21st Century Macchi C.202 kit

[D Bellis]

Over a week with no resonse from Chris or the review submitted, so here we go...

There's not much need to bore you with a history of this airplane. However, a few words on Macchi C.202 kits available in 1/32 are in order. Only one injected plastic kit of the C.202 has ever been available in 1/32, the PCM multi-media kit. That kit has a reputation for being difficult to build at a price that causes some to shy away from it. Having purchased the PCM Macchi C.200, I wasn't in a big hurry to buy their C.202 kit.

 

21 Century Toys has solved the problem for those of us interested in a 1/32 kit of the C.202 by releasing an affordable, mainstream kit of it that is basically their pre-finished/pre-built "die-cast" Macchi C.202 in unfinished, unpainted kit form. The retail price for this kit is shockingly low at less than $10 US! This review sample was purchased new at Wal Mart for $8.67 US. What kind of kit can you get at this price? Let's take a look...

The parts bags are held steady in the box by a pair of cardboard strips that trap the bags and (supposedly) prevent things from bouncing around in the box. All 5 of these 21st Century kits that I bought had the parts shuffled to one end with the result being the box top refusing to close all the way. For a box that is not shrink-wrapped or sealed in any way, this presents a problem as the kits are exposed to the rigors of customer abuse while sitting on the shelf at Wal Mart.

All but 2 of the parts are injection moulded in a hard, milky-white plastic and packaged by assembly step in plastic bags. There are no sprues at all. Unfortunately, the 2 clear canopy parts are bagged together with the pre-painted, articulated pilot "action figure", but in this sample do not appear to have suffered from damage or scratches as a result. There is a small plastic vac-pack holding the hardware and other small parts, including the plastic, one-piece wheels with moulded on tires and the clear gunsight.

The instructions are clear and concise, but there are no part numbers to reference during assembly. Each part will have to be visually identified, but this doesn't appear to be a problem because there aren't very many parts that look even remotely alike. One problem that cropped up during assembly is the lack of identification for the screw caps. Each cap is identified by a letter on the part, but the instructions don't mention where each letter goes. The caps ARE DIFFERENT, and go into specific holes.

[D Bellis]

The markings shown in the instructions are for 3 different Folgores: one with green "smoke ring" camo on sand, one with green splotches on sand and one wearing plain dark green over gray. The last scheme is actually supposed to be dark green with sand-ringed brown spots. Color call outs are listed for both Model Master and Poly Scale brand paints. The decal sheet is absolutely gorgeous!

I won't comment on the accuracy of the markings because I'm no expert, and I'd rather leave that to those that can comment authoritatively. The decals themselves are beautifully printed in what appear to my eye as accurate colors and in perfect register. Stencils and prop logos are also included. The data plates are printed with metalic silver details.

The main airframe parts were checked against my slim references for accuracy of shape and size. Everything seems to be well within 1/64" of being dead-on. Even the asymetrical wing is properly represented.

The fuselage itself looks great, except for the engine thrustline is angled up a degree or two. This isn't glaringly obvious (to me, anyway), and would be rather difficult to correct. Compared to drawings and pictures, the fin seems to be slightly mis-shapen along the curve of the leading edge. The fin shape is another nit that isn't obvious, and might just be my lack of familiarity with the type. Height, length and width measurements are all within 1/64" on the rest of the fuselage, cowl, canopy and horizontal stabilizers. These minor shape issues are not obvious or distracting enough for me to spend time trying to correct them.

The surface detail is engraved, but a bit heavy-handed similar to the old Matchbox kits. On the upside, the panel lines and other surface details appear to be correctly located. The rudder, elevators and ailerons have fabric ribbed effect heavily moulded in, but no attempt was made to represent the fabric texture of these surfaces. As can be seen in the images, there are holes in the wing bottom and right fuselage half for screws. Some of these screw holes are located on panel lines. As mentioned before, these holes are addressed by the inclusion of plastic caps for the holes. But, some filling, sanding rescribing will almost certainly be required to erradicate the inherant blemishes completely. Another shot of the surface details:

[D Bellis]

Since I have the pre-built/pre-finished version of this kit, it seems fair to include a couple shots of what the kit should look like if built "OOB":

There are overly thick trailing edges on all of the flying surfaces. Again, very much like the old Matchbox kits. Some filing or sanding of the mating surfaces will be needed if the modeler intends to bring these areas to a more realistic level. The wing dihedral angle is flatter than it should be. Some careful sanding and test-fitting where the wing tops meet the fuselage fillets should cure this problem.

