This marvellous kit, originally released in 2005, was recently updated with new improved injection moulded parts for the undercarriage, wheels and cockpit, plus new resin parts for the exhausts, propellor hubs and gun turrets. Despite this, there are still areas that need attention, which I have itemised below.
1. The engine cowlings need to have their front aperture reduced 1mm in diameter (from 15.5 down to 14.5mm). Looking at the cowls from the side view, it is clear that the radius curve to the aperture is too sharp… it should have a more gentle curve.
2. Flap and aileron hinges are missing on the lower wing, even though there are position marks scribed on the parts. These can be easily represented by small triangular pieces of plasticard.
3. There is no rudder hinge detail. Best option is to carefully remove the rudder and cut slots in the correct position.
4. The main undercarriage units have missing strut detail. Good references can be found online to help the modeller.
5. The undercarriage doors are not the right shape, being too narrow and lacking the correct curvature to match the engine nacelle. New doors can be fashioned out of plasticard.
6. The undercarriage bays should have visible tubular framework for the engine mount (a featureless flat plate is supplied in the kit). This is perhaps the most challenging area to detail but it is doable for anyone with patience and good references to hand.
7. There are two oil cooler vents on the leading edge of the wings between the engine nacelles. No parts are supplied in the kit, leaving a gaping hole, so these will need to be scratch built. They angle slightly downwards.
8. Another subtle change is to sharpen the leading edges of all the tail surfaces. They are too blunt, especially the tail fin.
9. The main wings are too thick towards the wingtips when viewed head on, so sanding material from the inside will cure this problem as well as smoothing out the wingtips once assembled.
10. Another task is to fill in all the panel lines in the top wing surfaces that follow the line of flight, as well as removing the prominent fairings and replacing them with shallower teardrop shaped fairings 10mm further back. There should be a series of small circular access panels between the engine nacelles as well.
11. All the elevators, ailerons, flaps etc could do with having a deeper hinge line. Use a scriber for this, such as the Tamiya Plastic Scriber.
12. There is no bomb aimer device in the kit. It can be scratch built.
All this remedial work is possible for most modellers and the end result will be an impressive, distinctive and interesting aircraft.
Originally built for SAMI and appeared in the September 2005 issue.
The Kit.
The end opening carton has a very well executed illustration of the Italian night bomber looking suitably grubby and care worn. There is a certain air of heightened expectation when opening it to view the contents within. After all, it's not that often you see a brand new WWII 4-engined bomber kit these days. At first glance, it certainly does not disappoint. For such a large model, Special Hobby have done a very good job with the moulding, with very nice engraved panel lines and subtle fabric effect. The parts breakdown is logical and the additional resin parts more than adequately cover the finer details, such as the seats, instrument panels, the night damper exhausts, propeller bosses, gun barrels and so on. The fuselage nose section is made out of clear pieces, for which parts for both the turret and non-turreted aircraft are provided. These are butt jointed onto the main fuselage sections which may give cause for concern during the construction, as is the resin cast rear tailwheel leg, which is bound to break (it did). The 18 cylinder radial engines are a disappointment, being just a single piece moulding with no pushrod detail. With each bank visible that will mean over 100 pieces of rod to apply! The fuselage is devoid of any internal structural detail, not even sidewall detail in the main cockpit area. The main cockpit canopy, like the nose section is very clear and not too thick. A smaller than expected decal sheet provides marking for 2 aircraft. The instruction sheet is 4 sheets of folded A4 and follows their standard layout. It starts with a history, then follows on with the parts breakdown, suggested colours (Gunze Sangyo only), the assembley sequence and finally the choice of 2 colour schemes. It is very well laid out and easy to follow.
Assembly.
Starting with the cockpit and fuselage assembly, Special Hobby have suggested a rather dark green interior, but an on-line source reckons an overall aluminium interior, instead of the more familiar verde anti-corrosivo. Of course, I only learnt this after I had completed the model! The pilot seats are delicately cast resin items and it was all too easy to break off the arm rests. The instrument panel and center console were in resin. These items were painted black. The only other details provided are the flight controls, which were a combination of injection moulded columns and resin cast handles. For such a large cabin space, it all looks rather bare and screams out for extra detailing. Maybe aftermarket companies will come to the rescue. The bomb aimers compartment is detailed with just a floor, onto which two cushion pads are moulded. The only other internal items to install are two bulkheads (one of which includes a spar for the main wings), the rear wheel leg and the shutters for the waist guns. No parts are provided to allow the waist guns to be shown in the open position and with such a bare interior, it's probably best left that way. The bulkhead with the spar needs to be aligned accurately, or better still, not glued in at all allowing a bit of play when fixing the wings to the fuselage. The second bulkhead is placed just beyond it by 10mmm or so and will need to be glued in place (the instruction sheet is not very clear on exactly where it should go). The tail wheel strut was reinforced with a steel pin after its inevitable breakage. There were four tiny windows that can be installed before closing the fuselage, but Kristal Kleer can be used later instead. The large fuselage was glued together in stages and the only problem I encountered was along the lower seam between the wing area. It needed only a smear of filler to get it nice and smooth. The engraved panel lines for the closed bomb bay doors are very indistinct and after sanding the join line, even less so. I used a scriber to help them stand out more.
