Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Macchi C.205
Smoke Rings

by Ryan Jones

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Macchi C.205 Veltro is available online from Squadron.com

The hue and cry went up from the modeling community when Mike Grant previewed his Smoke Ring Decals on HyperScale's Plastic Pics forum. Everyone seemed to be polarized into one of two camps; The "This is the best thing since sliced bread" camp and the "This is the day the hobby died" camp.

I for one was curious and wanted to try them. I was quick on the trigger and was the first person (according to Mike) to order these from Mike Grant. I pulled a 1/48 scale Hasegawa Macchi 205 out of my stash and went to work.

The kit cockpit is fairly good. I added some details with fine wire and Evergreen plastic bits. I sanded to kit seat to scale thickness. I scratch built the very odd looking Italian seat belt contraption (that I have jokingly referred to as an Italian chastity belt) from drawings and photos supplied to me by Steve "Modeldad" Eisenman. (Thanks again Modeldad.) To make the chains I twisted 28 gauge beading wire together and then flattened it on an anvil with a hammer. It looks very convincing! The harness part of the contraption was constructed from Evergreen plastic and Tamiya tape.

Construction of the kit was pretty straight forward. There was some filler required at the ventral wing to fuselage joint. I replaced the wing gun barrels with brass tubes. The antenna wire is stretched sprue with CA glue used to represent the insulators.

The model was painted using Tamiya acrylic colors and gloss coated with Future.

Of course the smoke rings are Mike Grant Decals. The decals come on a single sheet and are ALPS printed so they do not have individual carrier film. Careful cutting with a sharp Xacto blade is required.

The smoke ring decals took a long time to apply between the cutting and the planning as to where to place them. They snugged down right nicely with Microsol. I washed the model to remove the excess adheisive and setting solution then I lightly sanded some of the smoke rings with 2000 grit sand paper to create a worn effect. Another coat of Future sealed the smoke ring decals and the kit decals were used for the markings. Windsor Newton oils (Burnt Umber and Lamp Black) mixed with Turpenoid and various pastels were used for weathering as well as a silver pencil for paint chipping.

The exhaust stains are airbrushed on with a very thin mix of! Tamiya Smoke and Hull Red. The cordite stains around the guns and ejector slots are pastels.

Testor's Model Master Flat Lacquer was used to seal the model.

I give a big thumbs up to Mike Grant and the Smoke Ring Decals. For those of you who build 1/72 scale, these will be a godsend. For me, I enjoyed trying them and I am pleased with the results. I took this to my club meeting and no one could tell that the smoke rings were decals until I told them. The next time I build a Macchi in smoke ring camouflage, I think I will try my hand at airbrushing the smoke rings, just to compare the amount of time spent to achieve the finish with the decaling. It took me about 6 hours to apply all of the decals over three sessions.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Italian Aces of World War 2 Aircraft of the Aces 34 Author: Giorgio Apostolo Illustrator: Richard Caruana US Price: $19.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  November 25, 2000 Details: 96 pages; ISBN: 1841760781 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Text, Images and Model Copyright © 2005 by Ryan Jones
Page Created 04 October, 2005
Last Updated 04 October, 2005

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