Luedemann 1/72 resin Macchi M.3

History

The Macchi M.3 was the first from the long and famous series of Italian 'M' flying boats. Why the first plane has the number '3'? Because the two earlier Macchis were marked L.1 and L.2 and were Macchi built Lohners - copies of the captured Austrian flying boat. Macchi M.3, originally designated L.3 ('L' was still standing for 'Lohner'), according to the Windsock Datafile': "differed from its Austrian ancestor to such an extent that it was considered a Macchi, eventually designated M.3." In October 1916 production of the first 50 M.3s started, and soon these nice, multi-purpose flying boats came to frontline service over Adriatic.

The Kit

It is typical for the Luedemann kits that they come in simple plastic bags, without the decals and without 'serious' instruction - only xeroxed three-view drawings of the airplane and small data chart are present. So the strength of these kits is not in the 'luxury boxing' or 'profipacking' but in the very good resin kit parts and the choice of the very interesting types of the airplanes, often neglected by the other kit manufacturers.

Again, typically for the Luedemann, the best parts in this kit are the big parts: fuselage halves with very nice details on the external surfaces (there are no special details in the interior) and the wings, which are wonderfully thin and have excellent imitations of the ribs and scalloping on the trailing edges. Also the tailplane and control surfaces are nicely thin and very well done.

Smaller details are worse: cockpit is provided with nothing more than two basic seats, engine, very good itself, will be very grateful for some additional wiring, piping and other equipment (not difficult to scratchbuild), and the various struts, though usable, in my opinion would benefit greatly from replacing them with bamboo, plastic or metal ones.

There are no decals provided, but the marking of that plane was often very basic: only Italian cockades and some black numbers are needed.

Conclusion

Construction of this kit will be a challenging experience even for pretty advanced modeller, but a really tempting one. Top wing is provided in the kit in two parts, which should be reinforced with a wires or something similar at the joint, also complex structure of the wing and tailplane struts will need some effort. Fuselage, though easy in construction (just glue together two halves), will need a lot of interior details to be scratchbuilt, as the cockpit opening is big and will hide nothing. But the result - a beautiful Italian flying boat - definitely deserves that effort!

I don't know any other kit of this airplane, and even if one exists, it probably isn't as good as the Luedemann.

Thanks to Mr. Thomas Luedemann for the review kit!