**** DONE: GB-63 1/48 Macchi C.202 "Folgore" - Stormy Weather

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The choice of Griggio Azzuro Chiaro 1 is not an easy one Andy. Lucky me, my cockpit was still painted in green as I understand Macchi were determined to use up old stocks before changing to the newly regulated grey but like you I have done the wheel bay and flaps in the grey but using SMS PL120 which is US Medium Grey. Must say I like your inner wheel bay detail and I figure in reality they would have been a nightmare to work on.
 
Thanks gentlemen.

First of all, I need to make a correction to my previous post (now edited). Having looked deeper into the lever on the right hand side of the cockpit, I realized that the Hasegawa detail is, in fact correct. Rather than representing the hydraulic hand pump which is not included in the kit, this part is supposed to be part of the seat support frame and the lever is for adjusting the height of the seat. See detail here from the Mushroom publication:



The reference photos that I was looking at had the seat removed revealing just the hand pump, hence my mistake. Oddly, only the right hand seat frame was provided in the kit so I may go ahead and add the left frame to keep things kosher. It's a simple add and so is the hand pump.

Last night I want ahead and dry-fitted the major bits together to make sure things will fit properly. I must say that Eduard did a fantastic job with their resin parts. There's not a single part in their complex engine plug that messes up with the fit so I'm very happy with that. That blue pipe did manage to fall out when I did this.



It appears that there will be a gap where the rear of the wing meets the fuselage bottom but that is easily fixed.

The casting block for the Brassin engine plug does not need to be removed. It misses everything.



The insides of the wing root mouldings have very large ejector pin marks (red arrow below) on both sides that need to be removed as there are PE ribs to be added here.



Playing with the blue pipe. Maybe it goes like this? Need to look at some more references....



Here's something that needs fixing in this kit. The elevators provided have moulded-in horn balances (yellow arrows below) that were added in late series production C.202's. The affected series is from the Breda-produced Series XI s/n MM. 9602 and after so the balances should not be there for my model.



This area will need to be puttied and rescribed to reflect the correct arrangement.

Thanks again for taking a peek. I may swing by with more later today.
 
Thanks Jesse.

More sleuthing on the blue pipe. It can be seen here numbered 11581 taking in fresh air through a hole in the wing root: (screen grab from parts manual availble on this site)



The call out says, in Italian "Condotto per raffreddamento filtri benzina - dalla presa d'aria alla scatolla refredd. del generatore"

Anyone care to take a crack at the translation? seems to connector the fuel filter for some reason?? Berny5664 ???
 
Ah, makes sense Berny, thanks. Looks like a separate pipe cooled the generator too. I love learning about these little technical details.

Steph, thanks. Yes, I saw the hole but was more curious about what the pipe did.
 
Andy, thank you for mentioning me so I learned about this beautiful work of yours on an aircraft that for us Italians it is legendary. I will follow you with great interest and if I can with some help.

I made the MC.205 Italeri, leaving him the open landing gear compartment even if in reality they may have already had all the covers mounted, but the surviving specimens (made from 202 cells) are all without them
 

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Thanks guys. Berny, that wheel well looks excellent and I like the colours on your 205!

Vic, thanks for that. Not sure what that handle does but it's too small for me to worry about. Maybe one is for raising the seat and the other for pushing it forward?

Having dry fit the cockpit, I decided not to bother with the scratch details as they would be completely buried and invisible.

Anyhoo, last post for today showing a few more details. The horizontal stabs were puttied and sanded and one has had the new elevator hinge line cut.



Another area I noticed is how the thick plastic of the lower engine cowl sticks into the wheel bay so I thinned the sides. Here the left side has been filed down and the right is still the original thickness.



And finally, the PE details at the wing roots were added. These consist of small wiring junction boxes, which I glued to a raised piece of card to give them depth, and stiffener ribs.



Have a good weekend all.
 

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