Ardpol 1/72 S.I.A. 7B 1 By Grzegorz Mazurowski

History

This Italian two-seater, powered by the powerful 300 hp Fiat A12bis engine, was introduced into front-line units in late Summer 1917. It was able to reach remarkable maximal speed - 190 km/h - and had good flying qualities, but was also dangerous - weak wings caused several deadly accidents. Operational career of S.I.A. 7B ended in June 1918, when the plane was withdrawn from the frontline units.

The kit

Like other Ardpol kits, S.I.A. 7B is packaged in a colourful box, which contains main resin parts, additional fret with photo-etched details, clear acetate windscreen and control panel, sheet of decals and assembly instruction. All parts are carefully packed in zip-bags, and wings are additionally protected by attaching them to cardboard pieces with clear tape.

Resin parts are perfectly moulded in ivory coloured resin - I've never seen better moulding! There are virtually no air-bubbles (except small one in one of the wheels) and all surfaces are very smooth and excellently detailed. Wings and tailplanes have beautifully depicted ribs on both, top and bottom, sides and sharp trailing edges. Fuselage has thin walls and very good details on the internal and external surfaces, especially note all that tiny louvers on the engine covers. I only doubt that plywood-covered fuselage needed cross-wire strengthening of the internal structure, as it is shown in the kit. Smaller details are beautiful too, as you can see on the picture. There is also small photo-etched fret containing pilot's seat, radiator, control panel, windscreen frame, seatbelts and control surfaces pushrods. Finally the kit contains small piece of clear acetate with printed instrument faces for control panel and the windscreen.

Ardpol made this kit not only detailed and accurate (comparing with plans provided in the kit instruction), but also easier to build than average resin kits, as wings and fuselage has some pins and holes helping in assembly. All this is very impressive.

The decals

Kit contains very nicely printed decals for one airplane, "6009" from 27a Squadriglia. Compared to the photo published in Alberto Casirati's article in Windsock International series about markings of the Italian airplanes, provided numbers and fuselage cockades are excellent, but cockades for the top wing have apparently a bit wrong proportions - red circle in the middle is a bit too big comparing with white and green circles. Also shade of green can be discussed - it is olive green, very similar to British PC-10 colour (box-art shows different, very clear shade of green). But - probably there is no proof showing which colour is more correct (even the original samples preserved in museums faded with age) so you shouldn't worry about that.

Conclusion

Excellent kit of an interesting airplane. Since resin kits, especially biplanes with complex wing structure, can be tricky to build, but the manufacturer helped the modeller with the pins and holes in main parts (also for the struts!). All the parts have very high quality, and there is nothing to complain - maybe except that shade of green - but if you really don't like one provided by producer, you can buy aftermarket set of Italian WWI cockades - even this won't spoil your satisfaction from this exceptional model!

Thanks to Ardpol for the review kit!