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Italeri ATR-42 first look


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Thank you for this 1st shot of the sprues. I'll wait for other views of the parts but I'm not yet falling in love with the nose section ;-). Besides, I hope they didn't apply 1/72 Halifax-grade scribing to this tiny 1/144 kit or it will really appear too much.

Will buy it anyway as I like this commuter, I did a few flights in Asia 2 years ago and enjoyed tremendously the ATR.

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I bought the kit this morning, it lives me with mixed feelings : it reminds me of these very simple airliner kits offered by airlines in the 80s-90s, not completely Wooster but not completely true airliner kit, anyhow it's does not look like a 2015 tooled kit IMHO ;-)

If I were to compare it's moulding quality with something else, RoG's Fokker 100 would come to mind : trailing edges could be thinner, thick clear parts, very limited and uneven recessed details, but the Fokker 100 was released about 15-20 years ago...

Perhaps they didn't see lots of returns on such kit so decided not to put the top team on it.

Nice landing gears and wheels and very nice decal sheet, beautifully printed by Cartograf.

If Eamonn (Team Air Lingus) is ok with that, I'll post detailed pics this evening, if not, no problem, I wouldn't want to interfere in his thread.

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Here we are, sorry for the average quality photos, they're from my iPhone.

Eamonn, if you prefer I delete my pics, no problem, just shoot me a msg, I sure don't want to "step" into your thread.

IMG_1_zpsxg4xt8pm.jpg

Nose cross section slightly too fat, PAS Model and F-RSIN's are IMHO better

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aer-Arann/ATR-ATR-72-500-(ATR-72-212A)/1477778/L/&sid=d03c9cce4d9257a2707a5fbaec7f652e

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Uneven recessed details

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Strengthening plate on fuselage is too thick, best replaced with bare metal foil piece. Jerky recessed details on the sponsons, as if it was their 1st try

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Thick windshield, almost nothing will be visible through it

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Uneven surface finish and recessed details

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Nice landing gears and wheels

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Molding lines, nothing unusual, Revell A400M propellers have them too

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Too heavy recessed details on tiny parts such as these engines

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Beautifully printed decal sheet by Cartograf

All in all, and please dont shoot me, it's just my personal opinion, I think this kit is poor and a waste of resource from Italeri. I recently bought PAS Model's ATR 72 and it's a much more rewarding kit to hold in hands while costing only 13% more, at least in my country.

Edited by PMG Offramp
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Thanks PMG. Not sure what to think about the recessed detail. It has that rough uneven finish typical of some of the low volume short run kits. On the other hand, there is some nice detail (props, undercarriage) and the decals look good.

I will buy the PAS ATR72 and build that and then decide if my collection needs the short bodied version.

Edited to say, looking again at the pictures and noticing some of the horrendous quality, for example the flight deck moulding and the shoddy pane lines, I think I'll pass on this one especially at that price and buy the PAS ATR72 and maybe their 42 version too.

Jeff

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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Handsome aeroplane. Very smart decals. Shame about the scale. Should have been at least 1/72 to do it justice. Not primarily a civil fan but, I do occasionally dabble. ATRs are a familiar sight here.

Allan

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To be brutally honest, the moulds has all the "qualities" of a number of poorly done Italeri kits. This is a company that must put their acts together if they want to keep being a major player in the scale modelling world, particularly if they want to sell kits made this way at that price ! It's very disappointing considering that Italeri kits from 20 years ago were better moulded than this one...

Thanks for sharing !

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Thanks for posting the photos. There is no way the Italeri kit justifies a price of £23 when you can get the F-RSIN version for EUR19, around £13.60. You can even reduce the F-RSIN price to EUR17 (approx £12.15) if you buy the "Smart Kit".

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Trying to remain positive, I see this as a kit with the word 'Challenge' attached to it.

The shapes from your excellent detail pics look 'about right' but... and it's a rather large but, what could you do to save it?

How good is your mould / seam filling and your 're'scribing.

My suggestion is say "To hell with it! It's on!" and break out the milliputt, or Tamiya White, or whatever you use, and just fill everything... and then really show Italeri what kind of kit they should be producing.

