Fiat CR.42 AS
WW II Italian Biplane Fighter

Italeri, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Glen Porter

Italeri's 1/72 scale Fiat CR.42 AS will be available online from Squadron.com

Italeri has followed up its release of a Fiat CR.42 in 1/72 scale last year with a CR.42 AS biplane.

The plastic in this kit is exactly the same as the original with the exception that some of the options are not applicable and therefore some of the parts have been deleted. For example, you don't get the skis for the Swedish model or the long exhausts for the Night Fighter. Likewise, the standard carburetor intake but what you do get is equally well detailed and moulded as the original.

Consequently, all the advantages and disadvantages that applied to that kit are the same for this one so instead of going through it all again, I will just give you a link and you can read the original for your self. You will find it at http://kits.kitreview.com/italeri1260reviewgp_1.htm here on HyperScale.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Decals are as good as the original except that there are only four choices instead of six. Three are in the Tropical scheme known as the “Green Lizard Scheme” with large light brown (Nocciola Chiaro 4) patches over dark olive green (Verde Oliva Scuro 2). These three are all from Ground Attack Squadrons in North Africa and Lybia, 1942. The fourth is in the later Tropical scheme of over-all light brown (Nocciola Chiaro 4) with dark olive green (as above) smoke rings. This aircraft is also from a Ground Attack Squadron in Ravenna, April 1942.

Instructions are the same as earlier except for the reductions mentioned before.

I find this kit to be a slight disappointment compared to the earlier release. However, before I get into the specifics, I must state that I think this, and the earlier kit, are the best 1/72 scale kits made in-house by Italeri, and comparable with the best of the other mainstream manufacturers.

So, back to the minor nitpicks. Nowhere, in either the instructions or the box, does Italeri explain the AS suffix. At first I thought it was an up-engined version. Then perhaps the AS stood for Assalto (Ground Attack). After some searching, I discovered the AS stands for Africa Settentrionale - North Africa. This is the tropicalized version, not just the colour scheme but with sand filter, survival kit, etc. The colour schemes suggested, decals and parts supplied, support this.

My second small gripe is the excellent book supplied with the first CR.42 Falco (kit No. 1260) is not supplied with this one. This is all very well if you have the earlier kit and therefore the book, not so good if you just bought this one. The four colour schemes in this kit are all from that book plus some B&W photos of the actual aircraft, so it is relevant to this kit.

The third reason for my slight disappointment, and it is only slight, is that the original kit was the first I had seen from Italeri where all the plastic was bagged. All the other manufacturers have long since adopted this policy and it makes a lot of sense. Small parts can often break off during transit but if they're in a bag, they don't get lost. Italeri, on the other hand, have steadfastly refused to adopt this until the first CR. 42. Well, that was what I thought anyway. WRONG! All the kits that I have reviewed from Italeri since then have had no plastic bags.

You might get the impression from reading this that I'm not overly impressed with this kit because so much of the review is negative.

You would be wrong.

I can't stress enough how good the plastic and decals are in this one, it's just the way Italeri have presented it. When they released the first one I thought they had made some giant strides forward with the book and plastic bags and the like but I now realize it may have been a one-off and not a change in policy.

We can always hope though!

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Italeri for the review sample