AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

Just a quick note guys cause I gotta run

Young STEVE HINTON WINS RENO!!

Beating his fathers record as the youngest racer to win Reno Unlimited Gold. Steve Hinton Sr held that record at the age of 26, Steve Hinton Jr wins today at age 22.

New fastest lap race record was set today by young Steve Hinton @ 505.64mph

New fast race average speed set today by young Steve @ 492mph

John Penny in Rare Bear places second 13 seconds behind Strega with a stock engine. Pretty fair flying I would say. Czech Mate came in 3rd running a PW 2800R motor.

Did you know the very first offical air race was held 100 years ago in France with 4 planes entered. Only two made it off the ground, none finished the 8 mile long closed course race with an average race speed of 22 mph. Thought that was interesting

vetteman42 wrote:

Just a quick note guys cause I gotta run Young STEVE HINTON WINS RENO!! Beating his fathers record as the youngest racer to win Reno Unlimited Gold. Steve Hinton Sr held that record at the age of 26, Steve Hinton Jr wins today at age 22. New fastest lap race record was set today by young Steve Hinton @ 505.64mph New fast race average speed set today by young Steve @ 492mph John Penny in Rare Bear places second 13 seconds behind Strega with a stock engine. Pretty fair flying I would say. Czech Mate came in 3rd running a PW 2800R motor. Did you know the very first offical air race was held 100 years ago in France with 4 planes entered. Only two made it off the ground, none finished the 8 mile long closed course race with an average race speed of 22 mph. Thought that was interesting

Watched it live via the web, was the first time ever hey have done that!!!! Was AWESOME!!!! few bugs to work out on the telecast for next year but it was worth it!!! Like father , like son eh? Way to go Steve'O!!!!!!!

WOOHOO Go baby GO!!!!!! Dang I didn't know he was that young..holly crap!!! Glad to here strega and Jr. won today. Now I have some more motovation to finish Strega!! Can't wait. She is already coming together fairly well.

Sorry no pics but my camera is dead and havent charged it. Got the milliput on the model and almost ready to be vacuformed. Clipped the wings and about to start on the CP soon I hope.

 First few pics of the Twin 'Stang.

 My first step is to grind off the molded interior detail. I want a flat surface in these areas to add a bulkhead or two to help support the new "sheet metal".

 Cleaned up mating surfaces on flat sandpaper and joined the engine nacelle and fuselage halves. Seams need cleaning up as well as other mating surfaces. Pencil lines show what I'll cut out and "skin" over.

 Again, penciled in where I'm going to cut out and skin over. Right side cockpit will be faired over. Left side will be moved aft as seen roughly penciled in. Probably will not move cockpit that far back. Actually the front bulkhead of the new cockpit will be approx. where the stock seat back would have been.

Penciled approx. where I'm going to cut the scoops off the bottoms. I will save these as I may use them in reshaping the belly scoops.

Center wing halves tacked together. Once again I've penciled will cut out the belly scoops. Whether I move the radiators to the center wing or reduce the scoops profile with NACA inlets, I still need to cut these areas out. And again , I'll save the cut out pieces for possible future use.

 The bottom of the gear wells is also some what rough textured plastic, I may just cut out the kit molded wells and rebuild them with sheet stock. I plan on detailing them up anyway.

 Even though this kit is kinda rough I don't look for it to be quite as involved as my Lib. I'll only have one cockpit to detail. This will be more adressing fit issues and body work. Although, the props may be somewhat of a challenge. Especially if I go with double counter rotating props.

 This is going to be a lot of fun .

MIflyer wrote:

daddy1 wrote: One idea I'm very much drawn to is moving the radiators to the center wing section ala Stilletto,and completely eliminating the belly scoops. Although, I really do like the NACA style scoops in my sketches. It would still slim and streamline the underside a whole bunch.  I was wondering if you might go that route. I think it'd be awesome! Your streamlined Twin 'Stang reminds me of a Rutan Pond Racer on steroids. Very cool. Kev

 Thanx. The top view made me think of the Batplane and I got to thinking of a possible gloss black paint scheme and naming it Dark Knight. Would look pretty sinister.

Kermit So you are coming to the fast side huh Richard, would be only too happy to have you here. I dont know much about AM for the racers, But I do know of a company who makes and sells air racer kits. They have a pretty good selection in 1/72 and a few in 1/48 of which they are adding more of them too. They also have a few resin bits they offer for the racers. I have read the kits are rough and do require a lot of sanding and fitting of parts. Oh and they do have a kit of the Red Baron in 1/72 and I think 1/48. Heres the link to their site for you to check out if you wish. http://www.hiplanes.com/

Kg4kpg Miss Behavin is lookin sweet ! I like your idea of posing the rudder, makes the model look much more real I think. Judging from your progress it looks like yoiur build will be the first to hit the front page

Simpilot I couldnt watch the race on the link you shared with us but I did find an internet radio broadcast of it that I did listen to, wish I could have seen it though must have been very exciting to see.

