Hasegawa

1/48 Macchi C.202 Folgore

Kit Number: 09132

Reviewed by  Mark A. Dice, IPMS# 31326

MSRP: $31.95 Background: The Macchi C.202 Folgore (Lightning) was the best fighter fielded by Italy's Regia Aeronautica during WWII. It was based upon an earlier model, the C.200 Saetta (Thunderbolt), which was powered by a radial engine but suffered from a lack of power. By adapting the airframe to the German Daimler-Benz DB 601 liquid cooled inline engine, top speed was increased by 60 mph over the earlier version's top speed of 312mph. The first C.202 flew in August of 1940 and the Regia Aeronautica initially deployed the aircraft during the summer/fall of 1941. The aircraft proved superior to the Curtiss P-40 and Hawker Hurricane in North Africa but arrived too late to much effect the outcome in that theater. Propeller torque on takeoff was countered by making the left wing 8-3/8 inches longer than the right. It was lauded by its pilot's for its light handling and superb agility. It was armed with two 12.7mm machine guns mounted in the top engine cowling and a 7.7mm machine gun mounted in each wing. Production from 1941 to 1943 totaled about 1,500 and it outnumbered all other fighters in Italian service during WWII. The kit: There are 7 trees of approximately 75 medium grey plastic parts in one bag and 1 clear tree with 4 parts in another bag with the decals. The parts are flash free with fine recessed panel lines and excellent detail overall. Closer inspection finds ejector pin marks of both the raised and recessed varieties. Some are in inconvenient spots, such as the foot rests, cockpit floor, and landing gear doors, but most will be hidden during assembly. Instructions are the typical 4 page fold out type of nine steps with minimal instructions. Color callouts in the instructions are for Gunze Sangyo Aqueous and Mr. Color paints. Two aircraft are represented in the marking and painting guide. One 150 Gruppo aircraft, overall RLM 79 with RLM 80 green spots and undersides of RLM 78, and a 153 Gruppo aircraft, overall RLM 79 with RLM 80 smoke rings and RLM 78 undersides. Decals are printed by Cartograf and look nice. Construction: Construction starts with the cockpit. There are sidewalls and a cockpit floor with decent detailing of levers and controls mounting to the sidewalls and cockpit floor. No color callouts other than the basic cockpit color of pale green with black instruments is given. It builds up into a fairly busy office right out of the box. The instrument panel has raised details and can be painted and detailed or use the decals provided in the kit. There are ejector pin marks that will need to be removed from the foot rests on the cockpit floor. I did not attach the sidewalls to the floor at this time, because I wanted to be sure of the fit within the fuselage. Fuselage halves and cockpit were next up. The fuselage halves matched up well and the cockpit did require a bit of adjustment to get a good line up and fit of the cockpit sidewalls along the top edges. Part A7 (the upper engine cowling and gun troughs) fitted very snugly but there were no gun barrels provided in the kit so you're left with two open holes. I left the air scoop and stabilizers off until later. Only a little Mr. Surfacer was needed along the upper and lower fuselage seam for cleanup. The two upper wings and single piece lower wing and wheel well were next. The wheel well was a four piece affair that was a bit more difficult because of the oddly shaped strut assembly that connects the forward and aft wheel well bulkheads. The wing halves fit well and required no seam filling. The wheel well color call out is just an overall RLM 78 with no detail color callouts. The wing machine guns are just bumps sticking out of the leading edge of the wing. The wing was attached to the fuselage next. Fit was good along the sides and forward bottom edge but there was a gap at the aft bottom edge. I filled and sanded this with Tamiya putty. After the wing was on, I attached the horizontal stabilizers and bottom forward engine cowling. All the other underside and fuselage details were added to the aircraft. The two underside scoops parts B7 and F1 need to be test fitted and sanded to prevent gaps along the sides. The propeller, landing gear and wheel well doors were cleaned up of seams and ejector pin marks painted and assembled as subassemblies to be left off until final assembly. The canopies are thin, cleanly molded and fragile with very light frame detailing. Take care removing them from the trees; they can be easily damaged. The gun sight has a seam right in the middle of the clear part. Painting: There are two paint schemes provided on the kit instructions. The base colors of RLM 79 Sand Yellow over RLM 78 Light Blue are the same for both kits with the difference being the RLM 80 Olive Green camouflage pattern (one with smoke rings and one with green splotches). I chose to paint the white fuselage stripe because I wasn't very sure that the decal provided would lay down good over all of those various curves along the back of the fuselage. After the base colors were dry I assembled the landing gear and installed them and the wheel well doors and various actuators. The landing gear struts fit with the wing is excellent and solid. The doors and actuators took a bit more work and one actuator was downright difficult due to the support strut in the wheel well that was installed earlier. All the other small parts and items were brush painted as needed. Gloss coat was Future sprayed on by airbrush. I had absolutely no confidence in my ability to free hand airbrush a smoke ring design, so I decided to try something new … Decals: Mike Grant Decals offers Smoke-ring Camo decals for the Macchi 202/205 in 1/72nd and 1/48th scale. You receive a single sheet in the package but there are more than enough smoke-rings for one aircraft and possibly two if you are careful. The patterns and sizes of the rings vary nicely. These decals are a bit more delicate and susceptible to scraping off of the design than normal kit decals and the instructions specifically recommend not to use Solvaset. I used Micro-sol with success. The carrier film covers the entire sheet, so you have to cut the decals out individually. The decals require only a quick dip in water before they're ready. They handle well and lay down nicely overall. I am extremely pleased by how these decals behaved. They settled down extremely well and very little silvering occurred. I didn't remove any of the clear film on the insides of the smoke-rings. I grade these decals very high!! I do recommend a gloss coating over the smoke-ring decals, once they're down and dry, before adding the kit decals. There are not very many kit decals. Several decals are common to both marking schemes and you are only provided with enough national markings for one aircraft. The white decals did allow some bleed through of the underlying darker colors. I recommend trimming as much as possible, the clear portions of the decals as they silvered pretty badly for me. They required a longer soak in the water and were more difficult to position and reposition than the Mike Grant Decals. There were only a few data decals with minimal detail. I was not happy with the kit decals, particularly the way they silvered in the clear areas. Final assembly: Once the decals were set, I flat coated the aircraft with Testors Dullcoat. It was then, that I discovered how badly the kit decals were silvered and a few choice words were released… I installed my last few delicate parts (aerial mast, gun sight, windscreen and canopy). The windscreen fit great. The canopy did not fit well in the closed position (big gaps at the back edge where the fuselage mates up). I chose to leave it open. Conclusion: Overall, I found this to be a very good kit and recommend it. Detail was nice and fit overall, was very good. OOB this builds into a good looking kit. My only cons are the ejector pin marks, lack of machine gun details, and the silvering decals (which is more likely my fault), all correctable items. Color callouts on the instructions are basic and I recommend finding and using some references for the detail item colors. I can highly recommend the Mike Grant Designs Smoke Ring Decals. Although they are delicate, they do handle well and lay down exceptionally well and allow those of us with average airbrush skills to produce an exceptional looking aircraft. Thanks to Hasegawa for the review kit, and thanks to Mike Grant for making the Smoke Ring decals.

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