Voir et Savoir 37 - Macchi C-202

Greg Baker
I've been wanting to try out a "refurbish" of these prebuilt gashapon kits. I wonder why we don't see more of them released as regular kits.

Erik De Smet
Never seen F-toys in Europe. I guess they are specially made to fill Gregs shelves.

Matthew A
I think Erik is right

Nikolaos Kouzinis
Following Greg , good luck.

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. F-Toys doesn't really make kits, they make gashapon (trading figures) for the Japanese market. Y'know, "buy a box and find out what's inside! Collect them all! Trade with your friends!" ... or sell, opened boxes on eBay.😉

They make really nice moulds though, and a lot of Platz kits started out as F-Toys. Of course the problem with any pre-painted and assembled kits like this is that a) the paint is usually thick and b) there are a lot of gaps at the seams.

So, I'm doing my best to remove the paint, fill the gaps and build out some (hopefully) better-looking results.

bughunter
Some mates have the biggest stash, some have a huge amount of 109 kits, but you are on a good way to have the biggest amount of finished projects 👍 I hope you have enough space at home, but with 1:144 projects it should be fine for a while.

Spanjaard
cool!

Greg Baker
Heh, bugsy... you've hit the nail on the head. One of the big reasons I try to limit myself to 1/144 (and smaller 1/72 scale) projects is exactly because of shelf space. I recently had to "retire from display" a couple of my early builds. They've been relegated to plastic take out food containers awaiting the day when I have more shelf space~

Greg Baker
Some hand painted camouflage... turned out better than I expected.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
It is very beautifull camo. Bravo Greg

Alex K
That's the kind of camo I'll never be brave enough to tackle in 1/72... Congrats!

bughunter
Camouflage hand painted in 1:144? A shaky hand is needed to cause the fraying!😎 The result is great and could be bigger scale!

Nathan Dempsey
That is a camo to be proud of in 1:144 scale.

John Thomas
More outstanding work, very nice camo work

Lode Schildermans
Greg, outstanding camo

Greg Baker
Thank you, mates. This one is now mostly done. I had to redo the painting on the tail because of some massive paint bleeding under some crappy tape disguised as an awesome new solution let me down. The decals are a mix of "came with" and homemade. I'm quite pleased with the roundels on the wings. I printed the. On white backed decal paper and then used a punch to cut out the circle. There's a tiny bit of a register issue, but not too bad at all. Just need to wire up the base now.

Nathan Dempsey
Well done Greg. As always a great display base too 🙂

Matthew A
I know I say it a lot but wow

Greg Baker
Thanks! I finished up the base this evening, so I'll snap some final pics soon.😉

Slavo Hazucha
I can almost hear the angry-buzzing propeller and the camo pattern mildly resembles the job on the Su-35 "901 Blue" prototype - I like it all very much! 👍

I guess this is even smaller than your typical 144-scale situation, it all really came out great!

Greg Baker
Thanks Slavo. That means a lot coming from a master like yourself. I've uploaded the final images and updated my blog - strobez.ca/wp/index.../05/37-macchi-c-202/ - and to hear the buzzing propeller, here's a little video to go with it 😉

Youtube Video

bughunter
Small work in big scale, äh ... no, I mean great work in small scale 👍

Urban Gardini
I love it mate but you've made a boo boo with the roundels as they should point to the wing tips.

Łukasz Gliński
Huge respect for such a well done camo on such a tiny plane 👍

Greg Baker
Ahh... now I see what you mean, Urban. That's what I get for using a comic book drawing as the subject. The image is unclear, but instead of throwing Hergé under the bus, I'll claim ignorance and file that boo boo under "live and learn".😉. Thanks for pointing that out. I appreciate it.

I saw a fellow "Area 88 1/144 enthusiast" from Japan hand paint the camouflage on a Draken J35 and I thought I should pick up a brush once in a while too. This worked out well, so, it won't be the last time. Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

Urban Gardini
Mistakes is the most effective way to learn something...

Nathan Dempsey
Definitely an inspiration Greg. I've been looking at 1:144 kits I might otherwise ignore thanks to you!

Greg Baker
Thanks Nathan. At first, I dismissed 1/144 scale as just "toys" not worth my time, but they've got a lot more going for them than you might think. The trick is not to get deceived by the small size. If you put in the same work you would on 1/72 or 1/48, the results will show. Besides being able to assemble an Air Force that includes everything from a Curtiss RC3 bi-plane to a B-747 Commercial airliner, all in the same relative scale makes for a neat display.

Chris Greathouse
I love the fan service 😛 🙂

Spanjaard
beautiful job Greg!