Hasegawa 1/48 Macchi C.205 Veltro, by Andrew Garcia

Hasegawa 1/48 Macchi C.205 Veltro

KIT #:	9133
PRICE:	$35.00 when new
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Andrew Garcia
NOTES:	Ultracast resin seat & Mike Grant 48043 Smoke Ring decal

The Macchi MC.205 Veltro was an Alfa-Romeo engined DB 605 clone, 1475 h.p. inline engine replacement for the MC.202 Folgore. It was part of the lineage starting with the MC.200 radial engined fighter. It was built by Aeronautica Macchi, and subcontractors SAI-Ambrosini and Breda in Italy. The MC.205 initial prototype flew in April of 1942. Its armament was improved over the MC.200 Saetta and MC.202 Folgore that it replaced. Initially it had the same armament configuration as the MC.202 but it was quickly improved starting with the MC.205 serie III to 20mm cannons in the wings and 12.7mm guns in the nose.

Although heavier it was a marked improvement over the C.202. The first production aircraft rolled off the assembly line in September 1942. Due to war time pressures requiring parallel production of the MC.200 and MC.202 the Veltro had a slow start with just a trickle coming off the production lines for many months.

Hasegawa released the C.205V "Veltro" in July 1995, following the release of the Macchi C.202 "Folgore” in April 1994. Both of these kits were among the first 1/48th scale kits to provide an accurately detailed Macchi 202/205 with a nice OOB cockpit. After building a few using combinations of resin cockpits and the kit plastic with some Eduard etched I found if you replace the seat or have a set of color seatbelts to use for the kit cockpit you will be quite pleased with the results OOB. Add a complete resin cockpit and it’s a beauty!

Hasegawa released its 1/48th scale MC.202 Folgore, kit # 9132 in early 1994. The MC.205 Veltro kit (# 9133) the subject of this build is essentially the same as their kit # 9132 MC.202 Folgore with a modified “A” tree for the fuselage and a few new parts on parts trees “G” and “K”. The additions are a new prop spinner, longer engine exhaust, under nose oil coolers, rear landing gear and doors plus 20mm wing cannons. Hasegawa did not fix the fuselage moulds for the size of the engine exhaust opting to have you carve out the plastic to accommodate the extra length of the new exhaust. This was the first release of Hasegawa’s MC.205 Veltro kits.

Hasegawa made one of the best kits of its time as far as fit and finish with their MC.202 & MC.205 line of aircraft. It captures all the complex shapes accurately and the fit and finish are excellent. The cockpit is complete and unless you want to detail that area it is sufficient for most modelers. The gunsight needs improvement and the wheel well area could have more details since this is a distinctive area for the Macchi MC.2XX series of aircraft. The wing lights should have been moulded on the clear parts tree with a cut out on the wing tips. This would have improved this kit since changing it for a more realistic appearance requires cutting the wing tip and a lot of extra effort. I gave it some thought since it is an improvement but passed on it for this build since cutting the wing plastic was not a happy thought. Hasegawa in its current 1/48th scale kit releases has changed its approach for wing tip lights in new releases to now use clear plastic for the wing tip lights. It is a fast build due to its low parts count and good fit. The fit is very good, but not perfect, so some putty or gap filling is required but it is a minor issue.

The MC.205 Veltro's retractable tail wheel made a new fuselage mould necessary since the MC.202 had a fixed tail wheel and no doors. I read a review where this modification was a concern for the reviewer. I did not see this as a big problem and am not sure what the reviewer was complaining about. His concern was Hasegawa used a copy of the MC.202 Folgore fuselage mould, then grafted a Veltro tail onto it – and ended up with what he saw as an unpleasant ridge that the modeler has to carefully sand off.

I think the same review expressed a concern that one of the weakest points of the kit was the “Spartan” cockpit interior. I would agree if it was the Tauro kit with its minimal OOB cockpit and I respect his opinion but I like it OOB and overwhelmingly others have expressed their satisfaction with this kit’s cockpit in an OOB configuration. I use resin cockpits frequently for the improved details or to replace a deficient kit plastic cockpit. This kit, and the Hasegawa MC.202/205 series, does not motivate me to do so because it has sufficient OOB detail.

