No products in the cart.
all
MC.202 Folgore 1/32 New Tool from Italery
Folgore /Thunderbolt/ was an Italian military airplane made during the 1940s by Macchi Aeronautica. Only 1150 were ever built, which is quite a modest number compared to tens of thousands Bf-109s, P-51s and Spitfires. However, MC.202 was flown by most of Italian aces and remained in service up until the early 1950s with Croatian Air Force. Regia Aeronautica /AKA Royal Italian Air Force/ used it ’till 1948 and while with them, Folgore was involved in some noticeable action in Malta, North Africa, Sicily and even the Eastern Front. Reports of successful encounters with Spitfires can be found, which speaks a lot about the qualities of the plane itself. Some Italian Aviation experts consider the Macchi C.202 – the best Italian fighter of the Second World War.
Speaking of scale models, Folgore is a loved one and far more famous than the real thing was back in its days. The reasons for that are quite a few, but most important one is the beauty of the Macchi airplane. It features sleek and stremline design, long nose and beautiful wings, plus the inevitable first impression of the superb camouflage schemes dictated by Malta and Africa landscapes. The real MC.202 had some issues. Not serious ones, but enough to be surpassed by the A-players mentioned above. Luckily, we don’t suffer from them when we build it in scale. That is why Folgore is among the most popular of the non-widespread designs of the WWII fighters in miniatures. Closest one is the Japanese Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien released not so long by Tamiya in 48th. However, this time, we are discussing a larger kit and from Italy – from where almost everything comes with a specific beauty!
Italeri knew the potential of the MC.202. They already have it in different scale, but with their line of 32nd scale sets from the last couple years, they decided to go the Large Scale road. In 32nd Folgore can be found technically, but we have no doubt what so ever, that the upcoming Italeri tooling will be contemporary and will match their F-104, Tornado and F-35A in 32nd. It is known, that the model will hit the stores in 2023 and that it is a completely new design AKA New Tooling. Everything else in exact words is still missing. With all that said, we can expect a serious addition to the Large Scale line and tons of paint and weathering opportunities for the WWII modelers.
How complex the kit will be as an engineering and detailing level we can only guess at this point. What we know is that there will be a photo-etched parts which is seen on the picture under the code “PE”. We also know that Italeri delivers lately and all together with the perfect decals that they provide with their kits, we will have nothing short of a winner. Of course, MC.202 Folgore begs for serious painting skills and one has to be an airbrush maestro to squeeze out every possible possibility from this relatively large bird. But even if that is your first complex paint scheme, with that size it will be a wonderful starting point to learn some new tricks and add it to your skill set book. We’ll have some hard time waiting for the new release, but the ones with patience always get the best goods!
