Testors (Hawk) 1/48 Travel Air Mystery Ship Pancho Barnes

Does the kit come with a figure? Would be cool to have Pancho with her airplane.

No figure but I will make a 2D one. These little racers are hard to get the scale without something to judge it by. I’m going to guess Pancho was 5 buck nothing.

EDIT: there’s a seated pilot figure but I’m not using it.

Who's the manufacturer GM, Williams bro's?

Oh never mind. I see it in the headding. Hawk, duh!

I built one of these last year.  A watchout - I put the thin black stripes on the fuse using a permanent black marker.  It looked great.  When I clear coated it with Future, the ink ran all over the place.  Frustrated with this turn of events, I quickly finished it and put it on the shelf, leaving off details I had planned to add.

BTW- there's an excellent documentary about Pancho on Amazon Prime Video titled 'The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club'.

It inspired me to build the model of the plane.

Yes I plan to watch that. I’ve also read that all the stuff shown being burned up in the fire has been found in a collection. 

Now this is a great little project idea! 

stikpusher

Now this is a great little project idea! 

 

I have that kit in the queue to my bench.  I will be following your build.  I also intend to do it in the Barnes livery.  There is a great book on her, and there was a video awhile ago.  She had a great friendship with Yeager.

Don Stauffer

 

 

stikpusher

Now this is a great little project idea! 

 

 

 

 

I have that kit in the queue to my bench.  I will be following your build.  I also intend to do it in the Barnes livery.  There is a great book on her, and there was a video awhile ago.  She had a great friendship with Yeager.

 

 

Before she ran the Happy Bottom Riding Club, she was quite the adventurer and Aviatrix. And she had a great friendship with a veritable all star line up of American aviation who’s who in the post WWII era: Yeager, Aldrin, Crossfield, etc. Her club reputedly got its name from a remark by Jimmy Doolittle. She crossed paths at one point or another with many of the great American aviators of that era.

Don Stauffer

 

 

stikpusher

Now this is a great little project idea! 

 

 

 

 

I have that kit in the queue to my bench.  I will be following your build.  I also intend to do it in the Barnes livery.  There is a great book on her, and there was a video awhile ago.  She had a great friendship with Yeager.

 

 

Fun to have all of your interest and input.

Travel Air Manufacturing Co. was an aircraft company in Wichita KS, founded by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman, Giants of the industry.

The Mystery Ship was a “dark” project designed in secrecy. In 1929 it was a 200 mph airplane. The original R613K had an in-line engine. Pancho had it converted to a radial with the NACA fairing like the other four in the class.

I picked up this kit at a booth in Reno in 2010, the last year I went to the races.

I watched the film just now. 

One thought is that she knew Paul Mantz, one of my heroes behind a prop.

Thanks for the reco.

Okay, this thread caused me to retrieve my kit from the stash and put it next to the bench.  Going to be doing a Google image search today on Pancho's aircraft.  As soon as Wasp is done, the TravelAir goe on the bench.

Wow, and I thought 1/48th Bf-109's were small. Odd, the airplane doesn't look all that small in the pic with Poncho, but as you said, her diminutive stature maybe does make the aircraft look smaller.

I'd never heard of Poncho, thanks for provided a bit of interesting morning coffee reasearch, and for sharing this WIP, Bill.

I was looking over the kit yesterday.  The engine is pretty impressive.  Some of those Testors/Hawk kits with radial engines have a pretty basic engine.  I usually replace the kit engine with a resin one.  This one looks okay- I will use the kit engine. 

I like those Testors/Hawk racing plane kits.  I have the Mr. Mulligan kit in my stash.

I had a chance at two hawk GB racer at the Polk Area Model Society show recently. Shoulda bought 'em. I'm going to look for a Travelaire. Even if I don't build them they look nice in the box.

It’s a painting but taken at face value it shows the ship with its radial engine fit (not its original fit but accurate for when she flew it) which matches the model, and a Townsend ring fairing around the engine. The model has the NACA long cowl, which matches its subject 614 but not Pancho’s 613.

More on that later.

It also shows flying wires from the top of the fuselage down to where the landing gear attach from below. Photos of the ship before she owned it Show solid struts, others with her in the photo show wires.

Cool project. Watching.

I applied the base color maroon.

Now to mask the scallops. The model has "recessed" lines around the demarkations. That should make masking a little easier.

Looking good.  Anxious to see how well those recessed lines help the masking.  I gave up on a GeeBee a couple of years ago trying to mask it- still have it on my shelf of doom- maybe thinner tape would help, or wonder about using frisket paper (HL now carries the latter).

Really great job so far!

I have one that I started years ago and could not figure out how to do the black trim with those recessed lines. It wound up in my storage box of doom!

I may need to get it out again---

Andy

Looking good so far.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with those scallops. I'm likely to learn some stuff.

Looks like the perfect application for a vinyl cutter, Bill.

Pancho bought the XR613 which was fitted with a Chevrolair upside down six.

Then she had the Whirlwind radial  installed.

The bottom photo shows the ship with a Townsend cowl, the upper with no cowl. Either is a good choice,

I made up some parts to assemble a riing.

I am impressed with now nice a kit it is- I think it is at least half a century old.  Not sure I will like the recessed paint scheme lines- will decide that after I see painting results.  But the fit, accuracy and detail are really good- except for cockpit.  But pilot figure will help hide that.

Just looked at my Mr. Mulligan kit again. Where the decals for the race number and "N" number would go, the kit has raised lines that would need to be sanded off. The Gulf oil logo appears in four places and is recessed. These would need to be filled. I really want to see how your Travelair looks after the second color goes on and know how you masked for the second color.

It's not the type of model where I care much to update the details. I masked by making a single layer of tamiya thin tape all along the demarkation, and running a sharp knife around the indented outline. Far from wonderful, but it works for me.