test work, and then a

newer MB.339C-series, the

most important the MB.339CD,

which sports tailin fairings

on both leading and trailing

edges and a landing light

in an extended nose - not

modelled by either Aeroclub

or Italeri. The MB.339 always

had an alternative combat

role, the CD sub-type taking

this several stages further.

In AM service, the MB.339A is

today designated T-339A, the

MB.339CD is the FT-339C.

Aeroclub at one time

produced a short series of

‘aero-trainer’ kits, designed

to introduce modellers to

vac-form components. The

vac-form parts were restricted

to chiely the fuselage, usually

the quickest part of most vac-

form kits, but otherwise they

were mixed-media kits; the

lying surfaces were short-

run moulded, there were

white-metal components,

a useful decal sheet and all

rounded of by a nice clear

and thin styrene, yes, styrene,

vac-formed canopy. Oh, and

good instructions and several

proiles. Fortunately for

Italophiles, the aero-trainer

subjects were Italian, including

the Fiat G.91/R3, the two-seater

Fiat G.91T, the MB.326 and the

MB.339 (it appears that Aeroclub

also separately issued a further

kit of the MB.339 without

v ac-for m

components).

I had been

building the

Aeroclub MB.339

on-and-of, and

had reached the

stage where the

fuselage, wings,

in and tail planes

were all together

and the cockpit’s

twin-tub was in.

Moreover, thus far, I hadn’t

made any obvious mistakes!

I was about to begin work

on detailing the cockpits.

Italeri’s MB.339 was a

more recent acquisition. Both

the MB.326 and the MB.339

employed essentially the same

wings, so interestingly both

Aeroclub and Italeri took full

advantage and produced their

kits along the same lines,

mainly changing only the

fuselage mouldings between

boxings. One day recently I was

sat jealously examining some

of the more sharply-moulded

Italeri components, plus Italeri’s

stunning little decal sheet;

even so, somehow, I couldn’t

bring myself to bin my half-

inished Aeroclub model, but

I couldn’t work out why. True,

I hardly ever bin work already

done, but suddenly it hit me -

the Aeroclub kit has indented

panel lining but the Italeri kit

does not! Suddenly a cross-

kitting approach beckoned.

Stephen J Di Nucci cross kits the 1/72 Aeroclub and Italeri AerMacchi MB.339A

Photography by Phil Jones

SCUOLA VOLA

STAR

APRIL 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

1/72

36

FE ATURE

BY STEPHEN J DI NUCCI

AERMACCHI MB.339A

1/72