Hall Bulldog Racer= Finished

Splendid work, Don! That tricky scheme is really an eye-catcher.

Well done, Don, it's lovely.

Wow that's a beauty Don.  Really turned out nice - and great photos as usual

It is finally finished!  The decals went on fine, once I realized I cannot use setting solution with them.  I usually add just a drop of soap into my decal solution as a wetting agent.  This time I used a q-tip to brush some of the decal water across the surface where the decal will go, and the decal nestled down on the surface very well.  A slight daub with kleenex and it stuck down even better than with using setting solution on other decals.  The Micro Mark decals are extremely thin and the few air bubbles were easily scooted out with a q-tip.  The decals settled over rib  stitching and down into the control grooves beautifully.  In addition to the copy of the kit decals, I also made complete cowl quarters with the black part of the decal to eliminate a lot of hand painting.

It is now a race of time!  I had hoped to have this ready for Nordicon saturday.  Yesterday I realized that I had goofed on the wing decals.  Remember, I had lost my decals and copied them from a friend's decal sheet.  The kit only gives wing decals for the upper right surface (with reg numbers).  You are supposed to paint the other wings with a fancy design.  I decided I could do it with decals, so I replaced the numbers in the image, and got a nice graphic.  However, I neglected to realize half of the decals must be mirror imaged!  I hurried and made mirrored images yesterday afternoon, and printed them out.  But I must wait three days to clearcoat them (slow dry of ink on decal paper).  That really puts me in a crunch.  I do not want to attach the cowl-engine-prop until the decals are finished to give me more access to the inside lower wing (struts limits access).  Today hope to get gears mounted.

jeaton01

That's the spirit!  Looks nice.

 

Tthanks, John.

Got most of the decal on.  I had been dreading this.  I lost my decal sheet and copied a friend's.  They have a lot of white in them.  I scanned a paint sample of the red and used it as my background color.  But the match wasn't perfect, so the edges needed to be cut very close.  I got better  with repetition, and the last few I did were great.

WB did not provide decals for the bottom of the wings, only the white strpes.  You are supposed to paint the black.  I felt I could make decals by modifying the image of the left wing top, by removing the registration numbers. I decided they were not good enough, so cleaned the image up and printed a new sheet.  But I need to let them dry three days before I can clear coat them, so it will be early next week before I finish decal work.

That's the spirit!  Looks nice.

Got my airbrushing problem fixed, and made more progress on the Hall.  I have now finished all painting (except final glosscoats).  As I mentioned before, I lost several parts, including decal sheet and wheel pants.  I had a buddy working on the kit, who lent me his decal sheet to copy and the wheel pants to make a mold from and resin copies.  I have started with the cowl decals.  In the kit the cowl decals are just the white stripes.  I edited the image to add the black area.  The replicated wheel pants are also shown.  I am waiting till fuselage decaling done before attaching cowl/engine.

I really like the look of this! I must see if I can find one here in the UK.

Sweet project (and congrats on the new compressor).

I'll agree with your comment on the WB plans. Haven't done a vast number of their kits over the years...but their sheets seem to be a combination of sometimes absurdly-specific information mentioned in the text part...with a lack of even the most basic drawings showing critical (and not always self-explanatory) assembly detail.

Anyhow, she's looking good!

I had also lost the decals, but scanned my buddy's sheet.  In studying the sheet I found the sheet lacks two  wing decals, the sides without the reg numbers.  I worked on my file last night to create those decals. WB give you paper patterns for masking decals, but I think decals are better.  I am also working to make the missing cowl decals.

I got my new compressor, and have working airbrushes again.

GMorrison

I missed it, what was the problem with th wheel pants?

 

I lost them.

BTW, received the new air compressor last night, but the thread on the output is bsp, not npt so I had to order an adapter.

I missed it, what was the problem with th wheel pants?

