Macchi C.202 1/48 Hasegawa

[kensar]

Hello all, this is my first post in this sub forum. I present an Hasegawa Macchi CR.202 here, a kit that is well known in this forum.
This is my first Italian subject and as such, I have made a few mistakes, most obvious being my olive green is far too light and the underside gray is a bit too dark, but it has been a fun project and I'm learning a lot.
Here, I am revealing this build after quite a bit of progress, as the pictures show. I have used an Eduard wheel well detail kit, which will be revealed later, and resin aftermarket wheels. I'm using Stormo decals, a very nice product, and initially started to depict a different camo scheme, but I simply could not get the results I wanted with my airbrush - too much overspray and not a thin enough line when painting the olive green color, so I changed horses here and brush painted on the smoke ring camo, which turned out to be extremely easy. I have painted on the fuselage band and the white cross. I'm currently applying decals, so, more pictures soon.





If you have any tips or suggestions for improving my build, please mention them.

Ken

[Editor]

Great job on the smoke rings, its one of the hardest camos to do in all of modeling. Look forward to seeing the completed model.

[kensar]

A few more in progress pictures.

The Eduard wheel well details. I remade the inner landing gear door actuator arms with wire. Their diameter is 2/3 the plastic ones from the kit and I think a lot more scale-like.


The resin wheels look good. I also replaced the small landing gear doors with ones made from sheet aluminum as well as added thin sheet to the inner gear doors. Also thinned a number of edges to parts for a more realistic appearance.






Seat harness made from masking tape and PE parts.


Not too many parts left to put on, then some final weathering.

[davenport49]

Incredibly beautiful work. Thanks for sharing; look forward to the finished project.

[Editor]

Great job on the cockpit interior and wheel wells.

[kensar]

I have completed this build and have some pics to share.













I really enjoyed this build and the opportunity to learn new techniques with the smoke ring camo and the extra detailing.
Being unfamiliar with the subject I made some mistakes and would do some things different to improve, mainly getting the colors more accurate.
Comments are welcome.
My Italian adventure will continue with an Italeri Fiat CR.42.

[Editor]

Congratulations on finishing your build so quickly! I like the subject, Duilio Fanali's machine, an old Spanish Civil War veteran that would score in the tough fighting over Malta in this machine. Wheel well detail is excellent. The Hasegawa kit makes an excellent model of the C.202/C.205V. Great job.

[Vincent Fiore]

Great job, well done.

[davenport49]

Beautiful work, nicely done. Thanks for joining the forum and sharing it.

[kensar]

Thank you for the nice comments, you are all very generous.

Next on the bench is the Italeri Fiat CR.42 - with upgrades, of course.

[73north]

very well done , nice detailing !

[MDriskill]

Very nice build with a convincing finish! Congrats.

I'm curious what paints you used? I have a 1/72 C.202 in progress and am having trouble finding ones I like. Thanks...

Also I see you are in West NC, I'm not far away in East TN.

[kensar]

Thanks Mark.
I used Testors and Model Masters enamels for the exterior colors, custom mix of brown, yellow, and white for the tan base color. The smoke rings are out-of-the-bottle olive green, but are a little too light in color. The gray was straight out of the bottle, too. The interior green is Tamiya acrylic sky color. The whole model was lightly oversprayed with a light tan acrylic color for the dusty look.

[MDriskill]

I will add that I'm especially impressed by the wheel well detail - Eduard did a fine job and it must have been challenging to assemble. I did not buy the Eduard version of the kit as I have several older Hasegawas already in the stash, but I regret that now!

Since you are exploring paint colors, for what it's worth I've recently tried three sets of Italian colors - MRP, Hataka, and some out-of-production Aeromaster acrylics. Hataka's colors look best to me and I'm using them on my 1/72 build, though others may disagree of course! (FWIW, the old Aeromasters were a pleasant surprise - they made a wide range of pre and post-"Tavola 10" colors, which look reasonably accurate to me, and they airbrush nicely with Tamiya's X-20 thinner.)