The enormous wing halves were glued together, as were the horizontal tail units. Joining the wings to the fuselage was relatively stress free exercise, especially for such a large join area. Its not perfect by any means but it could have been a lot worse. The main thing to do is to ensure the join areas are smooth as possible and test fit each wing first. Some sanding was neeeded to get a better blend into the wing fillets. The horizontal tail surfaces fit perfectly.
The engine nacelles are moulded in halves and were joined together before being attached to the wings. It's at this stage that the resin cast remote gun turrets on the outer nacelles are installed. These were kept in place with generous amounts of superglue. The last thing you'd want is for them to disappear into the wing cavity after completion. You'll never get them back! So far so good and hardly any filler required. The front bulkheads of the main wheel well bays are cast in resin and fits quite nicely. Each nacelle had a cap or end piece onto which the cowlings were designed to fit. These item all need filler to get a smooth join, as they seemed to be somewhat undersized and would not fit evenly.
The cowlings and engines are perhaps the most troublesome part of the assembly and may catch out the unwary. The cowling halves (for which two seemingly identical sets are provided) were glued together and the resin cast air scoops, both above and below, attached with superglue. The interior of the cowlings are indicated as green, but I feel aluminium is a more appropriate colour. The engines, which were already painted black and dry brushed with silver, can be placed into the cowlings from the back, but there is no positive location points for them. I made sure the front of the engine crankcase was just inboard of the cowling aperture before gluing them in place. The main problem comes when trying to attach the cowls to their respective nacelles. There did not seem to be any way of doing so without leaving a gap (and enough space for each exhaust). I cut tabs of plasticard, matched to the internal diameter of the cowlings, which were glued onto the front of the nacelles. Only then could the cowlings and exhausts be attached. When attaching the inner nacelle engine exhausts, make sure they will clear the undercarriage doors. The propellors are handed. Although the instructions make you aware of this, it is not clear on which side they go. They should rotate towards the fuselage from each side. They are made of resin centres and injection moulded props. The centres give a good purchase and make aligning the blades a fairly easy process.
The clear nose sections were carefully glued together. Although most of the seam will be covered with paint, a small section is unavoidably in a clear area. The whole piece was not quite a perfect join onto the main fuselage, so I made sure the more visible top parts was aligned as accurately as possible and dealt with the slight mis-match on the lower section with careful sanding. The main canopy is a very good fit, only required a small trim around the front and rear edges to drop into place. The aperture in the fuselage for the belly gun turret is too small. Instead of reaming it out, I reduced the depth of the clear part and glued it straight onto the surface in order to match its fully retracted position. The part is entirely covered in paint anyway. There was no opening for the gun barrel, so that had to be opened out.
The mould lines on the large undercarriage legs were cleaned up and the two wheels test fitted. The moulded axle detail was too pronounced and made the undercarriage splay out. I trimmed this detail back and drilled out the centres. Only then could the legs remain vertical. The completed units are a tight fit into each undercarriage bay. The traling linkages were overlong, so I trimmed about 2mm of each to get a better fit. All the smaller details such as the gun barrels, antenna etc are all left off until after applying the main colour scheme.
Colour Options.
There are two options, based on the more or less the same home defence or Continental scheme of overall dark olive green with light blue/grey lower surfaces. One of them is for a captured P.108 with American markings (this particular aircraft was written off after a hydraulic failure). The other scheme is of a P.108 night bomber that has had an application of black over its lower surfaces, the white fuselage band and rudder cross. This black paint was probably the 'nerofumo' powder used specifically for this purpose and was known for not covering terribly well. Instead of using the decal supplied for the blacked out rudder cross (a fuselage band is not supplied), I sprayed the white fuselage band and rudder cross and even the grey lower surfaces in the usual manner, then airbrushed black over the top. This is to try and replicate this patchy appearance and appears to work very well. The decal sheet is nicely printed and settles very well on a prepared surface. The propellors took up most of the time, with two to apply on each blade. Rating 9/10.
Conclusions.
This is a large kit and Special Hobby have done an excellent job of capturing the very distinctive lines of the P.108. It would appear that they have relied heavily on the Ali d'Italia publication when preparing this model, as the parts match up to the drawings extremely well. Its overall accuracy is therefore not in question. It is a completely absorbing and enjoyable build and one can pass over the fact that internal detail is not as good as one would have hoped. It assembly is relatively hassle free, although it will pose a few challenges to less experienced modellers. Enough to make it a satisfying build when completed. It can be recommended to all modellers.
Many thanks to Special Hobby for the review sample.
