Special Hobby
SIAI Marchetti SF-260 models in 1/72 scale
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The Italian aircraft company Aviamilano developed in the 1960s a light 3 seater sports and aerobatics plane and the first flight was in July 15, 1964. Production was transferred to SIAI Marchetti and the engine used was the Lycoming O-540 of 260 hp. The SF-260 is flown by civil users but many by military air forces. The SF-260 M is a 2/3 seat military trainer, while the SF-260 W is the "Warrior" trainer and tactical support aircraft. It also had 2 under wing hard points for up to 300 KG stores.
The SF-260 TP uses the Alison 250 and is a turboprop engined version with different forward engine cowling and two under wing hard points.
Over 900 aircraft have been manufactured and about 700 are used by dozens of air forces all over the World.
Some data: length 7,1 m, span 8,35 m and normal take-off weight about 1200 KG. Cruise speed about 300 km/hr.
Special Hobby came with a few SF-260 kits in 1/72 in different releases.
Special Hobby kit #SH72418 is for the piston engined version M / AM / W and has the standard cockpit hood.
There are 4 frames with soft grey plastic and a transparent frame with the cockpit hood as a single piece. Small unguided rocket pods are also provided. And the small wing pitot is in the kit.
The wing upper and lower surfaces are one part.
The standard cockpit hood is one piece so if you want to set it slided open you have to saw it very carefully.
Nice decals are provided for three military schemes:
- SF-260 M of the Belgian Air Component on Beauvechain in a colourful yellow with red scheme to celebrate the 250,000 school flight hours made;
- Italian SF-260 AM of the Italian Air Force Flight School at Latina, 2009;
- SF-260 W of the Irish flying school in a green scheme (1993-2004).
You get nicely printed stencilling as well.
The neat Special Hobby instructions with 13 building steps in multi-colour printing show the detail colours, but only from the paint brand Gunze Sangyo.
The parts are fine but short-run; it is best to separate these from the sprues with a fine razor saw. There are no locator pins, but there are engraved panel lines. Some parts are not used, these are for other Special Hobby SF-260 releases.
The cockpit interior is neat with nice instrument panels and seats. All should be installed on the lower wing, which is fortunately in one piece.
You are supposed to make a number of small details such as lights yourself, as indicated in the instructions. This is understandable as this is a small model.
With this model it seems impossible to provide the nose with sufficient weight. To avoid a tail sitter a clear rod made of transparent stretched sprue was set in a finely drilled hole in the lower fuselage.
A first Special Hobby kit was made as a Brunei Air Force SF-260 WB aircraft for the World Air Forces in Plastic series. It has a white gloss scheme with red cheatlines.
Assembly was done as per kit instructions.
The overall white colour was airbrushed with Gunze Sangyo H1 white but any white paint will do.
The cockpit got some details and decals are in the kit for the pilot- and student straps. A few small antennas and parts #B29 at the lower fuselage aft of the wing were set and well as a small antenna on the dorsal fin. On the lower fuselage antenna do not set #D1 or D3. Add a transparant red light below the fuselage and paint the red and green anti-collision lights on wing tip tanks.
The Brunei markings had to be home made and laser printed on decal paper. Looking at photos and drawings on internet, these were made as accurate as possible with a graphics program. It appears no roundels are in the scheme, only the flag.
The landing gear was installed and the needed stick below the aft fuselage to avoid a tail sitter. The canopy was painted by hand and set. Some white glue was needed and when dried again painted white.
The propeller was painted black at the rear and light grey at front with white-light grey-white tips. It was fixed at the nose with white glue.
Finally 10 very tiny static dischargers at wing tips, stabilizer ends and vertical tail were set made for small bits of stretched sprue.
BRUNEI
[ area: 5,765 km2 | population: 460,000 | capital: Bandar Seri Begawan | GDP 30,000 USD per capita nominal ]
Brunei Darussalam is a small sultanate in Northern Borneo with borders with Malaysia and the South Chinese Sea. In 1888 it was part of a British Protectorate but became independent in 1984. It is a wealthy country with large oil and gas exploration and industry. No taxes and no national debts!
In the 1960s a small Air Wing flew with Bell helicopters and Whirlwind helicopters and later Wessex. In the 1970s a few HS.748 transports arrived. In 1981 arrived the first of over 20 Bo-105 helicopters were acquired and from 1982 4 SF-260 WB trainers for the flying school. In 1991 the Royal Brunei Air Force was formally established. In the 1990s S-70 black hawks helicopters and PC-7 trainers and a single CN-235 transport. No fighters are deployed. The main base is a the Brunei airport, named Rimba.
note the small stick below the aft fuselage to avoid tail sitting
The second Special Hobby kit is a slightly different release. Kit #SH72438 is for the SF-260 EA / D / EU version that has a slightly bigger canopy hood and that is supplied in this kit.
The plastic parts are very similar as in the kit described above except for the extra rocket pods and you also get a small etched metal fret for wing fences for the EA / D and EU versions.
The parts layout is shown here.
As noted, the bigger canopy hood is different in this kit.
Decals are for 4 schemes:
- D, Belgian Air Component based at Beauchevain training school;
- EA, Italian Air Force flying school of 7-th Stormo at Latina;
- EU, Uruguay Air Force flying school at Pando;
- EU, Venezuela Air Force primary flying school Esq.141 at Boca del Rio base, 2010
The assembly has again no problems for this kit. It is finely moulded.
The kit of this release was made as a Uruguay air force (FAU) aircraft of the "Escuela Militair de Aeronautica", 2010. The scheme and decals are in the kit as is the bigger hood.
Assembly was again quite straight forward. Overall white colour was airbrushed first. Than masking was done which took some effort to do and than Revell 330 Aqua "red" airbrushed.
Black anti-glare panel was after masking airbrushed as were the black insides at wing tip tanks.
I found that the nose door is often not fitted so part #B16 was left off the model. Also, I think that the small wing fences PE1 are not fitted as well. Again a small stick was set to avoid a tail sitter.
The decals are fine and set. Propeler was painted black at the rear and light grey at front with white-light grey-white tips.
The canopy has in the upper center a sun protecting coat for which very thinned Tamiya Smoke X-19 paint was used applied with a wide brush. The canopy was set closed, gaps were closed with white glue and painted white when dried.
URUGUAY
[ area: 176,215 km2 | population: 3,5 million | capital: Montevideo | GDP 17,800 USD per capita nominal ]
Some 12 T-260 (SF-260 EU) were acquired from 2003 for the "Escuela Militair de Aeronautica".
For more information about this air force, look at the A-37 page here...
Note the small pitot on the lower wing which is in this kit
SF-260 EU, T-260, Uruguay Air Force flying school at Pando, 2010
Note the slighty darker smoke tint in the canopy center
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Created this page
June 8, 2022