AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

some good WIP pics guys. Vetteman, like the biplane. and that scratchbuild drawings are just awesome!

here are some of the slow WIP pics of Strega. Ive been using milliput. It gets messy but I love this stuff, very very easy to sand and shape. These are some rough pictures and not the final master so bare with me gents. I still have to add more milliput to it, sand it and shape it. I'll keep you guys posted with more pictures later. enough rambling...on with the pictures I must!!

here is an early picture before cutting the fuselage. I cut the wingtips off and filled/sanded to a SMOOOTH finish.

These are of what it looks like right now after cutting the top half of the fuselage and putting milliput all over it.

Hope you guys like it so far.

Bret

vetteman42 wrote:

Yup 77 was a good year I was 22 than and having a blast, was my fav sprintcar race number too.

Showing your age there, Randy! Remove one of those twos and that's my age back in '77. While you were out having fun, I was still soiling myself.

Thanks Avadon and Simpilot for the compliment it was a fun little build.

Yup 77 was a good year I was 22 than and having a blast, was my fav sprintcar race number too.

Simpilot I have seen some of your work and something tells me your lil Laird will be looking much better than mine does.

Next up will be the mustang Miss America, see if my masking is up to the task. 

Beautiful biplane Vetteman. Love the black and gold and custom canopy. Looks Great!

 Plus I was born in 77 ;-)

I am callin my Testers Laird Solution finished, it was a fun little decompression build and I learned some along the way. My first scratch built cockpit, and for the first time, this one I rigged using beading wire. Over all I think the build came out well, so here are some pictures for you to take a peek at.

Thought I would toss in a picture of the Howard Ike with the Laird Solution for kicks. The Ike does look out of place without the rigging, I just might have to do something about that.

Thanks for looking and for the help with my build. As always comments are welcome.

Randy, thanks for the info and can't wait for the pics!!!

Howard, WOW!!! What an eye opener that is beginning to be!!!

Daddy1 Ohhhhhh thats gonna be a cool lookin F-82R. I can see where you would have trouble making up your mind between the NACA ducts or the standard type cooling system. As for myself I think I would lean more toward the NACA ducts for a more radical look to the racer.

Thanks for the complement on the Laird it has been a fun little build.

  Nice looking Laird ,Randy. I love those Golden Age racers.

Jeremy, I think your Spit 'pit looks great . Will have to try your seatbelt technique,I like it.

Avadon, awsome aircraft .

 Been tinkering with my Twin 'Stang racer. Here are some pics.

 It would have been a chore ,smoothing out the gear well roofs, so I decided to replace them with thin sheet and scratch the well detail. Also glued a piece on top of shell ejector chutes to make them easier to fill, and bits of stretched sprue to fill gun ports. Plus, I've filled and smoothed the walls of the gear wells.

This is what I've cut off the wingtips( about 2and 1/2 scale feet) , and radiator ducts from the bottem of fuselage and center wing sections . The latter cut offs will probably be used to help fill and shape the new underside. Still debating about recessing the radiators and going with NACA ducts or moving the cooling to center wing.

Couple of pics here give an idea how the final shape should look.

Avadon Thanks for the links. Not to worry I was just asking about the engines, many moons ago I used to make parts for the early Garrett turbo chargers. I also followed the Pond racer because I was interested in auto engines for aircraft, at one time I was building a Steen Skybolt and was thinking of using a chevy 350 to power it.

Simpilot Watch the decals on your Laird Solution, the numbers all have those old style pockets the decals are supose to fit into or you can paint them. The decal numbers kinda fit the pockets but the spacing doesnt match up so I ended up cutting the decals and putting the numbers on one at a time. The ones on the Howard Ike fit perfectly, go figure huh.

Guys my build is finished, just waiting for the final coat of future to dry and will have pictures posted tomorrow.

vetteman42 wrote:

Avadon WOW man !!!!!!!! your build is in, you have done some work there. Those are some very nice drawings you did and a very interesting design. Now being a car nut myself I gotta know, are you using the Garrett Turbo on the Toyota Lexus engine like the pond racer did ? If memory serves me right that engine was certified for aircraft use by the FAA.

