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My wife and I  went on holiday a few years back to lake Garda. At the southern end is a memoril to the pilots of the high speed fight squadron. I'll see if i can find the photo.

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Following along.  Those wing radiators look the business.  I could have used a set when I did my M39. 

 

A little Schneider Trophy trivia, and apologies if you already know this.  For the ‘29 Calshot race the Italians brought along three M52s as practice machines.  Alan Smith in his The Schneider Trophy states that because of it’s grimy, oil stained appearance one of them was nicknamed “The Moor of Venice”.  (Not very PC) This particular M52 had competed at Venice two years earlier.  However, it more likely that the nickname was given because of its colour, which was black.  So painted to make it easy to single out from the other M52s.  In Smith’s book there is a good picture of Molin being carried ashore piggyback from this machine.  The finish is flat, not glossy, but otherwise clean and looking well maintained, not stained and grimy.

 

Dennis

 

Motorbooks- The Schneider Trophy is Racers—Robert S Hirsch 

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  • 9 months later...

... aaaaand after 10months delay (!!!) a chance to re-engage.

 

The task here was exhausts. The V-12 Fiat motor had 2x stub pipes per cylinder. Seems there was not yet awareness of the contribution they could make to thrust, as they just point out broadside like a man-o-war’s cannons.

 

25394607954_1fc19988af_o_BM

 

Screen-Shot-2015-11-15-at-14.35.19_BM

 

The kit came with these white metal parts - solid exhaust ‘rods’ not ‘tubes’ - with a rebate to suit in the deep resin of the fuselage ...

 

IMG_8816_BM

 

I’ve set these aside, excavated the rebate all the way through, and set about scratch-building replacements. First, 24x little cylinders, from styrene tube, then one face shaved off each ...

 

IMG_8735_BM

 

Welded in pairs around paired Albion aluminium tube ...

 

IMG_8752_BM

 

IMG_8747_BM

 

Then a jig is improvised ...

 

IMG_8777_BM

 

And 6x paired tubes joined & fine styrene rod ‘welded’ into the valleys between ...

 

IMG_8776_BM

 

IMG_8778_BM

 

To form one slab of plastic, face trimmed & sanded flush ...

 

IMG_8806_BM

 

A further jig, this time to evenly set the tube projection, brass tube CA-glued from the back face in sets of 3x ...

 

IMG_8811_BM

 

To form a bank, like so ...

 

IMG_8808_BM

 

Then cautious thinning, sanding down the top & bottom styrene faces until it snug-fit into the slot in the fuselage cowling, hurrah!

 

IMG_8813_BM

 

Not laser-level-perfect, but I think just about right for this 1926 handcrafted machine.

 

IMG_8814_BM

 

Now to the other set of six for the other side ...

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3 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Great job, it looks pretty time consuming.

 

John


Indeed John! But fairly meditative with music or podcast, and not all in one sitting.


Having said that, I’m glad the Italians dropped the dual-pipes per cylinder after this V-12 M.39, as I’ll likely need to do the same refinement for the M.67 V-18 & MC.72 V-24 - that’d be x36 & x48 pipes respectively!!!

 

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3 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

Takes a lot of Macchismo to build one of these things!

🇮🇹😆🇮🇹
 

Gnnrrh!! 💪🏋️‍Here’s the full set of x24 done 😤🤜🥊

 

X24

 

Edited by greggles.w
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/14/2021 at 4:46 PM, Courageous said:

Nice to see you back Greggles and with beautiful set of exhausts too, must have used a few blades cutting that tubing.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart! & nice to have your company again.  Actually no, the blade still in use - I followed Albion’s online guide & just rolled the tube back & forth under the blade without pressure and it snipped off in no time (happily!)

 

On 4/14/2021 at 5:22 PM, Caerbannog said:

Just stumbled over this - nice to see you pull out another racer. Will follow with interest. I hope AMP or someone else will do the Macci M39 in 1:48. Never got hold of the NOIX kits 😞


I’m thinking they will .. at least the S5 box promises ‘Schneider Trophy Series’

 

 

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Teeny tiny progress: a scratch built instrument panel.

 

I’ve only managed to find one photo in the M39 cockpit, and even then it’s not a period photo.  It’s taken in the one in the museum in Italy, and the panel is 2/3 empty holes where instruments were some time ago pulled out.  However it gave me enough to mimic the layout & select an approximate bezel type from a generic PE sheet by airscale:

 

51120944861_9fea99d9ae_b.jpg


glued & drilled & shaped ...

 

51120852873_16ecc6b099_b.jpg

 

.. that was then held with double-sided clear tape behind a strip of clear styrene so I could align the dial-face decals (airscale again).  Decals were selected for size & graphic .. don’t try to fly this at home!

 

51120852863_b70691da4c_b.jpg


.. then clear coat to fix the decals; white to the back of the clear styrene; & the panel & bezels painted ..

 

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.. before being glued together, sandwiching a thin clear layer of ‘dial glass’ between.

 

For all that, it’s what I shall at best claim to be passable!

 

51121734885_0d9d0bc1d1_b.jpg


Inching closer to joining fuselage halves ... that external shapely form interests me more than the cockpit clutter within!

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Postscript to the above: some incredibly responsive & wonderfully helpful fellow modellers in Italy have come to the rescue with a link to comprehensive cockpit & fuselage interior photographs for the Macchis at the Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle Italy.  Catalogued online care of the Club Modellismo Plastico Ravenna.  Here for reference by any others looking for same:

 

Macchi M39

http://www.cmpr.it/Macchi M.39/macchi__m.htm

 

Macchi M67

http://www.cmpr.it/Macchi M.67/macchi__m.htm

 

Macchi Castoldi MC72

http://www.cmpr.it/MC 72 in details/mc72 dett..htm

http://www.cmpr.it/Macchi MC.72/macchi__mc.htm

 

 

 

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Stuck in a zoom meeting of no consequence ... sifting through the above images while I listen in & noted this:

M39_40

Could this be the fuel gauge perhaps!?  No intention to replicate, just curious ... last time I saw a fuel gauge like this was on a tractor!

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13 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

We'll be checking the level shown corresponds to the appropriate submersion of the floats :wicked:

Cheeky!

 

Just to undermine our confidence & mutual self-congratulation - any chance it could be for the water in that elaborate cooling system I now wonder?

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36 minutes ago, greggles.w said:

Cheeky!

 

Just to undermine our confidence & mutual self-congratulation - any chance it could be for the water in that elaborate cooling system I now wonder?

I suppose there's a chance it could be that, but the water is supposed to stay in the cooling system and not be consumed, the critical denominator here being the temperature not the level; whereas the fuel is specifically in there to be consumed and the pilot would need to monitor how fast it was going to ensure he had enough to complete the course.

 

Oh, and I'll now add cooling system contents to portrayal of float immersion.... :fool:

 

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Very sound logic, fuel it is!

 

13 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Oh, and I'll now add cooling system contents to portrayal of float immersion.... :fool:

 

& thanks, my decision to display ‘in flight’ is confirmed!

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