Halinski Macchi C.205V "Veltro"

[erich hartmman]

I want to share with you my advance in this plane, my first detailed model. I´m sorry for the picture´s quality, but I have no other camera than phone, since my camera had been stolen. I spent near six months since start to the point you can see in pics. Hope you like it. Greetings from Argentina!

A little History about this marvelous plane...

The Macchi C.205 (also known as MC.205, "MC" standing for "Macchi Castoldi") Veltro (Italian: Greyhound) was an Italian World War II fighter aircraft built by the Aeronautica Macchi. Along with the Reggiane Re.2005 and Fiat G.55, the Macchi C.205 was one of the three "Serie 5" Italian fighters built around the powerful Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine. The C.205 was a development of the earlier C.202 Folgore. With a top speed of some 400 mph and equipped with a pair of 20 mm cannon as well as 12.7 mm Breda machine guns, the Macchi C.205 Veltro was highly respected by Allied and Luftwaffe pilots alike. Regarded as the best Italian aircraft of World War II , in action it proved to be extremely effective, destroying a large number of Allied bombers and capable of successfully clashing on equal terms with such renowned fighters as the North American P-51D Mustang, a capability which encouraged the Luftwaffe to use a number of these aircraft to equip one Gruppe.
But, although the C.205 was able to match the best Allied opponents in speed and maneuverability, it was introduced late in the conflict. Moreover, due to the poor Italian industrial capability of the time, only a small production run was delivered before the end of the war. Like the Spitfire, the Veltro was tricky (in its construction) and thus slow to build. Italy's highest scoring ace, Adriano Visconti, achieved 11 of his 26 credited victories in the few weeks he was able to fly the Veltro, with the top scoring 205 Sergente Maggiore pilota Luigi Gorrini shooting down 14 enemy aircraft plus six damaged with the C.205.
Font: Wikipedia

This model represents which flew Adriano Visconti, a brave Italian Ace of WWII. A little history about the man...

Major Adriano Visconti di Lampugnano (11 November 1915 - 29 April 1945) was one of Italy's top flying aces of the Second World War, shooting down between 10 to 26 enemy aircraft. He was awarded with four Medaglia d'argento al Valor Militare and two Medaglia di Bronzo al Valor Militare "in action".
Early years
The son of Count Galeazzo Visconti and Cecilia Dall'Aglio, he was born in Tripoli, Libya. He joined the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) in October 1936, and completed his pilot training at the Accademia Aeronautica in Caserta.
Career
Visconti graduated on the Breda BA25, and later flew RO41s. In 1939 he was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant Pilot (Sottotenente Pilota) and posted to the Breda 65 equipped 159ª Squadriglia, 12ºGruppo 50º Stormo, a ground attack unit based at Tobruk. He was soon briefly posted to 2º Gruppo Aviazione Presidio Coloniale's 23ª Squadriglia for disciplinary reasons, but was allowed to return to his original unit for "heroism under fire": Visconti's Breda Ba 65 had been attacked by three 33 Squadron Gladiators but, because of his skill as a pilot, Visconti and his crew escaped the encounter. For this action, in addition to being allowed to return to 50º Stormo, Visconti was awarded the first of his Medaglia di Bronzo. From June 1940 until the end of that year he flew continually without leave, and was awarded another Bronze medal and two Medaglia d'argento.
By January 1941 50º Stormo had taken such heavy losses that the unit was disbanded. Visconti was detached to the 54 Stormo, 7 Gruppo, 76a Squadron, where he learned to fly the Macchi 200. He then flew the superior Macchi 202 from the end of 1941 until the Italian Armistice of September 8, 1943.
On 22 December 1941, in a dogfight over Malta, he was credited with a "probable" Hawker Hurricane. His first official air victory was on the 15 June 1942, when he shot down a Bristol Blenheim near the island of Pantelleria. On 13 August 1942 while flying with a wingman in a formation of two C.202s on a reconnaissance flight over Malta looking for a shipping convoy, the Italian aircraft were bounced by four Supermarine Spitfire escorting the ships. Visconti, only flying the Macchi for the second time, was able to shoot down two Spitfires and damage the other two, allowing the other Macchi to complete the reconnaissance mission. For this double air victory, Visconti was awarded a Medaglia d'Argento al Valor Militare (Silver Medal of Militar valour).
After the armistice, Visconti continued to fly with the newly formed National Republican Air Force (Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, or ANR) of the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI). Shortly after joining the ANR, Visconti was promoted to Captain, commanding the 1st Squadron in the 1st Gruppo Caccia. In May 1944, he was promoted to Major.
Until the disbanding of the ANR in 1945, Visconti flew the Macchi C.205 and the Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10. He was credited with his first "kill" with the ANR on 3 January 1944, when, flying a C.205, he downed a P-38 Lightning South of the Piedmontese city of Cuneo. Visconti was wounded on several occasions, but never seriously.
Although he never claimed more than ten kills some later source credited him with 26. Most of his victories were while flying the Macchi 205V; the last, a P-47 over Lake Garda, on 14 March 1945, was in a Bf 109 G10 designated "3-4" but in reality was only a "claim", since the pilot he met in a head-on dogfight, wasn't actually shot down.
In fact, on the 14th of March 1945 Adriano Visconti was shot down, by the USAAF pilot, 2nd/Lt Charles Clark Eddy Jr. in a P-47 he named "Chickenbones" of 346th FS, 350th FG. They were in a dogfight in the Lake Garda area when Visconti's plane was hit and disabled by Eddy in a frontal attack, Visconti parachuted out at a very low altitude and survived his moderate wounds, while Eddy's P-47 came back safely to his Pisa airbase. This story can be verified by reading the article "L'UOMO CHE ABBATTE' VISCONTI" (THE MAN WHO SHOT DOWN VISCONTI), in the 3rd of March 1989 issue of the Italian magazine "Aeronautica", article using the notes taken at the time by Eddy in his notebook, which allowed to retrace the combat and to understand that it was him the "adversary" of Visconti (a fact completely unknown to Eddy himself till then...).
Death
On April 29, 1945, Visconti surrendered to communist partisans near Malpensa airfield, Milan, only after he was assured that none of the air and ground personnel of his unit would be killed in retaliatory attacks. His safety was assured by the mayor of Milan as well, when he was first taken for interrogation. Visconti and the other officers were taken on two buses to the barracks of Savoy Cavalry (Savoia Cavalleria) in via Vincenzo Monti. The barracks was then the command of National Republican Guard Intendancy (Intendenza of Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana)). There, at 2 p.m., Visconti and Lieutenant (tenente) Valerio Stefanini, his close collaborator, were seemingly taken for a routine interrogation. They were both shot in the back by a Russian bodyguard of the communist partisan leader "Iso". The Russian was charged with murder but was later discharged because the crime had occurred before 8 May 1945, the official end of the war in Italy, and was therefore considered an act of war.
Font: Wikipedia

You can see a video from the interior, before it desapear under skin, here:
Macchi C.205V Veltro Interior Detail

[birder]

Looks nice, interesting aircraft, like a more streamlined 109, with the same engine it sounds. I have been wanting tho see this one put together

[romanmodels]

Looking good so far

[erich hartmman]

Thanks David and Glen!. As you say, Glen, this aircraft used the same engine used by the 109, the excellent Daimler-Benz DB-605, licence-build by Fiat as the RA.1050 R.C.58 Tifone. This aircraft was between the finest planes of his era, with a very carefully designed aerodinamics by Engineer Mario Castoldi, where he put on practice the lessons learnt in previous years in the Schneider Trophy. The MC-205 outclassed the P-51D Mustang, downing several before the war ends...