21st Century Toys 1/32nd scale aircraft model kits. Build the Macchi 1/12/2007
Hello Fans!
The following is the first in a series of articles describing the building of our new model kits. It is written by Ian Robertson, a respected modeler that has been building kits for many years. Ian has built this kit almost straight from the box, but has included a number of small refinements and corrections to make this an even better replica. We hope you find his comments and suggestions both informative and helpful. Happy modeling!
Macchi C.202 Folgore
Introduction – what’s in the box?
Twenty-first Century Toys has just released an unassembled model kit of the 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore. The kit contains approximately 60 parts that are free from the trees (sprues) normally found in plastic model kits. This presentation of parts minimizes the need for cutting – a real plus when working with kids. The breakdown of parts is similar to any other aircraft model, but the type of plastic used will be unfamiliar to most modelers – it’s rather shiny and rigid, but still very workable. In fact, the durable and forgiving nature of this plastic makes the model much more robust than a typical model made from styrene – again, a real plus when kids are involved! While standard plastic
model glue available from hobby retailers should work in construction, I opted to use CA glue (i.e., “crazy glue”) because of its quick-drying properties. If you go that route, be careful to keep the glue off your fingers!
(see the photo of the parts)
A real bonus with the kit is the inclusion of a top notch set of decals that cover three attractive schemes.
(see the photo of the decals)
Construction
I built and painted this model over a three day period, spending approximately 10-12 hours on it. It’s not a race though, so work at your own pace. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. Construction began with the cockpit, which contains enough detail to give a good impression of a C.202 cockpit, leaving room for the addition of scratch built details should you see fit. The only modification I made to the cockpit was the addition of a seat harness made from lead foil (masking tape would also work). I painted the
cockpit RAF interior green (using Polly Scale acrylic paint), with a natural metal finish for the seat, floor panels, and control stick. The grip of the control stick was painted black,
Tip: Paint the instrument panel black and let it dry. Now use a white or silver pencil to highlight the raised details on the instruments dials. Then place a drop of Future floor wax in each dial and allow it to dry – the dial will now appear to have a clear glass plate over it.
(see photo of the cockpit)
The completed cockpit plugs easily in to the fuselage, although you do not need to glue it in until step 10 in the instructions (it’s up to you).
(see photo of cockpit fuselage)
Once the cockpit is complete you can transition to the wings. Before attaching the upper and lower sections of the wings, you must add the struts, the gear doors, main wing spar (located along the back of the wheel well), and the wheel well interior (steps 5-7). The struts should be left unglued so that they can extend and retract once your model is complete. You may want to place a small piece of tape across each wheel well from the outside so that the struts don’t keep flopping down during construction. Be certain as to which strut is left and which is right – it’s marked on the fork where the wheels go. You can now glue the upper wing halves to the lower half.
(see photo of upper wing & lower wing)
Tip: Lightly sand the leading edge of the wings to remove the attachment seam – doing so goes a long way to making your model look more realistic.
At this point you can assemble the fuselage by adding the completed cockpit and other associated parts. I would hold off adding the horizontal stabilizers even though it is indicated to do so in step 10. I’ll explain later.
(see photo of fuselage)
Once the fuselage halves are glued together, you can attach the wings to the fuselage. These parts snapped tightly in place on my model. OK, now what? A noticeable feature of the kit, and one that requires some attention, is the large holes located on the underside of the wings and the right side of the fuselage. In the preassembled C.202s, these holes held the plugs needed to attach both the wing halves and fuselage halves together. One option to conceal the holes is to simply add the plugs that come with the kit. Most people will likely take this route. However, those more fussy about surface details will want to hide all traces of the holes. Fortunately, the solution is simple and takes only a few minutes.
For each hole I heated a piece of thick plastic (from the sprue of another model kit) under a candle flame until the plastic was molten. I then pushed the molten plastic into the hole, snipped the stem of the sprue, and waited for the plastic to cool. This is not recommended for younger modelers, and care should always be exercised by all when dealing with open flames and plastic. Once cooled, I used a Dremel motor tool to remove the excess plastic, and then switched to a file and sandpaper as I got closer to the model’s surface. A bit of modeling putty was used to smooth over the surface. Once dry, the putty was sanded smooth, thereby removing any hint of the plugs.
(see photo of plugs)
Tip: Now, what about those horizontal stabilizers? One of the basic errors made by modelers is improper alignment of the wings and tail. The stabilizers should be in perfect horizontal alignment with the wings, not tilted to one side or the other. By gluing the wings to the fuselage first, you can use them to help align the stabilizers.
