Hasegawa's 1/48 scale
Macchi C. 205  'Veltro'

by Werner Scheibling

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

As with most of my models, the construction of this Macchi C.205 Veltro ('greyhound') was inspired by an excellent reference book. In this case I'm talking about Ferdinando D'Amico's and Gabriele Valentini's congenial work 'Camouflage and Markings of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana 1943-1945'. As the history of the short-lived ANR more or less coincided )with AerMacchi's finest piston-engined fighter, wide sections of this meticulously researched book are devoted to the Veltro.

Three and a half years ago I built a C.202 Folgore, Serie I (see http://www.features02.kitparade.com/c202ws_1.htm here on Hyperscale), which represents one of the first AerMacchi fighters with the famous Daimler-Benz inline engine.  

This late Serie III Veltro here concludes the lineage of fighters Ingegnere Mario Castoldi designed for the Italian Air Force during World War II. 

A very complex and aerodynamically refined machine, the C.205 was more or less unsuited for wartime mass production.  

But look at it from any angle and the Veltro will show off its beautiful lines, inherited from Castoldi's unique Schneider-Cup racers back in the 1930s.

The Kit 

First, I have to confess, that I 'lost' all my in-build photos, including the ones of the cockpit interior (apart from one). As a technically minded friend of mine puts it, "The computer problem always sits in front of the screen". 

To illustrate all the (IMHO) necessary alterations and modifications on the way towards a realistic Veltro, photos of the finished model, where I marked all the detail work with appropriate comments, will have to do. 

I picked up this very nice Hasegawa kit for a pittance in a closing down sale. Apparently nobody ever wanted to buy this 'special edition' which included decals for two 'Co-belligerent Air Force' machines - you know, the ones with the red-white-green roundels. The bargain price made it easy to spend a little more money on a beautiful (but unfortunately not always authentic) Sky Models decal sheet.

A lot of what I commented on in my Folgore feature article also applies to most of the numerous Veltro kits, Hasegawa has released so far. In order to cover the whole Folgore / Veltro lineage using as few different moulds as possible, Hasegawa has produced a somewhat strange hybrid, which is never completely right when it comes to shape and situation of the various access panels and hatches. The Veltro's retractable tail wheel made a new fuselage mould necessary. This, however, is unfortunately plagued with a seam line, which runs all around the rear part of the fuselage. Apparently Hasegawa used a copy of the Folgore fuselage mould, grafted a Veltro tail onto it – and ended up with an unpleasant ridge that the modeller has to carefully sand off. 

The weakest points of the kit are the spartan cockpit interior, the undersized and unusable exhaust stacks and the clumsy undercarriage legs, which are additionally riddled with ejector pin marks. These items cry out for replacements. In my case I went for Jaguar's unrivalled resin cockpit set for the C.202 Folgore. Designed by Roy Sutherland of Cooper Details, this set is (in my opinion) still the nicest piece of resin that you can get for your Hasegawa kit. With a little extra work it is easily transformed into an authentic cockpit for the C. 205 Veltro. And you get the vital, busy-looking wheel well insert along with it. 

I decided the exhaust question in favour of Ultracast's resin set for the Bf 109 F-K, primarily because it happened to be on offer on an internet auction site for little money. When comparing Ultracast's resin product with Moskit's metal set, I found that both are virtually identical in shape and size and resemble the original as closely as possible. I can really recommend these two products for any 1/48 scale model with a DB 605 engine. If you don't mind the paint work, you should go for the Ultracast set, as it costs markedly less than the Moskit product. The resin casting is, as the name suggests, perfect in detail and finish. 

The undercarriage legs have to be filled and sanded or replaced by scratch built items. I went for the second option.

But ending this section with a negative undertone would be unfair towards the kit. It is nearly perfect in shape and dimensions and shows off some of the finest surface detail you can get with a quarter scale kit - just look at these cowl fasteners.

Cockpit

Construction started with the Cockpit, as you would expect. Jaguar's resin set lovingly reproduces the Folgore cockpit that just bristles with mechanical detail. 

To turn this little model of its own into a Veltro cockpit, it is necessary to replace the bottle-like oxygen regulator with a German 'Dräger' unit. Happily, I found this part in my spares box, a leftover from a Hasegawa Bf 109 G kit. 

Serie III Veltros were equipped with a control column that sported a more ergonomic hand grip, very similar to those found in contemporary German fighters. I scratch built the whole stick from various shapes of styrene profile including a photo-etch brake lever and pneumatic leads made from thin copper wire. The authentic instrument panel with the large Serie III centre section is from Eduard's lovely PE set dedicated to the Veltro, as are various other tiny items for the cockpit walls.

