Hasegawa 1/48 Macchi MC.202

[BleedingBlue]

Pleased to present my latest build, the Hasegawa MC.202.  This was a kit I’ve had in my stash for a while and had been hesitant to build because I wanted to do the smoke ring camo.  I had purchased the Eduard smoke ring decal set, but I was intimidated by doing that many decals.  I am happy to report that they are an absolute joy to work with and gave, IMO, a great result.  Super thin yet not at all brittle. With setting solution they will melt to just about any curve.  I could not recommend them more.  I only used about 2/3 of the sheet so you will have plenty even if you make some mistakes.  The only thing I did to them was cut along the panel lines with a scalpel blade to make sure the panel line wash would go in easily.

 

As for the rest of the build, it was a pretty uneventful and easy build.  It is straight OOB other than I put in some metal tubing for gun barrels, drilled and scribed in a weld line for the exhausts, and EZ line for antennae wires.  The other modification was to the pilot seat.  The only good view of the pilot seat I could find showed the lap belts were made of chain (sounds pretty uncomfortable) I did my best to simulate it by using some coiled copper wire.  I wasn’t prepared to make actual links.  I used masking tape and some PE sprue for the shoulder belts.  I’m pleased with the results.

 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by BleedingBlue

[Pstryk]

Outstanding model! Really has the Italian spirit!

[mahavelona]

Really nice model

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Beautiful Macchi MC202 Folgore!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[Kriss]

Bardzo ładnie wyszedł, gratulacje. Ja za chwilkę zaczynam z MC.205 a po nim MC.202 oba z zestawu HASEGAWA.

[Epeeman]

Your right to be pleased with this one as it looks great and Iove your camo painting

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Spitfire31]

Brilliant Macchi! And a useful hint, that cutting through the decals along the panel joints. I'll remember…

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[georgeusa]

Really great build of this Italian fighter.  The smoke rings look like they were painted on.  You did well with the decals and it is good to know they work as described.  And I agree with Joachim, the tip about cutting the decals through the panel line is something I will do in the future.  Thanks for sharing.

[BleedingBlue]

2 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

Brilliant Macchi! And a useful hint, that cutting through the decals along the panel joints. I'll remember…

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

1 hour ago, georgeusa said:

Really great build of this Italian fighter.  The smoke rings look like they were painted on.  You did well with the decals and it is good to know they work as described.  And I agree with Joachim, the tip about cutting the decals through the panel line is something I will do in the future.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, and glad the tip was helpful.  I think having a panel line stop at a decal doesn't look right since you see the panel lines with the stencils on real aircraft.

[MickE]

Bellissimo! 😀