LSP_Kevin Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Excellent problem-solving Nicolas! You're really taming this beast now, and it's looking very nice indeed. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 This is fascinating and should result in a beautiful model. Keep it up. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Very nice so far. Those inter-war racers were such beautiful planes, I look forward to seeing the rest of this one. The super glossy red should shine in a display case. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tnarg Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) And just to play, do you guess what are the 2 other builds i'm doing at the moment? There has to be a P-6E in that mix. Or maybe the Navy Hawk instead... or even both? Too much fun. The 1930's stuff is so beautiful. Tnarg Edited December 31, 2014 by Tnarg Zero77 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) There has to be a P-6E in that mix. Or maybe the Navy Hawk instead... or even both? Too much fun. The 1930's stuff is so beautiful. Tnarg You're right ! There is a P-6E from Silver wings, and actually a Hawk III (will be with chinese markings) from the Hasegawa BF2C kit with the small conversion from Mike West. Their upper wings are dimensionnaly identical. I'll make WIP thread later, when i would have progressed more. Edited December 31, 2014 by Zero77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 A few progress. I've drilled the holes for the exhaust pipes. First i've used the supplied PE part as a template (as described in the instructions) and marked the hole position with a scriber, and next i've made a pre-hole with a smaller drill. Then i just made the hole to the correct diameter (1.2) with the proper drill. Here is a dry fit with a first coat of pink primer : Mal_Belford and geedubelyer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Then i wanted to add a few details to the floats as they come very plain. That is pretty difficult because the M.39 that is displayed at the museum in Italy (i've posted a picture of it in the first post) is not in my opinion the racer that won the 1926 Scheider Trophy as it is written on the museum plate, but should rather be a trainer. Indeed, there was 3 M.39 racers and 2 M.39 trainers, with a bit different floats (because of the different fuel tanks i guess), another engine, a wooden propeller and a different windscreen (with better visiblity for the trainer, but less streamlined). The M.39 in the museum definitely looks like a trainer. So i cant really use it as a reference for my build. So i used period pictured as much as i could. First, i've added plates all around the float struts. As it was very difficult to glue plastic or aluminium sheet because of the struts, i've decided to use the thick coat of primer instead. Quick and easy, and in addition, it is way more blended with the strut. So i've masked rectangles around the strut postion, and sprayed a thick coat of mr surfacer. Then i've added the fuel caps (or inspection panels?). The kit supplies 5 of these PE parts but there is no mention of them in the instruction. However, on period pictures, one can spot them just under the end of the strut plates, at least on one side. For question of balance, i think they are present on both side, as i doubt that only one float would have them. The PE material is a kind of stiff stainless, pretty difficult to glue on a curved surface. So i had to bend them a bit. I've used a peg and a brush handle so make them to shape : Done ! geedubelyer and Mal_Belford 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) Next a coat of tamiya white primer on the under side. I will let them as this, and will just add a coat of gloss coat to make it gloss. Then, after masking the underside of the floats, i've added a coat of pink primer on the top side. Damn ! There is a lot of bubbles ! I have to say that those bubbles were not on the surface of the parts, but appeared after sanding them. They were inside the material, a few tenth millimeters under the surface. No problem, they are pretty large, so it wont really be a problem to fill them (i've always think that small bubbles are more difficult to fill than large one, because there is always some air that stay under the coat of anything you put on it, and once you sand it clean, the small bubble is still there). I wanted to try something new. I'use talc, applied dry, to fill the bubbles with, and then applied a drop of extra thin CA. It worked pretty well, even if not perfect. Anyway, just after, i've add a thin coat of mr surfacer and sand everything clean. Edited January 17, 2015 by Zero77 geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 And after a new coat of primer : With the plane : I was about to finish the paint job of the floats, but just noticed that i dont like the red i've bought. It it the tamiya TS86 "pure red", intended to be used to paint recent ferrari cars in the Tamiya instructions as far as i know. But in my opinion it looks too bright, so i've just ordered another can of TS8 "italian red" , which would match better the red used on 30's Macchi racers. geedubelyer and Mal_Belford 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 At the same time, i was working on the windscreen. It was a PITA to glue the rhodoid on the PE part.... And the part was a bit too short to match the width of the fuselage, but it may be my fault, as i have add a few material between the 2 fuselage halves. Here is the windscreen PE part and the rhodoid to be glued on it : The width issue : One of my tries to make a part from scratch with plastic sheet, but i was not happy with it : As i've explained in this thread, i've tried several ways to make this assembly thight and clean with no success : http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=54425 Finally i've managed to do it with a lot of CA gel and one cured i've cleaned it with just a very few CA debonder to not unglue it. Then i've rubbed it with fine compound. I've also add a thin strip of plastic sheet that i've glued on both the PE edge and the end of the rhodoid sheet, to add a bit of strenght and correct the width issue. Now i think it's ok, and clean enough for me. Mal_Belford and geedubelyer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhoi Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Wow mon ami!! Cela va etre une petite merveille!....ca m'encourage a travailler sur mon M 39...délaissé depuis quelques mois! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Tenacious work on that windscreen Zero. It looks superb. The pink primer looks peculiar but seems to do a great job as an undercoat for red. Those floats look lovely. Really good to see so much progress on your beautiful Macchi. Keep at it. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 What a challenge, Nicolas! Looks like you've come to conquer though, and will come out on top. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal_Belford Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Gha........This is Soo Cool..... I Love it....Geez... /Mal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Good to see the great progress on this one. It is also good to see the pink primer being used. Eric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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