AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

John, EXCELLENT work on the Turner Special!!!!! Love the IP and seatbelts!!!

Howard, those are the neatest Christmas tree ornaments I have ever seen!!!! Thats what I wuld be putting on my tree!!!!!

Randy, the seat belt material is wire bundle wrapping tape, I got it from a friend who lived in Seattle who said it came from Boeing.  Works good for larger scale seat belts. 

Howard, the airplane you saw was the one and only Turner Special, it has been with the Smithsonian since 1972 when Turner's widow had to sell the museum property which then became a parking lot.

bigfoot01- Great recovery on the Cobra. She looks sweet.

jeaton01- Looking good! I remember , years ago , there was a Turner Special hanging from the roof inside a hanger at Indianapolis Airport. We'd have to take my dad to catch a flight when he'd go TDY somewhere. You could catch a glimpse of it from the main terminal across the flightline. That Roscoe Turner was a character to say the least, lion cub and all.

 I'm not sure how many are familier with the 'Sky's the Limit' series of christmas ornaments that have been running since 1997. A neat line of detailed tiny minitures. Here are 3 from my collection.

First up, a Curtiss S2C-3, a Doolittle flown winner.

You know I just had to have this one. Love those Gee Bees

Here ya' go Randy, Laird Super Solution.

Finally ,a group pic with penny thrown in for scale.

I keep mine displayed all year . 

 BTW Will be spraying 1rst primer coat on the F-82 tomorrow and building the cockpit in the next week. New pics soon.

Jeaton01 The cockpit came out really really well, and the IP is spot on IMHO. The way you sandwiched the decal for the insturments is a great idea, looks very realistic to be sure. I will have to remember that one for a future 1/32 build. Wow looks like you have been having to do a bunch of sanding too. I gotta ask what you made the seat belts from, looks like some fabric wire insulation.

More pictures of the Turner Special.  The cockpit is complete and the fuselage is all together with most of the filling and sanding done, I hope.  (Yeah right, the whole front of this airplane is bare aluminum).  The engine I'm using is from a 1/32 scale Revell Wildcat, with the magnetos removed because the R-1830 in the Turner Special didn't have front mounted magnetos.  I added a housing on the bottom of the gear reduction housing and an ignition ring and wiring for the plugs.  The cylinders probably ought to be black, but I like them in the steel color.  The instrument panel is a decal I drew in Corel Draw and sandwiched under a plastic card front with the holes punched with a Waldron punch set, backed by another piece of plastic card.  I Futured the decal before I placed the front panel over it.

Cool we are gonna have another 51 in progress, can't wait to see it Bigfoot01. I finally started Miss America today, waiting for glue to dry on my F-104 build. Got the trimming done and base color on the cockpit, pictures comming soon.

Thank you all for the kind words. I was happy it turned out as well as it did. I am probably going to start one of the Musangs next. Once the replacement parts come in for the second P-39 I will start working on Cobra II.

Thanks again for the comments,

Big John - The Cobra I looks great! Now we need the Cobra II.

I love your little racer lineup. I've been wanting that Corsair for awhile. She sure looks pretty.

Daddy1Thank you for the excellent "How to NACA inlets" It is both well written and explained, I will be using it I can assure you. Cant wait for more WIP pictures or the F-82R so hurry up already.

Bigfoot01 SHUUUUWWWEEEETTTT BUILD!!! A fantastic save too, I cant see where it ever suffered the indignety of being run over by that mean nasty Cavalier. Love the group shot too, you have a nicely done field of racers there. Thanks for sharing them. Your build will be on the front page shortly where it should be.  

Howard that is some nice engineering there, looking really good and thanks for the detailed how to!!!! Great stuff!!

John the Cobra came out GREAT after irs resurrection!!!!!!!!!!! Could never tell the damage was there!!!!

Well here it is, my first entry in the Air Racer Group build! After a losing battle with the Orange Peel Monster and the rear bumper of a 2003 Cavalier, here she is: the Accurate Minitures 1/48 scale P-39Q flown to Victory by Jack Woolams in the 1946 Thompson Trophy Race.

 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

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. 

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.

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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 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