Breda 27 M
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I don't know what bit me to build another fascist aircraft, but I presume it's the
irresistible spirit of the Golden Era. ;-)
The plane itself was built by the Italian company Breda, and did not find any use
in the European theatre. 18 units were sold to China, which were used in the struggle
against Japan, yet there are no reports about their effect.
The little bird was inspired by a marvellous racing plane, the Travel Air Model R (Mystery S).
Some sources also quote the similar looking Boeing Pea Shooter as an inspiration. Since the Boing
was issued at about the same time, I presume they both stem back to the Mystery (even though both
failed to capture the racing plane's elegance. Still I prefere the esthetics of the Ba 27 over the Pea Shooter ;-)
The kit is a Czech short run kit from AZ-models in 1/72 scale. Opening the box it's just mervelous:
with excellent rivet details, some resin goodies, Eduard's photo-etch fret and a small decal sheet by Tally Ho!.
It gets a little tougher as soon as the dry fitting starts - the fuselage halves didn't really
fit properly, and required a lot of filling and sanding. This results in plenty of work of
preserving the panel lines, rivets etc.
The cockpit is well detailed, and with the available PE-parts produces a nice result
There are only decals for one version of an 1934 proto aircraft available, others are sold separately as different variants.
The decals are good quality, but the ones for the tail are too small, so the red-white-green needs to be painted.
One good thing is that the color for the fuselage stripe matches really well qith the quoted shade of Humbrol.
This makes the blending really easy, which helps, since the decals are just but a part of the red band.
The canopy in clear foil is tricky, because the printing rubs off during handling. I recommend to scan it as a
backup before processing. One interesting thing is the symbol on the fuselage: It shows the fascia, a bundle
of sticks with an axe - the symbol of Mussolini's movement, and the origin of the word fascism.
I bought the kit on impuls, when I saw it in a stack of kits at a club meeting few months ago. It was supposed to be
a "weekend job", but took now about half a year, on and off. The biggest drawback was when during the final assembly
a spray of superglue dropped on the nearly finished model. I managed to repair most of it, but he surface could not
be fully restored. Anyway, the little silver bee is a nice amendment to my model display, and another testimony to
my favourite era of aviation.
