Italeri 1/72 Fiat CR.42 Falco By Jim Schubert

History

Fiat Chief Engineer, Cellestino Rosatelli, started work on the CR.42 design as a development of the one-off CR-41 in 1936. The prototype CR.42 first flew in early 1939 and with only one significant change was accepted by the Regia Aeronautica for immediate production. The first production article rolled out in late 1939. The only visible differences were that the production version had a fixed, fully faired tailwheel replacing the retractable tailwheel of the prototype and there were now small rocker-box bumps on the engine cowling. Obsolescent when it entered service in late 1939, the CR.42 nevertheless soldiered on with the Regia Aeronautica until 1950 having fought on every front upon which Italian forces were engaged in WWII. Its greatest successes were in North Africa. CR.42s were exported to Sweden, Belgium and Hungary. During WWII, the Luftwaffe also used them. The Swedish birds were sold to a private contractor after WWII for use as civil registered target tugs for the Flygvapnet until 1949.

1,781 CR.42s were built; making it the Italian fighter produced in the greatest numbers ever. It is generally acknowledged to have been the best biplane fighter ever built. Today only three are known to survive with one each on display at:

• Museo Storico dell’ Aeronautica Militaire at Vigna di Valle,

• Flygvapenmuseum at Linkoping and

• The Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.

The Kit

Italeri’s CR.42 is packed in a very attractive end-opening box of adequate strength. The big deal with this release is the inclusion of a “photographic reference manual”. This is superb. It is a 48 page, 6” x 8” (150mm x 210mm) format, booklet of crystal clear color photos of details of the Vigna di Valle specimen, detailed line drawings from Fiat’s original Illustrated Parts Catalog and black and white, as well as color, photos from WWII. The booklet has four sections:

• Brief History,

• Technical Details,

• Walkaround and

• Colour Profiles.

This is a great little booklet. It is rather like a poor-man’s Aero Detail presentation.

The kit itself is also very good; definitely much better that the Revell kit of the early 1960s, with which it will inevitably be compared. The Revell kit, unchanged, has gone through many releases over the years. The one that I built back in 1966 was in the original Revell USA boxing and was priced at about 50 cents. It had no optional parts and decals for only two planes; one Italian and one Swedish. The kit in my cache is in the later Revell UK boxing.

I’ve included a photo of that old bird and a scan of the UK box art. Italeri provides markings and detail parts for six different planes. Optional parts include skis, un-spatted wheels, night fighter exhausts and searchlights, bombs and underwing pylons and a wind-driven generator. The better a kit is the more critical of it we, naturally, are; therefore:

Positive points:

• That incredible booklet,

• Beautifully printed decals for six different airplanes,

• Optional parts

• Very good interior details and

• Very good engine and

• Finely detailed cowl flaps.

Negative points:

• Weakly executed fuselage stringers/fabric detail – hard to correct,

• Weakly executed control surface ribs/fabric detail – hard to correct,

• Too prominent wing ribs/tapes – sand ‘em down,

• Thick trailing edges on the wings - sand ‘em down,

• Thick-sided wheel pants – sand ‘em down,

• Deeply scribed, chordwise lines on wing center section; these should look like wing ribs – fill/file/sand/prime, &c.,

• In engineering the kit no thought was given to positive location of the top wing – fiddle with it till you get it right and

• Much too large and heavy aileron control horns and cables – replace with finer bits you’ve made yourself.

I’m thinking the fuselage stringers could be scraped/filed/sanded off and replaced, Harry Woodman style, with overlays of .010” styrene embossed, from the inside, with the stringers.

Built out-of-the-box you’ll get a very nice representation of this iconic Italian fighter for your collection.

Conclusion

This is a very good kit but its several shortcomings prevent it being labeled a great kit. That booklet alone, though, is worth the price of the kit. Buy one.

I paid $19.95, plus sales tax, for my kit at Emil Minerich’s Skyway Model Shop in Seattle.

Lament

Why is it that, after all these years, kit manufacturers do not adequately address the fitting of the top wings when engineering kits of biplanes? Monogram, Hasegawa, Matchbox, Accurate Miniatures and Tamiya have all shown how it ought to be done and should be copied by the other manufacturers.

A Question:

Fiat licensed their constant speed propeller design from Hamilton-Standard of the USA prior to WWII and created a Fiat propeller logo that looks exactly like the Ham-Std. logo except for its text. The CR.42 preserved at the RAFM has these logos crudely hand painted on the prop blades; see photos herewith. Does any reader know why this is? Did the Italians do it or is this a joke on the part of the RAFM restorers? If you know the answer to this please let me now

References

• Ali D’ Italia, Fiat CR.42: Giorgio Apostelo, La Bancarella Aeronautica, Torino, 1995.

• Ali E Colori, Fiat CR.42: Paolo Waldis, La Bancarella Aeronautica, Torino, 1995.

• Profile No. 16, The Fiat CR.42: Gianni Cattaneo, Profile Pubs., UK, early 1960s.

• Fiat CR.32/CR.42 In Action No. 172: George Punka, Squadron/Signal Pubs., USA, 2000, ISBN 0-89747-411-2.

• Regia Aeronautica, Vol. 1, A Pictorial History of the Italian Air Force 1940-1943: Christopher Shores, Squadron/Signal Pubs., USA, 1976, ISBN 0-89747-060-5.

• Regia Aeronautica, Vol. 2, Pictorial History of the Aeronautica Nazionale Republicana and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force 1943-1945: F. D’Amico & G. Valentini, Squadron/Signal Pubs., USA, 1986, ISBN 0-89747-185-7.

• Air Enthusiast quarterly, No. 20: article - Fighter Biplane Finale…the Falco: Fine Scroll Pubs., UK, 1982.

• War planes of the Second World War – Fighters, Vol. 2: William Green, Doubleday, UK, 1961.

• Aeroplane Monthly: December 1974 & August 1976.