Classic Airframes' new 1/48 scale
Fiat CR.32 Export Version

by John Valo
 

  

Classic Airframes' 1/48 scale CR.32 is available online from Squadron.com
 

For a detailed examination of the kit contents, see Steven "Modeldad" Eisenman's in-box review here on HyperScale.

Classic Airframes recently released a new series of CR.32s, with boxings and markings for Spanish Civil War, Export and Italian aircraft. The Export release features markings for two Hungarian aircraft (early and late style markings), Austrian, German and Chinese.

Although some of the parts in this release remain unchanged from the initial release, some important revisions are evident. Foremost is the new resin nose, which incorporates all the delicate detail of the actual aircraft, including finely detailed blast tubes and incredibly delicate cooling fins.

Cockpit details have been revised to a mix of resin and pre-painted photoetch parts. The wheels and pants are separate parts in this release also.

I began construction by assembling the cockpit; the photoetched parts add a lot of detail to the well-cast resin parts. I found that I needed to thin the resin walls as well as the fuselage halves to get the assembled parts to fit properly. All this is almost irrelevant, as most of the cockpit won't be seen through the tiny cockpit opening. What you can see is impressive, though.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images: 

I was a bit apprehensive about how well the large resin nose would mate up with the assembled fuselage, but I found the fit to be nearly perfect. You need to trim away a lot of extra resin; I left a small ridge to reinforce the join with the plastic. Also, be sure to inspect the casting for evidence of mold deterioration. As molds age and are reused, they have a tendency to leave small bits of rubber in the castings, and subsequent castings may have unwanted 'detail'. I noticed this on the join line of the resin nose, and carefully sanded the join area smooth before mating it to the fuselage.

I made a simple Foamcore jig to hold the fuselage upright when attaching the lower wings, as even a small difference in dihedral angle will cause trouble with the strutwork and upper wing alignment.

I added tiny wire pins to the four inboard interplane struts, which fit into holes drilled in the upper and lower wings. By doing this, I was able to support the upper wing on these four struts, then align the upper wing and glue the struts without the whole assembly collapsing. Once these struts had set up, adding the remaining interplane and cabane struts was easy.

The new release features revised tail surfaces cast in resin. I took advantage of the separate surfaces and positioned the elevators with a slight droop and a bit of right rudder. (Yes, the cockpit controls reflect this, but you'll never see it!)

I finished the model with Polly Scale acrylics.

I still have yet to find conclusive color matches for Hungarian colors.

Classic Airframes also reflected this in the painting guide notes.

I used RLM 62 for the Green areas, RLM 79 for the Brown, RAF Ocean Grey and RLM 65 for the undersides.

The Microscale-printed decals went on flawlessly; the tail stripes were sufficiently opaque to cover the camouflage colors.

I would recommend this kit to CR.32 fanciers. The revisions made to the new releases are logical and well done, especially the beautifully cast nose part.

The addition of pre-painted photoetch is also welcome. The finished model is very convincing and attractive.
 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images: 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2006 by John Valo
Page Created 15 February, 2006
Last Updated 14 February, 2006

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