'Royal Egyptian Air Force'
The first time I saw this kit, I knew I had to have one in my collection. I have always had a soft spot for the Egyptian military even though I am a great admirer of the Israeli Air Force. These people just don't know when to quit, even after decades, even centuries, of "Colonial" misuse and abuse. When Academy released their Mig-21PF, I build the Egyptian version as soon as I had it in my hands. And now to add this classic beside my Mig-21 makes my heart glad.
The Macchi .C.205V was a development of the MC.202 powered by the Daimler Benz DB605 instead of the DB601 and armed with 20mm cannon. Only 262 were built. Virtually identical to the C.202 in appearance except for minor cowling changes, the Veltro was Italy's premier fighter (The Reggiane 2005 Saggitario outclassed even the Macchi C.205, but was never produced in mass).After the war, 42 were delivered to Egypt and saw action in the war with Israel of 1948-1949. After the Armistice, the C.205 "Veltro" served on both sides of the "fence": on Allies' side with the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force in Southern Italy and with the Germans in the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana in the North.
The first flight of the "Veltro" took place on 19 April 1942 and the results were excellent - a speed of more than 402mph was attained in level flight and the plane reached an incredible 609mph speed in a sustained dive. The use of most of the C.202 components allowed the beginning of production to be started only six months after the first flight and by November 1942 the first examples of the C.205 begun to reach operational units. Production of the C.205 never went beyond a dozen of aircraft produced monthly (compared with the standard output of at least 35 C.202s monthly).
The kit is the Hasegawa Macchi C.205 Veltro, which I understand to mean "Greyhound", appropriate, don't you think, given the sleek thorough-bred lines of this aircraft, with AeroMaster decals included for the Egyptian schemes.
I finished my Macchi C.205 hours after my Macchi C.202 so the construction notes are similar except for what follows.
Hasegawa's rendition of the C.205 uses many of the components from their C.202, except they include the tailplanes, lower cowling and assorted filters, radio aerial and cannons unique to the C.205.
As mentioned, the Egyptian markings are courtesy of AeroMaster and they live up to that company's reputation in spades. Two aircraft can be depicted using this set, both from No. 2 Squadron, but with different paint schemes. One is in camo (the one I built) with RAF Dark Earth and Middle-Stone on the upper surfaces and Azure Blue on the lower. The other appears in the Italian scheme of Light Tan on top and light Blue-Grey on the lower portion. The camo version is identified by AeroMaster as operating from Faid in 1948, but nothing about the latter is mentioned. AeroMaster do list some reference material, so for those of you more patient and with deeper reference libraries than I, here they are: 1. Spitfires over Israel, 2. Spitfire: Star of Israel, 3. Air Enthusiast Nos. 52, 55 and 57, and finally 4. Aero Detail 15, Macchi C.202/205.
I finished the aircraft using Testor's ModelMaster enamels and Tenax 7R and Humbrol cement. Construction was the same as the Macchi C.202 with the exception of the different lower cowling and cannons. I forgot to open the holes for the cannon until after all the painting and decaling were done, typical for me. The white fuselage and wing bands provided by AeroMaster are suitably opaque and there was very little bleed-through. All in all, a very enjoyable model to build and for me, a very meaningful addition to my collection.