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A bit of Macchi 202 translating...!


MDriskill

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I'm a fan of the "Ali d'Italia" series of monographs, one of the best printed resources for WW2 Italian aircraft. These typically have side-by-side Italian and English text, but if you have no. 22 on the Macchi 202, you may have noticed there is a section on p.55 that's Italian only.

 

Well...for what it's worth, Google Translate - with a little editing by me - came up with this (anyone who speaks Italian better than this old hillbilly - please chime in with improvements!):

 

Technical Amendments C.202

 

During its production life, the C.202 underwent 116 technical changes; many of these referred to minor details (the diameter of some bolts, the reinforcement of a joint, etc.), while some were of greater importance (armored glass application, installation of wing guns, stabilizer with compensated balance, etc.) Each modification was formalized on a special "Proposal Form" which thoroughly described the interventions to be carried out, and was applied after the designer's approval. 

 

It is interesting to emphasize two points:

 

1) The modifications were classified according to three categories, designated A, B and C. Those of type A were to be installed on all new-build aircraft, as well as those already in service, by factory personnel; those of type B, in addition to new aircraft, were also to be installed on previous aircraft on the occasion of repairs and overhauls; those of type C did not apply retroactively. By way of example, modification no. 74 "Application of armored glass to the windscreen" was of type A; no. 65 "Fuel pump cooling box" was of type B; while no. 60 "Tailwheel of type D" was classified C.

 

2) The application of changes almost never coincided with the start of a new Series. The purpose of the various Series designations was to establish subsequent production orders, and did not signal the introduction of specific construction or set-up changes; in practice they had a more administrative than technical significance.

 

The "Proposal Form" indicated, from time to time, the Military Registration Number from which a modification had to be installed, giving specific instructions to each of the three manufacturers: AerMacchi, Breda, and SAI Ambrosini. From a construction point of view, there were in fact no differences between the models of the three companies; although the camouflage finish, interpreted in a slightly different way by the painters at Varese, Sesto S.Giovanni, and Passignano sul Trasimeno, made it possible to identify the maker at a glance [see Aerofan no. 76, "The Colors of the Folgore;" or "Ali e Colori" series, nos. 4 and 5]. On the contrary, every effort was made to ensure perfect interchangeability between the components. For this purpose, specimens called "Arlecchino" ("harlequin?") were required by contract, to verify compatibility of parts from different assembly locations. Only one "Arlecchino" from  AerMacchi-Breda (MM 9415) is known; if there were others (a triple AerMacchi-Breda-SAI "Arlecchino" was also planned), no documentary trace remains.

Edited by MDriskill
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The translation sounds very good to me !

As Super Aereo said, Arlecchino is Harlequin, a character from the traditional popular comedy theatre and in the Italian language is a term often used to describe something made with parts from different sources, since the character costume was made of many differently coloured patches.

Edited by Giorgio N
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Well, the Hasegawa C.202 fuselage is actually closer to 1/75th scale (smaller in all parts of outline when laid onto plans from Ali d'Italia book)

Haven't seen or checked the Italeri kit, though.

 

However, I remember some criticism on Stormo! forum that no mainstream kit in 1/72nd portrays the 'hump' behind the canopy correctly.

 

regards,

Aleksandar

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The Italeri kit reproduces all the shape errors of the Hasegawa kit. Offers some more internal detail but fit and surface detail are worse. If you already have the hase kit, there's little point in replacing it with Italeri 's

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3 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said:

As far as I know the Italeri Macchi MC202 is the Supermodel kit.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

Suspected as much, built the Supermodel C.205 30+ years ago and may even have one of their 202s buried in the stash somewhere.

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The Italeri and Supermodel kits have nothing in common. Supermodel issued theirs in the 70's and features raised panel lines and little detail.. and a host of inaccuracies.

Italeri issued theirs in 2001, a modern enough kit for its days, with recessed panel lines and some detail in the cockpit and wheel wells. This kit shared most parts with the same company's MC.205. The main parts look like a clone of the Hasegawa kit, with less sharp details.

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On 7/12/2021 at 4:46 PM, Giorgio N said:

As Super Aereo said, Arlecchino is Harlequin, a character from the traditional popular comedy theatre and in the Italian language is a term often used to describe something made with parts from different sources, since the character costume was made of many differently coloured patches.

Thanks Giorgio! Arlecchino sounds like a perfect name for the described machines...

 

On the subject of 1/72 C.202 kits:

+ As Giorgio described, the Italeri 1/72 C.202 is a direct copy, shape-wise, of the 1992-vintage Hasegawa kit. It has the nominal advantage of more cockpit and wheel well detail, but to me the engineering is inferior and it is harder to build. That being said, the new decals in the re-release might be worthwhile. And Italeri's C.205 Veltro is the only game in town.

+ The recent "Hobby 2000" boxings of the C.202 are Hasegawa moldings. Again, main reason to get them is the decals, which are really excellent.

+ I don't agree that the Hasegawa kit, which fits very nicely on Brioschi's drawings in my "Ali d'Italia" copies, is underscale. It has plenty of errors, including a short rear fuselage and spine, but in an overall sense it's not too small.