Thanks Vetteman, :)  it's been a little while, but I think I remembered pulling up some WWII warbird or reno racer and using that as fictional spec's, of course I incresed them some. Cause in the plans it says Garrett (2) 1200 SHP Horsepower engines. Clearly when it comes down to the brass tacks i'm not sweating the details here. ;) Most of the design was for form and to look cool. 

There is some interesting youtube stuff on the pond racer. They had a heck of a lot of problems with those pond racer engines. Basically if the Pond Racer wasn't moving it was overheating. Anytime it was on the ground they had huge blowers pushing air into the intakes. When I was young I got to see it out at Mojave when I was with my dad. We decided to stretch our legs and walk around and look at the F-4's out there. (we were flying my fathers Cessna Chancellor 414) There it was on the ramp. Incredible aircraft and just amazing to be up close while they were running it. Though I think the future of twin engine racing is going to be using more conventional setup, but I could be wrong. 

Here is the 5 part video by Michael Schratt on the Pond Racer.. really worth watching.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY9oKb-SSh8

And here is a bonus.. P-51 low-level take off/flyby. Beautiful footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r9Is7J04gs

Avadon WOW man !!!!!!!! your build is in, you have done some work there. Those are some very nice drawings you did and a very interesting design. Now being a car nut myself I gotta know, are you using the Garrett Turbo on the Toyota Lexus engine like the pond racer did ? If memory serves me right that engine was certified for aircraft use by the FAA.

vetteman42 wrote:

Avadon Sure thing you are in and welcome to the group of speed freaks. Can you give me the name of the kit manufacturer you will be using as a base kit and let me know what catagory your build will be in ? Then I can update the front page with your build. Maybe even tell us a bit about your concept.

Ooops sorry I forgot to mention this is a scratch build..So Avadon's hangar is the manufacturer ;)  It's a Fantasy Racer. Luckily I have finished the plans. Technically the name is XTP-71A. But if I can't get the two seat cockpit right i'll have to throw out the two place part. lol

 3) Fanatsy racers would have to meet rules 1 and 2 but will allow for your own paint scheme nose art and modifications. Make it your own dream racer guys.

Here are the blueprints. (Caution: Actual model may very lol)

Hi Vetteman,

 Wow this GB has come a long way in just a short time. I definitely want in, this is right up my alley.

Can you put me down for  1/32 scale ORION XP-1  (Prototype/Experimental Air racer)

Two sets of WIP pictures you all have to suffer thru today from me This afternoon I decided to rig the Laird, started out using .007 dia beading wire. Bad idea for these not so steady fingers of mine, they made great pretzels though. So I ended up using .013 dia wire, worked out much better for me anyways.

Let me know what you think guys, what I could have done better.

Thanks for the tip on the landing gear Randy!!! Will have to remember that when I get around to my kit. Your 'Solution' is looking great!

Jeremy, ur spit is coming along nicely!!!! Looking forward to seeing more!!! Thanks for posting Guy's seatbelt technique with us as well!!

Randy - I made the buckles from some thin wire bent in needle nose pliers. Luftwoller (Guy) showed me how to make seatbelts. Mine aren't very accurate but they resemble something that should be there and that works for me. 

Hope Guy doesn't mind but here's the little tutorial he showed me for the seatbelts.

Luftwoller wrote:

Seeing as im in full flow, i did a quick toot for Jeremy with the seatbelts. Heres how i bodge em together. First you need an old cake tin, mmmmmmmcake. and some lead wire or copper. As long as its thinnish, 1stly cut a piece of the tin off and burnish it flat with the blunt end of your scalpel, next up cut a length roughly to size, (Good refs are vital) and add a half loop about half way, I then make the buckle. To do this i use my tweezers and bend the wire around them, a side at a time to make a square shap roiughly the same internal width as the belt width, this is then simply CA'ed to the belt over the half loop you made. I also cut the belt off to....err..belt shape and poked a few eyelets in it, then a simple coat of Tamiya Khaki and its done, The whole thing including pics, took about 10mins (And it shows) Take a little more time and you could have genius work in your hands. The good thing about using the cake tim, is the fun eating it, Obviously, and the fact you can bend and glue it easily. ...Guy

I use the thick aluminum tape for duct repair instead of the pie tin but it seems to work either way. Thanks to Guy!