The wheel well detail is somewhat clumsy, but an excellent starting point for those that want more detail in there...

The landing gear legs are fairly well represented. However, the bracket over the wheel is too thick and too wide. Filing these areas down to a more appropriate size wouldn't be too hard. They are also provided in what appears to be the fully-extended, in-flight position, which is 1/8" too long if the model is to be displayed sitting on its wheels. This could be corrected with a little effort and would really enhance the stance and overall look of the completed model. The gear doors are moulded a bit thick, and one-piece. No attempt was made to represent the small door at the top of each landing gear leg, so you'll have to make your own if you want them on your model. All of the 'toy-like' features of the die-cast version such as retractable landing gear and opening canopy are retained in this kit version for those that want to utilize them.

 

In conclusion, this kit is an extremely good value at its less than $10 US retail price. If looked at from a "Matchbox-quality" kit point of view, it is still an outstanding value. While it certainly isn't Tamigawa quality, it is not priced in their league either. The very accurate shapes certainly capture the look of a Folgore to a T. Availability in the US so far seems to be restricted to Wal Mart retail stores. Hopefully these kits will become more readily available, and available from web-stores as well.

 

Very enthusiastically recommended to all those that find the accuracy and level of detail acceptable.

I know I'm happy with it!

 

Review sample courtesy of my wallet.

D

[D Bellis]

The build:

Assembly begins by painting and assembling the cockpit. I chose to paint the wheelwell parts and the interior of the wing & fuselage at this time as well. Except where noted, all paints are from Testors' Model Master line of enamels, and the only glue used was MEK (similar to Tenax). The cockpit consists of 10 parts. The sidewalls are a bit bare, but the details that are included appear to be correct. One notable missing item is the rudder bar. I chose not to bother adding it, but it wouldn't be hard to scratch one from streched sprue or styrene rod. Here are the cockpit and wheelwell parts primed with a coat of RAF Dark Slate Gray:

These parts were then lightly sprayed RAF Interior Green, and then details picked out by brush. The instrument panel was sprayed with semi-flat black with white dry brushed over the details. A set of instrument decals would have been a better choice.

 

Sorry for the lack of images during the bulk of assembly, but the creamy white plastic doesn't photograph well at all! Just look at the landing gear pic below for proof...

 

Anyway, assembly of the basic airframe was pretty straight forward. The only deviation from the instructions involved the cockpit side walls and instrument panel. If assembled per the instructions, the side walls don't touch the insides of the fuselage, leaving a gap of about 1/16" on both sides. The cure was to align the sidewalls to the fuselage halves and glue the tops of the side walls to the fuselage halves and allow to dry. This was done one at a time using the cockpit floor as a guide to ensure the walls were properly located. Once the fuselage halves were joined with the floor trapped between the sidewalls, everything fit snugly. The instrument panel sits a little too low if installed into the slots on the sidewalls. I discovered this too late on this build, and will install the panel after closing up the fuselage on the next one I build.

 

I also made a few modifications along the way:

1) The heavy ribbed detail on the control surfaces was filed and sanded smooth.

2) The upper wing halves were filed down by about 1/64" along the fillet joint surface to improve the dihedral angle.

3) The trailing edges of the flying surfaces were filed to have a thinner edge.

4) Drilled out the spinner hole.

5) The landing gear was reshaped and shortened by 1/8" like this:

It was shortened there to utilize the existing retraction rod attachment stubs, and to avoid having to modify the torsion links. A short length of 1/16" styrene rod was installed in drilled holes in each of the two pieces for strength.

 

The screw caps are identified by letteres, but the instructions make no mention of this. I discovered this little tidbit too late, and had installed some of the caps into incorrect locations. The end result being that I had to cut down the caps that stood proud of the surface and recribe two panel lines. Next time I'll be more careful where I put these!

 

Not much filler was needed. The main gap to be filled is between the lower cowl piece and the lower wing. Otherwise, the only putty needed was a small dab on each screw cap, along the fillets (where I was a little too aggressive with the file) and along the wing/fuselage joint directly aft of the radiator housing. Cleaning up the putty on the screw cap in the cowl was the most difficult, but that was still easily accomplished. The aft edge of the radiator housing also required a little clean up to blend it into the fuselage.

