The Aircraft

When the Germans were bringing out the Bf-109, the British had the Hurricane and were bringing out the Spitfire, and the USA had the P-40 and P-39, Fiat introduced the last biplane fixed gear fighter produced in any large numbers. Although the Falco was pretty much outclassed in speed, it was structurally very strong and highly maneuverable. It remained in service through 1944.

The CR 42 remained in production through 1942, and participated in the Battle of Britain. They were used by the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front and by Italy as night fighters, even though they had no radar or radio. While I’m still doing some research, apparently a Gladiator and CR 42 were in combat in December of 1940, probably the last biplane dogfight.

History and Performance

The history and performance of this vehicle has been addressed in an earlier review, and therefore I will have nothing more or new to offer.

The Kit

This is the first MiniArt plastic kit that I have seen. The kit is packages in a sturdy cardboard box, with all of the sprues, decals and instruction sheets bound in a securely taped plastic bag. The box top indicates that there are 657 Parts in the kit.

I have three or four of these magazines and have also written a review on volume 15. The magazine is always a good read and this issue is no different, there are fourteen articles in this issue. They range from a 1:72^nd scale Eagle Booster set (Space 1999) from Warp Models to 1:1 scale Galaxy Quest prop kits from Pegasus Hobbies.

This issue has the 3^rd part of a 3 part story on the designing of the Moebius Jupiter 2 which offered a chance for all of us to see what goes into designing such a kit ( I can’t wait to build mine). The article on how to repair a damaged Snow speeder has great information that should be of help to all who have had some mishaps happen to our models such as kids and the cat all come to mind.