Macchi C-202, by Italeri

[Dpgsbody55]

22 hours ago, JayW said:

I can relate Michael!  An effort in micro-surgery, done very well.  

 

I think I went blue in the face doing this.  Must remember to breathe when I do such things .

 

22 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Great problem solving, Michael!  Will be very helpful when I get around to starting on mine.  Were you able to work out where all of the Aircraft In Pixels engine details are supposed to go?

 

Thanks John.  But my preference is always to find a better alternative before they become a problem.  In this case I failed, and I can see more things coming up that I may need to correct before I'm finished.  This model is put together a little differently from most with the engine being attached to the firewall/wing spar before you put that into the wing, which then has the fuselage fitted over the top.  It's a different approach which I like, in the same way that Z-M models and the Airfix Typhoon goes together a differently from the norm.  Had a blast with that one, btw .

 

As to the Aircraft in Pixels engine details, the answer to your question is mostly yes.  Some are replacements for the kit parts and add more detail to those areas, as in the following picture.  But the rest add more detail, such as the filler tube for the oil tank and the oil catch can.  The vendor has pictures of some of this on his site, but not placement pictures of everything in the detail pack and in particular they provide an oil catch can/separator and breather pipe and no picture is shown of these.  This is the one part that is causing me some head scratching and I've yet to find a good period picture of this.  I have sent an email to Aircraft in Pixels last week asking for assistance, but have yet to receive a reply.  But going through my modelling files on my computer, I found a guide by Maurizio Di Terlizzi to this particular kit highlighting it's faults and detail improvements that can be made.  I can't remember where I found it, but it was probably on this site, though it's not in the Tweak Lists section.  Anyway, there's a picture in the engine detail section which shows the catch can mounts on the right side of the engine immediately in front of the engine mount.  So perhaps problem solved, and if so, my thanks to Maurizio for the picture in particular and the guide in general.

 

So here are two of the engine detail parts, vs the kit parts.  To the left of the picture is the kit's starboard ancilliary crutch which in my kit is broken.  To it's left is the AiP part which has the hydraulic tank, injector starter pump and flame arrester.  The kit has none of this.  On the right side is the kit's left ancilliary crutch (way better than the right one), compared to the AiP part, which is to a much higher level of detail.  These will be the last parts I put on the engine/wing assembly before getting on with the fuselage.

 

 

So while I'm here, I'll add a few more pictures of the small amount of progress I've made.  I've now started on the guns and their mounting platform by adding some Eduard etch pieces.

 

 

Next, I needed to fill an ejector pin mark on the back of the firewall.  I did this using Mr Surfacer 500 and let it dry in a position such that it can't run.

 

 

This was rubbed back and painted flat black, along with most of the gun platform.  The instructions say to mount the guns to the platform and glue it to the recess in the back of the firewall you can see in the picture above.

 

I'm not doing this.  I've mounted the platform to the firewall first, and set it to dry using the fuselage as an alignment tool as this has a recess which the platform pops into.

 

 

And this is why.  The gun is molded with a part of the gun trough that aligns with the trough in the top cowling.

 

 

So I've cleaned off the paint where glue will go in the platform and I'll glue the guns in place once this is dry and check the alignment to the top cowling as I do so.  There are also nicely molded gun synchronisation levers in the kit that go on the engine and guns, and these which will go on once the guns have dried in place.  Those top flexible coolant pipes are going to be an issue, but how much I don't yet know.  I wish now that I hadn't glued them into the header tank until all this is done.

 

I'm hoping that I'll get all this part finished in the next week or so as I'm off to New Zealand again mid next week and it would be nice to come back and start on some other part of the model.  It's not the end of the world if this doesn't happen, though, but I will do at least one more update before departing.

 

To NZ, I mean.  Not that other place.... 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Azgaron]

Very nice progress!

 

Håkan

 

[Dpgsbody55]

I've now pretty much got the the end of engine build.  The machine guns went in next once their platform had dried in place, followed by the interrupter actuators.

 

 

 

The aircraft's battery resides in between each gun breach, but Italeri have left this blank.  In fact, there should be two batteries here each inside a box, but the pictures I have don't give a good idea of their layout.  So I've just gone with one battery box.  I made this from stock plastic and the hold downs were made with some etch brass strips left over from a previous Meteor build.  Wire was added and painted up for the connections to the aircraft.

 

 

Here it is, in place.  I painted it RLM66 black grey as my picture suggests it should not be flat black like the gun platform.

 

 

The ancilliary engine crutches by Aircraft in Pixels have also been painted and mounted, along with the oil catch can that you can also see the top of in the picture above.  I started with the left side, which went in fairly easily.  It mounts in two places, to the firewall and a foot is printed on to attach to the engine mount.  It's an improvement on the kit part, which is reasonably good, but the AiP part is better, with more detail including pipes.