+ The 70's-vintage Supermodel kits of the 202 and 205 are completely different...and pretty terrible. Some of that brand's kits were re-released by what was "Italaerei" in those days, but apparently not the Macchis. [edit: this is not correct, see Giorgio's notes below]

+ Some recent aftermarket parts are a great help for the Hasegawa (or Italeri) kits. Airone Hobby has produced a resin seat, exhausts, and early un-filtered supercharger intake; PE seat belts; and 3D-printed late enclosed tropicalized wheel wells, and landing gear assemblies. Quickboost has recently added the late filtered intake, and the 205's oil coolers, in resin.

Edited by MDriskill
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To add some more information to the excellent comments by MDriskill, it may be worth mentioning the two Mister Kit sets, one for the MC.202 and the other for the MC.205.

Both sets include a new short-run plastic fuselage, where the shape of the dorsal hump has been corrected (this another issue with the Hasegawa kit). Unfortunately the rear fuselage does not look to have been lengthened.

In addition, there are a number of resin and PE parts to improve the detail in the cockpit and wheel well. The wheel wells are represented without the sand covers to try and show the mess of pipes and cables that was visible in these aircraft (and in the previous MC.200). The MC.205 set also includes all the parts needed to convert the Hasegawa 202 into a 205.

As the Italeri kit parts perfectly match the hasegawa ones in size, the sets could also be used on the Italian kit... however since the Hase kit is much better moulded and engineered, I would use them on this one or the Hobby 2000 rebox.

Both sets are currently shown as available at Mister Kit, for € 10 each, that considering the quantity of goods in each box is IMHO very good value for money. One of these days (that may mean anything from next month to sometime in the next 10 years...) I will build a 202 with this set and open a thread in the WIP section.

 

Speaking of wheel wells, while the Mister kit set repreduces them open, the Airone set reproduce the wells with the sand covers in place. These hid the various pipes and cables from view and protected them from the ingress of sand when operating in the desert. It is known that the covers were often omitted because they were one more thing that the ground crew had to remove before accessing certain parts for maintenance, so really the choice of sand covers or not in a model is down to the modeller. The open wheel wells were an interesting feature of these aircraft and some may want to show them... scratchbuilding them however is quite a pain, the Mister kit set offers a single resin part that is a good attempt but of course being a single part is not 100% realistic. The Airone set with the covers will be for many the easiest way to have accurate wheel wells.

 

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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1 hour ago, MDriskill said:

+ The 70's-vintage Supermodel kits of the 202 and 205 are completely different...and pretty terrible. Some of that brand's kits were re-released by what was "Italaeri" in those days, but apparently not the Macchis.

 

 

The story of these kits is slightly different: they were originally issued by what was Italerei but In 1972 one of the original Italaerei partners left the company, bringing with him some of the molds, like the G.55, the Reggianes and the Cant Z.1007. He then established Supermodel, issuing these kits under the new company name. The Macchis were issued a couple years after these events, reason why they never appeared under the Italaerei name.

When the company founder passed away, Italeri bought all molds, so the old ones that had left the company in 1972 "returned home". Among them was the G.55, that had been the very first kit issued by Italeri when the company carried their original name of Aliplast. Italeri reissued this kit in 2012 to celebrate the company 50th anniversary, in an Aliplast marked box

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To add more information to this interesting topic.

Italeri kit, although obvious clone of Hasegawa, has better detailed ventral radiator with two "rails", which Hasegawa lacks. On the other hand, the radiator inlet is slightly better portraited on Hasegawa.

VBBf64g.jpg

Regarding enclosed wheel wells from Airone, they were designed quite arbitrary and do not fit Hasegawa wing at all. 

PMIQorR.jpg

D8rQj67.jpg

ZVenZJi.jpg

The reason is that the edge doesn't follow the curve of the wing resulting in huge gaps in the middle. I invested a lot of effort in careful sanding and heavily modified this part in order to fit.

This is the comparison between the original part curve and modified one. Th unmodified part broke of early in the process because this is very brittle 3D printed material and the very first I used.

rF9QgOj.jpg

There is also one more error with these wells and I would here again call it arbitrary design. The producer simply didn't take care if the design is logical and it resulted in impossibility of fitting the 

wheel within the well.

ejo2RWt.jpg

There are even more minor errors, so these wells can be recommended only to enthusiasts who are willing to invest a lot of effort in modifications and adjustments.

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MarkoZG, thank you for those notes, very interesting. 

 

Your comments on the radiator highlight another frustration of the Hasegawa kit: much detail is simply missing. Many prominent surface details and other small features (hatches, access panel dzus fasteners, instrument venturi, radiator ribs, fuel and coolant drains, etc.) just aren't there. The radiator also lacks the horizontal intake splitter (which is represented, albeit rather heavily, in the Italeri kit), external side latches, and rear bracing and flap actuators. And some of the small parts - odd wedge-shaped oil cooler, wheels, skinny prop blades - are very bad.

 

We all roll our eyes at the never-ending "we really need a new kit of X" comments, LOL...but it's frustrating that the best-known Italian aircraft of WW2 is so poorly represented in 1/72 scale.

Edited by MDriskill
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