1/48th Macchi C.205 155 Gruppo - Completed

[trickyrich]

As the self appointed El Presidente of the Macchi owners club it was only a matter of time before I had to start another one!!! 

 

Ok this will be another 205 but this time Hasegawa’s 1/48^th Macchi C.205 Veltro 155 Gruppo Limited Edition versions. This model includes markings for two aircraft from 155 Gruppo, either a 352 or 360 Squadriglia aircraft. Both schemes are in the “smoke ring” camouflage so I’ll be using another set of the Mike Grant Smoke ring decals.

 

 

This build other than the decals will be an OOB one………….yeah right!   By some unusual chance (ok I hit the buy now button twice!!!   ) I ended up with two BigED sets for the C.202, so I’ll be using some of the bits in this build, as they shared quite a few common bits.

 

 

I’m replacing the cockpit with an SBS resin one, I got one for the C.202 and after seeing the quality I just had to use one for this build as well.

 

 

Finally a new instrument panel, for this I’m using this jewel like one from Yahu a new Polish company producing these amazing IP’s!    Only by chance I happen to see one of these by accident, once seen I just had to get one. The detail is better than a lot of AM stuff for 1/32^nd or even 1/24^th!!!

 

 

 

So even will this lot of AM stuff it’ll be a nice and simple build, maybe even a quick one.

 

I have made a bit of a start on this, I did little bits and pieces towards the end of the 152 build, but now that’s out of the way I can really start this one as well.

 

So the cockpit was the start, it was given a basic coat of paint and the start of the detailing shown here, this was done a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

So I managed to get to this stage before I headed back to work last Wednesday., the floor and seat are finished.

 

 

The sidewalls here are 95% done, I added just a couple of more details, before they were fitted to the fuselage sides.

 

 

As can be seen the instrument panel just looks so great….and I didn’t have to do really anything, that way less chance to stuff it up. One of the really nice things with it is the handle locations have been micro-drilled out, so the PE handles fit perfectly and don’t fall off like the ones on normal PE IP’s when you knock them!!

 

 

Here it is fitted already to be closed up. I think I made one boo boo, that is I forgot to take the backing off the IP!! I was wondering why it was so thick and that I had to thin down the resin back plate of the original SBS one. The backing plate of the IP is made of brass like the IP itself and the same thickness, and while writing this I noticed the header card for the IP mentioned that it was “JustStick” opps!! 

 

 

Anyway the fuselage was closed up and now you get to see very little of the cockpit and that amazing IP!!

 

 

 

The only issue I had was I fitted the lovely joystick early in the piece and when it came time to close up the cockpit it had disappeared!! Guess I haven’t been feeding the carpet monster it’s noms lately!!

 

The wheel well detail has been fitted to the lower wing and is already to be painted, once that’s done I finish off the wings. I’m sort of tempted to cutout and fit the Eduard flaps….i know after my last experience with PE flaps on the 152…….I finish this too quickly else I’ll have to drag out the 202 as well!

 

 

[modelling minion]

Nice to see another Macchi on your bench Rich.

A great start on the interior, it looks fantastic.

[rob85]

That is a beautifully detailed cock pit! Glad your building this out the box......... Just imagine if your really went to town on the am stuff 😃

 

I am always tempted by Italian aircraft.... Hmmm I have had a thought for a later build thread, I'll keep it under my hat just in case the twins fail....

 

Rob

[Arniec]

Great start with the cockpit Rich. I will follow this one.

 

Cheers,

[charlie_c67]

Those Yahu IP's are great! I've got several to spruce up the place of several builds. They're especially useful for the older builds with their empty offices and a little scratch building. AFAIK they're only for prop planes at the moment though.

[trickyrich]

you're right they're super cool and look so nice.

 

I think they now have a couple of sets available for jets, would have to look at there site again, Mirage F1's I think, plus the Me-262

 

ok, just went and looked, in 1/72nd they have F.1's, MiG-15, & MiG-21PFM (two colours), 1/48th F.1's and Me-262, plus coming out with Su-22 (will need to get a couple of those!!), 1/32nd Me-262 & Ar-234.

 

Here's the link to their site;

 

Yahu Models

[trickyrich]

wow it has been a while since I last updated this, found this thread on the 4th page!!!

One my last break I was only home for a day so the plan was just to do some little jobs as I didn’t want to get too involved in anything. Well that didn’t happen……..

 

I decided just to have a little play with the PE flaps, as I hadn’t really planned to fit them after the experience I had with the 152! But needless to say I got a bit carried away!

 

The job would have been much simpler if I hadn’t glued the wings together already!!! The flaps though built up really easily and the whole went together quite nicely!

 

The overall fit in places wasn’t as nice as I expected and a wee bit of filler was required on the smaller joints, for the larger one stretched sprue was required.

 

he wing/fuselage joins have 4 plates on the upper join which are quite noticeable on the real thing, these almost disappeared while cleaning up this join. To recreate them I used bits of the brass PE from the big 205 (the PE is about half the thickness of the stuff you usually see from Eduard and such) as it’s really thin. I may end up using more of this super thin PE for other bits if I have time.

 

I just need to tidy up a couple of other spots and then I can start painting.

 

 

[Giorgio N]

Having browsed tens of pictures of Macchi cockpits for my MC.202 build, I have to say that I'm impressed by the SBS set, looks extremely accurate to me. Great job on this model, looks great

[trickyrich]

3 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Having browsed tens of pictures of Macchi cockpits for my MC.202 build, I have to say that I'm impressed by the SBS set, looks extremely accurate to me. Great job on this model, looks great

 

 I'm really impressed with the SMB cockpit, it's have to be one of the best resin replacement cockpits I've come across!!  That and the Yahu IP, they look amazing, just a pity most of it will be hidden! I'll definitely be looking to use both again in other builds!

