Italeri 1:72 Macchi C.202 "Folgore"

[dr_gn]

Undersides masked:



And the fuselage band painted in pre-shaded off white, to match the spinner:

[dr_gn]

Fuselage band masked:



Then sprayed “it’ll be close enough” sand, preshaded with NATO black:



First stage of paint went ok:



Bit of correction needed on the band, and the sides of the radiator duct need painting sand, then decals...

[dr_gn]

Masked up the radiator duct and flap housings:



Almost ready for a dark wash in the panel lines:

[dr_gn]

CanAm said:

.......drilled out the Venturi ........
You make it sound so simple. How the hell do you drill out something so small so accurately?

Turns out it doesn’t matter - somewhere on the way from the office to the garage (for painting), the Venturi pinged out of the tweezers and into oblivion...

[RDMcG]

As always, quite an awesome build. Astonishing skill.
.

[CanAm]

dr_gn said:

CanAm said:

.......drilled out the Venturi ........
You make it sound so simple. How the hell do you drill out something so small so accurately?

Turns out it doesn’t matter - somewhere on the way from the office to the garage (for painting), the Venturi pinged out of the tweezers and into oblivion...

How good are Italeri at providing replacement parts? Fingers crossed.

[dr_gn]

RDMcG said:

As always, quite an awesome build. Astonishing skill.
.

Thanks - it’s probably the trickiest build yet for me, and there’s still a way to go.

[dr_gn]

CanAm said:

dr_gn said:

CanAm said:

.......drilled out the Venturi ........
You make it sound so simple. How the hell do you drill out something so small so accurately?

Turns out it doesn’t matter - somewhere on the way from the office to the garage (for painting), the Venturi pinged out of the tweezers and into oblivion...

How good are Italeri at providing replacement parts? Fingers crossed.

Not sure, it’s ok I’ll make a new one, or do some hoovering and see if it gets picked up!

[dr_gn]

Made a start on the “smoke ring” decals tonight. Trying to get a consistent pattern is surprisingly tricky. The decals are printed on a single carrier film, so have to be cut out individually. The film itself is extremely thin, and the green printing is very delicate:





I’m using my usual method of applying Klear to the model locally, and while still wet, applying the decal and brushing MicroSol on top. The MicroSol wrinkles them in a terrifying manner, but as usual it soon settles down:



Seems to work OK although there’s no room for error - if I run out of decals, or damage a few I might not have enough. I can’t find them for sale anywhere either...

[dr_gn]

Close of play tonight:

[dr_gn]

That’s pretty much it for the decals:

[Yertis]

Why do you apply the decal onto not-dry Klear?

[dr_gn]

Yertis said:

Why do you apply the decal onto not-dry Klear?

It wicks under the carrier film and pretty much guarantees no slivering. It also seems to help the MicroSol do its job.

[dr_gn]

Canopy masked and painted. Still a bit of work needed on it:





Also oversprayed with Tamiya smoke, and added some exhaust staining. I managed to damage some smoke rings with thinners, but luckily had some spares. Anyway, it’s now coated with Klear for protection, and is ready for final assembly:

[dr_gn]

Got the u/c legs finished:



And fitted with Araldite:





Used some slip gauges as a jig.

[dr_gn]

Added the scratch built actuators:

[dr_gn]

Made a new Venturi out of brass tube and the end of a Browning machine gun. Still finishing what seems like an endless stream of tiny parts, most of which fit into the u/c bay:

[dr_gn]

Getting there...slowly.

[anonymous-user]

Amazing work, really well done. Love all the details

[CanAm]

dr_gn said:

Getting there...slowly.

With all due respect (when people say that, it usually means exactly the opposite.....but I mean it) I don't think you could do a rush job if you tried!