You may have a problem getting those belts in there now Randy... that cockpit looks so tiny. Sucks that you had to strip the paint... I've never been able to get a good paint job out of a spray can but I see plenty of models in these forums that look excellent with a spray bomb on 'em.

Jmabx Your Spit is looking really good ! I really like your seatbelts, gotta ask if you made those buckles yourself or if they are AM.

Oh I have to admit your seatbelts have given me a moment !!! I have been thinking something is missing from my cockpit and low and behold I dun fergot the seatbelts, actually lap belts because I dont think these planes had shoulder straps sooooo, hopefully I can think of a way to fix that problem.

Thanks for the complement, the paint job follows the box art. I did find the Tamiya gold painted from the rattle can was a PITA. I can't paint enamels inside, and can't, or should I say am too lazy to drag my airbrush setup outside, so used the rattle can. The first coat of gold paint had to be stripped as I laid it on too thick (easy to do with that can) and it came out blotchy, the metal flake puddled togeather. So I stripped it all off and very lightly fogged the paint on, took 4 very light coats, and it came out much better

Randy - She's lookin' good! I really like the black and gold.

I finally started on the Spitfire MkXIVe and got a little cockpit action going on. I was going for a straight OOB build but I couldn't live with the fact that there were no seatbelts. I quickly cobbled together something that resembles a harness so that I won't fly out when I come screaming around the pylons.

So far this seems like a pretty decent kit. The cockpit was a little tricky to get together and looks alright when finished. A few wires and doo-dads added in there would really make it pop but I'll leave that for the next build... I want this one to be nice and relaxing. 

simpilot34 wrote:

Randy, I have that same kit so let me know of any other issues that I should worry about please. I have the whole series of Testors racers that I might just have to pull one of them out!!

Simpilot I am just about to call this Laird Solution finished, just need to future it, add the decals, gonna try rigging it, final coat it and call it finished. The only issues I found with the kit were like I told you the lower wing to fuse needed some putty. I thinned some testers putty and ran it into the gap, hit it with some 600 wet and dry and problem solved. The second problem was as usual with these small planes was the landing gear legs, they are very thin and long and locating them for gluing is a difficult task, well for me it is anyway. I always seem to get them on a bit off kilter, but made my best attempt on this one.

Here are some WIP pictures, I hope to have finished pictures up on Monday

Gotta come up with a way to get the gear legs on straight.

 Very sharp Texan you've got there, kg4kpg! Congrats on the first completed build. Love the all red.

 fermis- How 'bout a dark blue base color. Somewhere around the blue of the union on our nations flag. The paint scheme you described is similar to one idea I've got for my F-82. I'm a long ways from that point in my build, so it's not set in stone. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

 Man, I feel like I'm missin out! Beautiful 6 there kg4kpg!!!

My F-15 still sits, awaiting some work( very hard to pull myself away from deer season) Tryin to get out in the woods, and getting a few builds cleaned up and ready for the show next weekend(will be lookin for them 6's for you V-man).

 I've come up with a paint scheme(I think), Gloss black-overall, with U.S. flag(what else?)flames across the nose and leading edges, and my bands logo markings on the vert.stab.

 Still not quite possitive on the black. What color do you guys think would best go with U.S. flag flames?

Kg4kpg Sweet build !!!!!!!!!! It looks like the real Miss behavin !!! Did you use future for that nice finish ? The decals look painted on too. I was starting to wander what happened to your build and here it is Well done and our first complete build.

EDIT Your build is on the front page very well done.

Boy Chris... she came out lookin' great!

What did you use for the gloss coat? Nice and shiny!

She looks like a flying fire truck... love it!

Can't wait to see what you have in store for us at the Helicopter Group Build!