Others have also expressed dissatisfaction with the undersized and unusable exhaust stacks. Yes, they are a weak part of the kit appearing undersized and somewhat flat. There are two resin replacements, one from Quickboost #48282 and one from Ultracast 48177. The Quickboost exhaust offers a hollowed out version of the kit exhausts and look too thin and flat for my use. The Ultracast exhaust, # 48-177, provides a much better detailed and quite robust exhaust. I will use the Ultracast exhaust in a future build since it is a clear improvement on a very visible area.

Since the Veltro uses the same DB 605 engine as the Bf-109F-K family you could also try using resin exhausts indicated for those kits. You might even have an old Moskit metal set in the stash that will work! The undercarriage legs and landing gear are riddled with deep ejector pin marks requiring a bit of clean-up. The undercarriage legs have to be filled and sanded or replaced by a white metal replacement.

This kit is nearly perfect in shape and dimensions and shows off some of the finest surface detail you can get. There are some small errors or omissions since the original MC.202 is not a one for one replacement. I have admired Hasegawa’s 202/205 series every time I worked on this kit – the details are just that good! From all the cowl fasteners to the tail wheel – it’s all good.

The instructions are excellent, very typical of Hasegawa’s time proven instructions. There’s nothing new here since it is composed of well detailed explanations and clear illustrations. The parts count is low and will surprise you because the build goes very fast as a result of the minimal parts count.

The kit cockpit is nicely laid out and includes decals for the instrument clusters. The cockpit and sidewalls have adequate detail. I only say adequate because the Macchi 200 to 205 series used a unique restraint system composed of chains, belts and a seat pad that are missing from the OOB contents. You can fix this with the Eduard Color Zoom set or as I did with a resin replacement seat with cast belts.

There are lots of other very nice details Hasegawa provides like the part # B17 magnetic compass, a nice trim wheel, etc. with its OOB parts. Many resin cockpit sets actually have you use some of the Hasegawa cockpit parts because they are that well moulded. I would express some caution about using the kits control stick if you are a detail freak. There are a different types of control sticks you will see explained in the Squadron C.205 Veltro Walk Around text on pages 60, 63 and 67, so be aware if this is a concern for you. The stick details vary due to the variations in armament resulting in more or less firing buttons and other stick related changes.

The wing subassembly that you build in step 3 has an adequate main wheel well that captures a small amount of the complex look of a C.202/205’s accessory and main wheel well bay details. But, compared to the photos of the actual area it does look “boxed-in” and flatly detailed. If you look at close ups from actual aircraft or had the opportunity to put your head underneath this area you will quickly recognize the compromise made in 2D injection plastic parts compared to the actual very busy 3D look of the MC.205 main landing gear bay. There are some significant electrical wires and color coded pneumatic hoses for its ignition system for example that are missing.

Again, I would hope this would be the area some resin caster with superior abilities like Vector, Pavla or Aires/Quickboost could give us a big hand by supplying a simple resin bay enhancement piece. Since the kit has been out for a few years I am surprised none have been released. Now that Roy is back in business maybe Barracuda can help us out – if he does it will be awesome!

I did have some trouble working with the part C16 assembly which represents some of the engine and nose bearing support struts. Although there’s not much Hasegawa detail in this area there was enough to give me some assembly fit mishaps especially with the main landing gear struts and the part C16 tubular supports. If you try to add some wire or bass guitar strings to this area to detail the “snake pit” use caution because it gets cramped like the real aircraft and can affect some of the kit plastic assembly. A color painting guide for the pneumatic and electrical hoses is available on the “Stormo” website.

The landing gear is well detailed and the main gear door mounting frames are acceptable making a tradeoff between cost and accuracy. Perhaps I am still thinking about how Italeri approached this area and comparing it to Hasegawa’s effort? I was impressed with Italeri’s work (on their similar airframe Macchi MC.200 kit) in this area using photo-etch to mount the main landing gear wheel covers to the landing gear. Italeri provided a solid mount of the doors to their respective struts using etched metal while maintaining in-scale thickness and improved detailing. The Italeri combination of superbly moulded plastic and etched metal supports or attachment points gives an excellent representation of the landing gear and doors. It even included a tail wheel as a two part component permitting ease of painting and enhanced detail which is usually lost when a tail wheel is moulded as a one piece component as found in many other kits.

