Hobby Boss 1/72 MC.200 'Saetta'

[Guest]

This is the latest build on the workbench - picked up in the SMS sale a few months back. As you'll see, it's a very simple kit (15 parts, 16 if you include the tailwheel which I broke off by accident). The parts are finely moulded, though, and seem to fit well. The decals look good, with a choice of two aircraft, one of which appears in the ancient Profile publication (I've included a photo of this).


Having the engine and cowling together makes painting the engine rather tricky - so far I've just given the inner part a coat of black, and will pick out the detail on top of this. Apart from that, I've assembled and painted the cockpit tub (all three parts), added some rudimentary seatbelts, and scratchbuilt an instrument panel from plastic sheet, and various thin slices of plastic tubing and rod, with a bit of drybrushing and some indentations drilled through the paint so the white plastic sheet shows through. It's all pretty crude, but I don't think further detailing is necessary as, although it's an open cockpit, the opening is miniscule in this scale and you can't see much through it.


The kit omits the intake under the cowling, so I'll have to add this, and I'll also drill out the machine guns and (I hope) replace them with some Albion Alloys tubing which I've just ordered from John. Adding these, with the instrument panel, will bring the official parts count to 19!

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[Adrian "Marvel" Reynolds]

I'll watch this closely as I have one in the stash and look forward to seeing how you do the camo


Adrian

[flyjoe180]

Nice one Doug. I like the Macchi Saetta, it was the first model I ever built (a Revell one). Like Adrian, I look forward to seeing the camouflage work.

[papa 695]

Nice one Doug which camo pattern are you going for they both look a little difficult

[Guest]

An update on this one:


The undercarriage doors are in three sections (rather like the Zero) on the real thing, but Hobby Boss only provide one door, so I've made the others out of plastic card. The wheel wells themselves are completely devoid of detail, so I used some bits of plastic strip to make a (completely fictitious) rib effect - it might not be accurate but at least it breaks up the bare plastic a bit. Incidentally, the undercarriage doors don't fit into the wells, so if you wanted to make a wheels-up model, you'd have a bit more work to do. It looks fine with the undercarriage down, though.


The guns on the kit are moulded onto the nose, and are much too short. In reality, they extend right up to the cowling and are clearly separated from the fuselage at this point. I made some new ones from Albion Alloys 0.5m brass tubing, and enjoyed the experience so much that I also made a pitot tube from a section of 0.3mm slid into some 0.5mm. Not all the originals had the tube, I gather, but this one's going to now! The tricky bit was filing out the old guns, and deepening the slots to accept the new guns, especially as they now have to align with the slots in the cowling. This was quite a bit of work with various drills, files, folded wet-and-dry paper, and Mr Surfacer to cover up any scratches at the end. Unfortunately the slots in the cowling don't align with the ones on the fuselage, causing the guns to point upwards. I deepened the cowling slots a bit, but also did a bit of fettling of the nose to set the cowling a bit lower down. Hopefully it will all line up now.


Finally, I cannibalised an old bomb rack from something or other, sanded it to shape, and fitted it under the cowling for the air intake. It should be ready for assembly (i.e. stick the two halves together) next, then it's down to the painting. I plan to do the 'sand yellow blobs over green' scheme - I probably won't be able to look at a blob of white-tack in the face again when I've finished the masking. This site is helpful for the colours: http://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_3a.htm

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[takeslousyphotos]

Looking good Doug ............ I like the detailing.

[flyjoe180]

Some nice detail Doug, looking good.

[Guest]

Progressing nicely now. The join between upper fuselage and lower fuselage/wing is a bit tricky, and needed a bit of Mr Surfacer and some re-scribing on one side. The wing root seam is really tidy though, and needs little or no filling.


It's now all primed, and I've sprayed the lighter colours ready to mask and paint the camouflage. I've also had a little try out on a plastic bottle. I sprayed the sand first, then masked off the 'blobs' and sprayed the green. The blobs on the left are masked with Blue Tack, those on the right with masking fluid. I think I'll go with the Blue Tack, as it's easier to remove without scratching the base coat, and it gives slightly fuzzy edges which (to me) look a bit more realistic.


My chosen colours are:


Grigio Mimetico: 2 parts Vallejo 71.046 Pale Blue, 1 part Vallejo White


Verde Mimetico: Vallejo 71.092 Medium Olive (I may experiment with lightening this with maybe a bit of yellow?)


Bruno Mimetico: 3 parts Vallejo 71.122 Desert Tan, 2 parts Vallejo 71.078 Gold Yellow


Verde Anticorrosione (wheel wells etc.): 5 parts Humbrol 122, 1 part Humbrol 101, hint of Humbrol 25

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[papa 695]

Nice work so far Doug

[flyjoe180]

That worked nicely Doug. Good thing you only had the one colour for the mottle

[Guest]

Well here it is - warts and all. A couple of photos showing the approx. 100 blobs of Blue Tack over the base brown/yellow colour. I applied them as round or oblong blobs, then teased them about a bit with a cocktail stick to give a more ragged edge. It took a couple of evenings' work. I then sprayed two coats of the green (it seems to be a particularly thin paint, even by Vallejo Modelair standards, plus I thinned it a bit as usual !).


I've spent this evening taking all the Blue Tack and masking tape off - it took about an hour and a half. This always reminds me of a plastic surgeon removing the bandages off a face, to reveal the beauty (or horror) he's created. The last two photos show the result. I'm afraid they're a bit fuzzy as my little camera doesn't cope very well with artificial light. There's a bit of touching up to do where the over-thinned green has left a 'double' edge under the masking. After that I'll hand-paint the masked canopy, and it's into the gloss coat/decals/matt coat/add details/weathering stage.

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[flyjoe180]

That looks superb Doug, very nicely done.

[Guest]

I've now done the decals, panel wash, and varnishing. My penultimate (or so I thought) session on this involved fixing the prop and cowling in place. So yesterday I settled down to what should have been the final session when you stick all the little bits on, when I noticed the cut-out in the top of the cowling which according to all my sources shouldn't be there at all. What were Hobby Boss thinking? This would have been a lot easier to fix if I'd been on the ball and noticed it sooner. Anyway, I'm now embarking on some rather delicate gluing of a bit of plastic card, and some even more delicate sanding and blending in with the rest of the cowling. D'oh!

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[colin m]

Looks great Doug, I like the way you dealt with the camo. That cut out in the cowling, should it be at the bottom ?

[flyjoe180]

Looks good Doug. That cut out from the cowl looks to be a feature of the Hobby Boss kit which you don't see on other kits. I can't find any references online which show that gap in the cowl on any real life examples. My only guess is that HobbyBoss will have you cement the cowl on upside down and that gap is intended for the chin oil cooler intake.


Or, like on the real thing, there should be a flat panel under that gap which sits between the machine guns.