Underside camouflage Dai Banana MC202

[dennismcc]

Well I am back again, I am working on my PCM C202 and looking ahead I have been trying to nail down the demarcation on the undersides of this aircraft, from what photos I have found and the odd profile it would appear that the entire nose is camouflaged, blending in with the underside wing leading edge camouflage.
The underside of the wings apart from the leading edge overlap is GAC 1, in photos the radiator sides are camouflaged, but is the radiator bottom also camouflaged, I have seen it modelled both ways.
The bottom of the rear fuselage, is the demarcation line at the back off the radiator or does it extend back to the tail wheel area.
I have scanned my books and the internet for a colour 4 view profile of this aircraft in vain.

Cheers

Dennis

[Editor]

Hi Dennis the camouflaged undersides of the nose and demarcation lines of the rear fuselage differed depending on who built the plane eg Breda, SAI and Aermacchi. Planes with camouflaged noses (eg NC4/VOS2) that curled underneath the nose were built by Aermacchi and those that curved up toward the engine exhaust were built by Breda. The rear fuselage top surface camo curled down below the horizontal stabilizers for planes built by Macchi and curled up toward the horizontal stabilizers on Breda machines. SAI built about 100 C.202s and although they used the same paints as Breda in the construction of C.200s the camouflage patterns were similar to Macchi. The underside of the oil cooler was GAC1 on all machines (although not so easy to see, there are photos of Macchi built planes that show this). One final note, avoid using CoB machines as examples, these planes were probably all overhauled and repainted and confuse things from those that came from the factory.

When you find a subject you want to build let us know and we'll try to zero-in on what you need.

In the link below scroll down to the upper and lower profiles (Breda and Macchi built machines):
Stormo Decals 48007 - Macchi C.202

[dennismcc]

What a fast reply, and after searching everywhere the answer was right there in the decals section, its a shame the decals are not 1/32 scale.
I normally use paint masks for most of my Italian subjects (Montex) but strangely no "Dai Banana" in their lists.
But I do have the kit decals and some other C202 Montex masks, so I should be OK for the national markings.

Thanks a lot for your help

Cheers

Dennis

[Editor]

One other thing to note (following-up from what you noted about the oil radiator) is that the (coolant) radiator located underneath the cockpit (lower surfaces); the sides of the radiator were camouflaged for Aermacchi machines and painted over GAC1 on Breda built machines - again see the link above 48007 - starboard/port side views.