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Project Notes

#693 PorcoRosso

Revisiting one of my favourite films after so many years thanks to a wonderful 1:72 kit of the Porco Rosso Savoia S.21 from Fine Molds.

Build

Here’s a quick demo..

clip

Notes

Porco Rosso is one of my favourite films of all time.

I discovered that Fine Molds have both a 1:72 and 1:48 model of Marco’s Savoia S.21.

Here I’m building the Porco Rosso Savoia S.21 Idroplano da Caccia Sperimentale 1:72 with some customised motorization and base.

Paint Scheme

Feature Color Mr Color Aqueous Paint Used
    C2 H2  
fuselage Gloss red     H3
    C8 H8  
    C9 H9  
    C13 H53  
    C19 H66  
    C28 H18  
    C33 H12  
    C41 H47  
    C44 H27  
    C51 H44  
    C55 H81  
Exhausts Steel C61 H76 H18
    C62 H11  
    C68 H86  
    C135 H50  

Construction

The motor control circuit comprises:

  • 555 timer-based PWM motor control
  • push-button on switch with delayed automatic off

bb

schematic

Testing on a breadboard:

build06a

Build Notes

build01a

build01b

build01c

build02a

build02b

build02c

Marco! Meglio maiale che fascista

build02d

build03a

build03b

build03c

build04a

testing the engine before final assembly (PWM motor control)

build04b build04c build05a build05b build05c build05d

testing composition of the final scene with engines on ..

build06a

Preparing the circuit board for painting..

build06b

mocking up the base - a portion of the “secret garden” in Gina’s villa

build06c

I started with a black primer for the base

build06d

Masking off the building for painting

build06e

working up the colours of the building

build06f

the water was many layers of paint and gloss mod podge to build up an effect with some sense of “depth”

build06g

testing the base and electronics fit with the “Daiso picture frame base”

build06h

I need a small pavilion for the garden…

build06i

Making windows for the pavilion..

build06j

“Gina” is an HO passenger model, pretty poorly molded but I tried to recover as best as possible

build07a build07b

Adding foliage and finishing touches to the garden..

build08a build08b build08c build08d build08e

Gina on the balcony..

build08f

Final assembly .. it’s getting close now!

build08g

Oh Marco. Meglio maiale che fascista!

build10a build10b build10c build10d

who said you couldn’t paint electronic circuits?

build10e build10f build10g

Credits and References

About LEAP#693 scale modelsCraft555 Timermotor
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects, usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting (IMHO!).

The projects are usually inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the sources such as:

Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know. See the individual projects for credits where due. There are even now a few projects contributed by others - send your own over in a pull request if you would also like to add to this collection.