There are some areas where I hoped to see more detail such as the clear light at the rear tip of the fuselage, the butterfly doors on the air intake and oil cooler exit area but the kit does not represent them. It would be nice to have the two sets of tail wheel configurations in the MC.205 kit as well. Again these are just observations and in no way an expression of disappointment since this is a beautiful kit!

The kit has two options which were well printed. It is not the old thick early Hasegawa generation but an improved decal. There is no indication of who printed them but it looks like Cartograph. They were thin, perfect in color density and register and went on without any problems. They went on the kit flawlessly and when dry conformed to all the underlying plastic detail. The printing is crisp, small details such as stencils are clearly printed and even the white bands if you choose to use them are opaque and easy to work with.

The kit provides marking options for two aircraft, a MC.205, Regia Aeronautica airframe from 88th Squadriglia, 6^th Gruppo, 1^st Stormo and one from 88 Squadriglia, 155^th Gruppo, 51^st Stormo both in Nocciola Chiaro 4 (Light Hazel Tan 4 – FS30219) upper surfaces over Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 (Light Blue Gray 1 – FS36314) undersurfaces with the smoke ring olive green rings camouflage. I think the instructions are in error regarding which unit information goes with which decal marking. They are reversed in the instructions. The pouncing cat Marking # 1 is the 51^st Stormo and the Marking # 2, Sagittarius Archer pulling on its bow is for the 1^st Stormo.

I was very pleased with Hasegawa on this kit. It is a very beautiful aircraft and they captured its lines and look perfectly. They have done a really nice job on this kit. It isn't over-engineered, nor are there any serious shortcuts taken either. The kit gave me a lot of building pleasure and added a nice kit to my Italian Regia Aeronautica collection. Unfortunately it has been some time since Hasegawa has released any Macchi 205 kits. It looks like Hasegawa is reissuing its 1/48th scale products that were released in the 1990’s so one can only hope the 205 series kits in their original markings will be re-issued. The original kit # 9132 MC.202 was issued in 2012 with little fanfare and can be found selling for $30.00 or so at internet discounters so perhaps the “205” will be coming out in the near future. It is frequently found for sale on eBay but the prices including the new higher shipping rates makes it undesirable for me.

There are unfortunately very few available aftermarket decals for the MC.205. Given it was released almost 19 years ago not much seems to have materialized for the MC.205 in aftermarket decals. There are some terrific and colorful schemes that I would like to see in MC.205 decals. You have many choices in colors and markings from the R.A. initial utilization markings, followed by both ANR and Co-Belligerent use as well as Luftwaffe use of the MC.205 with RLM 74/75/76 camouflage. There have been decals released by Skymodels in their 48020 Macchi MC.205 decal with 38 different C.205 options, Superscale 48-861 which has the same airframe “Black 88 – Red 5” as the kit decal, plus three other very different color schemes. Other MC.205 decals have been issued by AeroMaster # 48-190, and Third Group Decals 48-013, so there are some choices.

Some MC.205’s were conversions form MC.202 airframes. Because of this I encourage Hasegawa to include the part tree “F” from their MC.202 kit in their future MC.205 releases because some MC.205’s used the MC.202 antenna mast and rear wheel arrangement with its speed fairings. These parts appear on the MC.202 Kits on parts tree # “F”.

I kept this build close to OOB. When it comes to cockpit enhancements I just replaced the kit seat with an Ultracast resin seat using the “with belts” version. It was a perfect replacement and added a lot especially providing the unique look of the MC.205 restraining chains, seat belts and seat cushion that is missing from the OOB Hasegawa kit.

The Hasegawa fuselage halves closed with no concerns coming from the aftermarket resin seat. When the cockpit was painted and dry brushed, then a black wash applied, I added the instrument panel decal with some setting solution and that was it. What you can see from the outside looks fine to me except for the gunsight which is in need of replacement.

When you glue the two fuselage halves together don’t forget the propeller shaft, part A6. After building a few of these I almost forgot to do this step on this build. When it comes to attaching props I prefer the vinyl washer approach Hasegawa takes in most of its other kits because it permits you to remove the propeller and spinner and usually is a tight fit. The problem with this kits engineering of the attachment is you can easily glue the shaft to the fuselage and it is not a tight fit resulting in a wobbly prop that can look slightly askew.

