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SMER Macci MC.72 1:48 (1:50)


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Hi,

this is what I like to build in this GB in the first place: The Macci MC.72 from SMER (a smal edit: I have this instash for years and picked it up for around 5 GBP if I am not completely mistaken Hannants still lists it for 5.99) . The kit is not really 1:48 - it is reported to be 1:50 which is also not quite correct. I did a review on ipmsairrace.org. Below is a summary of this review to show what I am after in this GB:

The box contains a quite limited number of plastic parts (17 only) and a notable amount of flash - of which I removed a lot already. The panel lines are engraved but a bit on the thick and shallow side. The corrugated cooling areas are replicated with thin raised lines. The Plastic parts are a bit thick, which is especially notable on the fuselage halves.
There is no cockpit detail (I did start to grind the interior to thin the fuselage) and no beaching trolley. The whole thing looks very short run.

I have not tried the decals yet but they look thin, sharp and in register. They are printed by "Propagteam" and I think they will be the best of the kit smile.png

As can be seen from the pictures the fitting is so so. Filler and sanding will be needed.

It has been reported that the Smer kit of the MC 72 is in fact 1:50 scale. I suppose the given dimensions in the instructions are correct: Length 8,34 m and span 9,48 m. This translates in 1:48 to length 17,6 cm and span 17,75 cm. The model however is only about 16,3 cm long and has a span of 19,0 cm. So it is close to 1:50 - not 1:48

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I digged out some MC 72 drawings from Harry Crusoe (? - need to check the spelling) as the Charles Mendenhall drawings have not the best reputation I heared. The drawings are 1:48 scale and as mentioned above the Smer Kit is 1:50. Some points which I saw when comparing the kit to the drawings:

1. The panel lines of the fuselage engine section have some discrepancies:
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2. The exhaust area is bigger on the kit.

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3. The cockpit opening is deeper on the kit.

4. The vertical tail has a slightly different shape.

5. The floats seem to be close to 1:48 scale, so they are too long for the rest of the kit.

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6. The drawing shown more voluminous float than are represented in the kit.


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7. The cooling areas on the top wing is wrong:The "dural panel" where the wireing is should not be there: The cooling area is not interupted on the top. It also extends further to the trailing edge than in the kit.

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8. The wireing location is different in the kit than shown in the plans.

9. The horizontal tail has a very different shape in the kit.

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I intend to correct the points above and hope it will be not so much more work to blow the kit up to 1-48 scale to end this within the GB timeline. The wings must be extended at the tips only, the floats are almost there, the fuselage can be cut up in a few areas and shimmed to the correct dimension. Vertical needs reshapeing anyway and horizontals too (if the drawings are correct of course).

Meanwhile I have some drawings from Castoldi provided by another SIG member (Thanks Axel!) which should be pretty accurate. But I still need to compare these with everything above to see if my above conclusions are correct...

So: No after market stuff but lots of correction and scratch build details. :shutup:

I will do another build in this GB as some kind of back-up for the case I fail with my MC.72 (I will give my best as I am eagerly awaiting this build). Back up will be Testors S.6B - what else...

René

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Very interesting choice !

The Castoldi drawings are likely those included in the Ali d'Italia book on the Macchi racers (Idrocorsa Macchi). This book is quite useful for anyone interested in these subjects

The kit originated with Artiplast, an Italian company active in the '60s and early '70s that made a number of kits in 1/50 scale. Back in the days 1/48 was not really popular in continental Europe and in a sense Artiplast is to be commended for having proposed kits in a larger scale. Most moulds later went with Smer and many are still available for very little money.

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Good luck with this one! Don't know if you've noticed that both of the propellers are angled the same, not as a contra prop.

The hardest part I found was getting the float supports to line up in any meaningful way with the fuselage.

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Hi Caerbannog,

There's some good pics of the restored aircraft here: http://ru-aviation.livejournal.com/1418777.html

I don't think the radiators on the wings were continuous. You can see that they aren't on the lower surfaces, there's a red stripe where the wires are attached. Funnily enough the red doesn't wrap around onto the upper surface but I'd not expect the wires to go into the radiator surface.

Had this kit many years ago, started to "correct" it but gave up in the end. Had the Delta kit too. Quite a heavy moulding and very unrefined. Sold that one on! :deadhorse:

Hope you fare better than I did!

Dave

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Thanks all. I know it is quite an ambitious project but up till now I am in good spirit :-D

From the pics I have seen the top wing radiators are not interrupted - you can also see this in SnapperCity/Marks top picture.

I am still engaged with my G-Lynx in the Lynx ST GB so the start with my Less than a tenner kits will be a bit delayed or at least slow. So please excuse if I appear a bit lazy with progress pics here the next days/week.

Rene

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  • 2 weeks later...

