An interesting variation of Italy's Savoia-Marchetti S.M.79 was the version produced for the Romanian Air Force. Given two German Jumo 211 engines (instead of the original three radials) and a "greenhouse" nose section, the medium bomber became a different-looking aircraft. Though fewer than 100 were produced, it served the Romanian air force before and after capitulation until the end of World War II.
Azur's new "Savoia Marchetti SM 79 JIS/JRS B" is molded in neutral gray plastic. The main components are neatly molded (though a bit thick), but the small parts are a bit rough in some areas. Options are limited to an alternate nose. All the crew areas feature interior detail.
I started with the cockpit interior and crew positions. The nose, dorsal and waist positions have basic details, and most of the small parts need attention to clean up ejection marks, seams, and soft detail. There are no positive attachment points, so I made several dry runs to determine a strategy for installation. All of the fuselage windows needed to be sanded and fitted to their appropriate openings.
Prior to attaching the wings to the fuselage, I test-fitted to determine assembly issues and discovered gaps that needed filling at the wing root and lower wing-to-fuselage seam.
The nose is a separate section and well molded in transparent plastic. Since there are two versions, check the color scheme chart to determine which one is correct for the aircraft you are modeling.
The engine's radiator cores are provided as resin parts. I needed to adjust their shape a bit to achieve a good fit within the radiator housings.
The landing gear struts are multipiece affairs and went together with no issues. Note - it is important to properly place the landing gear supports in the previous wing assembly step. Otherwise, you could run into trouble here.
I painted my Romanian S.M.79 with Hobby Color acrylic paints. The painting guide did not match up to the Hobby Color paint chart (I used the WWII RAF colors).
Decals are provided for four different aircraft. They adhered nicely to my gloss base.
References are a bit thin on this bomber, designated JRS 79B in Romania (J for Jumo, R for Romania, and S for Savoia-Marchetti). I used
Rumanian Air Force: The Prime Decade, 1938-1947, by Dénas Bernád (Squadron).
I completed my kit in 20 hours, which is about my usual for a 1/72 scale, short-run kit such as this. While Azur's kit requires some work in cleaning up the parts and improving fits, there are no big surprises. If you are into unusual WWII aircraft in 1/72 scale, I highly recommend this little-known medium bomber.
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