Macchi M5 in 1/48th back from oblivion or the attic

[rayb24]

Ok here is the Fly Macchi M5 in 1/48th. I wonder if its the old flashback model reissued, which was a reissue of the Resin Hippo M5...



The box got a bit flattened up in the attic, but I'd put all the parts in a zip lock so nothing is missing well one piece but I dont think that every made it into the box.

Not sure which one to build. Does anyone make decals for the Dragon if Not the Dazzle #32 looks neat?

Parts in the box. Resin engine, breach blocks for guns and a seat. The rest is plastic.


I hate cutting resin, it always cracks on me, but so far so good



The radiator is molded in with the engine and easily bent. But does look nice enough. The engine is not overly detailed, but the head will be hidden under the wing so probably fine as is. One of the exhausts is missing so will have to replace. Pity they are nicely hollowed out. That was the missing peice. But its my experience that there is always a missing or broken resin part.

I wonder if the seat back was drilled out with lightening holes.

More later
Ray

[GAJouette]

 Ray,
Excellent choice of projects my friend. Looking forward to seeing more soon.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[Juan]

Hi Ray, glad you chose this subject, I love this Italian bird.  Looking forward to your progress.

[gbrivio]

Great choiche, I vote for the striped livery!
Giuseppe

[xan]

I have the same models so I take a seat and follow you...

Xan.

[RLWP]

The seat is a copy of the Nieuport seat, the controls are too

Somewhere on the internet I found a PDF file containing a load of drawings. Natrurally, I can't find it now

Richard

[RAGIII]

A very beautiful aircraft to choose and I will watch closely.
RAGIII

[Borsos]

Normally I don't like swimming planes (either you are an airplane or you are a ship, choose your side...), but that one definitely is the exception. i was even thinking about purchasing the HPH 1:32 resin kit of that one. So I will follow your progress with great interest and I am sure it will be a pretty model once finished.
when it comes to tiny resin bits, I know that just too well. They always break. It's a curse...
Best regards
Andreas

[rayb24]

Not much to show for a lot of fiddly work.

I think I'm going to dump the Gun Breeches and use some from the spares box


Started on the cockpit, which is very simple. Added some strip to make it a bit more interesting. As its a wooden hull there isn't really any rigging inside. I put the first layer of water colour on. Which mostly will be washed off. I'll add some interest with pencil work to make it more woody Sorry couldn think of another way to say that.


Seat now has holes, which since this aircraft followed Nieuport practices would be accurate.

Lots of invisible work on the engine, fuse wire valve spring and cam followers from Plastic Strip with a bit of a bend. All of which can't be seen lmao
But I know its there. I had painted the engine primer grey and silver. But didn't like it, so now back to black and then will paint the individual sections.
Once that's done I'll make up the plug wiring and insert plastic rod plugs. Should get that done in the next few days. 

Then its back to the cockpit
Btw the engine is a Issota Fraschini V4. Which confused me, since its not a V engine. But the V stands for Volo or flight. Its an inline 6.
It has weird valves. One Intake and one exhaust for each pair of cylinders, but the cams have followers by cylinder. I've been trying to work out how that would work...

Oh and the other impediment to progress. I became a grandad a few days ago. Sheesh I'm really not ready for that lol

Ray

[RLWP]

From here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4126.0

It looks like the camshaft runs underneath the rocker shafts. Those disks are blanking plates - I think...

The single valve spring for two valves is unusual

Richard

[RLWP]

This from Wikipedia:



So the disks are indeed blanking plates

Richard

[RLWP]

Looks to me like there are two valves per cylinder as usual.

Each pair of cylinders has the exhaust valves (and inlet valves) linked by a bridge with a single compression spring to hold them closed. Unusual, saves some springs and reduces the engine height a bit

There seems to be a single rocker for each pair of inlet and exhaust valves. That's OK, the Curtiss OX-5 does a similar thing with one pushrod

What I haven't found is how this rocker is driven. I suspect there is a fork that sits over a single cam that pushes the rocker either way to operate the appropriate valve

More research needed

Richard

[RLWP]

Scrub that, the rockers are separate for each valve, they sit side by side for each cylinder. The cam follower and cam is inside the alloy casting

So, the unusual feature is the bridge between the valves with a central compression spring.

Richard

[krow113]

Neat stuff.
Very little in my Janes book , other than a pic of a later engine with alla that weirdness inside a rocker box.
lol the stuff they tried...

[RLWP]

Neat stuff.
Very little in my Janes book , other than a pic of a later engine with alla that weirdness inside a rocker box.
lol the stuff they tried...

Twelve years after the Wright Bros first flew, only thirty years after Benz managed to build a motor car, it's not surprising there was a lot of experimentation going on

I have a similar thing in my day job with 1930-1950 diesel engines in boats. There are strange valve arrangements, odd combustion chamber shapes, funny pistons, weird changeover valves. Later engines are very dull by comparison, so I try to avoid those

Richard