Italeri 1:72 Macchi C.202 "Folgore"

[dr_gn]

Thanks guys. If I rush, things go wrong more than if I take my time!

Anyway, wingtip lights, rear view mirror and reflector gunsight ready for fitting now:

[dr_gn]

dr_gn said:

Thanks guys. If I rush, things go wrong more than if I take my time!

Dropped it and snapped an u/c leg last night...there's always something!

[GJB]

[dr_gn]

GJB said:

Thanks, that reminds me - I ought to make a small step for the pilot.

This is more like what I'm trying to replicate, although getting the exact pattern is impossible!

[dr_gn]

So I repaired the u/c leg - luckily I’d used Araldite, so it had only snapped the glue joint. All I did was put more glue in the socket.



Added the latches to the canopy:



And fitted it. I made a notional piano type hinge from lead wire:



A bit of light weathering, pencil in some panel lines I missed behind the u/c bay, and a pilot’s step and that’ll be it.

[dr_gn]

Finished - after way too long:

Italeri 1:72 Macchi C.202 “Folgore” (Thunderbolt)
Sergente Maggiore Luigi Gorrini
85a Squadriglia, 18° Gruppo, 3° Stormo
Tunisia, January 1943



















Modifications to base kit were:

Eduard photo-etch set added (cockpit, wheel wells, flaps, air filter valve)
Aires resin exhausts
Mike Grant “smoke ring” decals
Scratch-built wheel well detail
Scratch-built cockpit detail
Machine gun muzzles (brass tube)
Wingtip and tail lights (clear styrene/pva)
Ventral venturi (brass/plastic tube)
Aerial wire (EzLine)
Pitot heads (brass tube)
Brake lines (lead wire)
Drilled exhaust cover apertures
Flatted tyres
Scribed fuselage detail added

That's all folks.

[RDMcG]

Absolutely stunning!

[Yertis]

Yeah it's amazing. It's not an aircraft type I particularly like, but that model is perfection.

[dr_gn]

Thanks guys!

It’s one of those where it’s gone on for so long and has been a real hassle, so the end result is a bit of an anti-climax. Still, I’m reasonably happy with the look of it (bit too much weathering on the nose perhaps).

I just need the new-tool Tamiya Kawasaki Ki-61 to complete my three favourite DB601 engined warbirds - the other being the Airfix Bf109E. That’s another where most of the main camo will be decals...

Next up is the new 1:72 Special Hobby Kittyhawk 1a, but that’s for a magazine review.