The 1/72 scale Cunarmodel P.108T resin kit with clear vacuform window parts is the only one available
of this Italian transport in any scale, requiring a
Special Hobby P.108B or a
Special Hobby P.108A
injection molded kit as a parts donor.
The kit fuselage halves are thinly cast, whilst separating them from the resin sprues parts of the
keels broke off necessitating my having to quickly glue them back on - tedious work! The fuselage
interior has a large resin flight and cargo deck part that snugly sat within the fuselage halves,
test fittings of them revealed numerous gaps, would have to putty fill them later, kit also
included a large rectangular part presumably for tying down cargo that snugly sat in the aft flight
and cargo deck.
The kit included cockpit crew seats, aileron steering yokes and column parts well as instrument
panels but no rudder controls, kit didn't include rear fuselage beam and ventral mounts for
Maschinengewehr 15 and 131 guns either, I fabricated them from styrene sheet plastic. The kit also
had clear vacuform styrene plastic window parts though most were too small, fabricated them from
clear styrene sheet plastic.
The fuselage halve interiors as well as associated interior parts were base painted Humbrol 78 Matt
Cockpit Green + Testors Flat White 50/50 mix + 36% Flat White shading enamels replicating Verde
Anticorrosine. Fuselage window frames spray painted Testors Flat Black and White "special mix" for
aesthetics; flight deck, beam and ventral gun parts spray and hand painted an assortment of Testors
enamel colors.
Joining the thin resin fuselage halves was the most difficult part of the entire model build,
straightforward gluing them together was out of the question, workable solution was gluing cut
styrene sheet plastic tabs along opposite sides of halve inside edges, gluing them together
afterwards. All the fuselage tabs glued together OK though two along the keel broke off, many gaps
along the joins though all small enough to be puttied in and smooth sanded over afterwards.
The Cunardmodel kit came with a large rudder sail part seen only on Luftwaffe P.108Ts logical
considering the ventral Maschinengewehr 131 gun mount seen only on Luftwaffe P.108Ts was molded
in with the fuselage halves, gluing it as well as the Special Hobby injected styrene plastic
tailplanes on the fuselage was straightforward. Assembling the Special Hobby P.108A Mainwings
also was straightforward; Luftwaffe P.108T Piaggio engine cowlings were unique to the type
the Cunarmodel kit didn’t come with engine nacelle mounts for them, styrene sheet plastic ones had
to be fabricated. The kit lacked pitot tube mast, emergency under mainwing fuel dump chutes, radio
and D/F loop et. al. exterior parts, these had to be fabricated from sheet plastic as well.
All model exteriors were spray painted Humbrol 91 Matt Black Green + 36% Testors Flat White enamels
replicating Verde Oliva Scuro 2, Testors Model Master 1726 Light Gull Grey + 36% Testors Flat White
enamels replicating Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 "weathering" with the out-of-bottle 91 and 1726 colors.
Landing gear, propellers et. al. exterior kit parts well as a yellow "Eastern Front" fuselage
identification band were spray and hand painted with an assortment of Testors enamel colors the
entire model over sprayed with Testors Clear Semi-Gloss Lacquer.
The Cunarmodel kit came with water decals for Lufttransportstaffel 5 "J4+AH" and "J4+HH" aircraft
based at Mühldorf in Barvaria c. early 1944 Special Hobby P.108A Luftwaffe Balkenkreuz and Swastika
decals being employed as well for modeling the latter. Placement of the fuselage "J4+HH" codes was
extremely difficult, three of the four letters cut apart to fit on the beam gun port covers well as
cutting decals off clear window parts, bizarre considering the codes could had been painted on in
full elsewhere on the fuselage!
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