Originally built for SAMI and appeared in the July 2006 issue.

The Kit.

Choroszy Modelbuds products, as always, are supplied in their standard blue and white box, with a laser print glued on the lid to describe the aircraft inside. This is their third Caproni Ca.100 kit variant, and the second one I have reviewed for this magazine. This model is almost the same as before, the principal change being a new fuselage to fit the Cirrus engine, which is provided in its entirety. Only the top of the cylinders will ever be seen though. Other new items are a delicately moulded exhaust pipe and a propellor moulded with its spinner. There are signs of wear an tear on the wing mouldings which will require attention. The wheels are solid moulded (most, if not all, Ca.100's had spoked wheels). A small decal sheet is provided, as well as a small piece of clear stock from which to make the cockpit windscreens.

Instructions.

Always the weakest element in Choroszy Modelbud kits, the instructions are pretty basic, with a few daigrams to aid the construction as well as a 3-view plan and a colour guide. No specific colours are given, neither are there any colour call-outs during the assembly, so much guesswork is need for painting any internal detail.

Construction.

The two fuselage halves need a clean up before installing the internal detail. The engine also had to be trimmed a bit to get a snug fit. The cockpit detail is enhanced by very nicely moulded sidewall detail. There is a long structural framework onto which the seats and control columns are added, before gluing it onto one side of the fuselage. The two instruments panel are then glued in place. The two fuselage halves were then test fitted. It was apparent that they do not line up very well. To work around this, I made sure the top fuselage join was nice and evenly matched before running some glue along the seam. The more uneven lower join was then sanded and filled, before being made smooth again. The long span lower wings had alignment pins to ease their assembly. I removed the rear most pin to enable me to drop the trailing edge below the base of the fuselage. This is to match the various photos I had as reference. The top wing dihedral was not quite correct. The starboard wing was carefully sawn off and re-aligned, rather than using heat treatment. The length of all struts were checked for accuracy against the kit plans and as the aircraft was the same colour overall, I just went ahead and glued everything into place, including the top wing and all the struts, tail surfaces and so on, leaving out the wheels, propellor and exhaust. It was then given a coat of grey primer. The cockpit windscreens were cut form the clear stock and along with the other items, applied after the colour scheme had completely dried.

Accuracy.

The kit measurements are: span139mm, length 105, height of 238mm. The published dimensions give a 10m span and a 2.75m height but no reliable length. The the kit is actually spot-on in all known dimensions and as the kit perfectly captures the look of this aircraft its length must be reasonably correct as well.

Colour Options.

Only one scheme is offered. It is for a civilian aircraft with an overall pale green scheme. I felt the colour profile on the lid showed too dark a green, especially after seeing a b/w photo of this particular aircraft that seems to suggest a much paler colour. I rummaged around my paint collection and settled on Xtracolors Pale Israel Green. It seems to be a closer in tone at least.

Decals.

The decal sheet is nicely printed and the rudder tricolor was a perfect fit. However the white disc is too small and the aircraft registration code is missing a black underscore. The diagram in the instructions do show these items correctly, so it's a bit annoying that the decals do not. Therefore, a rating of  6/10, instead of 9/10.

Conclusion/ Recommendation.

This model completes Choroszy Modeldud's trio of Ca.100 models. Although by no means a perfect model, it is a more than satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy and all three are worthy of consideration. In view of its rather easy scheme, anyone contemplating  building one should consider getting this one first and then going onto the other two. They look great when seen in all in a line on the shelf.

Many thanks to Choroszy Modelbud for the review sample.