Equipped with a Fiat RA1050 Tifone engine (a license-built version of the Daimler-Benz 605 that powered the Bf 109G and other German aircraft), the Fiat G.55 Centauro first flew on April 30, 1942, reaching 385 mph at 23,000 feet.
Five sprues of gray styrene parts are packaged in a sealable plastic bag. Resin and clear parts are bagged separately; however, my kit's prepainted photoetched-metal fret turned up in the bottom of the box. A five-color decal sheet with markings for five aircraft, a 12-page instruction booklet, and a color and markings sheet are included. Colors are specified by name only - no brand cross references or Federal Standard numbers.
Clear parts are thick but clear and nicely molded, with enough relief to aid masking. The gunsight lens seems thick, but most of the styrene parts fit well. Sanding sticks took care of leading and trailing-edge seams, the fuselage seams matched almost perfectly, and little filler was needed on the nose. The instrument panel dropped in place, as did the tiny, metal instrument faces.
The edges of the canopy, windscreen, and gear doors are acceptably scale-thin. I used my motor tool to thin the opening edges of the supercharger intake (parts E6 and E7).
Oversize resin wheel wells caused fit problems for the wings. The resin side panel on the starboard side would not fit because of uneven surfaces on the fuselage side, and the cockpit floor was too wide for the space between the side panels (I removed about 1/16" from both sides). The length of the cockpit side panels was good, but the aft navigation light on the port side was missing or broken off.
The exhaust pipes were too thick and long to fit in the nose, and the aft portion of each exhaust manifold interfered with the box (Part PUR2) between the landing gear wells (parts PUR8 and PUR9). I ground the back sides of the exhaust manifolds (severely weakening those parts) to install the assembled wing in Step 17.
The nose gun panel was too large for the opening in the fuselage and had to be sanded to fit. Gun barrels are not provided for the nose. However, the wing guns fit perfectly; I bored out their barrels for looks. Lack of a propeller keeper was bothersome; I shimmed the shaft with tape to hold the propeller.
The landing gear and tail wheel struts fit perfectly. I trimmed plastic to install the metal grilles for the oil cooler and radiator. Wing-to-fuselage joints were tight fore and aft, while the wing fillet seams were tight fore and loose aft. I filled with window-glazing putty and Squadron White putty.
Gear doors, navigation lights, antenna, propeller, bomb shackles, and other fiddly bits were reserved until after painting and decals.
I used out-of-production Italian color Floquil Military enamels (still available in local hobby shops) to paint my model as a G.55 flown by Italian ace Ugo Drago.
Following several coats of Model Mas-ter clear gloss, the decals went on well with a little Micro Sol. The finish coat is a 50:50 mix of Model Master clear flat and clear satin.
My model is only slightly over scale in length and span according to dimensions I found on the Internet.
Modelers attempting this kit will need to track a lot of little parts, have the tools to adjust resin parts, and take their time. With all the metal and resin details, along with masking and painting a four-color scheme, I stopped counting my time after 100 hours.
Still, I'm proud to give this Italian beauty a prominent spot in my display case.
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