Add the typical Italian leather-and-chain seat harness (RCR photo-etch) and a late series San Giorgio reflector sight ('Quickboosts' Revi C12D – you can't tell the difference in 1/48) - and you're done.

Fuselage

Thinning down the exhaust shrouds in both fuselage halves and opening up the cooling vent at the front of the shrouds is nice warming-up work for the scratch building still to come (check the wing chapter). Much to my surprise the Ultracast exhaust stacks fitted as if they were engineered for this kit. The stacks were carefully sandwiched between the thinned down shrouds and secured from the inside with two part epoxy. What a difference to the original parts! 

The next step involved careful study of all available Veltro photos to define the number and place of all the various gills, teardrop blisters, access and filler hatches. The most conspicuous modifications are the storage compartment hatches on both sides of the rear fuselage which were situated further back on Serie III Veltros, and a new extra panel for the first aid kit. The right hand side cowling needs a new oblong crank case breather vent, which has to be carefully drilled out. Quite a few more alterations concerning gills, openings, hatches and tear drop blisters have to be made – if you check out my detail photos and compare them to your Hasegawa kit, you'll see what I mean. 

The compressor air intake came next. Its rather crude opening needs some serious widening and reshaping. I punched out a disc of very thin styrene sheet to represent the butterfly shutter valve (in the open position), that would close the air intake during take-off. 

A similar set of butterfly shutters needs to be added to the outlet of the tubular oil coolers (Serie III Veltros only).

Finally, I hollowed out the tail wheel housing as far as possible and created a new tail wheel strut from brass. This strut would later fit into a repositioned hole to give the tail wheel its proper sit in the fuselage. New thin tail wheel doors were crash-moulded by using the original parts as masters.

Wings

The first look tells you that all the Veltro-typical inspection hatches on the top wing halves seem to be there However, when you take a closer look you notice that apart from the main access doors for the wing cannons nearly everything else is wrong. Serie III Veltros were equipped with two German Mauser MG 151/20 automatic cannons that just about fitted into the wings but protruded far out of the wing leading edge. Ammunition magazines and the cannons' electrical circuits were serviced via four inspection hatches which were oval in shape. Eduard produces a set of very useful photo-etch stencils that I used to re-engrave these hatches after I had filled in the old ones. 

Both wing roots are lacking one round filler hatch for the wing root fuel tanks. I made these from a disc of very thin styrene sheet. 

Now that my wing tops looked good, I tackled the undersides. This is where Hasegawa really slipped up. Tear drop fairings are most likely the worst shapes to create from scratch and the Hasegawa Veltro needs four of these. In reality these fairings provided space for the lower cannon mounts and are a must for all Mauser cannon equipped Veltros. I started with four equal lengths of round styrene profile that I crudely shaped with a scalpel into something that resembled a tear drop blister. These were glued to the lower wing surface and left to harden thoroughly. The final shape was achieved during hours of meticulous sanding with fine sand paper – no other secrets involved (except for a cat watching you closely). 

One more obstacle had to be overcome. The ejection chutes that Hasegawa moulded into its lower wing are supposed to be appropriate for machine gun equipped Folgores and early Serie I Veltros. They're totally wrong for Mauser cannon equipped Veltros. I cut out the new outer shape according to the scale plans in the Aero Detail book and created the separations into three individual chutes (casings, links and gas vent) with styrene profile. I'm always amazed by what can be done with a simple pointy scalpel blade (and a packet of plasters). 

The radiator housing needed extensive additional detailing which I have pointed out in the comments on the photos. 

Jaguar's resin set includes an insert that creates a very authentic illusion of the messy engine plumbing that can be seen through the open wheel well. I decided to further refine this section by creating engine bearers from brass wire and tubing. Shaping the coolant tubes (green colour coding) from copper wire was a tricky operation, but well worth the hassle. 

Wing tip position lights made from clear sprue finished off the major wing assembly.

Undercarriage 

As with my Folgore, I created new undercarriage legs from various widths of styrene and brass tubing. The original parts suffer from several deep ejector pin marks and clumsy, out-of-scale connectors to which the landing gear covers should be glued. See comments on my photos. The torque links are Eduard parts and the tubing for the pneumatic brakes was bent into shape from fine copper wire. The only original parts are the wheels, the wheel forks and the main gear covers. Both landing gear covers need a little tear drop fairing to make them really 'Veltro'. I used two tiny parts from CMK's resin position light set, which offers tear drop shapes in two different sizes.

According to D'Amico / Valentini, M.M. 92302 was the last Veltro of Serie III built in the Aeronautica Macchi plant at Varese, Northern Italy. At that time AerMacchi was under the strict control of the German Armed Forces, which occupied the whole of Northern Italy after Maresciallo Badoglio's bungled Armistice of 8 September 1943.

