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

Kit name.

Nardi FN.305 (monoposto)

The Kit.

This kit is packaged in a sturdy plain white cardboard box, with an extra paper lid for the kit graphics. The contents include a kit made entirely out of resin, with a very thin single vacform moulding for the cockpit enclosure, which could be easily lost.  The engraved detail on the one piece wing is particularly well done. In sharp contrast, the fuselage had some very deeply engraved panel lines, which should be partially filled to improve their appearance. The decals sheet is incomplete, being just a set of generic set of wing/fuselage fasce & Savoy crests. It does not have the red flash for each side of the fuselage and there's no sign of the aircraft name or serial number.  

Instructions.

The instructions are two A5 sheets. One has a sketch of the parts layout & exploded assembly diagram, with generic colours given for the smaller detail parts. The other sheet, which is in colour, describes the simple overall pale cream colour scheme and has an oversized template for the red fuselage flash. No accurate colour references are given and there's no history either.

Construction.

Before working on the cockpit, the more difficult task of mating the one piece wing to the fuselage should be tackled first. The middle of the wing is too deep, creating a prominent step where the leading edge joins the fuselage. It must be sanded to fit. When that's done, the shape of the wing should then be slightly altered. The leading edge should meet the fuselage at right angles when viewed from above, forming a slight kink in the wing taper more or less where the undercarriage units are. Using a guide line drawn along the lower wing, the leading edge can be trimmed and then re-profiled by more sanding. Another task to do is to clean up the messy wheel well with a grinding tool.

The fuselage is same as the one supplied in the previously released two seater Legato kit, with an extra part supplied to convert it to the single seater. This snug fitting part is added as soon as the cockpit detail has been installed. The small cockpit canopy is very thin and needs care when being trimmed to fit. It allows a reasonably good view of the nicely detailed seat, which is complete with harness, but not a lot else can be seen. The undercarriage units are fragile. One them was rebuilt due to an air bubble in the leg. The undercarriage linkages are best replaced with plastic rod of thinner diameter. Both the rudder and elevators show minor outline inaccuracies, but short of scratch building new ones, they can be safely ignored.

Accuracy.

No dimensions are given, but they should be identical to the two seater aircraft, ie; a span of 8.46 metres, a fuselage of 6.95m and a height of 2.1m. The model is accurate in all dimsensions and looking at the one photo I've seen of this aircraft (which was minus its wings) shows it has captured the look reasonably well, although I feel the nose should be a bit deeper. One glaring error is that there should be 6 exhaust stubs, not 5!

Colour Options.

This aircraft was very pale ivory overall, with a red flash running the length of each side of the fuselage. This relatively simple scheme was applied with an airbrush, using Humbrol Satin White, with a touch of Humbrol 41, not forgetting to mask the canopy with Tamiya tape first.  With no red flash decals provided and an oversized template to boot, a new one had to be drawn, from which Tamiya tape masks were made. These were positioned on each side of the model as soon as the main fuselage colour had dried. The red is sprayed with a 50/50 mix of Humbrol 19/20. Decals for the wing roundels are provided, although they are not indicated on the instruction sheet. Decision time. Should they be applied or not? The photo of the wingless aircraft is not much help. Other versions of this aircraft sporting a similar scheme did not have them, but it may be possible they were used in this case as this particular aircraft was a prototype for the light fighter role. It's a tough call! For the rudder tricolor, I used spare decals from the Azur FN305 kit. Otherwise it will have to be painted. One problem I could not solve was the lack lettering for the aircraft name and serial number.

Decals.

A very simple, nicely printed sheet, the transfers being easy to apply.  It still only gets a 2/10 rating though, for being so incomplete. To repeat, there's no red flash, no rudder tricolor, no aircraft lettering and no MM serial number.

Conclusion/ Recommendation.

This is an interesting and unfamiliar version of the FN.305, based on Legatos own two-seater model. It's diminutive size should enable it to find a space on even the most crowded of model shelves. With Azur and Special Hobby's injection moulded kits now available, a collection of this important trainer aircraft is now possible. However, comparisons with the injection moulded kits prove that it's not quite to the same standard. I could only give it a guarded recommendation, as the work required to fix the wing and "missing" markings on the decal sheet make it a rather frustrating build.

Many thanks to Legato for the review sample.