Finally I took the time and energy to sit down and write up my thoughts on Italeri’s 1/32 scale Macchi MC. 202 Folgore.
What a beautiful plane that is…
And what a botched, mediocre attempt from Italeri to immortalize it in 1/32 scale it is…
And of course overpriced!
I gave them the benefit of the doubt, my goodwill and 100 euros for a modern, made in 2023 scale model.
And what did I get in return?
Mediocre quality at its finest.
Italeri, the 1960’s called, they want their models back.
the 1960’s
Is it just me, or is the industry stuck in the “bigger = costs more” mentality?
Are we really so gullible that we are willing to overlook how ridiculously bad the quality is from one of the major brands in the industry, who by the way, has ties with Tamiya?!
And this is not just an insult to us modellers to get such a mid range model with such a price tag…
But it is a huge insult to their own heritage!
No one at the company thought for even a second…
“Guys, I think we should make sure that our heritage, our history gets the best treatment we can muster.”
no one at Italeri
This warbird deserves better!
And if Italeri is not willing to deliver, then I hope someone else, who knows how to make quality models, will do it justice in the near future.
Until then…
You have to use what you can get.
I know that I come off a bit harsh, but this is how I feel.
Cheated, lied to and bamboozled out of money.
If this would’ve been a Spitfire, next to the Airfix 1/24 and the Kotare 1/32 scale ones in the same price range?!
They would’ve been relentlessly mocked, ridiculed and made fun of.
But in the end…
They went with a Macchi 202.
The only saving grace, for this model as it can be the Apex Predator of the 1/32 scale… for now.
I am not going in to detail about all the inaccuracies of the kit as there are others who already did it in great detail.
But here is a quick list of what is bad:
missing rivet detail
mediocre engine detail
badly placed ejector pins
bad molding of small parts
engineering issues
lack luster detail
not enough extras for the money
and the ones in there are bad, like the tubes
What’s good? What would validate buying this kit?
These points:
exceptional decals (by Cartograph)
it’s a Macchi 202
the alternatives in 1/32 are worse
That’s it. I can’t really think of anything to write, so I just leave these links to my build video series.
Have fun watching!