AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

Got the decals on the Spitfiretron.

I'm kinda sorry that I went the polished aluminum route as the clear film on the decals really shows at certain angles. I cut the clear film from the larger ones but wasn't about to try it with the small letters. 

Now I need to think about a wash, landing gear and tackle that dang canopy seam.

Well I am glad to see others are having better luck than I am.

I had the P-39 in my "paint booth" a.k.a. on a box on stool in my garage when my wife comes home and backs into the garage and bumps the stool over. She didn't notice anything unsual. I go out to find the empty stool and the P-39 strewn across the floor! Chunks of paint missing and the left door no where to be found. To add insult to injury, inspite of three light coats of primer, and two smooth coats of red, the third coat orange peeled horribly! I don't know what to do now. If I should try sanding out the orange peel, try striping it, or throw it out and start the second P-39 that was supposed to built as "Cobra II". I will have to come up with a new left door and a new canopy since the existing one is cracked lengthwise and has a chunk missing. I normally do everything by brush, and for projects involving difficult colors like large areas of red or yellow use rattle cans. Just when I was getting back in the swing of building again!

Jeremy, the Spitfiretron looks awesome!!!! Beautiful finish with decals!!!

John, I will see you at dawn.

Hey guys,

haven't been around in a while...  Eagle scout project (now finished) and school took up a lot of building time....

well, I'm back at it!  Here is the victim:

Oh yeah, finally got around to getting a new camera.  Pictures from now on should be much better.

Also, here is some work I did with the spinner to close up the cowl and streamline the front end.  More pics to follow later:

Jon:  Oh jeeze... I thought what happened with John Sharp's craft was bad...must've lost power on the takeoff rollout...  But hey, keep at it!  The cockpit (or what I can see in the picture) looks GREAT!

Cheers, 

-Chris 

EDIT:  Oh, nuts...  A curse on all your houses, the pictures didn't show up!!  May take me a little longer than I thought to get these up...

Sorry guys.

Cheers,

-Chris

Fermis -GGG (Great Galloping Ghost). The wash adds a nice nostalgic feel. I like to use my daughters watercolors with a drop of dishsoap in the water. Some of those paint sets have many colors . Greys, browns, of course ,black and white. I find the Crayola brand has the richest color and quality ,but Rose Art works well too.

Jeremy- The Spitfiretron looks striking. Definately need shades to view. Can't wait to see how a wash sets the panel lines against that shine.

John- Makes me want to cry. Probably the first call for the new ambulance. Hang in there.

Chris - Darned ,new fangled electronic gadgets. I'm sure it looks great.

 Here's a couple pics of the new carb air intakes  and cylinder head bumpouts. They still need a little more spot filling.

 Note I've cut out the flaps to drop them down and also will droop the elevator a touch. Ive also blended the back of the cockpit opening a bit more. Almost ready for a first coat of primer.

 Thinking of a small vignett display with a couple ground crew polishing, or maybe pilot and crewchief preflighting , or something . Not a lot, just a figure or two in coordinating team jackets to bring the display to life.

daddy1 wrote:

Wow, scratchbuilt NACA scoops! You rule, dude!

Kev

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Attempts at a wash have failed. If I mix a wash up thick enough to show, wiping it off scratches the paint surface. If I mix it thin enough to flow in the panel lines, it doesn't show due to the shine. I should have sprayed her with future but I was afraid I would lose the polished look. I'll try again on the next one... promise.

John - Don't give up hope man! Try contacting Accurate Miniatures for a replacement canopy and door. May cost some but beats throwing out the kit. I wish I had a spare for ya.

Howard - Niiiiiice!

Jeremy- You may have to build up the color in the panel lines with thin water color paint , very lightly wiping off each coat with a damp, soft(very soft) brush between coats. But, if you feel that would still scratch the shine? Don't. The shine of that finish shows the panels nicely.

MIflyer- Thanks Kev. They took a little figuring and attempts to get them to look right. Just wait till I do the larger ones for the radiator inlets on the undersides. 

 First I'm going to finish off the bodywork and 1rst prime the model. Then scratch build and kit bash the cockpit from the underside then I'll tackle the radiators, inlets, and cooling exhaust. After that I'll finish off the shaping and smoothing of the undersides of the aircraft. Followed by another coat of automotive sanding primer. I'm going with a look of most panel lines having been filled and smoothed to reduce as much aero drag as possible.

Randy- I would like to add 1/48 Revellogram T-6 to this build. I'll use it as a nice decompress build after the F-82 and my Lib. It will be OOB except for paint and markings. I plan on it being a companion piece to the Daddy 1 race team. The twin 'Stang will be my ride and the Texan will have my daughter as pilot. It may be a little while till I get a start on it and I plan on involving my girl with the actual building, doing some off the painting and gluing with my assistance. Maybe a Jimmy Buffett themed "Little Miss Magic" . Should be a hoot. I know she'll get a kick out of it.