 

 

The right side ancilliary crutch, however, was a bit of a fiddle as it has four mounting points - one to the firewall, and three feet which go onto the engine mount and cross brace, and two of those feet are at 90 degrees to the outside foot.  But the worst part was that this part has enough extra detail to fowl those pesky large diameter "flexible" water pipes that have given me troubles when mounting the engine to the firewall, and the associated plumbing which needed pushing further away from the side.  I can only reiterate my earlier point about substituting a more flexible and shorter flexible pipe as the AiP substitute crutch is a whole heap better than the kit ancilliary crutch which has no detail whatsoever.  The AiP part has the hydraulic tank, injector starter pump and flame arrester.  The kit has none of this.  Please see my previous update for a comparison picture.  I've also fitted the oil catch can, painted as per the picture in Maurizio di Terlizzi's article mentioned here.

 

 

There is still one part left to go on, and that is the breather tube that attaches to the bottom of the oil catch can, which is the brown part here.  It needs to align with the hole in the side cowling, so I'll see to this later.

 

 

That's it for now, and indeed until next month when I return from New Zealand and start on the cockpit.  I'll post two pictures which will compare where I am now compared to the previous update.

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Thunnus]

Excellent progress, Michael!  The AiP additions as well as your own really make a difference.  If it is not a bother, can you show us the view from the outside into the wheel wells toward the engine?  Just curious what that looks like and if any of the AiP parts are visible from that vantage point.

[nmayhew]

i love the lines of this aircraft but man those panel lines...it's like they outsourced the tooling to Airfix of a decade ago (apparently they are much improved)

 

pleased to see the AiP parts used - I really like their stuff 

[MikeMaben]

Have fun in NZ Mike, safe travels.

[Dpgsbody55]

22 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Excellent progress, Michael!  The AiP additions as well as your own really make a difference.  If it is not a bother, can you show us the view from the outside into the wheel wells toward the engine?  Just curious what that looks like and if any of the AiP parts are visible from that vantage point.

 

Here you go, John.  I've taken two pictures.  One looks directly up and the other is slanted towards the engine.

 

 

 

Quite a lot of AiP detail is visible if you opt to build your Macchi as I have, without the undercarriage bay covers.  These often got taken out permanently to speed maintenance access, but the are could get very dirty as a consequence.  If you put the undercarriage bay covers in, none of this is visible from underneath, but the top view is still improved with the AiP engine detail set.  For me, definitely worth the trouble and expense. 

 

The good thing about taking these pics is that I've realised I've forgotten to dirty up the inner fuselage so that will get done later as well as a couple of touch ups I've seen doing pictures this big!!

 

Here's a few more from the top at a slightly different angle.

 

 

 

 

Hope this is what you're looking for.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Biggles87]

That’s pretty impressive.

 

John

 

 

[Dpgsbody55]

21 hours ago, nmayhew said:

i love the lines of this aircraft but man those panel lines...it's like they outsourced the tooling to Airfix of a decade ago (apparently they are much improved)

 

pleased to see the AiP parts used - I really like their stuff 

 

Yes, it's a very good looking plane, with simple but elegant lines.  I'd agree that the kit does not quite live up to the most modern standards, but it's still worth buying if you like Italian aircraft of this period.  I do and I think they're very under represented and I hope Italeri do well from this.  Yes, the fuselage panel lines could have been done much better, but when you see the actual plastic, it's not that bad.  I'm guessing it was a question of cost vs expected return, but looking at photos of the real thing, the construction is almost like a clinker hull, though I've also read that the panels were butted together, not overlaid.  I'm still undecided as to whether I'm going to leave the lines alone, or brush a little Mr Surfacer into them to reduce the effect.

 

I like the AiP stuff too.  My only complaint is that some of their offerings, where more parts are added, would benefit from an instruction set.  A downloadable PDF would do nicely, or more pictures on their website.  Direct replacement stuff, like their control surface sets are obvious, so no issues there.  Either way, I'll buy again, and can't wait to see what they do for Italeri's upcoming C-200.

 

8 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Have fun in NZ Mike, safe travels.

 

Thanks Mike.  We're off mid next week to see our son in Auckland and his young family which includes the recent addition of grand daughter number two.  We'll also be going down to the south island to see an old school friend of my wife's.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Thunnus]

Thank you so much, Michael!  It's very helpful!  And the engine is looking very nice and detailed now.  A significant upgrade using the AiP parts.  Thanks again and have a good trip!

 

[Dpgsbody55]

11 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Thank you so much, Michael!  It's very helpful!  And the engine is looking very nice and detailed now.  A significant upgrade using the AiP parts.  Thanks again and have a good trip!

 

 

No problem.

 

Looking forward to the trip now.  Just a couple more small things to do.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

I arrived back from my New Zealand trip on Monday at about 6pm, tired, sore and having imported a flu strain courtesy of my elder grand daughter which of course was not one of those varieties that I'd been vaccinated against a few weeks earlier.  The flu thing is clearing although my head still feels stuffed with cotton wool, but the sore part, imparted by a heavy suitcase and a high boot sill on a rotten SUV hire car, is not getting better.  I have an appointment with my chiropractor on Monday which I'm sure will involve another form of his pain relieving torture.  I hate SUV's, the worst part of an otherwise great trip.  SWMBO and I both agreed we'd rather be back in NZ after unpacking the bags and it was great to see my son and his family, with grand daughter number two for the first time.  She's now two months old and GD#1 is now 16 months old and a real little charmer.  The queen of her daycare centre already .

