Porco Rosso - Macchi M.52r

[strobez]

Here's my other entry (so far) into the Seaplane GB - the Macchi M.52 that Porco's Italian friend Mario flies in the movie.

Given what I had to shell out for the Vintage Models resin kit of a Macchi M.52 in 1/72, I decided to try to make a resin cast copy and work off that instead... it's more work because a) I have no pressure chamber, so there are bubble issues and b) I'll have to scratch some of the finer parts myself... but there's always putty for a) and I probably would've done b) anyway, right? 

I spared you all the pics of the messy incompetent mold-making process, so we're skipping right to the part where I actually have copies to work from.

[loupgarou]

Seen from the photo, your remould looks quite well done. Curious to see the next steps.

[perttime]

I'm going to like this 

[strobez]

Yep.  That's the one baby!

I'm certainly not that proficient at recasting, but this kit has given me a good excuse the learn... a couple of times over.  It took several attempts to get a few useable parts out of the molds.  One of my drawers looks like the elephant graveyard where mortally wounded Macchi M.52r's go to die.

Still, I was able to get the major parts (fuselage, tail, wing and floats), and the rest can be scratch built.  After a lot of painstaking research comparing the few available cockpit pics of the Macchi M.39, M.52 M.67 and M.C.72  I settled on a few scratchbuilt choices.  One frustrating thing is that the combination of too thick fuselage walls and too thick everything else meant a) the seat got reduced to very tiny proportions, and b) I wasn't able to squeeze too much else in there.

Oh well.  Cockpit is almost done now, but the greater challenges await.  I decided to give the main parts a light spray with the grey so I could see the imperfections better.  Afterwards, I kinda wished I'd left it white... ignorance is indeed bliss.

[jalles]

Wow, great job with the resin casting    The scratch built interior is awesome as well.  Such a beautiful looking airplane 

[zenrat]

'tis a gorgeous plane.  Makes an S6b look like a wimpy little girly plane.
I demand someone does a 1/72 injection kit I can afford.

[strobez]

I agree.  I love the look of all the Macchi racers.  This is the one kit I paid way more for than I have for any other but because there were simply no other options and I "had to have it".  That's also why I decided to recast the main parts - because a) If I screw this up, I'll never forgive myself... and b) it would be one less buildable kit in the world, and that seemed tragic.

The good news is that underneath that seeming endless supply of resin casting reject parts, I found a few passable ones... and they actually build up into a plane! Who knew?! 

I had to scratch up the pontoon struts, so the alignment is still a bit wonky, but I expect with some slight adjustments (and or a hammer), it will see things my way.

Interesting experience to glue a resin kit together with CA instead of cement.  Certainly not a lot of "wiggling around" time is there?  I also realized I might have been a bit overzealous in filing down the parts while cleaning then up from the casting process.  Luckily I just bought a new tube of Tamiya putty... I'm going to need it.







I sure hope I got the tail on the right side up.  The instructions were less than clear (about a lot of things) and there's a bit of a conflict between the way Miyazaki drew it in Porco Rosso (see the pic in this thread) vs. the actual plane.  Miyazaki put the larger fin on top, while it seems it should be slightly larger on the bottom.  I decided to try to mimic reality more closely... otherwise I'm just sure some JMN will point out my "error" and I won't have the heart to correct him.   

[Tophe]

Good!

[strobez]

Those floats were more of a pain than I predicted.  Hard to get them to stay together and in place while I adjusted the positioning and alignment.  I kept having something fall off. 

Anyway, a lot of glueing, sanding, puttying, sanding and repeating later...





It looks like I still need more... 

[zenrat]

That's coming along nicely.

[NARSES2]

That's coming along nicely.

Very much so

[Weaver]

I thought for a second, looking at that second picture in the last post, that you'd put a pilot in it with his scarf flying in the breeze...

This looks great!

[strobez]

So lesson learned... Tamiya Italian Red decanted from a spray can does not do a good job of covering over putty that's been sanded.  It sticks well enough, but the mottled look shows right through.  I had to clean off the first coat, do a bit more sanding, re-prime it to basically a pure white coat and then spray the red back on again.







That sunlight was pretty bright and shows off the flaws, but in normal viewing light it looks better.  Into the home stretch now! (Famous last words)

[perttime]

90% done, 90% to go?

(I hear full size airplane home builders say that...)

[ericr]