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Here we take a look at Special Hobbies upscaled 1/48th SIAI-Marchetti SF-260M/AM/W trainer.

History

The SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 (now Leonardo SF-260) is an Italian light aircraft which has been commonly marketed as a military trainer and aerobatics aircraft.

The SF.260 was designed by Italian aircraft designer Stelio Frati, while production work originally performed by Milan-based aviation manufacturer Aviamilano. On 15 July 1964, the first prototype performed its maiden flight (then designated F.260). Shortly thereafter, responsibility for production was transferred to SIAI Marchetti, who had purchased the rights to the design; manufacturing continued to be performed by this firm until the company was bought by Aermacchi in 1997.

The SF.260 has been largely sold to military customers as a trainer and light combat aircraft. In addition, there have been limited civil sales to private operators; during the late 1960s, the type was marketed in the United States under the name Waco Meteor. Armed military versions, sold as the SF.260W Warrior, proved to be popular with smaller air forces, which could arm the type for use in the close air support role. Both piston-powered and turboprop-powered models have been developed.

Info from Wikipedia

In the box

The kit comes packed in a top opening box, with a photo of one of the kits marking options on the front cover.

The side of the box shows the three marking options available in this boxing.

Having reviewed and built the 1/72nd Special Hobby boxing of this kit, it will be interesting to see if this is a scaled up version, or a new tooled kit.

Inside the box are three grey sprues packed into one bag, a clear sprue, thankfully in its own bag, a set of instructions and a largish decal sheet.

Ejection pin marks are pretty non existent, and flash is not an issue.

Exterior detail is quite nice with engraved panel lines, which although look overdone, are actually not too bad once primer and paint go on.

The control surfaces are sperate for the main wings, but are glued into the neutral position. The stabilisers and tail are moulded in the neutral position.

Interior detail is pretty good, and as there is a large canopy covering the cockpit then you need quite a bit of detail on show.

The instrument panels, of which there is two, as one is for the first two schemes with the other for the third.

Decals are supplied for the dails and switches.

The seats have decals for the belts.

Some detail for the sidewalls is supplied.

Rudder pedals and control sticks complete the interior and once built up and painted should look pretty decent.

Not much of the engine is on show as the cowling covers most of it, but a couple of pistons can be seen through the front, which is a separate part, so painting should be easier then the 1/72nd version which the cowling and pistons were all one part.

Two cowling covers are present on the sprue, but only one is used in this boxing.

The undercarrige bays have a few spars as detail and the landing gear doors do have a little detail moulded into them.

The main wheels are nicely detailed, and the legs have a bit of detail. Some parts do look a little flimsly, so a bit of care removing them from the sprue is needed.

Both main wheels are made up of two parts each.

The nose wheel and leg are made up of six parts, with the wheel split into two halves.

Both main and nose gear doors will need some wire (not supplied) as the actuators fitted.

Sprue E contains two rocket pods, but these are only used on scheme C.

All the schemes have the wing tip fuel tanks.

The clear canopy comes in two parts and is very well moulded and is thin and opaque.

The canopy is modelled closed.

Decals, markings and instructions

The instructions are printed on a folded A4 size paper, and consists of 12 pages, including the front and back covers, with the last two, as advertisements for other Special Hobby kits. The booklet is glossy and in colour for most of the build and the three colour profiles.

Colour schemes and decals for Italian, Belgian and Irish M, AM and W version machines are provided.

The kit's decals are very nice, in register and look to good in colour.

Quite a few stencils are supplied for the airframes, and the black wing walks are also supplied.

Conclusion

This is a pretty much scaled up version of the 1/72nd kit, but there are a couple of diffrences, mainly the engine piston and cowling being in two parts instead of one, and the same with the canopy.

Having built the 1/72nd version, I would imagine this boxing will be as easy to build.

Size comparison between the two scales.