Steps 3 and 4 have you construct the main wing, landing gear bay and attach it to the fuselage. This is where the “snake pit” detailing decision takes place. You can go OOB or try to replicate some or all of the details appearing the long OOP Jaguar MC202 resin detail set to improve the accuracy and intense detail of the landing gear bay with its myriad pneumatic pipes and electrical wiring connections. I am going the OOB route this time and looking forward to a build with my Jaguar resin set to see how it looks. I tried to use wire and guitar wire on some MC.200 builds recently and the caveat is you need to understand where everything goes and avoid getting in the way of kit components when you start to add wiring to detail this area before the kit parts are glued in place.

I have read other kit build reviews of the landing gear assembly, with negative comments on the landing gear due to ejection pin marks. The mould punch out pin marks are unfortunately a by-product of Hasegawa’s approach so some clean up is required. You can add some wire for the brake lines and even try some replacement scratch building of the attachment points for the leg to gear covers for finer detail. There are replacement gear covers in etched metal and possibly in resin as well. I chose not do so on this build because the kit parts pass the 2 foot viewing test. The landing gear oleo linkages have weight reduction holes so you could think about some cosmetic drilling to improve this area as well if you are adding the brake lines.

The Macchi 205 has several metal covers over the aileron hinges that you could use some evergreen sheet to detail (see page 55 in the Squadron Walk Around text for details). The upper wings are missing the oval access panels to the armament box. They should be re-scribed into ovals. The spent shell casing ejector opening underneath the wing is there but there should be two holes, one for the shells and one for the links. This area is also missing the small raised teardrop shaped “speed bumps” that protected the wing from spent shell and casing ejection damage. The opening for the belt links is missing so you will need to open up a second rectangular opening for this and add its raised tear drop “speed bump”. The teardrop shaped bumps were designed to prevent bounce back damage when the wind blows the shell back against the wing. I used an etched metal template from Eduard to add the second hole. See page 58 in the Squadron Walk Around for two good color pictures of the two per-wing spent casing ejection holes and tear drop bumps for a better look at this feature.

Part A1, the fuel dump exit or dynamic socket tube on the port side fuselage is very small and the hole it goes into very large so you may want to use metal wire to replace it because it can get overwhelmed if you use liquid glue. I have also seen this part called the “dynamic socket” on page 49 of the Squadron walk-around text which stated its purpose was to “provide pressure to all grouped air tubes”.

Steps six and eight of the instructions have the bottom fuselage parts assembly steps. The kit has one rod, part B10 added in step eight to hold the part B10 radiator door open. It is actually two rods, one on each side and one more going horizontally across the middle. See the Squadron Walk Around # 5558 book page 45 for the details on both the front and back areas to see Hasegawa used some artistic license in their model which is not accurate in this area. Maybe they thought since it was underneath modeler’s would not look?

One reviewer noted you should be careful with the main spar (C17) indicating it must be glued absolutely perpendicular to the wing or it would cause problems later. I'm glad he warned me, as the part naturally wants to lean forward slightly. He also noted in the real Macchi’s a lot of the engine plumbing/wiring was visible in the forward part of the wheel wells but little to nothing is supplied in Hasegawa's kit.

Now, with the benefit of having completed the kits construction, I would strongly advise you to do as much gap and seam filling and sanding on sub-assemblies before final assembly. Keep an eye out for sub-assemblies that require some filler or seam filing to correct them before attachment. For example, parts A3 that goes on the air filter (part A4), the two oil coolers G7/G10 and G6/G8, and the fuselage seam where the rear center part of the wings meet the fuselage all have noticeable seams or tiny gaps that are much, much easier to fill and sand before they are committed to their attachment points on the fuselage or partially obscured by other assemblies. For example, the lower wing to fuselage join I thought would be covered up by the ventral radiator housing but it is not. It is exposed enough to be visible. Trying to fix this one after the radiator and its door with a support strut are attached is no fun – but it could have been so easy with a Flex-I-File clean up done at the right time.