(see the complete body photo)
Modifications and Enhancements (optional)
I chose to depict my model as “96-6”, one of the three marking options provided in the kit. This aircraft was an early series III Folgore that was stationed in Martuba, Libya, late in 1941, and it had a number of minor details that are not captured correctly in the kit. Few people would notice if you chose to ignore these modifications, but I present them in any case because they are easy to accomplish should you choose to do so.
First, I modified the elevators slightly to make them appropriate for a series III Folgore. The elevators that come with the kit are for series XI-XIII Folgores and the C.205 Veltro, identified by the step that occurs along in the leading edge of elevator toward the outer tip of each horizontal tail. In series III Folgores the step was absent, so I filled the incorrect lines with CA glue, sanded them smooth, and then rescribed new ones (see arrow). Also note on the tail that I sanded down some of the ribbing on the fabric control
surfaces.
(see tail photo)
Another modification I made was to alter the supercharger intake located on the left side of the cowl. Early C.202s, like the one my model represents, lacked a dust filter on the supercharger intake. Thus, rather than having the ribbing that is depicted on the kit part, the intake was more-or-less tubular in shape. I sanded away the ribs and rounded the surfaces to approximate an early style supercharger intake. Note that most C.202s had the dust filter, so this modification will seldom be necessary. Check your references.
(see supercharger photo)
The final modification needed for this particular aircraft was a new antenna mast. While most C.202s had the large antenna mast that comes with the kit, some early C202s had a smaller mast located further back along the spine. To make the antenna, I held a piece of sprue from a plastic model kit over a candle flame, and when the plastic was soft I pulled the ends of the sprue gently apart, forming a thin plastic rod. An appropriate length of stretched plastic was then cut and inserted into a hole that I drilled on the spine. The antenna wire was also made by stretching sprue into a very thin, flexible thread .
The last enhancement was simply a gimmick to improve the overall appearance of the model. To each wing I cut the wingtip light location out and added new lights fashioned by carving and polishing pieces of clear sprue from another model kit. A small hole was drilled into an interior surface of each part, and the holes were filled with red and green part for the port and starboard lights, respectively. The parts were then glued to the wing tips, shaped, and polished.
(see wingtip photo)
Paint
The aircraft was painted in an attractive scheme of “poached egg” blotches of “desert yellow” (Tamiya XF-59 acrylic) and red-brown (Tamiya XF-64 acrylic) over a dark olive (Polly Scale acrylic # 505296) base. The undersides were painted Italian light bluegray (Polly Scale # 505290). I used an Iwata HP-C airbrush to paint the camouflage. This is an advanced tool for modelers – hand brushing is completely fine as well.
Prior to painting the camouflage I applied Tamiya Fine Gray Surface Primer from a rattle can to expose any unfilled seams on the model. I then painted and masked (using Tamiya modeling tape) the white cowl, fuselage band, and tail cross.
Tip: Canopy frames can be painted by first applying tape (Tamiya’s yellow modeling tape, available at hobby retailers, works great), trimming the tape with a sharp X-Acto blade so that only the frames are exposed, and then painting. Once the paint is dry, remove the tape, and the frames should have nice straight edges.
The front of the propeller blades were painted natural metal (silver would be alright), whereas the backs of the blades were painted flat black.
Decals
The kit’s decals were superb and settled to the model without difficulty. To apply them, cut the decal from the sheet using scissors or a sharp knife. Dip the decal in warm-hot water. After 10 seconds or so, remove the decals, blot off the excess water on a piece of tissue, and then slide the decal into position on your model. It helps to wet the surface of the model first, otherwise the decal may be hard to move. Once the decal is in position, use a tissue to gently blot away excess water. A cotton swab may also be used to help
gently push water trapped beneath the decal. Now leave the decal to dry.
Tip: It is important to prepare the surface of your model for application of the decals. To do so, brush or spray a coat of clear Future floor wax to the surface of your model and let dry overnight. Not too much, otherwise it will run or pool! Future creates a clear gloss surface that is perfect for the proper application of decals. If you don’t add a clear gloss coat, the decals may “silver”. Silvering occurs when air bubbles become trapped beneath the decals, leaving a shiny appearance. A gloss coat helps the bubbles escape, thereby eliminating silvering and making the decals look “painted-on”.
A final coat of Polly Scale dull clear was added once the decals had dried (after 24 hours), to give the model a less glossy final appearance.
Conclusions
This kit is ideal for beginners, modelers unwilling to pay the higher prices of limited run or even mainstream model kits, modelers wishing to advance their scratch building and airbrushing skills on an inexpensive kit, and modelers looking to complete a build in short order. I’m sure there will also be some advanced modelers looking to use this and other 21st Century Toys model kits as the basis for more adventurous projects.
