Originally built for SAMI and featured in the January 2004 issue minus these photos, which appeared later in the May 2004 issue!

The Kit

This resin kit, one of four sub-types recently issued by Choroszy Modelbud, is carefully packaged in their distinctively branded box. All parts are in resin and are beautifully moulded, showing very restrained fabric effect and minimal flash. Internal detail is good, even though not all will be visible through the small cockpit opening. The overly large decal sheet is used by all four kits, so not all marking are appropriate for this particular model. A clear flat sheet is supplied with which to make the simple windshield. Checking the contents showed up missing items, namely an "N" strut and one of the interplane struts. Not too much of a problem really, new ones are easily scratch-built. What is a problem though, is that the undercarriage struts would prove to be too short.

Instructions

The comprehensive instructions are photocopied on both sides of 2 A4 folded sheets. It includes a detailed three view drawing of the aircraft, a painting guide for two aircraft, some informational/advisory text in Polish & English and a series of exploded-view construction diagrams.

Construction

Any parts needing a clean up is best done before you start. In this case, there is relatively little of that to do. Cockpit assembly is straight forward, although the positioning of the gun breeches was not abundantly clear and some trimming of that part was needed to get a good fit. The fuselage halves joined neatly, as did the radiator. The lower wings and tail empennages, all of which had pins to aid alignment, are next, followed by the making of a new "N" strut and, as it turned out, new undercarriage struts. The kit parts were found to be much too short compared to the plans. Another give away was the proximity of the wheels to the lower wing!

After successfully negotiating that hurdle, we're onto the final stages of construction, namely the tailskid and the oil-cooler under the nose, leaving the top wing and outer interplane struts to be applied after painting  has been completed. All very simple really and as an additional bonus, the Warren strut system used on Rosatelli designed Fiats means there's no complex rigging tasks to perform, except between the outer struts. The wooden propellor and the small aileron winglets are the very last items to be glued in place

Accuracy

The kit compares reasonably well with dimensions supplied on the instruction sheet. With a wingspan of 136mm, an overall length of 92.5mm and a height of 39.5mm, it scales out almost perfectly, only the length and height are slightly out, vindicating the decision to rebuild the undercarriage. The only question mark I do have is the undercarriage! Although I used the plans to aid its reconstruction, I could not find any photos to confirm it, as earlier versions of this aircraft show quite a different layout. A reasonable conclusion could be that being a "bis", maybe it was altered in some way.

Colour options

There are two options supplied on the decal sheet. Both are silver dope overall, one with Italian markings and the other with German markings. Naturally I chose the Italian scheme, even through the ubiquitous tricolor markings and a series of red bands will need to be applied as well. I used Alclad Aluminum over a grey primer but only after masking the white areas for the tricolori first (there are decals for the tricolor, but I always prefer to airbrush them on). The red bands were applied directly on top of the silver. All struts were painted in the standard black.

Decals

The decal quality was extremely good and they went on without difficulty. A 10/10 rating. The large decal sheet will provide a good source of spares!

Conclusion/recommendation

Compared to some biplane resin kits, this ought be a very easy model to build, but the missing struts and the necessity to re-build the undercarriage took it from the easy to "not-quite-so" category. Being relatively simple corrections to make, however, I can still whole heartedly recommended this kit (and the other three, possibly) to all biplane and Italian aircraft enthusiasts.

Many thanks to Choroszy Modelbud for the review sample.