In the box you will find two parts trees molded in tan, one sheet of photo-etch parts and decals for two different aircraft.  The instructions are quite adequate and have nice line drawings.  This is the first time that I’ve seen MAC show decal placement.  In the past they tell you to get a Datafile to place decals.  While it is a good idea to get some good reference to build a kit I personally don’t like the idea of making it necessary to get a reference only to place decals.

                 The injection molded parts are very well done.  Wing detail looks good.  The engine is a little devoid of detail but most of it will be hidden in the fuselage.  The fuselage halves have the internal framework molded into them and look to make a very convincing cockpit.

                 The photo-etch sheet has some nice looking parts including gunsight rings and an instrument panel.  A piece of film has been provided to put on the back of the instrument panel to make convincing instruments.

 All in all this kit looks nice in the box. 

                 I’ve built four other MAC offerings in the past and was not very impressed with the alignment of the parts.  It seemed like symmetry was not their first thought.  In other words all the attachment points for the struts were offset by about .5 millimeters making it necessary to fill all the strut attachment holes and making new ones.  This was not the case with this kit as it went together very well.  In fact I would say one of the best fitting kits I’ve done in recent times.  The only things that I did to make it look better was add control horns made of brass and build up the cylinder heads, cooling system and hoses.  I didn’t even have to lengthen or shorten the interplane or cabane struts. 

                 What I do to get everything all lined up and square is, first get a good reference and take it to the local copy center and make a copy of the three view drawings in scale.  Place this on a flat surface and assemble the components on the drawings.   With the help from some old paint bottles and coins you can get every thing lined up quite well. I do the interplain struts first and after they dry I do the cabane struts. I've found that if you are going to have problems it is with the cabanes.  Just let every thing dry and you will be ready to rig. 

                 I think that this kit was about as easy as any Eduard kit that I’ve done.  I had no fit or alignment problems at all.

            The kit comes with decals to make two different navel aircraft, 422.21 and 422.27.  Both were assigned to defend the navel bases at Altura (Pola) and Igalo.  The aircraft of the Kaiserlich und Koninglich Kriegsmarine were very colorful.  The warring powers were very aware of the danger posed by only one enemy aircraft getting into the airspace around their capital ships.  So both Italy and Austria-Hungary painted their aircraft that operated in the Adriatic brightly so they could be identified fast and action could be taken without delay.  Austria-Hungary painted their national colors of red white red stripes on the wings and tail surfaces of their navy aircraft.  The need for immediate identification was not that critical for Army aircraft so this practice was abandoned early on in the war.

                 After I assembled as much as was practicable I painted the under side of the fuselage Testers Model Masters Wood and used oil paints to simulate the wood grain.  The under sides of the wings were painted Radome tan.  The upper surfaces were then painted Military Brown.  The Red White Red stripes were masked off and painted before I did the stippling effect.  After the RWR stripes had dried I masked them off to do the stippling effect.  To do this I dabbed the darker brown on with a chunk of foam. I found that the paint needs to be thinned quite considerably and you need to test/practice on something first to make sure that you get the coverage you want. Then just dab away till you get the desired effect.  Be careful not to over or under do it and don’t push too hard or instead of the stipple effect you will get a glob effect. Also if you don’t thin the paint well enough you will get a lumpy effect that does not look very convincing.

                I am very happy with this kit and I think, in the words of my youngest daughter, that it “Looks Cool”.  I can recommend it to anyone with moderate skills.  If you’ve got a few W.W.I kits under your belt I think that you would find this kit a real treat to build.  I myself plan to build more of these kits in other guises.  I’ve just bought some Blue Rider decal sheets and want to build a little fleet of them.