This version of the MC.205 did not have the 20mm wing guns but retained the 7.7mm MC.202 armament (diagrams for this armament are found on page 66 of the Squadron Walk Around) . I replaced the plastic gun barrels with some stainless steel tubing.

The decals come on a small but well printed sheet with two options. There is no indication of who printed them but they look like Cartograph. They were thin, perfect in color density and register and went on without any problems. They went on the kit flawlessly and when dry conformed to all the underlying plastic detail. The printing is crisp, small details such as stencils are clearly printed and even the white bands if you choose to use them are opaque and easy to work with.

I chose the markings for the second aircraft, “Black 88 – Red 5” from the kit decal for a MC.205, R.A. 88th Squadriglia, 6^th Gruppo, 1^st Stormo in the original delivery color scheme of Nocciola Chiaro 4 (Light Hazel Tan 4 – FS30219) upper surfaces over Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 (Light Blue Gray 1 – FS36314) undersurfaces with the smoke ring camouflage. There is a color profile on page 72 of the Squadron 5558 Walk Around that is for a similar airframe but it has the early MC.202 thin wooden antenna.

The cockpit and wheel wells of the MC.205 were painted in light green The instructions indicate to use pale green Model Master 1534. I chose to use the same color as the aircraft from the two museums I reviewed prior to building. However, some of those photos also show a light grey was used in portions of the lower cockpit areas such as the floor, rudder pedals and lower cockpit walls. The Tamiya instructions for the MC.200 indicate XF-21 Sky and XF-5 Green in a 50% each mixture for the cockpit. This mixture provides a similar color to the U.K. WWII color of interior green or cockpit green. The Squadron Walk Around text gives some very interesting advice on painting the interior of the MC.205, all of the components of which I will use on the next build.

For the overall fuselage finish I used Tamiya acrylics because they were close enough in color and I had the paint in hand. A web search indicated Model Master II Enamels - No. 2037 Flint Gray FS36314 is the exact match for undersurfaces. The top surfaces are matched by Model Master # 1742 Enamel Dark Tan FS30219 or Gunze Mr. Color # 310 Brown. The exact colors I used were Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow with a small amount of XF-52 Flat Earth. The undersides are painted Tamiya XF-25 Light Sea Grey (it is spelled “grey” not “gray” on the label) which is a very good blue gray tone similar to FS36314.

Weathering and Final Coat – some pastel chalk and black/brown pin wash was used. I sprayed on a Future coat used during the initial decal application and after decaling was completed I used Future using a brush to seal all of the decals. Testors Dull Cote was used during the final step to seal all of the decals and give the correct flat finish.

Anyone who has used the Mike Grant Smoke Rings decals for this camouflage knows how well they perform and how nice they look. Most of the hand painted smoke rings I have seen can’t compare with the finish this approach provides. I am very pleased to have used Mike’s smoke rings on this build. The props have the correct decal “ Aeronautica Macchi Varese” stencil which is found on the kit decal sheet. Unlike most other aircraft manufacturers it seems Macchi (as well as Breda) used the props to also place their company name in its logo even though the P.1001 propellers were designed and made by Piaggio.

I used the Mr. Surfacer 500 treatment on areas that had gaps or seams before final assembly this I could add them at this stage and not worry about any finishing issues. The issues were small and instead of using Tamiya or Squadron putty I opted for the “500” treatment. Even though I have built a few of these now where part A7 joins the fuselage was an easy assembly gluing effort but the moulding did not click into place. There was a noticeable step no matter how I tried to align it while gluing the part to the two fuselage halves. It fit well with no gap but there was a big step on one side.

This is one of the better Hasegawa kits that does not suffer from the non-fit of the lower wing to the fuselage. The wing to fuselage had no gap (it did have a seam). I just had to hold it together with a berna-clamp and apply some liquid glue. After the glue set I used a flex-I-file to smooth it out. The final step was to give it some Mr. Surfacer 500 and I sanded it smooth.

Hasegawa supplied a clear gunsight (Part M1) which I reluctantly used. It is not a prominent part but it does bother me that it is a weak representation of the actual gunsight. Gun sights are a tricky subject with the Macchi 205. Several types were used depending on who built the aircraft and what serie version it was. Most decals do not identify this detail. The initial models used the San Giorgio Type B gunsight which is similar to that used on the MC.200 and MC.202. Some used the German Revi C/12 gunsight and others used the San Giorgio Type C gunsight which was the standard fit used on serie III through VI aircraft. So before this last step think about what you want to do and then button up the cockpit. Quickboost have some nice Revi replacement gun sights.

