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| The Diavolo Rosso - MC202X would make a godfather proud. The sleek lines of the Macchi MC202 made the plane a natural for conversion to an air racer. |
In November of 2003 I learned of a group build for the 2004 Kickoff Classic, the theme of which was fictitious air racers. Let your imagination run wild and the sky’s the limit. Hmmm, OK, cool. For a tread head, this was a new direction to go and the group synergy aspect was appealing.
After casting about for a suitable base for the racer, I decided on an old Supermodel Macchi MC202 in 1/72 scale. Italy had a great reputation in the 1920’s and 30’s for aeronautical feats and racing. Had the Big One, WWII, not happened, many more records might have been belonged to Italy, but we know what happened.
In the fantasy scenario for this aircraft, things are brighter. Italy switched sides earlier, Truscott instead of Lucas commanded at Anzio and Rome was liberated within two weeks of the landings. Albert Kesselring did not get the time to establish his defense in depth that made the Italian theater so much a slow slogging match. The British countermanded Monty’s decision to land at the heel of the Italian peninsula, coordinating with the Americans to make successive leap frog landings that outflanked German defences.
As a result the war was shortened and Italy prospered. In 1947 the now at peace world was resuming earlier pursuits. International trade grew and one Italian-American company, GENCO Imports, branched into new arenas. With large profits from their olive oil and cheese products and with a passion to proclaim ethnic pride as Americans descended of Italia, the owner, Vito Andolini, decided to support the dream of his non-conformist son Mike Corleone to become an air racer. Vito bankrolled the effort to make a champion of his son and his crew selected the MC202 as their mount. Many changes were needed to make the airframe race worthy resulting in a sleek beauty that seemed to be racing while just parked. Promised great rewards for success by Andolini, Crew Chief Pete Clemenza and Head Mechanic Luca Brasi spared no effort creating a winner. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.
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| Clipping the wings, cutting down the rear fuselage and adding a blister conopy are some fo the changes Laramie made to convert his Supermodel MC202 in to a racer. Testors’ decal kit and an ink jet printer provided the decals. |
The goodfellas worked hard and strove to win during their first season but the fates were against them. Business competition and untimely deaths diverted attention and finally resulted in Mike delaying his dream of individuality as he took over the family businesses. The frustration grew, with Mike angrily proclaiming, “every time I think I’m out, they reach out and pull me back in!” He finally ended the pursuit spending his remaining days as a lonely man, dying in the garden of his Sicilian villa.
OK, enough. I will now go into the details of making my racer. I came up with the name of Diavolo Rosso for the racer, based on an Italian aerobatic team from the 1950’s, Diavolos Rossi, The Red Devils, who flew F-84s. That helped set the tone and guided my later choice of color scheme.
I started the creative process by doing up a set of pencil sketches, refining the features I wanted for a racer. Pylon racers have some general characteristics dictated by the flight envelope in which they operate. For instance, they tend to have enlarged vertical tail surfaces for longitudinal stability at low-level, high-speed flight. The wings are generally clipped short to improve roll rate and as much possible, drag producing protuberances are removed and a smooth finish applied.
I began construction by scratching a simple cockpit with the floor, consoles and instrument panel. I built a new seat and added masking tape seat belts. A new rear bulkhead was added while a joy stick and rudder pedals completed the office.
I cut off the raised “hump” behind the cockpit and filled it in with styrene and superglue that was sanded to shape after hardening. The tail surfaces on the MC202 were tiny and for my purposes required replacement. I used plastic, superglue and putty to enlarge and re-contour the fin and rudder. By the time I was done the tail looked like that of a Blackburn Firebrand. The stabilizers were replaced with a set from an Airfix P-51D (thanks Vladimir) that had a quarter inch clipped from their tips. They fit pretty well after opening up the original locating slots, needing only a touch of filler.
I removed the underside fairing for the tail wheel and blocked in the opening for a retractable version. The wings came next. I cut 5/8ths inch off of each tip and rescribed the ailerons. The wings were fitted to the fuselage and faired in after the cement dried. I filled the locating holes for the wing guns and associated shell ejection chutes. After checking all seams and joints for smooth completion I primed the model with light gray paint which provided a nice undercoat for the gloss red finish I intended.
I used Testors Acryl Gloss Guards Red for the paint job. I used a Testors decal making kit with my HP ink-jet printer to make the Diavolo Rosso markings, numbers and sponsor markings. It was the first time I had tried to make my own decals on a PC and I was very happy with the results. The markings went on over the glossy red paint with no silvering or other difficulties. A coat of clear gloss sealed the deal.
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| The Macchi MC202 as it looked during the war. Approximately 1200 MC202 were built. This 1/72 scale Hasegawa kit is in the markings of the aircraft of the C.O. of the 153rd Stormo (squadron) operating in North Africa in 1942/43. |
I painted the landing gear legs gloss white with silver oleos and replaced the kit tires with nose wheels from a long gone Corsair II from the spares box. I attached them with superglue and added the gear covers.
I was going to vacuform a low profile blister canopy but ran out of time before the show. So a quick search of the spares bin turned up a Typhoon canopy that fit. I dipped it in Future and after it dried I painted the frame in the same Guards Red as the rest of the plane. The canopy was attached with white glue and off to the Kickoff Classic we went.
All in all it was a fun project that was relaxing.
Laramie Wright started building models in 1964 and joined SVSM in 1995. His interests include 1/48 scale aircraft and 1/35 scale armor, especially Sherman tanks.