I've started work on the Turner Special.  It's an old Lindberg kit that will need a little help, but the fuselage and wing shapes are workable.  So far I have filled in most of the fabric detail on the fuselage and removed it from the control surfaces where I will add subdued rib detail later. 

The cowl has had some reshaping done, the original has a slight onion shape in the forward 2/3.  Lindberg did it as one piece with a straight taper largest at the rear.  The propeller has had some work.  I removed all the blades from the hub, and then added various plastic tube and spares bits to replicate the early Hamilton Standard two part bolt together hub, the 3 blade counterweight mechanism, and the front external piston.  The blades had a concave rear surface and they necked down too much near the hub so plastic card and putty were used to reshape them.  They still need sanding to shape in the photos.

I built an interior structure in the cockpit area.  I have pretty good references, mostly an article by Ken Wilson in the June 1974 Wings magazine.  Plastic rod and sheet and a throttle quadrant from the remains of a 1/32 Monogram Mustang left over from 1968 were used so far, with a few more details to add, in addition to an instrument panel yet to come.  The seat is all from plastic card.  Usually I don't have enough patience for all this, but in the large scale I am having a good time.

I'm doing the decal on my ALPS printer, double duty here because a friend and I are also bulding 1/5 scale R/C models of the airplane.

Nice scratch building, John! I can't wait for the final results... she's gonna look mighty fine.

I'm calling it on the Spitfiretron. The Academy MkXIV is a great kit to build. Not a Tamiya or Hasegawa but simple and fun with a good fit and no hassles. I'm definitely going to pick up another in the future.

A little overkill on the shine but she's lookin' pretty good nontheless...

Hope you like her.

Now... just need to figure out what will be my next victim.  

Jeremy she looks like the true thouroghbred that she is!!!!!! Stunning build mate!!!!!

Howard, 'Little Miss Magic' sounds like a pefect name!!!!

John, that is some beautiful scratch work on the turner special!!!! I remember seeing an article with drawings about the 'Turner Special' in an OLD Air Classics issue, believe it was circa 1978-79. Thats where I got the drawings to do this. I drew it in Zscale (1:220) over 23yrs ago!feeling old...er now

Sorry I havent been around for a few days guys, had a few bad days goin there. Wow lots has been happenin too !!

Bigfoot01 Come on tell me it aint so, thats trick photograffy right ??? Maybe you can get replacement parts from the manufacturer ??

Daddy1 nice work on the NACA carb intakes !!! Now all I have to do is figure out how you did it. The anticipation of this build is just killin me ! Hey your Revell AT-6 is in and its an honor to have a father daughter build in this group. Love the name "Little Miss Magic" too, it really fits a build like this one.  You are a lucky man my friend.

Jmabx Oh my goodness the finish is just awesome ! Good thing I have my welding glasses on . Really though I think the finish is perfect, the panel lines show up very well, I think a wash may have made them stand out too much for a racer. That is one sweet Spitfire I like the markings too very very well done. Now you do know you have made life hard for me, I just cant make up my mind which picture to put on the front page. Maybe the second one, help me out here guys.

Jeremy, I think you are going to enjoy showing that one off for a long time, it's a beautiful model.  A racer cannot be too shiney, can it?

Richie, I looked through my Air Classics index and didn't find anything on the Turner Special.  Could you have seen the Wings article I referenced?  It has very complete three views by Ken Wilson, though they do err in a few places.  Your side view looks spot on.  Most goof on the windscreen and cowl to some degree.    To my prejudiced eye.

Hi everyone,

OMG, these builds look terrific. Beautiful work gents. Especially the spit turned out smashing! One cannot help but admire such a flawless paintjob

Regretfully i have to announce i am pulling out of my LA5... It was too small, too basic and i kind of screwed up the painting... i guess im not able enough to mask pinstripes in multiple colours on a 3.5 inch long model

The idea of a racer model still attracts me though... i am going to think about a new, better and bigger model to build in time. Right now im concentrating myself on other builds.

My sincere apologies and i hope i don't dissapoint you guys...

Richard

kermit wrote:

Hi everyone, OMG, these builds look terrific. Beautiful work gents. Especially the spit turned out smashing! One cannot help but admire such a flawless paintjob Regretfully i have to announce i am pulling out of my LA5... It was too small, too basic and i kind of screwed up the painting... i guess im not able enough to mask pinstripes in multiple colours on a 3.5 inch long model The idea of a racer model still attracts me though... i am going to think about a new, better and bigger model to build in time. Right now im concentrating myself on other builds. My sincere apologies and i hope i don't dissapoint you guys... Richard

John could you show a shot of the cover of that mag and I could tell you?