 

Before I knew it, it was ready for paint. The chosen scheme is for Maresciallo Tarantola's Serie VII machine, "Dai Banana!". The white stripe around the aft fuselage and the spinner were sprayed first, then Italian Glue-Gray on the undersides, Floquil "Mud" for the light sand uppers and RAF Dark Green for the smoke rings.

The decals went on flawlessly, and reacted very well to MicroSol mixed with Future. The data plates (all 6 of them) are beautifully rendered with metalic silver details. The two-part fuselage numbers are a nice touch to ensure proper registration of these white-outlined markings. There are, however, two glaring omissions for the marking of this machine which is very disappointing: no kill marks for the rudder and no serial numbers for the aft fuselage.

 

Some things I'll do differently on the next one of these I build:

1) Use Mike Grant instrument decals on the instrument panel.

2) Install the instrument panel after closing up the fuselage.

3) Replace the inner landing gear doors and add their center structure.

4) Round the leading and trailing edges of the radiator housing.

5) Locate the screw caps to their correct locations.

6) Install the cowl oil cooler scoop after filling/sanding the cowl/wing gap.

7) Drill out intake hole.

 

To be continued...

[MikeMaben]

hmmm...interesting. Thanks Darin

 

M

M

...10 bucks...hmmm

[Hacker]

hmmm...interesting. Thanks Darin

 

M

M

...10 bucks...hmmm

 

interesting indeed. Though meant to be more for the youth and actually a toy it has great protental here. with some scratchbing of new parts, filling this and fixing that you could end up with a real jem of a plane. l would be interested to see someone take it to task and see what happens

 

hacker

[ChrisS]

Over a week with no resonse from Chris or the review submitted, so here we go...

 

??

 

Me? I'm so sorry if I missed something here D. Did you submit this review to me via email or PM? If you did and I failed to reply I am sorry, please resend.

 

Cool review so far...looks pretty straightforward.

 

Thanks

[P-40]

Great review and build! I was wondering what was in these and how they went together. For $10.00 or less, they seem to be a great buy and great for a simple, relaxing build and can also be super detailed.

 

Hopefully they have a P-40! Would also like to see a Corsair and Mustang to make into racers. I will have to look next time I am at Wal-Mart.

[GVINCENT]

That looks great! I looked at the Wal-Mart "near" me and all the had was a handful of low-rider type cars. I'll check again in the future.

 

However, in the meantime Mr. Bellis, if you had the time or inclination, I would gladly pay you for one (maybe 2!) if you pick anymore up in the future! And postage of course.

 

I live in Redondo Beach, CA 90277. Let me know if this is possible. We're almost to the point of mail order only out here!

 

Thanks for your consideration

 

Gary Vincent

I can be reached at:

 

ryuka3@msn.com

or

 

vincentg@gtlaw.com

 

Thanks again.

[D Bellis]

Thanks fellas!

 

Chris,

PM inbound.

 

Gary,

I know where there are two C.202 kits (Griswold, CT Wal Mart). I'll be out of town in Norfolk, VA this week, but if they're still there when I get back I'll PM you. If anyone else out there can help you, jump on it.

 

Progress: Dullcote has been sprayed over the decals, and the exhaust stains have been sprayed:

 

All that's left is some detail painting and final assembly.

 

D

 

PS - It looks in the pic as though the wing roundels are silvered, but this isn't visable to the naked eye. Might be the way the light is playing on them?

[RandyB]

D

 

I got the review for this and for the Zero... The Macchi goes in tonight's update and the Zero probably next week's update.

 

My apologies for not sending an acknowledgement on the reviews... Sometimes the queue is longer than a week.

 

-randy

[Erwin]

Great review !

 

I ordered a couple from US memvbers. I hope the shop still has them in stock.

[KOTR]

Dito, I'm waiting in anticipation

[D Bellis]

D

 

I got the review for this and for the Zero... The Macchi goes in tonight's update and the Zero probably next week's update.

 

My apologies for not sending an acknowledgement on the reviews... Sometimes the queue is longer than a week.

 

-randy

 

Thanks Randy!

 

Chris,

Got your PM, but Randy has it covered.

 

No updates on the build for a few days, until I get back from VA (Friday?).

 

D

[imatt88]

A friend of mine just bopught the LAST :angry: Macchi from our local Wally World. I was real surprised at how it looked. Not a bad kit for under 10 bucks!

 

I will be picking up a few for the stash. I wonder how the Stuka looks?

 

Cheers, Ian