Due to some minor problem with my G-LYNX build in the Lynx GB I started to compare the kit parts to the Castoldi drawings as shown below. The issues are about the same as stated above. The fuselage is too short and the vertical needs complete replacement. The "hump" from head rest to vertical is larger and has a slightly different shape on the real thing too. Further more almost all engraved detail is wrong:

MC721_zps864d6dd1.jpg

Despite some thinning on the fuselage insides I started to cut the fuselage halfs to bring them to size:

MC722_zps7cb04075.jpg

The wing is too small as well. I will cut it as shown below and insert plastic strips to get the dimensions right:

MC726_zps804ee1ae.jpg

The horizontal tails are completely wrong and will be scratched:

MC723_zps8aaafa1d.jpg

The floats are going to be nasty as well. They are quite off and reshapeing them will require some elbow grease:

MC724_zpsa1e86374.jpg

Rene

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Sounds just like the Ansaldo SVA5, also by Airkit! Have been looking at it and so far different parts of the fuselage vary between 1/52 to 1/46! E.g. cockpit opening and upper nose 1/48; fuselage depth at cockpit 1/52, depth at nose 1/46.....

what have I started :mental::banghead:

But these Airkit/Smer/whoever models can be great instructional models and your build will be great :winkgrin: . So :popcorn:

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

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How about the Fly Ansaldo SVA? I have not compared it to plans but it looks quite nice.

Let's see how "great" my build will be... :shutup:

:winkgrin:

Rene

I have yet to handle it in the flesh, but from what I have seen it is light years ahead of the Airkit version.

However, It would not be as 'challenging' to build thus I would not learn as much from it....I think :frantic:

Or I am just looking forward to the sense of euphoria as the endorphins kick in once I have wrestled it into submission :hypnotised:

Not to mention that it was a whole £4! Just think of the 'value for money'; hours, days, weeks, months of :wall:, also known as fun! Or am I just tight? :hmmm:

I am sure your build will be great and entertaining! :whistle:

Plus there will be lots of moral support around...

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

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What method will you use for the floats?

If it was me I would balance between cutting them in half / insert plastic card / reshape and crush mold them twice (using first the float as a mold, and then the float with the extra thickness).

Carlos

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What method will you use for the floats?

If it was me I would balance between cutting them in half / insert plastic card / reshape and crush mold them twice (using first the float as a mold, and then the float with the extra thickness).

Carlos

If I split them and insert plastic card the floats will become too wide at the underside as well and creat additional work there. So I plann to add plastic sheet to the top area only. If this fails I will have to build one from scratch but I do not think so. Depending on the maount of work I will then decide if I recast the one float (would that be OK with the GB rules here???) or build a second one.

Rene

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  • 4 weeks later...

OMG one moth past already and not much done on this one. Yesterday evening I cut the wing lenghtwise and inserted a 2 mm plastic sheet to bring the wing to the correct length (in flying direction). Tonight I will add two further cuts and insert 7 mm plastic to get the right spann. Thus prepared the wing will join me on a busines trip to get sanded to shape. I will also try to fix the floats on this trip. Mor on this when I return in two weeks.

Rene

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Hi from Pakistan. So wing is cut and shut and sanded (underside in Bangladesh, topside in Pakistan - there is not much free time on this trip). But I need to apply some filler which I do not have with me, so some more work on the wing is waiting when I return end of next week. Pics of the wing will follow. I hope to do someting on the floats and or tailplanes the next days.

Rene

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Have 2 of two of these kits, one Smer, one Artiplast. The Artiplast is moulded in a clear red plastic which is quite brittle. There is a good article about this in Harry Woodman's book: Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card. The plastic was so brittle he abandoned the project. Artiplast decals are great. I've had an SM-79 since 1972 and the decals are still perfect. Colors are stable and the white hasn't yellowed.

The Smer kit's plastic is at least easier to work with.

I'll be following this. Great work so far!

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Thanks Mark!

I returned and here is what I have done abroad. First pic shows my hotel man cave:

MC72buildbenchJavari_zpseb3cf67c.jpg

I am really happy I took the tools and parts with me as I did way more progress there than at home. My goal was to get at least the wing done, which is not that much work but includes long sanding (boring...). Just for good hopes I took Milliput with me for the case I can start on the float master (I plan to cast it).

So here is the changed wing:

MC72buildwing_zps09f2c71c.jpg

The wing is done so far - only the coolers are still missing. I have three ideas on how to do these (decals, scribing embossing thin sheet metal).

With the wing done I started on the float:

MC72buildfloat1_zps0b1b7679.jpg

There is still some sanding needed but I did much more progress on this than I expected...

... So I started the scratch horizontals as well:

MC72buildhorizontal1_zps9854705a.jpg

Meanwhile these are sanded to shape but I did not take a pic. Will follow later.

So the next days I will be busy finishing my Lynx. More work on the MC.72 and S.6B in about two weeks.

Rene

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  • 1 month later...

Just a short update but no pics as there is not much to show. The time I spent on the Macci was filling and sanding the floats, tailplains and the wings. The float needs surface detail but I am still figureing out if I do the detail before or after casting - as the casting stubs will be running though some of the detail I will need to rebuild it anyway.

One more thing I did was finishing an artwork for a photo etch set. Nothing big - just the exhausts and the rigging. The rigging was the main reason for the fret as I found no better way to do these "flat wires", so I included the exhausts as well. I should have done the cockpit detail too but had not enough time because I had to hurry to catch the etching schedule. So I will do the cockpit from plastic sheets as done for the S.6B.

Rene

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