I have confirmed that the air brush problem that I am having is the compressor.  I have ordered a new compressor and it is due today.  While the white struts are coming along okay, I will now finish them up with an airbrushed coat.  The bigger problem is the nose.  The nose forward of the wings is black- the fuselage decals end where that black nose panel line is, and I do not believe I could hand paint that large an area.  That is why I had to order the airbrush asap.

I have successfully molded the wheels pants and am cleaning them up.  I have a coat of primer on them and hope to get first red coat on today.

Well, I am masking off to paint the struts, which need to be white.  I realize now I should have painted them before installing them!  Oh well.  I am just masking wings and forward fuselage.  I intend to wrap plastic wrap around aft fuselage and tail.  How many of you use plastic wrap when masking?

I think most of those racing planes were what we today would call a homebuilt. They were never built in production quantities- they were hand made.  Of course even production aircraft were pretty much handbuilt in those days. Actually they still are.

I have little to no knowledge of the Hall Aircraft Company. 

But this guy designed everything from the GB to the Gulfstream (while at Grumman).

Another interesting aircraft is the Cicada, the previous design for the Bulldog.

Bill

Tanker-Builder

Hi Bill;

 By All engineering Standards a wing Joining at a full right angle is indeed " Cleaner" It could, back then, result in more Speed. The truth was shown to me in the Application of a rudder to a ship. If two rudders were installed at right angles to the bottom, then steering was vastly improved as well.

    What always got me was those ridiculously tight fitting Cowlings. My Gosh I bet they ran Hot!

 

But they produce less drag. They acted as a ramjet engine. Not a very efficient one, but the thrust subtracted from drag.  By the time you got over 400, they did pick up more efficiency.

Hi Bill;

 By All engineering Standards a wing Joining at a full right angle is indeed " Cleaner" It could, back then, result in more Speed. The truth was shown to me in the Application of a rudder to a ship. If two rudders were installed at right angles to the bottom, then steering was vastly improved as well.

    What always got me was those ridiculously tight fitting Cowlings. My Gosh I bet they ran Hot!

Almost all radial engine cowlings were attached to the engine cylinder heads and could move independently of the rest of the airframe.  An exception is the last of the Staggerwings, the G-17S, which had it attached to the airframe.  The earlier model Staggerwing cowls were attached to the engine.

It sounds like a Townend ring.

Those were common on 30s aircraft like the JU-52, P-26 etc.

One of the things about aerodynamics that are almost counter-intuitive.

The airfoil design reduced overall cowl drag.

Bill

wow that red looks great!

The first red coat is a keeper.

Now all I have to paint is the canopy and landing gear.  I am working now on the molds for the wheel pants. (cowl is already painted).

A note about the cowl.  It has an indented ring that the cylinder heads fit into.  You cannot glue the cowl halves together and slip it over the engine.  I am glad I checked that!  Apparently the engine holds the cowl on.

I had lost the two horizontal tail planes, and the inside halves of the wheel pants.  I scratched the horizontal tailplanes.  A friend, Bob Maderich, loaned me his wheel pants to take a mold off.  I am still working on the molds and castings.

But I did get the new tail pieces on today.

I got a coat of dark red on today- it is still drying.  Pics tomorrow maybe.\

GMorrison

I"m not the rocket scientist here, but I seem to recall reading that when a wing joins a circular fuselage at a true right angle its "cleaner".

 

Bill

 

Yep.  The Bulldog should have been a clean bird- good aerodynamics.  It was not that successful, though.  Recently learned that Hall, the designer, was a former GeeBee pilot and had won a prestigious race in it.

I"m not the rocket scientist here, but I seem to recall reading that when a wing joins a circular fuselage at a true right angle its "cleaner".

Bill

I missed this one.  Great looking airplane.  Do you have to paint the black or are those decals?

My wife built a dollhouse that had almost no pictures and a lot of written instructions.  I was pretty amazed she finished it.

WillysMB

Wonderful! I love the Golden Age racers.

I'm struck by the design similarities to the I-15 and PZL series of Russian and Polish fighters.

 

Yes, me too.  And I like both of those.