johnsan Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) Mike, Victor - thanks for the comments. Although I seem to be complaining a lot in this thread, this build has been a lot of fun. The fuselage is together and not surprisingly, the fit is not too good. Here the wing and fuselage are test fitted. Time for some scrap plastic and super glue. The rudder has been pinned, glued, filled, and sanded. It and the rest of the fuselage need rescribing. It's starting to look like a Saetta. Just a test fit. It fits ok. I'll start adding pipes and wires soon. Edited January 24, 2008 by johnsan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcin_S Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 L@@ks great so far. :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 This model has been something of a 2-steps forward & 1-step back kind of thing. I've been waiting for a households goods shipment containing most of my models, supplies, and books - including most of my resources on the C.200. As luck would have it, these resources showed a few differences in what I had built. So... The oil tank has been replaced with one slightly larger and of a different shape. I've started adding fuel and oil lines using wire and a few guitar strings. The filter and small reservoirs were added using sliced rod. These will be connected with more smaller wire bits that have been painted and are drying now. Looks like a need to do a little touch up with the gray paint. Photos show the back end of the engine. So the fuselage was dremeled to make room and a rough shape added using bits of rod and scrap plastic. Just need to add a basic shape as most of this will be in shadow or covered with piping. It all fits nicely together. And a view towards the front. These photos are many times larger than the actual kit. The kit does look much cleaner than shown here. I'll add a few more lines, then add the remaining bits to the cockpit, and then it will be glued together. Then the real fun will start with making all the ill-fitting stuff look like it belongs together. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RookieLSP Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Thats an incredible amount of detail you've shoved in that tiny airframe! I can't even think in 1/72 much less build anything.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Some nice work there, John. Looks like you need the patience of Jobe on that baby. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Victor R Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Great detail, I love your work John! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Thanks for all your encouragement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 (edited) Just a short update. Added more piping. It looks ok, but some of the piping is a tad overscale. Modified the resin instrument panel, filling the bezels and adding instrument decals. I tried painting the panel as it came stock, but it didn't look too good. Too bad the photo doesn't do it any justice. I've got to get some decent lights for the 'photo lab'. Hope to finish the cockpit later tonight so as to add wing to fuselage. Edited February 7, 2008 by johnsan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 AML gives a one piece fairing for the forward part of the wheel wells. It doesn't match drawings or photos. This piece was chopped into thirds and the middle third tossed. The remaining parts were cemented to their appropriate spots and faired into the rest of the wing with evergreen strips. It looked ugly during construction but sanded & carved looks ok. From below. The curves on the forward wheel wells were carved into the evergreen strip. The wheel wells still need some attention in wing area and attachments added for the landing gear legs. White areas are evergreen strip added to correct the fit issues and to build up the wing fairing. The side view shows the built up wing fairing better. This still needs scribing. The white areas are evergreen strip, the yellowish-tan is resin, and the black is superglue. The tailplanes need to be faired into the fuselage and their shape refined further. The cowling has been stuck on here with shape to get a fell for fit and shape. It's starting to look more like a Macchi now. I couldn't help but 'fly' it around the modeling bench a little. It sounded remarkably like a Piaggio 3-wheeler as it put-putted over the mess that is my workspace. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Nice work, John. Looks like you're beating it into submission. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Old Man Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Beautiful work, Mr. Johnsan! Most impressive, Sir! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 24, 2008 Author Share Posted February 24, 2008 Spent some time at the paint booth. All paints, except the collector ring on the cowl, are GSI Mr. Color. The basic color is supposed to be a rendition of Giallo Memetico 3. It was mixed equal parts #310 (FS 30219), #113 (RLM 0r Yellow), & #1 (White). Blotches are #309 (FS 34079). The tail fin is a mixture of equal parts #309 & #14 (Navy Blue). The tan of the rudder is equal parts of the Giallo #3 mixture and #310 (FS 30219). The smoke rings on the rudder are a 2:1 mix of #309 & # 14, then misted over with the underlying tan. The collector ring was painted with Alclad Aluminum, then misted with a mixture of Alclad tinted with brown and then misted again with Alclad tinted with black. The final color is kind of interesting. It looks metallic, but the color changes with the light. Kind of cool. I'm fairly happy with the colors and suspect they will look better after a touch of pastels. The cowling is again just stuck on with tape. It really won't be set at the angle shown in the photos. The exhausts still need painting before the cowling can be glued on. Still to come: building better landing gear, reshaping the prop, adding the wind screen and side panels, adding the seat belts, and stickers. But it is looking more like a model that will be finished soon. