Amodel
1/72 IAR-80
Kit Number: 72166
Reviewed by  John Kelly, IPMS# 3010

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MSRP: $32.98
Available from: hobbyterra.com

Background

The IAR-80 was developed in the late 1930s to replace the Polish-designed PZL P.24 fighter, which was being produced in Romania. Using the rear fuselage and tail of the PZL P.24, mated to a new center section fuselage and wings, coupled with a license-built Gnome-Rhone 14K radial, the new fighter was a quick and agile machine capable of matching the performance of any of its contemporaries. It first few in April, 1939, less than a year after work started, and was ordered into series production immediately. Over 300 were built of various sub-types until mid-1944, when production was terminated in favor of a license-built Messerschmitt Bf 109G. They were reasonably effective, and continued in the Romanian inventory well after WWII. The final example, a modified two-seat trainer version, last flew in 1952.

The Kit and Assembly

This one of four kits issued by Amodel of the IAR-80/81 series of fighters. This one represents the first production series with four wing-mounted 7.62mm FN-Browning machine guns. The others differed only in the armament and slightly uprated engines. The IAR-81 was a ground-attack version fitted with bomb racks, but was otherwise similar.

The kit is fairly typical of Amodel kits. It has 73 parts (although 15 of them are marked not for use) molded in a soft, medium-gray plastic. The quality of the molding is average for the industry, and typical for this company. There is one clear canopy part and no resin or photo-etch parts. Decals are included for one aircraft. The moldings are nicely done, with very delicate engraved panel lines. There is some flash and a few mold sink marks on the wing upper surface over the landing gear wells.

The instructions are rather basic. They do, however, include an assembly diagram for an entirely different version of the kit. I have not seen the other versions, so I don't know if they redesigned the molds after the instructions were printed or if the other versions of the kit are really that different. Both possibilities seem equally unlikely.

The cockpit assembly is pretty good for small model like this. It consists of seven parts, rudder bar, rear bulkhead, instrument panel, cockpit shelf, stick, and floorboard/seat bottom. There are no seat belts, so I made some from masking tape. Unlike some older Amodel kits, the final cockpit assembly fits well.

[review image] The wing is molded in three parts, a one-piece bottom and the two top parts. The ailerons and wingtips are molded with the wing top parts, but that leads to some fit problems. I attached the wing bottom to the assembled fuselage before attaching the wing tops. When assembled as the directions indicate, there is a pretty sizable gap at the wing root. I could have trimmed the wingtip at the attachment points, but I was concerned it might make the wings too short, so I inserted a shim of .010" plastic strip at the wing root. Problem solved.

[review image] One of the distinguishing characteristics of the IAR-80 series is the very close-fitting cowling. There have been only a few kits of this aircraft over the years, but none of them have captured the cowling bulge as well as these Amodel kits. That being said, it did present some engineering problems to the kit designers. They could have made the cowling a constant cylinder (as is found on the MPM kit of the IAR-80C), or perhaps two halves, thus creating a nasty inside seam on the cowling, Amodel's solution was to mold the rear cowling in two halves, with a one-piece cowling front. It really captures the look of the bulged cowling, but at the cost of a fiddly and exasperating assembly experience. Adding to the problem was the fact that the assembled Gnome-Rhone engine was a tad too big in diameter. I assembled and attached the engine to the fuselage, then filed the ends of the cylinders until the rear cowling halves mated smoothly. Then I attached the cowling front. Interestingly, the cowling front fit perfectly, even after all that grinding down of the engine, leading me to the conclusion that the engine was too large, not that the rear cowling halves were too small.


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Fitting the propeller gear reduction housing to the engine presented another opportunity reengineer the kit. The instructions imply the prop shaft should go through the engine from the back, requiring you to cement the prop on while still assembling the cowling. Instead, I installed the prop shaft in the reduction gear housing, which mounts to the front of the engine. This made the prop shaft too long, but it was easy enough to cut it to the proper length when I got around to installing the prop – after I painted the model. I did, however, leave off the rear mounting plate to the prop spinner. It would have made the prop stand too far in front of the cowling if assembled as instructed.