M.M.92302 left the plant in the then standard tropical camouflage of Verde Oliva Scuro 2 (dark olive green 2) smoke rings over a Nocciola Chiaro 4 (light hazel 4) base. The under surfaces were finished in Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 (light blue grey 1).

The aeroplane, which later in its career was to become Red 23 of prima squadriglia, was repainted in the field, when the Germans ordered the ANR to paint its fighters in German style camouflage. So from early March 1944 onwards M.M. 92302, like all other ANR Veltros, sported a new outfit consisting of RLM 74/75/76 greys. The lower wing national insignias were apparently masked over as whole, before RLM 76 Lichtblau was applied. Contemporary b/w photos show the Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 inside the black square as noticeably darker than the surrounding RLM 76. The Matricola Militare serial number was equally masked over as whole before repainting, which is why it presents itself in white characters on a light brown background.

Sometime after 1 April 1944 all ANR Veltros had to be repainted with a white fuselage band and a yellow lower cowling, matching German fighters in this theatre of war. This fuselage band and the yellow lower cowling disappeared again in mid-June 1944.  

I chose to finish my model in the way Red 23 looked in March 1944, just after the 'German' camouflage had been applied. Therefore, the finish had to be rather clean, with only little weathering and hardly any paint chipping. A certain degree of exhaust staining can be seen on a well known photograph, but not as bad as with other ANR Veltros. 

I used Vallejo acrylics throughout, which are a joy to work with. The finish is so smooth, that it is unnecessary to glosscoat the model before application of decals. I polished the paint thoroughly with a piece of old towel, which brought up a lovely satin sheen. 

Sky Models decals didn't show a hint of silvering, but had to be treated with heavy-duty AeroSol softener to settle down into the delicate surface detail.

The wing fasces had to be stolen from Sky Models Fiat G.55 sheet, to be really correct in design. 

We all seem to have our own proven formula of weathering ingredients. Mine is black, dark grey and burnt umber pastel dust (depending on the base colour), this I carefully apply to all the panel lines with a fine brush. I wipe off the excess with a piece of damp tissue. Panel lines that would have been subjected to leaking fluids are treated with oil paints diluted in White Spirit. I prefer this gentle method, even though it is very much more time consuming, to the well-known wash-and-wipe approach.  

The final finish was achieved with Vallejo flat clear acrylic.

• Hasegawa 1/48 'Macchi C. 205 Veltro Italian Air Force', # JT 124

(or any C. 205 issue by Hasegawa)

• Jaguar 1/48 resin detail set for Macchi C. 202, # 64801
• Ultracast 1/48 resin exhaust set 'Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-K', # 48078
• Eduard 1/48 photoetch set 'MC-205 Veltro', # 48369
• Eduard 1/48 Express Mask 'MC 202 Folgore', # XF119
• Sky Models 1/48 decal sheet, 'Macchi MC 205', # 48-020

Bibliography 

• Aero Detail #15, 'Macchi C. 200/202/205' by Carmine Di Napoli and Raffaele Mancini, published August 1995 by Dai Nippon Kaiga Co. Ltd., Tokyo

ISBN: 4-499-22651-1 

• 'Macchi MC 205 Veltro' by Maurizio Di Terlizzi, first published by IBN-Istituto Bibliographico Napoleone, Rome, 1997

ISBN: 88-86815-55-7 

• 'Camouflage and Markings of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana 1943 -1945. A Photographic Analysis through Speculation and Research' by Ferdinando D'Amico and Gabriele Valentini. First published by Classic Publications / Ian Allen Publishing Ltd., Hersham, Surrey, England, 2005

ISBN: 1-903223-29-6

• 'Regia Aeronautica Vol.2. A Pictorial History of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force 1943-1945' by Ferdinando D'Amico and Gabriele Valentini, first published by Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., Carrollton, Texas, USA, 1986

ISBN: 0-89747-185-7

• 'Macchi C. 202 in Action', by Roberto Gentilli and Luigi Gorena, Squadron/Signal Publications, Aircraft no. 41, Carrolton, Texas, USA, 1980

ISBN: 0-89747-100-8

Even though the title doesn't mention it, this volume contains a fair bit of information and photography on the 'Veltro'.

• 'The Macchi C. 205 V Veltro' by Richard Caruana,

Scale Aviation Modeller International Vol. 8, Iss. 8, August 2002 

• 'Macchi MC 205 V Veltro', an article in Italian with beautiful technical drawings by Aldo Curti on the official website of the 'Museo Della Scienza e Della Tecnologia Leonardo Da Vinci', Milano, Italy

go to: http://www.museoscienza.org/aereo/mc205.html

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

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2006 by Werner Scheibling
Page Created 15 June, 2006
Last Updated 21 February, 2007

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