Macchi C.205 'Veltro' - (1:48 Tauro Model) Part 6

The Benefits of Dry-Fitting

Those of you following this series may recall that my next post was going to deal with painting the engine and the various scratch built bits, however plans in scale modelling are there to be disregarded and thrown out the proverbial window.

Before heading off to paint I always dedicate some time to dry-fitting the various bits and pieces to make sure everything fits.  This gives me the chance to alter things before committing to paint.  This is especially true when there is a lot of scratch-built detail involved and the original fit of the kit leaves a lot to be desired.  In fact as I was test fitting the cockpit floor to the fuselage I came to realise that the seat would be almost a full cm further back than it should be.  The mounting points supplied are simply too far back, in fact the seat would be sitting inside the fuselage almost hidden from view!

Choices

Now the supplied mounting points are just bits of plastic protruding from the cockpit floor and are nothing like the real thing.  At first I wasn't that concerned with them as they would be hidden below the seat and would be practically invisible.

At this point I had a choice, either re-position them further forward or go the whole nine yards and scratch-build some new mounts.  The perfectionist in me got the better of me and I gave in to the second option.

The following sequence of photographs illustrate the process

Preparing the Frame

Preparing the legs

Fixing the legs and support struts

Fixing the seat to the frame

A view of the seat from the side

Test fitting the seat.  The yellow arrow points to the original seat position

I could have simply gone for a re-positioning of the original mounts but in the end, the new frame only took around an hour to make (including time for the glue to set) and I think it adds a bit more character and authenticity to the cockpit.  

I am now toying with the idea of adding the oxygen tanks, which sit right behind the pilot's seat, to fill the visible empty space.  Stay tuned ...