M-346 Master
Advanced Fighter Trainer

Kinetic Gold, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

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The Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master is a military twin-engine transonic trainer aircraft. Originally co-developed with Yakovlev as the Yak/AEM-130, the partnership was dissolved in 2000 and Alenia Aermacchi proceeded to separately develop the M-346 Master, while Yakolev continued work on the Yakovlev Yak-130.

The first flight of the M-346 took place in 2004.

The type is currently operated by the air forces of Italy, Israel, Singapore, and Poland. Since 2016 the manufacturer became Leonardo-Finmeccanica as Alenia Aermacchi merged into the new Finmeccanica, finally rebranded as Leonardo in 2017.

Kinetic has launched their new Gold series with this 1/48 scale M-346 Master Advanced Fighter Trainer. The Gold series features finer surface textures and improved detail. I think that Kinetic has already dipped its toe into this higher quality pool with its 2016 Su-33 and the lovely new fuselage in last year's two-seater Mirage IIID.

Kinetic's brand new M-346 Master comprises 270 parts in grey plastic with 17 parts in clear plastic, 26 parts on a single photo-etched frets and markings for six schemes plus several variations. There are a number of parts on the weapons sprues that won't be used this time, so the count of parts actually used for the build will be a bit lower than 270.

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Thumbnail panels:

The fuselage and upper wing are provided as an upper and lower pancake. This features an intricate join seam. Test-fitting here looks encouraging, with no gaps or steps even without glue. The nose is supplied as two additional pieces.

Surface detail really is world class. The panel lines, hatches, rivets and vents are beautfully restrained.

The upper wings are moulded to the fuselage but the lower wings are separate parts. All control surfaces are separate and may be posed to taste.

Cockpit detail is good.

The side detail on the seats is raised on the sides and photo-etched harness straps are provided.

The clear parts are thin and free from distortion with no centreline seam to remove. One of the canopies is moulded with the detonation cord while the second option is moulded without. The choice is yours.

Three sprues are devoted to stores and weapons.

Sprue C provides pylons, mountsm sway braces and drop tanks.

Sprue M (x2) contains rockets and bombs.

Markings

Six varied marking options are offered on the Cartograf-printed decal sheet covering prototypes, Poland, Israel, Singapore and Italy.0

Alternative serial numbers are included for greater variety within the Polish, Singaporean, Israeli and Italian options.

Stencil and weapon markings are also provided.

The decals have been designed by Isra and printed by Cartograf.

Kinetic's debut Gold Series kit is very impressive.

Kinetic's 1/48 scale M-346 boasts beautifully crisp, fine surface textures and very good detail. At less than USD$40.00 it also represents outstanding value.

Thanks to Lucky Model for the samples

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2017 by Brett Green
Page Created 17 September, 2017
Last updated 17 September, 2018

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