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This ever happen to you?
VonCuda
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: November 28, 2005
KitMaker: 2,216 posts
AeroScale: 1,080 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 09:17 AM UTC
Hi guys,
I'm in the process of building an Italian WWII fighter for my little multi-national airforce. My current project is a Macchi C.202 Folgore in 1/48 scale by Hasegawa. She's assembled and has the base coat of desert yellow down already. After the paint dried I started planning how I was going to do the olive green splotches for the camo scheme. As I was looking closely at the model I noticed something was wrong but couldn't quite figure it out. After a few minutes I began measuring different parts of the plane. Found that the left wing is 5/8 of an inch longer than the right wing. Has quality control gotten that bad at Hasegawa? Have any of you ever run into a problem like this?
My solution is that I'm going to finish the kit and put it in my display case parked on an angle.

Hermon
bf443
Vendor
JAC HOBBIES
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Idaho, United States
Joined: May 16, 2003
KitMaker: 895 posts
AeroScale: 457 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 10:33 AM UTC
Hi Hermon,

This exact subject came up a long time ago (as best as I can remember). I don't recall who asked that question before and who had the answer.

The difference in length is correct ! The explanation was the longer wing compensated for the torque of the motor when spinning the prop or something to that effect.

Hope that helps..........

Brian
VonCuda
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: November 28, 2005
KitMaker: 2,216 posts
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Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 11:00 AM UTC

Quoted Text

The difference in length is correct ! The explanation was the longer wing compensated for the torque of the motor when spinning the prop or something to that effect.


Brian,
I would never have guessed that.......but it does make sense. Guess I should send an appology letter to Hasegawa to counter act the nasty email they got from me a few hours ago. :-)

Thanks,
Hermon

ps. other than the funky wing length difference, this has been a really nice and trouble free kit.
TedMamere
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Moselle, France
Joined: May 15, 2005
KitMaker: 5,653 posts
AeroScale: 4,347 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 01:01 PM UTC
Hi Hermon!

This only shows you have a sharp eye! If one day you plan to do a Bloch 152, you will notice the engine is slightly offset... for the same reason as the Macchi. On the Bf 109, the vertical tail was designed in an asymetric manner when viewed from the top (noticable on good kits) also to compensate the torque effect. The Corsair was also fitted with a squarish add-on to the right wing to compensate the torque effect of the engine while landing at slow speed... it's not a sprue attachment that must be removed! :-)
These are little stories that do make nice converstion subjects at meetings I suppose:
- "Hey! Your Bloch 152 looks great but you completely messed up the engine! It is offset!"
Haughty answer:
- Ha! Ha! You are wrong, the plane was designed that way to compensate the torque effect! You should read more books... or spend more time at Armorama.com!"

:-) :-) :-)

Jean-Luc
VonCuda
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: November 28, 2005
KitMaker: 2,216 posts
AeroScale: 1,080 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 07:40 PM UTC
Thanks for that info Jean-Luc.
I thought I had a fair bit of aircraft knowledge stored up in the ol' brain bucket but I'm learning new stuff everyday.
I bet the people at Hasegawa that received my first email were sitting around laughing :-) and saying, " This guy is a real monkey brain who doesn't know the first thing about airplanes".

Lets keep this little mix up of mine just between us. Wouldn't want everyone knowing I made this mistake. :-)

Hermon
TedMamere
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Moselle, France
Joined: May 15, 2005
KitMaker: 5,653 posts
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Posted: Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 01:04 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Lets keep this little mix up of mine just between us. Wouldn't want everyone knowing I made this mistake. :-)


Hi Hermon!

No problem! I think everyone did go through this at a time or another! You only know about such things when someone or something points you to that... I'm not a specialist or an historian neither but I have my little knowledge. Mix it with the Knowledge of all the members here and you have a super brain: Armorama! And now you are a part of it!

Jean-Luc
JPTRR
Staff MemberManaging Editor
RAILROAD MODELING
#051
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Tennessee, United States
Joined: December 21, 2002
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Posted: Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 02:06 AM UTC

Quoted Text

After the paint dried I started planning how I was going to do the olive green splotches for the camo scheme.


Hi Hermon,

Very careful, precise airbrush control!

Here is how I intend to do mine. Different paint types, e.g., enamel and acrylic, or overcoat the yellow with a clear ">coat.

The first idea is to paint one type of paint over another. That way, if you have boo-boos, you can use the thinner of the second coat--the splotches--to clean up the error, without affecting the undercoat. The same idea works with similar paints seperated by a dissimilar clear coat.

Or, the old fashion way, cut out a template and spray through holes.

Looking forward to your results,

Fred
VonCuda
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: November 28, 2005
KitMaker: 2,216 posts
AeroScale: 1,080 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 07:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Very careful, precise airbrush control!

Here is how I intend to do mine. Different paint types, e.g., enamel and acrylic, or overcoat the yellow with a clear coat.

The first idea is to paint one type of paint over another. That way, if you have boo-boos, you can use the thinner of the second coat--the splotches--to clean up the error, without affecting the undercoat. The same idea works with similar paints seperated by a dissimilar clear coat.

Or, the old fashion way, cut out a template and spray through holes.

Looking forward to your results,

Fred


Hi Fred
Since you're going into details and not many people are reading this thread I'll go ahead and spill the beans.
I tried and failed the first attempt at this camo scheme with acrylic on acrylic....sprayed through holes on an index card. Since this disaster I have cleaned up the plane, painted the base coat again with Tamiya acrylic and that's where I'm at now. Since my ABing skills are at this point equivelent to a monkey building a nuclear reactor with a fork and a roll of tape.......I've decided to do the olive green splotches with good ol' MM enamel, thined down to perhaps 30%paint to 70% thinner and with my airpressure turned down to somewhere around 8lbs. Does this sound unrealistic to you? Also is there any other advice you could throw my way for this complicated camo scheme?

Thanks in advance,
Hermon
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