COBI Macchi C.202 Folgore Set 5760

COBI's Macchi C.202 Folgore is a 1:32 model built from 404 blocks, 26.5 cm long with a 33 cm wingspan, in Mediterranean camouflage — green mottling printed over a sand base. The landing gear folds, the flaps move, the canopy lifts off for the Italian pilot figure, and a display stand with a transparent pillar makes the aircraft appear in flight.

One wing is longer than the other

Measure the C.202's wings and they do not match. The left one is about 20 centimetres longer than the right.

This is deliberate. A powerful single engine turns the propeller one way and tries to roll the aircraft the other, and at full power that torque has to be trimmed out — usually with rudder, which costs speed. Mario Castoldi instead made one wing slightly larger, so it generates slightly more lift and cancels the roll aerodynamically. It is elegant, it is nearly invisible, and almost nobody else did it.

A German engine in an Italian airframe

The C.202 is the earlier MC.200 with a Daimler-Benz DB 601 in place of its radial — the same engine, licence-built, that powered the Bf 109 and the Japanese Ki-61. The change added around 100 km/h and turned a mediocre fighter into one that could hold its own against Spitfires and P-40s over North Africa.

Its weakness was armament: two 12.7 mm machine guns where its opponents carried cannon. Italian pilots complained about it throughout, and the fix — the C.205 with 20 mm guns — arrived in numbers too small to matter. Folgore means thunderbolt.

Specifications

Pieces: 404 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:32 · Display stand with transparent pillar
Model dimensions: 26.5 × 33 × 12.5 cm (10.4 × 13.0 × 4.9 in)