Macchi mayhem

[wayne 0]

Decided it was time to build a couple of Castaldi's Macchi C202 fighters from the enduring Hasegawa twin boxing.

Cleaned up the only "detail" on the cockpit walls.

Small white ring is a slice off a cotton tip, to become a trim wheel.

Added ribs and bits to make peering through the canopy a little bit interesting.

While preparing to join the fuselage halves, disaster struck when I picked up the Tamiya cement only to have the (not properly tightened) lid in my hand and the full jar fall to the table and splash in my lap, on my head, and a tiny spot in my eye.

None landed on my model. Phew !!!

After rinsing my pants and showering to wash glue off me, I head back to the workshop to find this......

.......the glue slick had used gravity to seek out the fuselage and make a mess of it.

So I grabbed the starboard fuselage from the second kit, made some new ribs and translated the detail bits from the destroyed half.

Buttoned up without the drama.

Opened up the exhaust manifold covers.

Shown with its melted sibling.

I had seen a few photos that showed the engine cover sitting slightly higher at the rear.

I added some thin styrene at the base to try and emulate this.

I wouldn't do this again as the scale doesn't really warrant it.

Guess who doesn't know when to put the styrene away.

Filled in the awful gaps, but decided against trying to detail the gear bays.

Now that I have lots of spare Macchi parts I thought I may be able to use some on this.........

While the HobbyBoss C200 has a good outline and acceptable surface detail, the cockpit is a bad seat and the wings are of equal length (which we all know is wrong....right?)

Used the spare Hasegawa cockpit parts and joined the fuselage and wings.

A butterfly for the C202 intake.

Plus some pointless pre-shading (as I usually lose it under the top coats).

Scratched internal radiator parts for C202 and added grooves to the oil cooler around the cowling on the C200.

More to come.

[vppelt68]

Sorry for your loss but I´m glad your eye is still fine! I´m watching with interest. Regards, V-P

[rob85]

Sorry to see the poor molten surface of the number two machine, bit well done on saving the other and then getting another kit on the go!

I do like Italian aircraft, maybe I should build some.

Nice work

Rob

[Mitch K]

Nice work! By the look of things the Hasegawa 202 isn't much better than the Italeri one. Thanks for the info on the symmetrical wings on the HB 200 - I did wonder how it worked. I built the Revell one and that was a fight!

I'm looking forward to seeing progress on these.

[Peter Lloyd]

As if the Hasegawa boxing wasn't expensive enough.

[wayne 0]

Sorry for your loss but I´m glad your eye is still fine! I´m watching with interest. Regards, V-P

I'm glad too, thanks.

I think spilling half a bottle of glue across the bench onto my clothes produced enough wife fear tears to rinse my eye.

Sorry to see the poor molten surface of the number two machine, bit well done on saving the other and then getting another kit on the go!

I do like Italian aircraft, maybe I should build some.

Nice work

Rob

Do build some.

They are under represented in my opinion.

I hope to remedy that a little by building plenty.

Nice work! By the look of things the Hasegawa 202 isn't much better than the Italeri one. Thanks for the info on the symmetrical wings on the HB 200 - I did wonder how it worked. I built the Revell one and that was a fight!

I'm looking forward to seeing progress on these.

Apart from the top cowling part on the Italeri kit, I think it is maybe better than the Hasegawa kit.

I went with the HobbyBoss C200 as the Revell one seems horrid at best.

As if the Hasegawa boxing wasn't expensive enough.

Yes Peter, and I got this set cheapish.

Parts will be handy though.

[vppelt68]

I built the Frog Mc.202 earlier this year. I believe both Italeri and Hasegawa Folgori, and Revell and Hobby Boss Saetti are lightyears ahead in their buildability!

[wayne 0]

Given that HobbyBoss neglected to emulate Mario Castoldi's asymetric wing lengths, I figured that it would be worth attempting to rectify this.

Shortened the starboard wing, as it is 200mm (8 inches) shorter on the 1:1 model (2.7777 mm at 1/72).

Also attacked the undercarriage bays to open them up, as the kit has shallow wells with no detail.

Wing tip attached, some detail in wheel wells, and the Hasegawa C202 oil cooler cut up to build the carburetor intake, that the good folk at HobbyBoss neglected to replicate.

The half canopy part is thickish but clear, and a good representation.

I tried something new (for me), and used Formula 560 canopy glue as a mask.

A small amount pushed out to the rails with the sharp end of a cocktail stick.

Upper surface painted in Tamiya XF60 dark yellow.

Covered with "blu tac bits" and painted with Tamiya XF67 Nato Green.

The copper cowling oil cooler was attacked with a hobby knife again as the grooves were lost after the first coat of copper.

Tamiya yellow with a drop of orange to mimmic RLM04 was applied to cowling and fuselage representing use in the eastern front against the Russians.

Done when painting 109G.

The C200 Saetta is static at this point as I have no faith in the accuracy of the decals supplied for this scheme.

I will acquire some Sky Models decals and modify the mottle if required.

Hasegawa C202 painted with Lifecolor Grigio Azzurro chiaro 1 on undersurface.

Aqueous RLM79 and RLM80 on fuselage and port wing, withe the "replacement starboard wing and rear engine cowl done with Tamiya XF59 desert yellow and XF67 Nato green.

I chose to paint the fuselage band and tail cross so they would match the wing tips and spinner.

For this I used Tamiya flat white with a VERY small amount of Tamiya buff and Tamiya yellow added to give an off white colour.

Coated in floor polish then added thick, but nicely printed Hasegawa decals.

If possible I will avoid them in future.

Sorry for awful pics done on phone.

[Giorgio N]

Both look good, I particularly like the blotches on the Mc.200, they look very realistic to me

Do you need any information regardind the markings ? I have a couple of books on the type, there may be the info you need

[wayne 0]

Thanks for the offer Giorgio.

I have the MMP Orange Series books on both the subjects.

They have many excellent photos and profiles.

It is the Saetta book, combined with some (yet to be purchased) Sky Models C200 decals that will get me the final scheme.

[wayne 0]

Been a while, but I have done all I am going to do on the Hobbyboss C200 Saetta.

I decided in the end to go with the box supplied decals as the Sky Models decal set would have required a slight change to the paint scheme.

Decals went on fine, though the colours seem a little too bright.

Parts NOT supplied by Hobbyboss include :

Guns made from wire (a bit too big for the gun troughs).

Inner undercarriage doors made from sheet styrene, with the retraction arms made from breadth wire.

Top centre cowl panel (styrene).

Stretched and bent sprue to attempt to resemble exhaust manifold inside engine cowl flaps.

Tyres were heated then squashed to get weighted look.

Canopy glue to make tail navigation light.

A couple of finished pics.

The rest will be in RFI.

Thanks for looking.