Originally built for SAMI and appeared in the January 2004 issue.

The Kit

This Breda Ba.64, the fore-runner to the perhaps more widely known Ba.65, is one of two versions that are a surprising and welcome addition to the Choroszy Modelbud range. It comes in their standard blue and white box, the contents denoted by a laser print glued on the lid. All parts are neatly packaged in small re-sealable bags and are cleanly moulded in cream resin, with small parts still attached to their pouring blocks. There were no signs of any air bubbles. The larger pieces have pour stubs that will need careful removal. The only disappointment is the heavy flashing on the leading edges of the wing pieces that will require considerable care during clean-up. Surface detail is finely engraved throughout and all trailing edges have a very fine, crisp edge. There are 2 sets of vacform canopies. Careful inspection of parts revealed a missing set of wing gun barrels, which are easily replaced with spare tubing. As well as the high quality surface engraving, another good feature of this kit is the high amount of internal detail, more than I've seen in some 1/48 kits, and a radial engine that's exquisitely detailed, even though it will be hard to see once it's inside the generously proportioned cowling.

Instructions

The comprehensive instructions are photocopied on both sides of 2 A4 folded sheets. It includes a detailed three view drawing, a painting guide with only generic colour references given, some informational/advisory text in Polish & English and an assembly sequence spread over 3 diagrams.

Construction

Before construction could commence, some time was spent cleaning up the various parts, particularly the wings. Choroszy Modelbud have modelled the rather complex internal tubular construction of the fuselage by using a variety of small detail parts, albeit in a simplified manner. They needed a fair amount of test fitting, which wasn't helped by an instruction sheet that was a little bit vague as to where some of those items should go.

Before the fuselage could be closed up, some additional hollowing out of the rudder was necessary to close a gap that appeared around the trailing edge. Another modification was the insertion of a plug along the top to the fuselage to maintain the correct width and to ease the fit around the myriad of internal parts. The wing pieces had the same annoying gap appearing along the trailing edge which meant more hollowing out before the one piece lower and two uppers could be joined together. The wing/fuselage fit was good, but only after much test fitting. A touch of filler was used to smooth out the final join line.  

Test-fitting the wheel well parts showed that, no matter what, some filler would have to applied at the leading edge join. The undercarriage assembly was relatively stress free, the only thing to do was to ensure correct alignment as per the 3-view drawing. The engine cowling is made up of four pieces, including a seperately moulded exhaust collector ring that sits just inside the front lip of the cowling. The engine is extremely well cast, one of the best I've seen in 1/72 scale, so it was a shame it has to disappear inside such a large cowling! The vacform canopy was a very good fit, although the framework was rather heavy.

Accuracy

The model has a wingspan of 169mm, an overall length of 132mm and a height of 44.5mm. Comparisons with the dimensions given in the instruction sheet makes it spot-on for wingspan, but 3mm short on length and 1mm short on height. Despite this, the one photo I found on this aircraft shows that the makers have captured the rather distinctive appearance of this aircraft very well, despite the slightly shorter fuselage.

Colour options

There is one colour option supplied on the decal sheet, sporting an early patch-style Regia Aeronautica camouflage. There are no FS colour references given, just brown, green, sand and grey. Paints used were the nearest Italian equivalents from the now defunct AeroMaster acrylic range and were brush painted. Fortunately the same colours are now available in the Polyscale range. The rudder tricolor was airbrushed (the decal was far too wide). I used Humbrol 3 for the green and a 50/50 mix of Humbrol 19 & 20 for the red.

Decals

This sheet is shared with the other Choroszy Ba64 kit and is not without errors. The rudder tricolor decal is much too wide (for either kit). There are two set of squadriglia codes, one of which is for neither kit! They have even made the fatal mistake of having all the wing roundels facing to the left, all with black detail on white (lower wing roundels on early schemes are usually white out of black). Lastly, although I'm not sure if this is an error, the expected fuselage axe (fasce) roundel is missing, being replaced by an unfamiliar sword based one. The only saving grace was print quality itself. The decals that I could use went on without difficulty and therefore gives it a 3/10. Needless to say, wing roundels and Savoy Crest's were sourced from spares, having decided to stick with the sword emblem.

Conclusion/recommendation

The complexity of the internal detailing, a fairly involved clean up of some parts and even the errors on the decal sheet is a small price to pay for such a good model of such an obscure aircraft. It can be thoroughly recommend to experienced resin kit builders. If only there was a 1/72 scale Breda Ba65 model as good as this one!

Many thanks to Choroszy Modelbud for the review sample.