Williams Bros. Schoenfeldt Firecracker

Looks really nice!

And finished! This was fun. The usual WB foibles, but this is an interesting aircraft. It could go 260 mph. in 1938. Owned by Bill Schoenfeldt and flown by Tony LeVier, later to be a famous Lockheed test pilot. That's not Tony there, but I added Roscoe to show scale. A small model even at 1/32 scale.

It’s looking great!

Looks beautiful!

Your little yellow racer turned out great, GM!

Nice saves on the decals and the canopy gaps.

She looks good, Bill.

Success! I was able to save the day with the decals. I always scan decals before use, and I've been able to solve a couple of additional parameters as well. Now just need to clear coat and stick on the breakables.

Hi " G " 

    I am in the process of Building the Sparrowhawk . The only other W.B. kit I have done was a C-46 years ago .It wasn't bad but not perfect either .You will succeed though ! T.B.

Nice save on the canopy.

Yikes about the decals, though.....

Bad luck, Bill!  I had the same luck when I was building my C-46.

Seems like it might be easier to make a new vacform canopy, the fit on the front looks pretty approximate too.

The following is not suitable for young children...

Even after appliying a coat of decal bonder before trying to soak them.

These were the extras I wasn't planning to use, and I scanned the sheet. I'll try printing new ones.

Whoa!  Now that's a seam!!! :-o

Here we go low, left and fast...

The canopy didn't fit at all.

The gap was about 0.04 so I cut a piece of plastic out of that thickness, stuck it in the gap, and traced the profile. Cut and sanded just a little oversized.

Painted to look like plywood.

Installed.

Don Stauffer

 

 

Greg

 

Having never heard of Williams Bros, I looked them up and they seem to be alive and kicking, no?

Interesting array of kits.

I'll be watching.......

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the originators sold out to the new firm.  They have promised to repop a number of the old kits, but it is sure taking them long enough to do it.  But I suppose getting the capital in the hobby business is hard.

 

 

Ahah. That explains why their website looks so new and robust. Thannks for the input, Don.

I'll bet you're right about raising capital in the model/hobby business. I'd never thought of that.

Greg

 

Having never heard of Williams Bros, I looked them up and they seem to be alive and kicking, no?

Interesting array of kits.

I'll be watching.......

 

 

Yes, the originators sold out to the new firm.  They have promised to repop a number of the old kits, but it is sure taking them long enough to do it.  But I suppose getting the capital in the hobby business is hard.

Gee, that sounds fun to fly. Interesting real-life info, I'd never have guess those things would be such a handful.

Having never heard of Williams Bros, I looked them up and they seem to be alive and kicking, no?

Interesting array of kits.

I'll be watching.......

Starting to look like an airplane.

400 pound engine up front on a 1300 pound fully loaded aircraft.

There's some info on the replica, flown by Gen (Ret) Pat Halloran.

With a Ranger engine, because the original Menasco Super Buccaneer is a museum piece.

275 mph. It could outpace the military fighter of the time in 1929, the Boeing P-26

No way to slip on the approach, it would snap at level flight.

 with any rudder.

No way to keep the ball centered, the nose always wanted to dive,

Gen. Halloran wore a parachute. It took him a month to fly the delivery.

Calling it a day. Lots and lots of flash, and the halves of the part sprue had slipped so every part has a step.

But it's shaping up. The edges of the wings and stabs are really thick, but I'm not really able to do much more than make them clean.

I can't find any period pictures of racing cockpits except looking forward. I assume the pilot at least had a seatbelt?

I've cut out the wheel wells and drilled out the oil cooler.

Aye, WB kits are wonderful little beasties that seem to often inspire stubborness in the modeler. With tender fettling and careful dry fitting, the results can be pretty amazing.  My Curtiss Sparrowhawk awaits my renewed attentions even now... best wishes on your Firecracker, I know you will do it proud!

Regards, Robert

I just recently put this together. There are some very notable seam lines and even differences on lines for each half of the fuselage. The rudder on my kit had different locations, thing didn't line up where the rudder met the vertical stab. It glued together but didn't actually match.
Also the fit of the glass to the fuselage needed a lot of filling, along with the wing.

Very neat subject matter, just needs some love when assembling.

That's another aircraft genre I really like from WB- their racing planes.  I have their Hall Racer in the queue to my bench- hopefully get on it this summer.