Johnny Roscoe All that work you have done and no pictures to share ??? Leme help you out here put the Camera on the charger !!!!! 

Daddy1 I just cant wait to see this build. I like you idea of black too, it would look very sinister, evil even.

While waiting for paint and glue to dry on another build I am trying to get finished for the NMF group, I was listening to the air races from Reno and decided to pull out my Laird Solution kit and take a look in the box. Figured this would be a fun fairly easy build after my last 2 nightmare builds. What I found was no cockpit parts in the kit, loads of flash to be cleaned up, a bad mismatch between the top and bottom of both wings, geeze ....... So as I said while listening to the race and duely motivaited I got out my files and polishing sticks, a fresh glass of ice tea I set to work. Heres a picture of what I started out with.

Also looks like I will have some seroius filling to do around the wing to fues joints too. But my build has offically started, well one of them anyway

kg4kpg wrote:

Okay, three more pics.  Got a coat of red paint on, cut off the rudder to off-set it a little, coat of future and most of the decals.  Typical old Monogram, they were a lttle hard to get the bubbles out and they are a bit transparent.  Not sure if I'll ad some white paint to improve them or not, they don't look horrible and I'm usually happy OOB.  Going to do a little more on the engine as well, little weathering and so on.  Here ya go.

 Looks good. I have this kit in Navy or Army Air Corp markings . Looks like it would build OOB into a very nice model. I may use  mine as a decompress build from the F-82. Would probably go with one of the teams using Military markings so it would still look at home next to my WWII warbirds. Any issues with the kit I should look out for?

Kg,

Nice work on Miss Behavin.

Looks like I may have found my build for this group.  Now to scour airliners.net for more pics of her.

daddy1 wrote:

Looks good. I have this kit in Navy or Army Air Corp markings . Looks like it would build OOB into a very nice model. I may use  mine as a decompress build from the F-82. Would probably go with one of the teams using Military markings so it would still look at home next to my WWII warbirds. Any issues with the kit I should look out for?

Thie Monogram T-6 is one of my all-time favorite kits and even though they used the red plastic on this version, it builds same as the silver or grey plastic releases.  I like the Italeri T-6G better though.  The decals are the worst part of this kit, a little clear but I don't think I'll paint over them as it doesn't look bad.  I can't attest to the accuracies of this kit since I don't care about that, but it builds nice in my opinion.  Just watch the seams.

Randy,

Thanks for the link to that brand. It appears they have a nice selection overhere at the dutch aviation megastore wich is nice to know.

After my C47 for the NMF group you just might find me knocking at your door for a place here in the Race Group. Maybe Red Baron, maybe Critical mass... First im gonna get myself familiarized with the Reno races as we don't have things that going here across the pond, only the Red Bull airraces.

Lewbud Great subject you have chosen ! Yours will be the first jet build in the group I think. Can you let me know the scale and what kit you will be using so I can list it on the front page ?

Simpilot34 I will be more than happy to keep you posted on issues with this kit. I also have 2 other Hawk kits waiting to be built, the Gee Bee R-1 and the Travel Air Mystery Ship. I think the Testers kits were made from the old Hawk molds so they will be the same. I am waiting for High Planes to come out with both of those kits Red Baron and Rare Bear in 1/48 so I can build them. I do have a Testers Bear Cat F8F in 1/48 I was going to build as Rare Bear but they may come out with that kit before I start on mine.

Kermit Here are a couple of links to some vids you might like The first one is Steve Hinton flying the Red Baron for a speed record back in 1979. His son Steve jr won the unlimited gold at the Reno Air Races yesterday. Its a pretty cool vid with lots of realaited links, I spent a couple of hours this morning browsing them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO87ssbtY48&feature=related

This second one is of young Steve Hinton getting his license to race Strega this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rbz4IwVbj4

Enjoy my friend And anyone else who wishes to see them.

Randy,

The kit will be the 1/72 Eduard kit.  Don't know where I'll scrounge the decals.

Richie,

If you're going to do RB-51 by High Planes, get a Hasegawa P-51D as well (at least in 1/72).  It will provide all of the poorly molded bits from the High Planes kit, which is most of the kit. 

lewbud wrote:

Richie, If you're going to do RB-51 by High Planes, get a Hasegawa P-51D as well (at least in 1/72).  It will provide all of the poorly molded bits from the High Planes kit, which is most of the kit.

