Another few Italeri kits #1308 of the two seat version MB-326 were made. Assembly was described on the previous page, do not forget to add some nose weight.
 

This MB-326 kit would be made as an EMBRAER AT26 Xavante. From the 1970s the Brazil air force (FAB) would need a replacement for their T-33. It would also be nice to finish the AT26 in a scheme of the FAB Alouette aerial demonstration team that flew these jets from 1981 to 1983.  

It seems that FAB AT26 also had larger wing tip tanks. I had a few spare parts from the Italeri MB-339 kit. Though not perfect, a slice of plastic card was set between the 2 tank halve kit parts from that kit, puttied and sanded in shape.  

After basic kit assembly (without landing gears) but with closed lower air brake, the model got a base grey coat.

Revell Aqua acrylic grey was airbrushed. Any smaller errors were corrected with putty and sanding.  

The markings were home designed decals and custom laser printed. I used an excellent drawing of Mr. Sampaio from Brazil as guide as well.
 
At the lower surfaces are triangle shapes in yellow and green. If you are interested in a decal print for personal use, contact me (see decals page...).

   
Before any decalling was done, the model got airbrushed a few gloss 

   

The Brazil FAB stars came from the Italeri kit decals as came most of the smaller stencilling. As in Brazil the language is Portuguese, the kit decals for the yellow panel with "PISE AQUI" is correct meaning step here.  

The 2 small pitot tubes next to the wind screen are in the kit but this is not indicated in the instructions. The FAB AT26 also has a few extra antennas, a few at the fuselage spine and a few at the lower fuselage. These were made from thin card.

The anti-collision lights were tipped with blue and red at tip tanks and spine. A drop of Micro Kristal Kleer suggested the lights. The nose tip and wing tip tank noses were painted light grey.
 
The windscreen was fixed with white glue used to close the tiny gaps. When dried, the white glue edges were painted

the cockpit was detailed with bits. The kit seat parts are much too small. The seats were replaced by resin seats from the PAVLA set #S72044 "Martin Baker (Fiat G91, MB326, Impala)". The seats were painted black and got a few seat harness straps made from tape. On the seat tops, the ejection curtain handles were added from yellow stretched sprue with some black stripes.
     
The lower strengthening frame part #21A in the canopy needs to be made shorter about 2 mm to fit. The canopy and wind screen edges were drawn black with a permanent marker to suggest the rubber seals. In the wind screen edge (so not the canopy) 3 mirrors made from a piece of aluminium foil were added and some handles inside the canopy.

    

The clear cockpit hood (canopy) was set open. That completed this very nice AT26 of the FAB Alouette aerial demonstration team.  
  

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Assembly was straight forward but as on many parked MB-326 and AT26 the flaps were seen drooped so these were separated from the kit wing. Any gaps were closed with plastic strips, puttied and sanded smooth.

The lower air brake #9A would be set open as well. It also got the enlarged wing tip tanks, see above...

   

 

 
 

But I cut out the Portuguese text PISE AQUI in the yellow wing root marking for the Paraguay AT26. 


The undercarriages and smaller kit parts including the various antennas were installed. There are just a few antennas seen on the Paraguay jets like kit parts #7A.

 

PARAGUAY
   

[area: 406,800 sq.km | population: 7,3 million | capital: Asuncion | GDP USD 6,200 per capita nominal ]