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 AML provides this for the undercarriage legs: One of the problems with short run, low pressure injection kits is the small parts can be blobby and indistinctly formed. These legs could be cleaned up, but my results usually don't please me. So... A little time, evergreen strip & rod, piano wire, and scrap aluminum sheet gives a much cleaner result. The C.200's scissor links look to be aluminum cast in reference photos; solid with stiffening ridges. I should probably go over these with some stretched sprue, but I'm thinking these are about done. The forks still need a touch of sanding and holes drilled for mount the wheels and axles. Took about 2 hours for the pair. Still need to finish the wheel covers with the mounts for the gear struts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ch9862 Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Great work - and it's small scale. Very impressive, keep it up . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 (edited) A common problem with short run kits is their treatment of props. This is true with this kit. The blades clean up pretty well, but the hub is indistinct. I think it would difficult to clean up well enough to look good. The blades have been scraped, filed, and sanded. They still need to be rounded before adding to the new hub. The new hub was built from punched out disks. I think it took something like 16 total. And with the blades added. Edited March 4, 2008 by johnsan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Really nice work there, John. You've really put on a scratch building seminar during this build. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted March 11, 2008 Author Share Posted March 11, 2008 A small update. The cowling has been glued on. The stickers are on. The seat belt/chains/pad/whateveryouwanttocallit is being constructed. The canopy has been painted. Still working on the landing gear and wheels. Problem areas: the exhausts don't fit well with the cowling and engine, the decals are brittle and silver badly. The decals actually are the biggest letdown of the kit. They are extremely well printed and look beautiful on the sheet. But the carrier film was impervious to any setting solution I tried and the silvering was really, really bad. The future trick didn't work. The lacquer trick didn't work. In the end Tamiya extra thin cement resolved the silvering problem by melting the decal film. Talk about extreme measures. The kit doesn't provide a seat belt and I don't want to waste one of Eduard's prepainted Italian seat belts on it. So how to make those small chains? I tried twisting very small gauge wire, but that just looked like cable. It then came as a flash. What would this cable look like if I were to hit it with a hammer? Hammering the twisted copper wire against an anvil separates the twist into more of a loop. Further playing showed me that varying the gauge and the tightness of the loop changes the shape of the links and the number of links in an inch. Pretty cool, pretty cheap, and pretty fast. I only took a couple of minutes to make this length. The rest of the seatbelt/pad is made of paper impregnated with superglue. It will be further colored with inks and pencils before adding it to the seat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 (edited) Ok, I'm soooo tired of this model. I'm calling it done. There is so much that could be still be done to it. But I'm afraid if I add, correct, shade, whatever, this model is going to launch itself into the wall. Anyway. The tail wheel is a FM 109 spare. The hub could be corrected to one better resembling a Macchi tail wheel hub. The undercarriage turned out better than I'd hoped. It still needs the retract mechanism added to the inner doors and hub cap covers on the landing gear forks. Minor stuff really. The panel lines need accentuating. The prop turned out much better than the kit provided on. Still needs a little smoothing on the blades. I bent the pitot tube taking photos. Might replace it with brass later as it is too fragile right now. The seat belt was make from paper from a paper bag and fine copper wire. I think it turned out to be a fair approximation of leather and chain. So, all in all, I'm done. It was way too much work for what ended up to be really just a 3 footer. Still, I now have a C.200 for the collection. Edited March 30, 2008 by johnsan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Touvdal Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I can understand you point, I have seen over the months the amount of work you pun into this model, and i am impressed. But you still turned out a nice looking MC200, cheers Jes Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Mikester Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Came out beautiful, John. I admire your perseverance on a difficult kit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 Jes, Mike - thank you for the kind words. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Victor R Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Superb result after all John, I'm glad you managed to finish it! That paintwork looks very cool to me. Btw thanks for the chain tip, I was trying to find out how to do this in 1/72 a couple of months ago before opting for eduard pre-painted belts. Good to know! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 Thank you, Victor. Glad you liked the chain tip. It was one of those 'Love it when a plan comes together' moments. I'm thinking of trying this for hold down chains on a carrier deck Phantom some time in the future. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ch9862 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 I think it looks pretty good - why 3 footer? Lack of weathering? You can always add it later, if it bothers you. One question though: does C.200 really look this ... fat? Or is it the kit that's exaggerating this characteristic? Anyway: congratulations on finishing it. Nothing builds character like a tough kit, huh? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted April 1, 2008 Author Share Posted April 1, 2008 Well, thanks. But why a 3-footer? Well, up close I can see the flaws that aren't so apparent in the photos. I think the kit's fuselage just aft of the cowling is not quite deep enough making the slope of that forward hump a little pronounced. This is emphasized by the angle of the photos. Actually, the kit's profile seems close to the 2 sets of plans I looked at and to side shot photos. I'm planning on doing some more work on the panel lines and dusting it with pastels. But later. I'm tired of it right now. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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