checked. Apart from the raised
panel lining, this otherwise
looks like a modern, injection
moulded kit. There are over 65
parts on two frames pressed in
grey styrene, plus a clear frame.
However, some of the parts are
new to this boxing, for example
the later-style cylindrical
tip-tanks and the underwing
cannon packs, and these
display indented lining. Only
one thing was noticed when
comparing the Aeroclub and
Italeri kits; the wing-mounted
engine air intakes look
chunkier on the latter kit. Who
has it best is hard to say, but so
far at least my photo references
maybe don’t fully support
the Italeri interpretation.
The Italeri decal sheet is
outstanding and was certainly
responsible for drawing me
to the kit in the irst place.
Altogether there are four
options, including two Italian
machines, one Argentine Navy
and one United Arab Emirates.
Every item is crisply printed
and in perfect register. There
are lots of small stencilling,
the woefully generic
cockpit instrumentation
being the only downsideTHE CROSS-KITTED
COCKPIT
My overall plan was to keep
the basic Aeroclub airframe
and to take advantage of
some of Italeri’s better minor
components. I had wanted
to model an MB.339A with
the later cylindrical-section
tip-tanks (together with the
current overall grey scheme);
now I could do so, and the
undercarriage and cockpit
items were much better than
Aeroclub’s too. I began the
cross-kit by ripping out the
Aeroclub tub using chain-
drillings and needle-nosed
pliers! I found that the
replacement Italeri tub could be
wriggled into place, even with
its front instrument panel and
stick already installed, but the
rear cockpit area got in the way
and had to be removed. I ended
up with almost a full scratch
build of the rear cockpit, and a
partial one for the front. When
tackling this sort of stuf, it’s
essential to keep checking
for seat clearance under the
canopy; here I found that the
depth of the Aeroclub fuselage
to be less than the Italeri, and I
was forced to reduce the height
of the rear cockpit loor. As to
the ejection seats themselves,
Aeroclub’s white metal seatsare really quite good, but then
so are the Italeri ones. It’s often
hard to tell just how good white
metal components really are
until they’ve received that
irst primer coat of light grey,
but it was already looking
like Aeroclub’s were the front
runners, chiely because it
seemed impossible to pack in
enough nose weight to prevent
tail-sitting. Metal would have
to be removed though from the
bottom of the seats to complete
the set-up. In the end I realised
I had overlooked the beneicial
efects of the trailing-knee
undercarriage units; it
wasn’t after all necessary to
use the white metal seats,
but I liked them anyway.
I sourced better decals for
the vertical panels from my
precious but dwindling Reheat
sheet. Don’t be misled by any
photographs you may ind
showing glass panels with
MFDs - these will be of the
later 339s, the 339A having
traditional instrumentation.
I found that there was room
in the cockpit to widen the
consoles, using stock card;
just as well because the Italeri
ones are far too narrow. This
was probably down to the
thinner walls of Aeroclub’s
vac-form fuselage, one of the
big advantages of vac-form
components. Italeri’s control
sticks are absolutely excellent,
and highly accurate, but they
had to be shortened. The
Italeri rear cockpit shroud, an
excellent little moulding, ittedneatly across the cockpit sills.
Before doing so, however, I
shaped and installed inside it
a replacement rear instrument
panel, as the Italeri one does
not properly ill the shroud.
The Frems 1/48 kit of the
MB.339A sports a sizeable lat
shelf behind the front bang
seat, located on a level with
the cockpit sills, topping of
the bulkhead between the
two cockpits. I have not been
able to conirm this feature,
not even on-line, and on
the contrary a very useful
drawing on page 27 of Maurizio
Terlizzi’s book, and others
elsewhere, seems to suggest a
narrow shelf, suicient only
to accommodate the hydraulic
ram for canopy closure. I went
with the narrow, not the least
because I was also inding it a
little diicult to accommodate
all the cockpit components in
the space aforded by Aeroclub.THE AEROCLUB
WINGS
I had already itted Aeroclub’s
early-version wing tip tanks,
but these were easily removed
using a razor saw, and I
cleaned up the wing tips ready
for Italeri’s tip tanks. At this
point everything started to get
very silly! My irst and second
attempts at itting the new
tanks ended up with alignment
problems, which propelled
me towards some scale plans.
I decided to major on Richard
Caruana’s 1/72 scale plansAPRIL 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL1/72
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