[trickyrich]

 

Wow it seems like forever since I updated this build!

 

Well a lot has happened in between, I’ve been dividing my time between two other builds now that his big brother is finished. So he we go….

Those lovely little brass additions to the wing mounts had to be removed as I found some were supplied with the PE set.

 

 

The prop is pretty well finished, I just need to add the decals to it.

 

 

I finished adding the final bits to the cockpit so it could be closed up for painting.

 

 

The lower radiator and scoop were fitted, a lot easier task than with the big one, the faces of the radiator have been masked as well.

 

 

Plus I have started work on the main gear as well, most of the plastic detail is removed, to be replaced with PE bits.

 

 

Painting time, first up my usual squiggly pre-shading of the panels, them the white band was re-masked and redo….a bit of a boo boo in the order there!!

 

 

Next up the underside colour, I initially started with LifeColor Grigio Azzurro Chiaro, but I again had trouble with it going on smoothly. So I ditched that and went for Tamiya’s XF-20, this is almost the exact match for the LifeColour paint and unless you saw the two together you could tell the difference. The Tamiya paint as usual just goes on perfectly!

 

Next up some masking….actually quite a bit, then the top colour, LifeColors Nocciola Chiaro 4. This time the paint went on pretty much perfectly!

 

With the masks removed there was just a wee bit of touching up required on the under side of one wing and that was it! Getting better at the masking!

So what she looks like?

 

 

 

 

Am really happy with the finish, much better that her big brother. Will leave her over night to cure then on with the gloss clear coat. With luck I can start the “smoke-ring” decaling tomorrow after noon.

 

Not an awful lot left to do, hopefully I should have her finished next break.

 

[rob85]

She is looking very nice indeed, lots of nice little details 

 

rob

[trickyrich]

Well I managed to get a bit more done before I headed back to work so here’s what I did.

 

After a night drying I gave her a good coat of clear gloss, no messing around with acrylic clear gloss, this time Tamiya Clear gloss from a rattle can. It’s still not super glossy but it was much better than the results I’ve had with the acrylic stuff!

 

Once that had dried for a few hours, smoking time!!  I now had all the trick down pat with these decals and only managed to destroy one and was even game enough to lay them over complex curves! The best method for me was to coat the area the decal was to go over with the Mr Hobby Setting solution then lay down the decal and smooth & dry it, then go onto the next. After about a dozen decals then coat them with some Mr Hobby Softening solution, leave them for 5-10 second them, then use a damp paper towel (I use some special blue cotton paper I’ve acquired from work, looks, feels and behaves like paper towel, but last forever) to dilute/remove the softening solution. You can see the results...

 

 

 

The decals are still a little glossy but they’ve adhered  to the surface much better than the first time and other than them being shiny look just like they’ve been painted on. They’ll disappear with a coat of Tamiya flat, again from rattle can.

 

I had enough time left that I decided to add some of the normal decals as well.

 

 

 

 

I’m not quite finished as I have just a few of the smaller ones to go and the numbers. I’m really happy with the finish so far with this one, I think it’s even better than her big brothers. Speaking of which.......

 

 

They do look great together. I hope to have her finished within the first day or two when I get back home. Then onto the SM.79, I’m really starting to get into that build and enjoying it, plus maybe the Mustang as well.

[Stew Dapple]

Wow, that does look good Rich  

 

I'm all for painting what you can, where you can but there is no way I'd be able to even get close to reproducing the effect of the smoke-ring transfers.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[trickyrich]

4 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Wow, that does look good Rich  

 

I'm all for painting what you can, where you can but there is no way I'd be able to even get close to reproducing the effect of the smoke-ring transfers.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

Thanks.

 

I agree, there is no way I would have attempted this scheme without these decals, even with my new airbrush. Maybe if I'd spent my entire break practising, I might have been able to get something roughly looking like them on my 1/32nd Macchi, but no way on this one and to attempt it in 1/72nd..........

 

That said I'm going to try a fairly complex scheme on my SM.79, going freehand with the airbrush....that should be interesting!! 

[trickyrich]

Well after one final push she’s done!

 

Again as always it’s all those little bits seem to take so much time to do. I didn’t both to take photos of all these little steps. I did have one drama though with the final decals, I totally screwed up one of the serial numbers!!! I’ll have to have a better search for a replacement as I could find a replacement straight away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That aside I’m still really happy with how she turned out, especially the cockpit, pity that area is so hard to see! They do look together look great.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following, additional photo’s will be in the gallery.

[modelling minion]

Stunning Rich, simply stunning.

Quite the collection of Macchi's you have now and they are all great, very inspiring.

Very well done mate.

[Oriskany]

Nice work Trickyrich, good job with the "anelli di fumo" color scheme, decals seems to be positioned very well

It's Always a pleasure see a good representation of a Macchi fighter

[trickyrich]

5 minutes ago, Oriskany said:

Nice work Trickyrich, good job with the "anelli di fumo" color scheme, decals seems to be positioned very well

It's Always a pleasure see a good representation of a Macchi fighter

 

thanks, I have to admit now I'm a bit fan of this aircraft, actually all Italian aircraft of this er, until this GB I really didn't know that much about these amazing aircraft!!

 

I still have another C202 in the stash as well as another SM.79 (both 1/48th), and I don't think they'll be the end of build Italian aircraft either!

[spitfire]

Beautiful job, they look pretty good together.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Arniec]

Great job on the Macchi. It turned out great.  I love it!!

 

Cheers,

[Cookenbacher]

The camouflage is incredible Rich.

[Giorgio N]

Don't know how I missed the last few pictures, this model looks gorgeous, well done !