AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

John - I've been looking for the Sweet Pea and also the Midget Mustang. Would love to have those two.

Howard - I'll do a little scratching on this but I'll try to keep it simple. Clean-up on this old thing will be a chore for sure!

Randy - It was an ebay purchase. I save a search for "1/48 Pegaso" and something shows up every now and then. Sometimes you even find one for cheap!   I would like to have all of Benny Howard's racers in a line up... Pete, Ike, Mike and Mr. Mulligan. The only one you can't buy is Mike but from what I understand it is basically the same as Ike. Maybe just a matter of making your own decals.

a short update: I have finished basic construction (wings shortned 5 mm ech, gear widhened 2 mm each, made a "razorback" behind the canopy) So now I am busy puttying an priming.

Pics will follow shortly.

Borg R3-MCO hurry up man I cant wait to see the pictures !!!

Ok guys I have done some work on P-51D Race #11 Miss America. Its a Revell kit #4040, to be honest I am very dissapointed in this kit considering the other Revell P-51D kits I have built. The cockpit is all wrong, the fits are bad, will take a lot of sanding and filling, and the canopy isnt tinted as it says on the box. I was tempted to pull one of the good kits from the closet but decided to finish this one instead. So on with the WIP pictures.

Here's a picture of the box

Fuse together, I had to glue it in small sections using clamps and tape to get the seams close but still have some filling and sanding to do.

I did discover I will have to clip .625 off of the wing tips, the standard P-15 wingspan being 37 ft and Miss Americas span of 32 ft. So Daddy one your tutoral will come in handy as I has said. Again thanks for taking the time.

These next 3 pictures are of what I think is the result of a dirty mold, the holes, or should I call them creators, go almost all the way through. I did look at a bunch of pictures of the real Miss America, in fact all that I could find, and found no reason for these to be there.

With all the filling I have to do on this build and the troubles I have had with both Testers and Squadron puttys flaking off and not being able to feather it in very well, I decided to try some 3M Bondo Glazing and Spotting putty. As you can see I tried it on some sheet plasticard with no ill effects, It sanded fast, didnt seem to hurt the plasticard at all and feathered very well. I even bent the card back over itself with no cracks or chipping. Here's a picture after the bending.

And hey was only 4 bucks for a 4.5 oz tube, and it reached full cure in 30 minutes, much better than the putty I have been using.

Borg R3-MCO, It looks like you have your work cut out for you. Those divits look like they are simulated bullet holes. You might be better off building that as a shot up Mustang that just returned from a mission, and then use the decals on a Tamiya P-51 to save the headaches

Randy, glad you have discovered the benefits of bondo in the tube! Cheap and great to work with. I have used it for a few years now and love the stuff. The stuff is a nitrocellulose based putty and has a very mild melting action that actually bonds itself to the plastic. Sanding?? What a dream the stuff is!!!! The putty itself is very very fine and will fill, feather, and smooth out beautifully. That tube will last you for months if not years.

I decided I was gonna switch to my other model I was planning on building later in the year buuuut...I just recently found out Im being deployed in January for 8 months so Im trying something thats gonna be less time consuming and try to finish by the end of this month. These are just a few WIP pics of the Fury...Spirit of Texas.

Hope you like.

She's coming along quite well JR!!!!!!

@ Jonny Roscoe: your build is of to a good start, I like the extra details you added.

As for my build;
1) stil no pics, I have some camera troubles (nothing mayor, just the batteries)

2) I have primed, puttied, primed and painted my model. The surface is not up to par but it will have to do. I have painted the model bright green, just on of those colours which you do not use often but can fit a racer. I am going to put orange/yellow lightnings on the side! 

Jonny Roscoe Lookin good there !! Cant wait to see more of that Sea Fury. Do I have it listed on the front page ? I will have to check that. You are in the service Jonny ?

Borg R3-MCO are you teasin us with no pictures yet ????

vetteman42

Borg R3-MCO are you teasin us with no pictures yet ????

I hope I get the battery problems solved this weekend. Then I wil post some pics.

Here some more teasing: I have put the decals on, large orange lightnings on the side with race number 6.

Thanks Randy..I should be painting the wheel wells and pit later today after it warms up a bit here. Yeah Im in the USMC.

Semper Fi,

Bret

Jonny Roscoe Can you give me the details of your build so I can post it on the front page ? Kit manufacturer and scale.

 Also Bret I wish to thank you for what you do for us and our country, you take care and return safely. I wish I could shake your hand personally.  If you are gone for 8 months you will be getting back very close to the end date of this group. So if you wish to finish Strega for the group I will include it in the group and be honered to do so after the end date.

Randy,

That would be awesome if you could do that. But its gonna take a long time though and my deployment could be extended, which I really hope doesn't happen but there's that possibility. I took the cowling off and Im scratch building the entire engine compartment and with limited resources out there on this bird its gonna take a while for me to finish her. probably wont finish her in 2010 but who knows I might come along someone that has a lot of pictures of what I need. As for the Fury, its Fishers 1/32 Sea Fury. Thanks bro!!

Semper Fi,

Bret

OK, I solved the camera problem and I finished the build!

Here are two more in rpogress shots:

And now the finished article:

Not my best build quality wise, but I like the way it turned out.

Borg R3-MCO glad to see you got your camera issue solved, because now we get to see your very nice build. I really like it, and think it turned out great ! What did you use for rigging ? After seeing all the golden age racers in this group I am thinking a flight line of 6 or 8 of them parked on a tarmac would be really cool. Your build will be on the front page shortly, again very well done.

Jonny Roscoe Its the least I can do for one of our service men, so take the time you need to complete the build and do come back safe Sir.

Bigfoot01 I will continue the build with this kit, have to beat it ya know, and besides I already have plans for the better kits. Just wanted to let others know this is not a very good kit. I got most of the filling done and have more sanding to do, then will tackle the wingtips. That should be interesting.

Borg I have to admit, at first, I thought how could you and what are you doing???? However, I see the finished product and went, WOW that looks really really nice!!!!! WELL DONE MATE!!!!!

Nice job, Borg.  It has a sort of Italian look to it.  See you around the pylons, look for the guy ahead of you in the Meteor!

Thanks for the positive feedback. I am happy with the layout and look.

Jeaton01: From sone angels it does look a bit italian but from others it looks more like a I-16.

Vetteman42: I used nylon tread for the rigging. Second attempt at using this method, it wokrs ok but I am still no fan of doing rigging.

Heres some pics I took last night of the finished IP. I got the pit painted and Im happy with the outcome of it! All that needs to be done now is the seats and then she is ready to be installed.


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I'll have some more pics soon tonight if my camera battery doesnt crap out on me AGAIN!

Jonny Roscoe very nice work on that IP. I dont know how you guys manage to capture so much detail on them. Ohhh more pics this evening ??? I will be waiting for them

Borg - I like your little racer! The P-26 never looked so good!     Where did you say you got the decals from?

Jonny R  - That instrument panel looks great... nice work! 

Johnny Roscoe that office is looking great!!!!!

thanks guys! well I was gonna post a few more pics but Im stuck in a rut right now!! I have no clue on how to modify a certain area on the model so it might be a little while lol.

Jonny Roscoe Maybe you should post some pics of your problem here, someone may have an idea that will help you out of that rutt

OK so this is the rutt Im in....I've got to come up with a way to convert the normal exaughst panel of the original sea fury to this....

another view...you can see the diff. between the two. the spirit of texas does not have the fairing thats on the original fury. Sorry no pics of the orig. fury..just google it :P