Pegasus 1/72 Macchi M5

[stevehed]

Hi,

     Late on parade again but as my Dad used to say We've arrived and to prove it we're here. Been after this kit for years and finally nabbed it a few months ago. It's smaller than I expected but as it's a single seat fighter that's not surprising. Looks nice on the sprues and have started cleaning the parts up.

Regards, Steve

 

[jrlx]

Hi Steve!

 

Welcome to the GB! Looking forward to seeing your model built!

 

Good luck!

 

Jaime

 

 

[Doc72]

Nice, another float-plane fighter. I am looking forward to see the finished kit.

[pheonix]

Great to see you joining us Steve and with a pusher flying boat too - what is there not to like?

 

I have this on my to do list of scratch builds so I will follow your build to see if there are any issues which I might encounter later - I really need some more Italian aircraft in my collection.

 

P

[Courageous]

Welcome Steve. Now, no slacking, time is a ticking. 

 

Stuart

[stevehed]

 

I'm going to build this OOB with an added pilot to fill the hole. The kit supplied cockpit is a simple floor, instrument panel, control stick and seat. The latter two parts are white metal.  There are two fuselage sections which are separate because they are slightly concave and difficult to incorporate into the mould. Dry fitting indicates filler will be required. Once the fuselage is joined and the upper wing glued together painting will be next.

 

Steve

[Courageous]

1 hour ago, stevehed said:

added pilot to fill the hole.

Where are you getting your pilot?

 

Stuart

[stevehed]

On 10/22/2019 at 9:27 PM, Courageous said:

Where are you getting your pilot?

 

Stuart

Nowhere special. Whatever I have in the spares box. Might have to remove his legs but I'm assured it doesn't hurt.

 

Steve

[Courageous]

I was just wondering if you'd found a source for WW1/ Interwar pilots...with/ without legs.

 

Stuart

[stevehed]

Hi Stuart,

              No specialist source I'm afraid just discards that a few folk have collected for me. I usually reduce the modern bone domes by filing and cover up Mae Wests etc with filler to try and make a leather jacket. Got a bit more done. The fuselage has a few gaps that need filling and one of the wing roundels broke up and will require touching up.

 

 

Steve

[JOCKNEY]

Great work Steve

Ive never built a Pegasus kit, although i have a number in the stash. Look forward to seeing you bring this one to life 

Cheers Pat 

[AdrianMF]

Looks good - thanks for the heads up about the decals. I will treat them with caution  when I get to the Pegasus layer of my stash!

 

Looking forward to see what you do with this. 

 

Regards,

Adrian

[pheonix]

Looking very good at the moment Steve. I will be interested to see how you get the spare wing i place - are you proposing to use a jig of any kind?

 

P

[Brandy]

Nice!

I have this, and about a dozen other Pegasus kits in my stash. The FK8 is built, and I just started the Taube. Watching with interest!

 

Ian

[stevehed]

A quick update. I’ve decided to paint the national colours on the undersides instead of using the roundels. Engine nacelle is made up and the floats are the earlier encased version. This made them easier to use so I’m going to leave them be. Next phase will be to build the engine support struts to hold the engine set up in place. Pegasus have supplied a pair of white metal struts which require the upper struts to be bent to the correct angle. Whether before or after the nacelle has been trapped between I have yet to decide.

 

Steve

[AdrianMF]

Looking good!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[pheonix]

Looks very good Steve. The engine support platform on these flying boats always looks a bit intimidating before you start but in reality they are straightforwad to put inot place.

 

P

[CliffB]

A lovely choice Steve - I'm a sucker for these early Italian aircraft 

 

Cliff

[stevehed]

Thanks All for the comments. The engine support structure is white metal and therefore flexible. The fuselage struts are at the correct angle and the nacelle is CA'd to the flat cross support. Then you glue the strut with the engine attached, try and support while remembering this superglue, attach the other strut with a dab of glue on the cross support and let them come together. That's the theory and I'm sure you can all imagine the fun and games I had trying to bring it about. Suffice to say the engine is not as straight as I'd like but nowhere near as wonky as the photo suggests and the centre section strut holes do not match up. Serious enlargement of the latter will solve that problem and as the engine nacelle is under the wing I can live with the slight angle. I haven't needed a jig so far. The recommended method is to install the top wing and the struts, then add the lower wing and bring them together. Probably upside down seems best but time will tell. As for the support trestle I think a scratched one may have been better but this one is OOB.

Regards, Steve

[pheonix]

Oh the joys of mounting an engine on a raised platform and then adding more cabane struts to the top wing! I would have mounted the engine on the platform, then the top wing via the interplane struts and finally the cabanes - as per my other flying boat builds. However you seem to have come out of this well so far and I am sure that any slight mis-alignments will be well concealed beneath the top wing. This will certainly be an excellent addition to your collection Steve.

 

P

[Brandy]

Nice work so far, looking good!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

Looks good so far - it must be quite unnerving to know that the engine moves around as the struts bend. I guess a couple of pins between the fuselage and each lower wing might not go amiss to provide some form of positive support.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehed]

Thanks for the comments. 

Initially tried to cement a lower wing with polystrene glue. Intended it to almost set then install the strut when there was still waggle time. The glue did not like the plastic and resolutely refused to set at all so I eventually gave up and did what I’d been told to do. The white metal struts were CA’d to the top wing then the lower wings were glued into the fuselage locating slots. This worked but I seem to have more dihedral than expected. Wasn’t sure what has gone wrong as the support trestle is attached using the appropriate panel line as the guide. However, logic says the engine must be too high. With hindsight I think building the engine supports from scratch would have been better. Nonetheless it looks like an M5 so I’m going to leave it as is for the time being.  Regards, Steve

[pheonix]

Getting the correct dihedral on the lower wings of these biplane flying boats has invariably proved difficult for me, no matter which procedure I use. I think that yours looks perfectly acceptable - and I defy any critic to build one of these flying boats and make a better job of it.

 

Good modelling Steve.

 

P

[Torbjorn]

It is difficult to tell due to all the angles (swept wings, dihedral) but to me the engine height and height of the upper wing look perfectly right.

 

From the front view drawing, the vertical distance from the point where the lower wing meets the fuselage up to the upper wing is almost equal the distance from the same point to where the V-strut is attached (on the lower wing). I think the issue is simply that your V-struts are too short. But I concur with Steve anyhow

Edited December 16, 2019 by Torbjorn