I punched out three styrene disks from an Evergreen sheet to provide the intake doors for the air filter and two oil coolers. Note, the round door on the air intake is on the front and was smaller than the two doors on the oil coolers which go on the rear (see photo) of the oil coolers.

The exhaust was finished by brushing on flat black into the exhaust outlets followed by thinned Pactra IP96 Rust enamel. I was a bit disappointed with the kit exhausts which are too flat and will use some aftermarket (Ultracast) next time.

There are several antenna masts you can use for this aircraft. One is a tall antenna radio antenna post consisting of a long thin wooden mast and the more commonly used thicker metal mast version which was hollow inside and used on most MC.205’s. There is usually an antenna wire connected to the tail configuration and entering the fuselage through an insulator found on the spine. This was used for most of the MC.205 aircraft and is well represented. I wish Hasegawa supplied both antenna types the other one which is part F3 in the MC.202 kit would be a welcomed addition.

I wound some thin copper wire around a thicker piece of wire to create a spring for the antenna connection to the tail. I also used two pieces of empty wire insulation as the insulators. I attached this before the final painting of the upper surfaces and canopy parts.

The main landing gear covers were painted off the model and added at this point. The small tabs (part C14) at the top did have a good fit since there was a small indentation just for them. The speed fairing in front of the tail wheel provided by the kit was the correct shape.

The clear parts were added using Testors 8876C white glue. I use this because of its long, tapered black plastic applicator that allows small amounts to be carefully placed. I also used a Squadron “Fast Frames” vinyl canopy accessory # 41016 – on the inside and outside of the canopy. Since it is an open canopy this is a very visible part and I needed a very clean delineation of the inside canopy frame which it provided. The now long OOP “Fast Frames” worked fine for the main canopy frames but not so well for the front windscreen! But before you use them see if they fit. They did make for an easy way to add the black framing of the cockpit interior. I then added an etched metal gun sight bead and post in front of the canopy.

There is a thin wire used to restrain the canopy when it is opened. This is clearly visible in a photo on page 33 of the Squadron Color Walk Around text. I used some smoke colored Sulky brand invisible sewing thread which is what I also used for the antenna wire because it is already darkened (not transparent like other invisible sewing threads) for the restraining wire. It needs to be glued behind the two mounting bolts on the armor plate behind the pilot. This was completed before I could insert and glue in the resin seat. If you keep the canopy closed you won’t need this step.

The wing tip lights were painted Testors chrome silver. When it was dry I used Tamiya clear red and green over the lights and the model was finished.

I really enjoyed this build and have no hesitation in highly recommending this kit. . Assembly of the main parts is quick and everything is there for a nice build. The MC.205 is a beautiful aircraft and the model builds into an accurate replica.

The colorful camouflages and paint variations of the MC.205 include some German Bf-109 types of gray on blue-gray mottle for ANR aircraft as well as the Italian desert yellow with green smoke rings desert schemes or even overall green. The cockpit is fine OOB but you do have many enjoyable interior alternatives. There is plenty of aftermarket to upgrade the cockpit area using color zoom from Eduard, or complete resin cockpit sets from Squadron True Details, or SBS Model resin. In this build I wanted to see how just swapping out the seat for an Ultracast seat with belts and using the Hasegawa instrument panel decals would compare to my other builds. It fared well and is a nice looking model due to the pleasant plastic OOB plastic parts.

There are some excellent reference books listed below. The Squadron C.205 Veltro Walk Around # 5558 is entirely in color (except for B&W WWII period photos) and answered every modeling detail question that I had. Throughout the build I was constantly referring to this book finding the correct detail for comparison to kit parts or identifying missing features. It too is highly recommended and its price is very reasonable given its quality and significant contribution to a fun build. The MMP book although focused on the MC.202 was also very useful in the same regard.

Squadron # 5558 Macchi MC 205 “Veltro” Walk Around Color Series; Maurizio Di Terlizzi, 2008