Italeri 1/32 Macchi Mc.202 Folgore

[scvrobeson]

Great improvement on the instrument panel, and I like the foil seat belts. It looks like they'll be far more usable than the Eduard PE ones

 

 

Matt 

[Dpgsbody55]

Nice work here.  Your instrument panel looks great and that switch box lifts it a little.  The San Giorgio type C sight was fitted as standard only to the last production batch for Serie XIII.  It seems very likely that they would also be retro fitted to earlier models too.

 

That's a good idea to use foil for the seat belts.  I'll give it a try perhaps on my next project.  The stock kit belts don't quite cut it in my view...  

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I'll think about the Type B sight a little more but not sure how motivated I am to switch at this point.

 

I've assembled the main body of the engine and stopped so that I can figure out a few things. One of them is the piping that Italeri included as vinyl tubes. Not sure what they were thinking but really? Cmon, Italeri... this model deserves better. That white tubing is twice as thick as the pipe that it is supposed to be connected to and there is no way that it will hold any type of scale-appropriate bends.

The vinyl tubing is getting tossed in the bin and I'm planning replacing it with lead wire. By dry-fitting the engine onto the firewall, I can start to figure out where each pipe goes and start planning the connections. I'm concentrating on the view from the bottom because this will only be seen from the wheel well openings.

 

I've added some ribbing onto the visible area wing root interior just to break up that big plain space.

 

Back to the cockpit for another Cmon Italeri moment.  Honking Big ejector marks on the cockpit side panels. They are within constrained spaces so they are a pain to fix.  I decided to use punched discs of sheet styrene.

 

The cockpit lights are not usually included in models so I'm thankful Italeri included these.  I've hollowed out the ends with a drill bit to accept a blob of clear UV epoxy after painting to simulate the lens.

 

I've painted the kit-supplied back rest which has the shouler harnesses molded in. Compare that with the Eduard part with the foil harnesses. They look like different scales!

 

And finally, another look at the instrument panel after I've painted the little scratchbuilt switchbox.

 

[Thunnus]

On 9/11/2024 at 4:00 PM, scvrobeson said:

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

 

Matt 

 

Sorry I missed this question, Matt!  I would say yes, at some point.  But I have vague but painful memories of the work to fill in all of the rivets and I still have the wing bottom to do.  I'm guessing I'll work up the nerve to tackle that but not right now.

[Dpgsbody55]

Those engine pipes...     I found the thick white pipes caused problems later as they won't bend well and cause breakages and fitment problems when connecting them all.  I found I had something better left over from another kit which had more flex in them, but still ended up shoving wire through them.  You may want to take a look back at my build here, but I'm sure there's a better way. 

 

As to the thinner black pipes, Italeri's suggested length I found to be too long and I wish I'd not connected them to the header tank on the firewall until I'd got the fuselage together with the engine in place.  I'd suggest attaching them at one end for now, then feeding them past the engine mounts and fine tune the length when you connect them to the header tank.  Otherwise, they'll stick out and cause you headaches when you come to fit the engine cowlings.  They are visible if you leave off the undercarriage bay tins as I did when you look up through the U/C bay.

 

I like what you've done with the added ribs in the wing root area and your now painted additions to the IP and seat belts.  Nice work.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

PS.  Yes, those ejector pin marks...  They're in all the wrong places too. 

 

 

 

 

[Greif8]

Bang up work all around John!  The ribbing and IP work is especially eye-catching and beautiful.  Italeri sure made some "interesting" production decisions on this one.  The vinyl "piping" should be fairly straight forward to replace with lead, copper or pewter wire, or streched sprue.  I hear you on the ejector pin marks, they look like they are going to be a bear to reduce and the seat cushion/belts look 1/48th scale in comparision to the Eduard A/M.  You will get it sorted and looking great though.

 

Ernest

[Biggles87]

Good work on the fixes made so far, I hope there won’t be too many more.
I’m beginning to think I made the right choice in sticking to trying to improve my 21st Century Mc.202 rather than buying the Italeri kit, and being disappointed by the extra work ( and expense ) involved. I already have several AM bits for my ‘202 and have been promised the wheel well cover plate to hide the rear underside part of the engine. 
 

John
 

 

Edited September 15, 2024 by Biggles87

[dennismcc]

5 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Good work on the fixes made so far, I hope there won’t be too many more.
I’m beginning to think I made the right choice in sticking to trying to improve my 21st Century Mc.202 rather than buying the Italeri kit, and being disappointed by the extra work ( and expense ) involved. I already have several AM bits for my ‘202 and have been promised the wheel well cover plate to hide the rear underside part of the engine. 
 

John
 

 

Nooo don't get me thinking like that John, I have the Italeri, 21st Century and PCM MC202 kits in the stash, so I could have a squadron section of them on the go.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[scvrobeson]

Italeri sure loves giving about 80% effort on their kits, but it's a decent template. Great to see your improvements to it so far.

 

 

 

Matt 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Especially Michael's guidance on the tubing!  This kit definitely has its share of head-scratchers but I rather enjoy working on "flawed" kits like this.  A different type of mindset than a doing a Tamiya kit but fun in its own way.  Good for the brain.

 

I've started to map out the piping runs using lead wire instead of the vinyl tubing and short sections of brass tubing for connectors.  The lead wire is very posable so this is much easier than if I tried to use the vinyl.  The only problem is that the thickest lead wire I had was 0.035" and it is noticeably thinner than the kit plastic piping.  I think it would look better if it were closer to the same size.  I've put in a order for some larger diameter solder wire so stay tuned but the pipe paths and lengths of wire needed are much better defined in my head.

 

Also futzed around with the control stick which has wiring molded onto the sides of the column.

 

 

I carefully shaved the molded wires off while trying to preserve the underlying detail... a bit of careful sculpting work required here.

 

I then added copper wiring. Probably not necessary as I look back at the original control stick and think it would look pretty good painted but what's done is done.

 

[JayW]

Nice work!  I was about to say, solder comes in very many diameters up to .125 inch, and down to less than .01 inch I think.  

[scvrobeson]

Great progress, doing those wires yourself really makes them look better. I'll have to take notes on your build for when the Mc.205 comes out next year

 

 

 

Matt 

[Greif8]

Really nice scratch building John.  The piping and control stick improvements look superb.

 

Ernest

[zaxos345]

Amazing as always John!!!!

 

John

[MikeMaben]

20 hours ago, JayW said:

Nice work!  I was about to say, solder comes in very many diameters up to .125 inch, and down to less than .01 inch I think.  

I have some solder that's 32 gauge / .008". That's the smallest I've been able to find.