The original RCR FIAT G.55 1/48 resin kit was re-issued twice.

The top four images are Vintage Models re-issue of the RCR kit. The second set, with the banded scheme, is Italiankits 'revised' edition wiich had improved detailing in the wheel well plus a few other subtle changes. Maurizio Di Terlizzi gave a very good account of constructing two G.55 model's in his 1998 IBN Editore #3 guidebook based around Misterkit's rare 1/72 resin kit and the original RCR kit. At the time they were considered the best choices in their respective scales. Classic Airframe released a G.55 but there were 'issues' with the fuselage shape as was the Artiplast/SMER 1/50 scale kit. Both would be difficult to correct. Supermodels 1/72 G.55 had its fair share of problems too, but at least they were solvable. Happily both Special Hobby & Flying Machines have provided us with an array of very good quality 1/48 and 1/72 limited run kits as well as Pacific Coast Models with their 1/32 kit. Sword did the tooling for the PCM kit and have since issued a decent looking 1/72 kit that comes in a Duo boxing making it good value.

The following text was written in 2006 to describe my experience with the Vintage kit but it relates to Italiankits G.55 as well.

This is the Vintage Models take on the RCR kit. The panel engraving is a bit deep for my taste and the canopy was very poor. Fortunately, Falcon do a very nice replacement canopy intended for the Classic Airframe kit which happened to fit this model perfectly. It's found on one of their WWII fighter sets (set #37) so anyone with a couple of G.50 projects (and maybe a few Yak's), would do well to get it. Another disappointment is the wheel well, which is devoid of any detail. The resin cast flaps also fail to convince (brass etch style flaps would have been so much better).  Italiankits did a decent job of adding extra detail to the wheel well & undercarriage of their kit, but did a terrible job of the flaps, supplying them as crudely cast white metal pieces. Other Italiankit fixes were to correct the headrest fairing and the shape of the nose gun troughs.

Construction is very rapid, what with the fuselage & wing both being single cast items. On the whole the fit was very good apart from the main wing to fuselage join itself. A fair amount of Milliput was used here. A few other tweaks carried out during construction were to replace the tail wheel with a spare from the Hasegawa C.202/205 kit and the addition of a small 'L' shaped air intake on the RHS of the nose, just above the exhaust. Another 'grey' area is cockpit colour. The G.55 restored by GAVS has a yellow chromate interior, which is a departure from the usual normal grey or green. Pieces recovered from a crash site suggests that the yellow could indeed be correct.

As this model has the late style rudder, care had to be taken when choosing a scheme. Decals were taken from the Aeromaster sheet, depicting a G.55 from the "Montefusco" Squadriglia. Incidentally, the same markings are used on a FIAT G.55 restored by the Turin based GAVS.