The canopy presented another fit problem. It was slightly too small, leaving a gap where it met the fuselage at the canopy rails. I tried carving down the rear cockpit fairing, but you can go only so far with that before you make the assembled canopy sit too low. To solve the problem, I cemented a couple of pieces of plastic strip to the fuselage canopy attachment edges. That filled the gap between the fuselage sides and the lower edge of the canopy.

[review image] Fitting the landing gear required special care. There are no locating pins or holes, but the landing gear well is deep and provides adequate support for the landing gear legs. Nevertheless, I drilled a very shallow hole to insert the gear leg to ensure they wouldn't wander around as I attached the support struts and set it aside to dry. The landing gear doors are another cleverly engineered part. The landing gear doors have a sort of an accordion fold when the gear is down. Many model manufacturers would mold those doors individually, but the final result is usually grossly out-of-scale. The Amodel solution was to mold the main door and the smaller auxiliary doors together; the final assembly shows the doors in their correct configuration, with completely scale thickness.

All that was left were some final details. Guns are not provided: the instructions tell you to make them. The radio mast is provided, but it is too short. In all fairness to Amodel, they instruct you to attach it to the canopy frame, and it is the right size for that configuration. In reality, it should go through the windshield and mount to the instrument panel cover. I drilled a hole through the canopy and substituted a piece of plastic rod for the kit radio mast. The final part was the pitot tube, which seems to be almost to scale.

Final Finishing

After a quick shot of Gunze Mr. Surfacer and rescribing the panel lines lost is the sanding and filling steps, it was time to paint. Unlike the Germans, who despite their reputation for regimentation, apparently had an almost infinite variety of marking options for their fighters. In contrast, the Romanians were depressingly consistent in how they painted their aircraft: blue undersides, green and brown on top, with yellow theater stripes. Every so often, there might be a clever unit or personal insignia, but their aircraft were so boringly similar that they make the neighboring German units look like refugees from Richtofen's Flying Circus of WWI fame.

The only controversy was the shade of the brown paint. The directions call for Humbrol paints, basically British dark green and dark earth. Surviving color photos from WWII seem to reinforce this color choice as they show little contrast between the two colors. Other references seem to indicate a lighter shade of brown. I thought the WWII color photos might have faded over the years, as all the colors on them were indistinct and muddy. I also wanted the color scheme to look a little less British, so I used Modelmaster German RLM 65 for the underside, Modelmaster British Dark Green, and Modelmaster FS 30219 Dark Sand for the brown color. As reinforcement for my decision, the Dark Tan seemed a pretty close match for the shade of brown used on the kit box art.

The decals are provided for one aircraft, that of Flight Officer Grade III (i.e. Warrant Officer) Ion Milu in 1942. He was Romania's third-ranking ace, with 45 kills. He survived the war and died in 1980 and the age of 78. The decals provide only the yellow for the tail stripe, seemingly an odd choice since all the decal colors on the tail stripes had to be printed on national insignia, anyway. I thought that the blue shade used in the Romanian national insignia would be harder to match than the yellow. In any event, I first painted the tail white to give the overlying colors a little added brightness. Next I painted the tail stripes, using Modelmaster FS 13538 Chrome Yellow, Modelmaster Cobalt Blue and Modelmaster Guards Red. The decals went on well and with no silvering after the standard gloss coat preparation.

Conclusion

I liked this kit. I am a fan of these Amodel kits as they represent subjects not likely ever to be offered by the larger manufacturers. Earlier offerings by Amodel had fit and finish problems, but their newer releases seem to be free of major issues. I believe this kit to be a more accurate representation of the subject than any earlier kit of this aircraft, and while it has the limitations of any kit produced by these small manufacturers, it was not a difficult build and certainly within the capability the average IPMS member. Recommended.

My thanks to Hobbyterra and Amodel for providing the review kit.


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