Richie, here is the cover and one of the drawings from the article by Ken Wilson.

kermit wrote:

Hi everyone, Regretfully i have to announce i am pulling out of my LA5... It was too small, too basic and i kind of screwed up the painting... i guess im not able enough to mask pinstripes in multiple colours on a 3.5 inch long model The idea of a racer model still attracts me though... i am going to think about a new, better and bigger model to build in time. Right now im concentrating myself on other builds. My sincere apologies and i hope i don't dissapoint you guys... Richard

Kermit Thats a bummer man sorry to hear about the LA-5 . Maybe you can save the build with another paint scheme ?? If not shall I leave you on the front page as a TBA build ?

Jeaton01 man I wish I had seen your scratch built cockpit before I did the one on the Laird, my next one will be a better one. I am really impressed with your work there.

Well here is the Phoenix, I mean Cobra I. Just needs some minor paint touch ups and decals.

I sacrificed my Cobra II kit for the canopy and doors, I will need to come up with new ones for that kit. Anybody know of an AM set available? All I can find is for the Monogram kit that only has one door and Acc. Min. no longer provides replacements. I sanded the orange peel until it was smooth and resprayed it. It still isn't as smooth as I would like it, but I am afraid it's the best I can do with a rattle can in my cold garage. On my red P-51 I will stick to brush painting as thats what I am good at.

Next pictures will be of the finished product, unless wife runs it over again

Jeremy - The Spitfiretron turned out beautiful. I was watching some dirt track car racing on the tele. over the weekend and there was a car skinned in polished aluminum. Almost looked like chrome. Made me think of your Spitfire.

 BTW, Those are the props I want to do for my F-82R. They're awsome. Of course on the twin 'Stang ,they'll counter-rotate. Would look way cool. Thanks for the idea..

John-Nice recovery on the Cobra. She's looking fine! I too, hope you can find spares for the donor. 

Randy- I only took a couple pics of the NACA scoops in progress, but I'm working up a couple sketches that hopefully explains how I did them. Will post them in a couple days.

 The Texan will be a fun build . One of Monograms nicest efforts. I'm going to give Emma some more time with a paint brush, the air brush, and introduce her to appying liquid cement and some other tasks .I'll be doing most of the detail painting.But, I plan on having her do alot of the base color painting . 

 Haven't worked on mine in a few days. I've been taking a turn making some more progress on Witchcraft. Plus ,a cute little 6yr old witch was just itching to go trick or treating on Halloween. That was fun . She made quite a haul. 

 God Bless

Howard

Jmabx Finally decided which picture to put on the front page and posted it there this morning. Thats an AWESOME model you built.

Bigfoot01 WHEW !!!! Great save on the Cobra cant wait to see the finished pictures of it. Maybe you could hide it in the fridge so it wont get run over again ??

Daddy1 Thanks I will be looking for your sketches then, would like to give those NACA inlets a try on a build soon. Oh those Spitfire props would look great on that F-82R just the ticket I think, and being as they will be contra props they should look wild.

Kermit sorry to hear your build didnt work out tis a bummer. I did change your build on the front page to TBA.

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Randy - Thanks for throwing her up on the front page... I really like that picture.

John (bigfoot01) - I read that the Accurate Minitures P-39's are from Eduard. Maybe you can contact Eduard for a replacement canopy? Worst case scenario, pick up a cheap Eduard "weekend edition" on sale from Squadron or something like that and rob the clear parts. I hate to see a nice kit like that go to waste... beautiful paint scheme. 

 Here are the sketches of my NACA scoops. I've also thrown in the only 2 pics I took of the procedure. When I do the radiator scoops , I'll take more step by step pics. Kind'a spaced it this time though.

 I first cut a small opening for the scoops to lead into, the width of the scoops . Then I tried carving the curved shape into the plastic but eventually cut a straight ramp as shown in the top view. The side cross section shows how the ramp leads down to the opening.

I cut strips of thin plastic for the side walls of the scoops a bit taller than the scoops. Then glued one end of each to the sides of the opening and let dry overnight.

 Next, I fashioned a spacer jig ,glueing 2 toothpics side-side and another centered over the top. The jig could be made varying sizes depening on the size of the scoop.Make the top/centered part of the jig the length of the intake ramp.

 With jig in taped in place , clamp sidewalls to spacer at rear of intake, then at narrow forward end ,clamp sidewalls to the spacer.

 Make sure sidewalls are all the way against bottem of ramp and run a bead of liquid cement( I use Testors) along the bottom edge of side walls and verify the sides are firm against the bottem ramp of the intake. Again, allow to dry overnight.

 Next ,fill in between out side of the sides and the sides of the original ramp. When dry, trim sidewalls flush and add small piece of sheet plastic to cover the opening in kit and give a top lip to the intake. Sand and smooth.

This pic shows my spacer well. the side walls are in place but only glued at the aft end of the intake. I used a couple shims at the aft end to keep the sidewalls firm in place.

Here you can see how I clamped the sidewalls to the spacer to hold the shape while cement dried. One thing to look for here is the narrow forward end is centered

 I hope I've explained it clearly.It's not an overly difficult operation. But, anyone with refinements to this process , I'm all ears.

 God Bless ,

 Howard