 

But at least the Macchi has progressed a little, with work starting on the cockpit.  I got the instrument panel done before I left using the kit 3D decals and one of the etch parts.  I also found the San Giorgio Type B sight in the kit parts and used this as it was fitted to the majority of C.202's, despite the instructions saying to used the Type C sight.

 

 

The one difficulty I had was in getting it in place next to the compass and I had to mount the gun sight on a small piece of brass sheet and bring it back a little to get both gun sight and compass into the recess provided in the IP itself.  To enhance the compass, I found a suitable decal in my spares box and added this with the aid of decal softener, finished off with a blob of Micro Krystal Klear.

 

 

The next bit is the floor, which was sprayed AS12 first then a coat of verde anticorrosione and scratched a bit, then dirtied with a thin wash.  I'd also drilled out the lightening holes in a cast in fuselage frame that traverses the floor.  the kidney shaped rudder boards were bent to shape and glued in place, followed by the rudder bar/pedals to which I attached the kit etch retaining straps which were painted a light brown.  Next, the seat mount that I built back in May was glued in place, followed by the control column.  Looking at photos I have of the Macchi cockpit, I decided that it should be painted in verde anticorrosione around the lower parts and AS12 on the grip and base.  It has two cables cast in, but should have three from what I can see.  However, looking at the part, I decided to install it stock and pick out the two cast in cables with flat silver as I could not work out how to attach the two outer cables made from wire in place of the cast in wires, and attaching a third wire cable might look silly, so I decided to leave well enough alone.  I'm not entirely happy with that decision, so I'll just put it down to the cotton wool infesting whatever it is passing for my head at present.

 

 

 

My next step is to start on the seat, then mount the rear frame and instrument panel.  Naturally, this i not in accordance with the instructions, but it looks to me that it will be easier to mount the seat first and the belts and chains that attach to it without having to do this after the panel and rear frame are in.  More room for my fumble fingers.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

[Azgaron]

Looking good!

 

Håkan

 

[Dpgsbody55]

A little more progress has been made on the cockpit, but my head is still stuffed up with that cold I caught in New Zealand which has slowed me down.  On the upside, I can't smell the paints and thinners as much .

 

My focus has been on the seat and rear cockpit frame.  This is the now complete frame with the oxygen bottles attached.  These were painted flat blue and flat aluminium with the mounts in cockpit green and the taps picked out in brass.

 

 

However, most of my time has been taken up with the seat and it's attached seat belts.  I've used the Eduard etch set rather than the kit parts.  It should have been straight forward, if fiddly, but turned into a two day pfaff.  The back pad and chains were attached first, except that one of the chains disappeared into the never never.    No spare chain, either .  My first thought was to make something with 0.3mm wire.  So I tried this and after an hour or so of squinting at tiny bits of wire, that also pinged out of my tweezers and into the never never .  My next bright idea was to have a look at the kit etch fret and see if there was any suitable and unwanted chain on that.  I ended up using the kit centre belt/chain doofer that mounts to the floor as I had a better part in the Eduard set.  This was cut down, painted then eventually glued in place.  Hopefully it looks passable.  Next, the shoulder harnesses were bent to shape and glued, an easy part of the seat belt assembly.

 

 

The kit instructions say to do all of the belt assembly after the rear frame and instrument panel are in place, but I'm sure something would have got broken and the seat belt job would have been even harder than it already was.  So now I have a seat mostly assembled and a rear cockpit frame also assembled, so these were attached to the floor, rear frame first which was allowed to set before I put the seat in place.  There is also a hydraulic lever to attach, so this was painted and attached, this part helping to locate the rear frame vertically.  I used part of an Eduard etch piece to enhance this, rather than muck about with the entire Eduard replacement part which I don't think would add much to the finished cockpit.  Also, before the seat went in, I added that centre seat belt, then the seat, then bent the centre belt into shape which also helped hold the front of the seat in place while the glue set. 

 

 

The next step was to finish the seat belt assembly with the top mount.  This involves gluing the etch part to a groove in a tiny plastic rod, but before you do that, you have to tie a length of wire to the rod, which means a notch has to be cut into the final etch part.  This part is not as bad as it sounds, and the wire is provided in the Italeri kit, which is good.  The hard part is bending the last of the belt to shape and feeding that wire through the hole in the head armour, then trying to glue into the proper place.  This took me three attempts.  The last part of this is attaching the top seat retaining chains to the rear frame.  Italeri provide two of each of these parts which is both ominous and fortuitous, as I also had yet another chain disappear into the aforementioned never never while doing this.

 

 

The next step was to add the completed instrument panel and a rid which comes through the right side of the cockpit, attaching to the rear frame and IP frame.  This is where the cockpit presently has progressed to.

 

 

 

 

My next job is to complete the cockpit sides and mount them, and then I can assemble the fuselage and mount the cockpit inside.  That will be for next time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael