Italeri 1/32 Macchi Mc.202 Folgore

[JayW]

The master of paint.  Surprises me not at all.

[SwissFighters]

Looks great, John. Maybe have a look at matt_1185's work on his F-14B where he uses liquid masking for a very cool effect. Maybe there is an opportunity to explore his technique? 
Tony

 

[dodgem37]

Love your work, John.

 

'. . . no word on the clear canopy replacement from Tamiya for the Spitfire XIVe . . '

After communicating with Tamiya regularly, and waiting 5 years, I gave up and bought a canopy on eBay.  Good luck with them.

 

'. . . digitizing the irregular line patterns in AutoCAD is quite onerous . . '

I scan decals, draw them in Adobe Illustrator then print them on a Silhouette.  For a soft painted edge I use printer paper instead of mask.  I elevate the paper above the surface and get a soft overspray edge.  Good luck.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Greif8]

Innovative idea and superb execution John.  The result looks outstanding.

 

Ernest

[Furie]

It's a very ingenious trick, John, and the result is very convincing!

[Thunnus]

18 hours ago, JayW said:

The master of paint.  Surprises me not at all.

Thank you Jay!

 

 

 

17 hours ago, SwissFighters said:

Looks great, John. Maybe have a look at matt_1185's work on his F-14B where he uses liquid masking for a very cool effect. Maybe there is an opportunity to explore his technique? 
Tony

 

 

Thanks Tony!  I guess the liquid mask could theoretically be used in the same way as the adhesive masks.  You could form each ring using the liquid mask material. But I think the adhesive mask route is better for me.  More time/effort on the front end to create the masks but once done, it'll be much easier to place and remove the adhesive masks.  I visualize myself making a mess of the liquid masks.  Touching and smearing them before they have dried.

 

 

15 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

Love your work, John.

 

'. . . no word on the clear canopy replacement from Tamiya for the Spitfire XIVe . . '

After communicating with Tamiya regularly, and waiting 5 years, I gave up and bought a canopy on eBay.  Good luck with them.

 

'. . . digitizing the irregular line patterns in AutoCAD is quite onerous . . '

I scan decals, draw them in Adobe Illustrator then print them on a Silhouette.  For a soft painted edge I use printer paper instead of mask.  I elevate the paper above the surface and get a soft overspray edge.  Good luck.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

Thanks Mark.  Not encouraging news on the replacement part. I may be forced to proceed with the cracked canopy on the XIVe.

 

I've been thinking about the smoke rings on and off for quite a long time.  And I've considered many different ways to do it including freehand spraying with no guides, tracing the outlines of the rings with a soft pencil and using different types of masks.  The raised mask is possible but this scenario isn't an ideal one for this technique.  I typically consider raised masks to define demarcations between camo colors.  Multiple, ring-type elements would be difficult to manage. The method I've stumbled upon works for me and I think I can get a pretty good result.

 

 

13 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Innovative idea and superb execution John.  The result looks outstanding.

 

Ernest

Thank you Ernest!  And this is just a rough test.  Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I'm pretty sure I can fine tune this to get a better result on the model itself.

 

 

11 hours ago, Furie said:

It's a very ingenious trick, John, and the result is very convincing!

Thank you Denis!  My hand and mind have trouble creating random blobs and mottle patterns and having a pattern traced on the model surface greatly increases the confidence factor for me.   But it will be a while before I get to this step!

[Thunnus]

Just a short check-in while I start gearing up this build again.  As with the upper wings, I've chosen not to re-do the panel lines but have added rivets.

 

I started to assemble the engine parts and stopped at this point, keeping some of these parts separate to make it easier to paint.  There is a lot of flash and mold lines on the parts so part preparation is taking a long time.

 

 

 

My plan is to have all of the engine panels closed.  The only part of the engine that will be visible will be through the wheel wells so I'll be concentrating my paint and detail work through that perspective.  

[alaninaustria]

Awesome strategy for painting the rings mate! 

Very intelligently executed!!

Cheers

Alan

Edited September 10, 2024 by alaninaustria

[dennismcc]

Mind bogglingly good ideas on the smoke rings, light years ahead of what i could achieve though, so I am well impressed.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I'm excited about the smoke ring technique.  It's much easier for me to shoot a pattern if there is a guide or target, rather than trying to freehand these random shapes.  It gives me a lot of confidence.

 

Taking a look at my options for the instrument panel.  On the left is the kit-supplied 3D decals.  They look decent but if used, I'd want to knock back that glossy finish so it would require some tedious masking of the instruments.  In the middle is the Eduard PE.  Each component is a 2-piece affair that is sandwiched together.  As with all Eduard pre-painted part, I sprayed the outer parts with a clear flat to knock back the print texture, which can be distracting.  On the right is the Yahu instrument panel.  Comparable to Eduard when it comes to texture and fidelity of the instruments.  One concern is that the top middle square is integral to the backing part and it would get in the way of the compass and gunsight assemblies.  Yes, it can probably be cut away but I'm surprised at this mistake by Yahu not to keep that square space open like the Italeri and Eduard panels.

 

 

I've decided to go with Eduard for the main instrument panels and using the Yahu part for the rectangular panel beneath the IP. The Eduard parts have been attached to the instrument panel backing piece using PVA glue.

 

[Greif8]

The IPs all look pretty nice, you really did a great job on them.  I think you made the right choice mixing thr best parts of the Eduard and Yahu IPs.

 

Ernest 

[scvrobeson]

Good to see this one back on the bench. Looks like a good choice on the instrument panels mixing the two together.

 

Any chance the Val makes it back to the bench at some point?

 

 

 

Matt 

[Dpgsbody55]

Nice looking instrument panel.  I had the Eduard set but went with the kit 3D part because I felt that it was more appropriate for a two gun Folgore.  The IP was changed when wing guns were fitted and I think the Eduard offering better matched that option.  I like your idea to mix and match the various IP's.

 

You're right to ensure the compass and gin sight space is not at all restricted.  I fitted the Sam Giorgio type B gunsight which is more correct for a Folgore, yet curiously not mentioned in Italeri's instructions.  They only mention the type C gunsight which is more appropriate for the Veltro.  However, it's likely some later Folgores were fitted with the later sight.  Both are provided in the kit.  However, mounting the compass and then the type B gunsight gave me some problems, which I solved by mounting the gunsight on a strip of brass slightly further to the rear.  Looking at my model now, this may have been a good thing as it has not a lot of clearance with the windscreen.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Appreciate the comments!

 

I'm working on a couple of fronts right now: the engine and the cockpit.  There are some parts of the upper wing that will be visible from the wheel well and there are some mold marks there that need to be cleaned up.

 

Jumping over to the cockpit, I've decided to use the later Type C gun sight instead of the oft-recommended older Type B, which is also included in the kit.  The Type C gun sight has better detail and a nice PE frame for the reflector glass.  The Type C in the Folgore does seem plausible according to my reference.

 

So here is the instrument panel with the Type C gunsight.  I've added a small switchbox to the retangular auxilliary panel beneath the main panel, according to my reference photos.  It has been primered but not yet painted.

 

I've taken a look at the Eduard PE shoulder harnesses.  I tried to add stitch detail which is not a good idea for pre-painted PE parts since it adversely affects flexibility, which is already pretty bad.  So I decided to craft my own shoulder harnesses using foil.

 

Stitch detail is added.

 

And then I transferred the buckles from the PE part to the new foil harnesses.

 

The foil is much more pliable than the PE so it'll be easier to pose them with more realistic folds.  For comparison is the plastic kit part.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Nicely done, John!

 

Kev