Several decades back, the Italian Air Force was looking for a strike fighter to take the place of their aging Fiat G-91Y aircraft. The G-91Y was one of those aircraft that was only used by one nation, attempts at overseas sales not working out at all. So Aeritalia came up with a new fighter-bomber, the AMX. The Brazilians saw this as a good aircraft for their needs and obtained a license to build them at the same time as the Italians.

Caracal Models has done the first 1/48 sheet I have seen covering this aircraft. This is not all that surprising because the only kit that was ever done of this plane in this scale was by Warrior Models. That is a resin kit with all sorts of metal bits and was very pricey. Now, Hobby Boss and Kinetic are coming out with one with Hobby Boss doing the two seat version as well. As usual, it is years of nothing and now a duplication of efforts!

The sheet covers seven aircraft, these planes being either from 32 or 51 Stormo. The standard coloring of these planes in an overall grey that listed as 36280. I do not know who does this shade already mixed. Since only two units fly the plane, the sheet has basically two 'line birds' and five specially marked/painted planes. 

From 32 Stormo is a plane painted in a WWII color scheme of sand with green mottling which marks the 70th anniversary of something called la Patria. There is also one marking 30,000 flight hours with the unit.

The 51 Stormo has one painted up like their previous G.91s in green/grey camo. There is also one to commemorate a Goose Bay deployment in 2005, and a 'Black Cats' Afghanistan deployment. Note also that there is an AMX-ACOL type which has a slightly different nose that is basically less pointed. This is called out in the instructions. FCM will be doing a sheet for Brazilian aircraft so Caracal Models has concentrated on the Italian ones with this sheet. The sheet is printed by Cartograf and the full color instruction booklet provides lots of information.