Alpine MC.205 Veltro
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Alpine MC.205 Veltro
Took a few years but as promised I will post the progress of my Duxford present here! It should be noted that i haven't built a model plane since I was 8 so multiple mistakes will surface during the build. I had some back-up in the form of my old man, mostly playing the advisor rather than teammate.
Ok ok all that boring stuffy talk is done, build build build!!!
Step 1: Leftover paints
My first challenge was figuring out what cammo to create. We have a bunch of leftover paints that date back to the early 60's and it showed, being forced to throw out 4 or 5 cans from my dad's east european sets (apparently their paints were notoriously bad quality even back then).
Rather than spend money on more paint I decided to be "creative" and make a semi-historic scheme by using white and green to simulate an eastern front type cammo. This went rather well ... until I remembered that they would have required the yellow identification bands and markings, and our last yellow was all dried up!
I remembered that bananas are yellow, so I grabbed one, ate it and prepared the peel. This is an old trick that dates back to the early days of model making but is surprisingly effective. First, apply the peel...
Rub vigorously....
Remove peel and voila! I could hardly tell it was banana peel at all! (NOTE! If flies start nesting on the yellow spots, gently apply paraffin with a brush onto surface).
Alpine Upgrades
Despite my ingenious resourcefulness I was not happy with the cammo. There was too much green and too much space between it and the greyish-white. To solve this I took a gamble and tried to apply an "alpine" look by adding inconsistent lines (Inspired by a desert-crete Ju-88 cammo). I thought it turned out pretty well!
Soon the pilot had its turn. At this critical moment I decided that the plane and occupant would be German. Reason being that the plane came with a very strange set of markings for the faction. More importantly this meant that I had to give our fascist friend here a swag black jacket (you know, like in the movies). Unfortunately I was also out of brown paint (the bottom of the can looked like a sad little brownie) so I regretfully sacrificed two pieces of a Marabou Chocolate bar to the microwave.
To be honest, it didn't look that good ... but what can you do. I should have used a piece of dark chocolate but at this stage I assumed the cockpit would hide his legs anyway so didn't bother. (don't forget the paraffin!)
This kit had the odd quirk of coming with screws. Azref suggested against using it but I sort of got afraid of ignoring the manuals instructions and did it anyway. It ... kind of works, but as expected it made many cracks show up so I had to use glue anyway. Classic rubber band clamping technique included ofc.
The final assault
A few extra painting sessions later we arrived at the end of the journey! Since my pops was extra fond of this activity I let him do the honors. Decal-ling really is an art to behold. We even added some old ones (the 1/Jg52 logo is from 1962-65) to add the luftwaffle larp!
THE RESULT
It's no masterpiece, but compared to the disasters of my childhood its a jolly good attempt I say!
Of course 1(Jg52 never operated italian fighters) so in my head and in another universe they equipped with this beast in 1943 for some eastern front campaign. Aw yeah!!!
Final Words
While i'm still not very interested in modeling it did reinforce some great aspects that I had forgotten. Building a model is allot like a journey, there are boring parts and annoying parts but once its over you can reflect and feel a certain degree of pride. I built that from scratch! It used to be many strange grey pieces in a box. An now, four years in the making ... its art, or something like that.
Thanks Azref
I do like to shoot down planes yes I do
Re: Alpine MC.205 Veltro
Nice dude. Ahistorical or not, it looks fucking rad. Well done.
Re: Alpine MC.205 Veltro
That is pretty sweet, Jammy - nice one
Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel - to the last beat of the heart.
Re: Alpine MC.205 Veltro
Good job Jammy, I love the banana work.
Re: Alpine MC.205 Veltro
Jammy,
Nice work. Love the banana. Of course, I use Marmite on some of my models so, who knows, we may be on to something. Edible models next? Not sure I can get anyone to eat the Marmite models though.
Nice work. Love the banana. Of course, I use Marmite on some of my models so, who knows, we may be on to something. Edible models next? Not sure I can get anyone to eat the Marmite models though.
Howdy Ya'll!