Special Hobby EN

 This beautiful tiny Italian trainer aeroplane model has been built by Lubo Vysoky from our SH72433  SF-260EA/D/EU  kit in 1/72 scale. It does look very nice and tempting. Lubo also shows the paints he used during the build. Photos kindly via Plastic Modelling. Thank you guys.

While the previous instalment of SH blog brought you the 1/48 SF-260 boxart, now let us share with you a few photos showing a smaller cousin, the 1/72 scale SIAI model built by Mr.Philippe Urbain of the Belgian A.M.I.S. Club. Our huge thanks for the photos, if you fancy replicating this tiny trainer for your showcase too, we have these twu currently on offer:  SH72433 and  SH72451 . The latter is a duo box (two kits) with a superb photographic publication. Recommended!

The decal sheet of the upcoming SH72433 SIAI-Marchetti SF-260EA/D/EU ‘Late Bulged Canopy Type’ will bring enough markings for you to build either of the four schemes, two as operated in Europe and two which flew in South America.

 The SIAI-Marchetti SF-260EA/D/EU ‘Late Bulged Canopy Type’, kit no. SH72433 will have four colour schemes, two of which bring machines of European operators, and the other two will take you to South America. Which one of these will be your favourite one?

 The SF-260EA/D/EU version is a development of the basic SIAI-Marchetti SF-260 airframe which mainly differs by having a larger, taller clear canopy. This change was introduced in order to allow the cockpit to accommodate a new generation of pilots, who as well as the population in general are taller than their predecessors. The aircraft manufacturers know it, we know it too, so we simply had no other option than to follow suit and design and produce the taller canopy as well. The new, larger clear canopy part can be seen in the images below, again taken by our Ondra Hajek. The last two images compare the new canopy with the older, smaller one.

 The coming models box lids are always printed on large sheets of cardboard, so we usually join a couple recent releases and print them at once. New ones along with reprints of those long time sold out but still asked for. The end of this March and the early April days saw the following boxarts being dealt with:

We are happy to be able to showcase here the latest piece of art from Mr.Reinis, the true master of CGI boxarts which adorn boxes of some SH kits. This painting features the modernized SF-260 airframe with the higher canopy hood, which no doubt is visibly more bulged, thus the name of the kit SH-260EA ‘Late Bulged Canopy Type’.  No other kit so far, both recent or older, has faithfully represented this rather noticeable shape change of the canopy hood, even though the producers claim it as being the EA version. So, caveat!  Our model cat.no SH72433is scheduled for release sometimes this Spring and it will contain the new clear parts sprue with the different hood.