Fiat G.50 Serie 1

S.B.S. Model, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

Arriving in a stout top-opening cardboard box with a colour drawing of one of the schemes on top and both decal choices on the side, this is a great little full resin kit of the earliest variant of the ubiquitous Fiat G.50 pre- and early-war Italian fighter. In 1/72 scale this aircraft has been pretty well portrayed with kits produced by Airfix in 1967 and re-released as a vintage kit last year, as well as by Fly and AML.

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Most of these and the two previous releases by SBS have been of the later Freccia bis variants with the open cockpit so beloved of late 1930s pilots raised with the wind in their hair, while this kit is of the closed cockpit early variant.

Some 45 of these were produced before the closed cockpit was abandoned in the remaining 740 aeroplanes. Its importance to Italy lay in the fact that it was their first all metal, closed cockpit fighter with retractable undercarriage. Early planes took part in the Spanish Civil War in the Aviazione Legionaria and was found to be very manoeuvrable but seriously under-armed, something that was never really fixed.

The kit parts are well protected in separate bags with bubble-wrap sheets. Apart from the grey resin parts there is a set of three crystal-clear resin transparencies, a pair of white metal undercarriage legs, two small photo-etched frets and a lovely set of decals for two aircraft.

The instructions come on a mix of double sided A4 and A5 sheets to show very clearly which parts to use ( there are 7 not used in this version), the colour schemes and the 18 steps in construction. 

Surface detail is just astounding and no parts show any sign of bubbles.

All parts are attached to substantial casting blocks which provide stability to the finished items and which have very fine attachment points which will be easily cleaned up upon their removal.

As usual the modeller is warned about the danger of resin dust and it is recommended that sanding is done in a well-ventilated area, preferably while wearing a mask and using wet wet’n’dry paper to reduce dust.  

The provision of metal undercart legs will be great to reduce the risk of the weighty model collapsing on its undercarriage.

Markings

The nice decal sheet is semi-gloss, crisply printed in-house with great colour density and  register. The two choices are both Spanish Civil War aircraft in the ‘spinach and sand’ mottled scheme over pale grey undersides with white wing tips and rudders.

Paint colours are given by name in English and Italian for the camouflage colours but be aware that each Italian manufacturer had its own paint supplier and that these often differed from each other hence the use of such names as Giallo Mimetico 1 as distinct from Giallo Mimetico 2 or 3 for the different shades of sand used by the different paint companies. This is a fraught area but a bit of research could clarify exactly what shade was used by FIAT. There is a series of Italian monographs which cover the matter quite well.

Only the true ‘rivet counter’ would be too fussed about the same differences between the shades in this scale.

No detail or interior colours are quoted but I believe the interiors of these aircraft would have been a pale silvery-grey at that time.

The two marking choices are:

1. MM3582 of Gruppo de Caza, at Sevilla-Tablada, Spain June 1939, and 

2. MM3586 of Reparto Sperimentale (XXIII Gruppo Caccia) at Escalona, Spain in May 1939.

As usual with SBS the modeller gets a quality product at a price  but there is no denying that this is a superb kit of an important early Italian fighter and it comes wholeheartedly recommended if this is your area of interest.

Purchased by the reviewer from SBS Model

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2023 by Graham Carter
Page Created 1 February, 2023
Last updated 1 February, 2023

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