Good luck (and thanks for your tip on the better looking PAS ATR-72 as well)

Edited by KiwiRho
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As one who has been eagerly awaiting this kit ever since it was first announced as a future release several years back, looking at those sprue shots is a massive disappointment. The product on looks alone just doesn't say the waiting was worthwhile.

F-RSIN or PAS will be getting my money for this one.

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I've received mine. I like it.

Yes, some of the detail is a bit soft, but I think the focus of the close-up photos is exaggerating it.

A bit of sanding and primer will sort most of it out.

The cockpit piece is weird (not that you'd be able to see much anyway) in that is is so stretched that the crew would need arms about 10 feet long to reach the main panel.

The layout of the sprues suggest to me that a 72 could be done sometime. But I guess that if the 42 doesn't sell, we probably won't see that.

I have the F-RSIN kit (typical short-run quality IMO) and will get a PAS 72 to compare as well.

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I love 144, I love older 'eccentrically' moulded kits (trying to be nice here) but this is not the best. Not the worst either, but thats a fair amout of flash. Not a problem for me in bigger scales at all but flash on a 144 can be a nightmare!

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PMG many thanks for uploading the pics saved me the hassle of trying :goodjob:

My first impressions kit will need some work like a lot of other airliners! but let's see how someone gets on before confining it to the bin a la the Roden B720 which was slated on here yet goes together nicely IMHO

Its very pricey compared to F-rsin but I still had to have one

Now someone please do some decals ( Ray Nick Greg anyone) :evil_laugh: and lets all have a go

regards

Eamonn

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Not wanting to stray off topic at all and not wanting to restart that debate again, but the Roden 720 was condemned by a *certain* person but I really like the 720 and have built quite a few of them. That kit is finely moulded and quite in keeping with a modern produced model. The Italeri offering on the other hand, looks like something a short run producer would have released about 10-15 years ago; if the price was lower it may be reasonably acceptable but for the price it really needs to be of a higher quality.

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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....

Now someone please do some decals ( Ray Nick Greg anyone) :evil_laugh: and lets all have a go

regards

Eamonn

Nazca have several ATR-42 sheets available including Air Dolomiti, Hop!, Air Antilles, Cimber, Air Guadelope, Air Martinique, Alitalia/Avinova, Contact Air, Eurowings and various US and South American operators. They also do a very good detail/stencil sheet

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The Italeri kit has been priced at various retailers outside the UK at about the same value as the F-rsin kit (i.e. 18,00 - 20,00EUR). Of course, there's the shipping cost to be added, but that would also be the case with buying any other kit from anywhere else.

To add to the mix of feelings here :) , I sold my F-rsin kit a couple of days ago and will get a couple of Italeri ATR. It was my personal view alone that I could never build a better replica out of the F-rsin kit than I would out of the Italeri box (I refer here to the plastic itself [which seemed somewhat brittle in the F-rsin box] and to a couple of important details [props, landing gear] better produced in my opinion by Italeri; perhaps the [not so] clear parts did it too!?... I prefer plastic to decals).

We'll see how that goes.

Cheers,

Niki

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The panel line engraving on that looks awful, even worse than my re-scribing! And those ailerons wouldn't look out of place on a 1960's Airfix airliner! Another apparently very poor effort by Italeri, right up there with their woeful Sunderland. I know you shouldn't judge kits on pictures, but that's all I'll be able to do, because there's no way I'll spend my cash on one of those. Think I'll see if any cheap Welsh Models vacs turn up on e-bay - at least then I can ruin the kit with my own 'surface detailing'...!!

K

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Fwiw, I've now compared the Italeri parts with my (partly) built F-RSIN model. The fuselage diameter of the Italeri kit is about 2mm larger than the F-RSIN kit, and 3mm bigger in the sponson area. The F-RSIN seems to be more accurate with regard to these dimensions.

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Nazca have several ATR-42 sheets available including Air Dolomiti, Hop!, Air Antilles, Cimber, Air Guadelope, Air Martinique, Alitalia/Avinova, Contact Air, Eurowings and various US and South American operators. They also do a very good detail/stencil sheet

I didn't see Eurowings on the Nazca site. Have they removed it?

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