Thanks Mate!!! Will make a note!!

 Alright, our little early deer season's over(got 2) and have a bit of time before oct. bow season starts, so I think I got a little something I can squeeze in. Cleaning up and re-arranging the war room the other day, some old builds were due for the scrapyard. I'm not quite ready to completely part with this F-15(mono), I built it about 10 yrs ago, the build itself is decent, but the finish and weathering just doesn't measure up anymore. So hopefully this "re-cycle" will put some new life in her and be acceptable for this GB.

 She will be "de-militarized", and I'm thinking gear up, in flight display. "Future-2020, World Air Race"

fermis wrote:

Alright, our little early deer season's over(got 2) and have a bit of time before oct. bow season starts, so I think I got a little something I can squeeze in. Cleaning up and re-arranging the war room the other day, some old builds were due for the scrapyard. I'm not quite ready to completely part with this F-15(mono), I built it about 10 yrs ago, the build itself is decent, but the finish and weathering just doesn't measure up anymore. So hopefully this "re-cycle" will put some new life in her and be acceptable for this GB.  She will be "de-militarized", and I'm thinking gear up, in flight display. "Future-2020, World Air Race"

WOOHOOO this I can't wait to see!!!!

Lewbud the front page is updated with your build the Delfin.

Fermis your Extreme F-15 build is in, have a feelin this one is gonna be good

Randy,

Just one problem with the update.  I'm building a L-39 Albatros, not the Delfin.

lewbud wrote:

Randy, Just one problem with the update.  I'm building a L-39 Albatros, not the Delfin.

Lewbud Sorry about that the front page has been corrected. And thanks for letting me know.

Well I suppose it's time to start building. I have been in a slump the past few months. First I need to decide what to build first!

Wow... that's a nice selection!

bigfoot01 wrote:

I vote for this one... of course "Cobra I" should probably come first.  

 Have any of you out there seen this site? It's very cool, with lots of great old Gee Bee pics and info. Also a link to some other Cleveland Air Race pics.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/4515/index3.html

 A great walk around of the exact replica R-1 is in there too.

 Well, I've got her stripped down and rid of all things military. The vert.stabs were trimmed down and rounded off(along with the bumps and bulges removed) also clipped off the wingtips, rounded off and sanded to shape. Have a couple ideas for different flame jobs, just can't nail one down yet.

 Will be back next week, I'm flying(WOOHOO!!!) up north for another weekend of salmon on the beautiful Manistee river!!!

John, I vote for all of them!!

Howard, thanks for the link!!!

Fermis, looking good so far!!! Depending on the g's being pulled going round the pylons, I would have left the bullets on the vertical stabs. They are weighted and are designed to dampen the vibrations due to high g manoevures. Clipping the wings looks great!!!

fermis wrote:

I just assumed them bullets were some antenna of sorts. I'm also considering just a single vert.stab. (if I have a spare that looks good)

On the back end of them they were, one was a RWR, forgot what the other was. If you are keeping the speed brake in the same position, a single vertical won't work. The buffetting behind that thing would make it get unstable VERY quick!

Bigfoot01 I have to go along with Jmabx and vote for the Cobra II. I have never seen one that was flyable. Just my 2 cents worth.

Daddy1 Thanks for sharing the link. I have a Gee Bee R-1 in the closet waiting to be built. I did get to see the replica R-1 being built at Flabob airport along with a Gee Bee Z. The R-1 truly was a very small airframe bolted to a huge motor. It was built to origenal plans other than a few changes to make the air frame safer and stronger.When I saw it the R-1 it was very close to being ready for its first test flight. The Gee Bee Z was built for the movie studios, if memory serves me for the Rocketeer, but with a larger wing and tail surfaces so it would be easier to fly. Wish I had had a camera with me that day.

Salmon and Venison Steak BBQ at Fermis's airport office on Wednesday Nite !!!!!!!!!! Bring your own beer. Fermis I'll bring the cheesy hash browns.

Fermis Lookin good so far, just cant wait to see this one. I dont know but I dont think I would go with a single vertical tail. Just a thought Fermis I would maybe cut down the vertical tails and add a dorsel fillet for a sleeker look and would also help with stability I would think.

You know... these GeeBee racers fascinate me....reminded me of something ive seen in a scientifical mag years ago. Just did a bit of digging around and finally found what was in my mind all that time: the Stipa Caprioni, built and tested in the very early 30's:

There's only a slight resemblance now that i have seen both of the planes again but thought it would be fun to share this bit of useless info

Richard