One of my first SAMi review articles, written and prepared way back in 2003!

Aerodim Breda Ba25/D.2.

The Kit

This resin kit, Aerodim's first, arrived in a comparatively large plain cardboard box. The simple "box art" is a laser print glued on the lid showing a nice photo of a completed model. All parts are neatly packaged in several small re-sealable bags and are moulded in a very pale grey resin, the smaller parts still attached to their moulding blocks. Included are formers for the vacform canopies should new ones need to be made, although there was nothing wrong with those supplied. Surface detail is rather austere, with engraving only used for depicting the control surfaces. Similarly, raised lines are only used for the wing rib detail. There is very subtle moulding on the fuselage sides and all trailing edges had a commendable scale thickness, although the trailing edge of the upper wing needed a fair amount of cleaning up. All the struts were extremely fragile and suffering from flash and there was a problem with the fuselage where the starboard half was found to be deeper than the port side. Not only that, the propellor was missing.

Instructions

The rather basic instructions are photocopied on one side of an A4 sheet. It included a detailed drawing of the undercarriage & tail-skid construction, 2 rather indisinct cockpit photos, a little bit of informational/advisory text in Italian & English and a simple painting guide. Assembly is aided by a rather sketchy exploded-view construction diagram.

Construction

The two fuselage halves were tissue-paper thin in places. To prevent any accidental damage during construction, the thickness was built up internally with Milliput. Cockpit detail is adequate, with basic tubular framework moulded on the fuselage sides, together with separately moulded floor, seats and instrument panels. The mismatched fuselage dilema was solved by aligning the top edge during assembly and the resulting step along the base removed afterwards with careful sanding. Fortunately, the base of fuselage was thick enough to cope with this.

The engine is buried in the nose with just the cylinders protruding, the detailing of which was fine. I split the one piece engine exhaust in two to allow it be glued in position at a later stage. An outer cowling is supplied but was not used on this particular aircraft. The next step was to fixing the lower wing and horizontal stabilisers in place, followed by the assembly of the undercarriage. The undercarriage strut arrangement was fairly complex, requiring careful study of the diagrams. I replaced some of the fragile resin struts with stronger plastic alternatives, a course of action suggested on the instruction sheet. It also states that, as this aircraft was used for blind flight, a canvas cover will need to be made for the front cockpit opening and that the leading edge slat detail on the upper wing must be removed.

Accuracy

The kit compares well with dimensions sourced from elsewhere. With a top wingspan of 13.3 cm, an overall length of 10.8 cm and a height of 4.1 cm, it scales out to almost spot on. Comments on it's actual appearance were compounded by the fact that out of all the Breda 25 photos I could find, no two were the same! There were single-seater, float-plane and even in-line engined types and of these, some had rounded wing tips and different shaped tail-fins. Comparing the model with the nearest suggests that the overall look of the aircraft has been captured very well, even though the exhaust and wheel detail were quite different.

Colour options

With only one option supplied on the decal sheet, for a rather eccentrically adorned trainer aircraft, an overall coat of Alclad II White Aluminium was applied to the model. Before attaching the upper wing, the tricolor banding needed to be done next. This turned out to be a fairly complex masking operation, using the diagrams together with the photo on the lid to work out their size and position. The white was sprayed as a base, then the green & red bands were airbrushed in sequence using Humbrol enamels. Other items such as the tyres, cylinders, struts and exhaust etc were brush painted.

Decals

The decal quality was very poor. It looked like a low-resolution computer-generated print out and was supplied on a tiny sheet taped to the back of the instructions. It had an overall varnish. Although I was able to use the lettering without too much problem, spares were found for the Savoy Crest and fuselage fasce. Rating 2/10.

Conclusion/recommendation

This was one of Italy's most widely used trainer aircraft in the 1930's. Despite the kit's faults, particularly the mis-matched fuselage and missing propellor, I would still give this kit a guarded recommendation to experienced biplane and Italian aircraft enthusiasts. Anyone trying a resin kit for the first time are likely to find it a challenge. It could make a good basis for conversion projects provided good references are found.

Many thanks to Aerodim for the review sample.