AIR RACER GROUP BUILD BECAUSE WE FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED

Miss America is looking great, nice work.

Stunning paintwork Randy!!!!! Really looking good now!!!!!!!!!

simpilot34

Stunning paintwork Randy!!!!! Really looking good now!!!!!!!!!

 Got a good coat of primer on Tantrum . Here are some pics after a light sanding.

 The scoops show up much better now, along with a couple spots that need a little more work around the inlet ramps as well as a few places that need a spot fill. For the most part I'm at the stage of prime , sand ,prime again, sand again. Till it's nice and smooth. The norm' for custom body work.

 Along the way , I'll drill mounting holes for the prop blades. Have a little template made to make sure I get a nice 5 point pattern. Just need to drill the holes straight

 Haven't drawn up a sketch yet ,but I'm cooking up a hot paint scheme idea ..Deep,rich blue base color. I plan on some long ghost flames in white, yellow, and red, coming back from the exhausts , with a tapered swoop of yet undetermined color, coming up from under the chin(s). The swoop will taper to a point near the tail while being centered in the flames. Incorperated into the swoop, will be the name Tantrum ,positioned under the exhaust stacks. Have some other little detail graphics I may work into the scheme, but that's the main pattern . Should be interesting.

Howard

Jeaton01, Simpilot, and Daddy1 wow complements like this coming for builders of your caliber is huge to me, I humbly thank you for your encouragement and kind words.

Daddy1 oh but she is looking good the primer really does give a good look at the scoops and spinners an........ That paint job sounds wild like her name I just cant wait.

Well the time has come I have finished Miss America. Here are her pictures I can only hope I have done a great racer justice.

I think this is the best paint job I have done yet and am quite proud of her.

Yup, I'd say you done her justice!!!!     MANtastic!!!!!

I too, can't wait to see "Tantrum" in all her glory!!!!!

    Wow... nice work Randy! She's one to be proud of!  

Jmabx thank you sir, I am glad you all like her.

Now for a bit of decompression with a fun little build, the Travel Air Mystery ship. I dont think I will do anything too fancy with this one other than the paint. Anyway here she is WIP picutres it the Testers 1/48.

Cute lil thang isnt it

Randy- Very nice Miss America. Looking forward to more of the Mystery Ship. Love those Golden Age birds.

 Now for some update pics on Little Miss Magic. Getting it figured out how to let her use the tools with my help guiding the work.

Emma and I are having lots of fun building the Texan. One of Monograms nicely detailed kits. It's almost falling together after all the scratch building I've been up to the past year.

Kinda' nice for a change.

First pics are of work on the cockpit and fuselage.

Gluing the carb air scoop on.

Drilled out the exhaust, which left a big hole to which I cut the end of the long exhaust pipe from the kit and attached inside the opening.Still need to smooth the inside of the exhaust.

The opened air intake. Added small scrap of plastic to form bottom lip of scoop. Also note the exhaust pipe on the inside of fuselage.

Painted firewall flat black for contrast when details are painted. The engine cylinders will be drybrushed with steel . Learned that trick reading FSM. I think it looks better than a wash to add depth to radial cylinders.

Drybrushing followed by the the results.

Current stage of constuction Emma helps with removing parts from trees, parts cleanup, painting whole parts, gluing, and some of the less precise detail painting.

She really likes having a hand in this. Her plane.

Base color for both racers, it is a race team after all. Daddy 1 Racing LOL.

Going to do some kind of classic scallops ( maybe a modified Gee Bee scallop) in Blue Frost pearl with Dusty Rose pearl out line.

Got some new sheets of blank decal paper . Now to put together a set of sponser logos,etc.. to go on both racers ,then print them up.

 Tantrum is coming along, waiting for coat of primer to cure couple days before another sanding. Getting into the fine grades of sand paper to smooth it out.

 TTFN, Howard

Daddy1 First off I have to tell you how much I envy you building with your Daughter. Little Miss Magic is coming along nicely and the detail is really popping. Love the work done on the cockpits

Also Howard thanks for the complement on Miss America. I also love the golden age racers and have the Gee Bee R1 in the wings too waiting to be built.

Howard, Little Miss Magic is coming along nicely!!!!! Love the shots of Emma helping out on her plane!!! The colors are going to look right IMHO!!!!

Here's some update pics on 'Miss Magic. Emma and I have the wings and elevators attached plus some other work done. She's actually getting the hang of using the liquid cement, just a little fine motor control help to put the brush right where it needs to go. She even remembers to touch the the side of the bottle to wick off excess cement from the brush. Some great memories for both of us, and especially for her to carry the rest of her life. She loves Mommy but definately a Daddy's girl.

 BTW- Discovered a neat way of taking candid shots like these. Just set up the digital camcorder on the tripod ,then capture photos from the video.

 Current stage of progress. Assembled wings and tail fins attached. Still need to clean up seams though. Also notice base coat of chrome silver on exhaust manifold. I'm going to weather with washes of blue, purple, yellow and maybe a little rust. Similar to the weathering I did with my Witchcraft turbos,though not as extreme. Magic and Tantrum are highly maintained race/show planes and would not show much in the way of wear or dirt and grime. I've noticed everyone else is also keeping weathering to a minimum on thier racers.

Check out the cool color coordinated engine daddy built for his girl. Got the idea looking at a pic of the engine on Two of Hearts. I painted the gearbox and crankcase Blue Angel blue. Then I got to thinking of the race and show cars I've seen with colored ignition wires. Why not on an airplane too.

 Used white polyestor thread dipped in Testors neon blue then the excess wiped off on a paper towel. Took a second coat to get the color right but I love it . If one were to give a Texan a custom look, colored ignition wires are a way to go.

Just couldnt resist a mock up/test fit with the motor and cowling.

 A detail pic of the exhaust stack with its base chrome silver. I'm glad I opened it up . I also noticed a subtle depression in the cowl where the 'machine gun' used in training would fire. Filled and will sand smooth.

 Had a little set back with Tantrum. Ran out of the Duplicolor gray primer I'd been using and the store was out of stock too. Tried the Rustoleum brand. It went on too heavy , cracked and checked. Had to go back to a coarser grade of sandpaper and remove the offending layer of paint.

 Found more Duplicolor primer in a dark grey , atomises better and smoother .Turned out to be just a minor setback with a little spot fill in a couple places. . Was next to spraying white and then applying  color, now have to go back to the prime , sand smooth ,prime again stage , although not as much .

 That's all for now.

God bless,

Howard

Those are some great shots Howard!!!! Emma will be going solo soon by the sound of it!!!! The custom touch to a T-6 racer is the right stuff, love the colored leads and crankcase!!! Glad to hear it is only a MINOR setback/annoyance on Tantrum. Really looking forward to having some color!!!!!

Hey Randy, Shes a bute! I havent had time to get on the computer or model at that lately. You said you might have some pictures of stregas interior? I would like to see some of those pictures and see if they help. Until next time lads...Semper Fi!

Brett

Daddy1 man I gotta tell ya I am just plain jealous of the great time you are spending with Emma, life time memories like these are just priceless. I can see she is doing a fine job too. Love all the custom painting that has been done on Miss Magic, me thinks she will be living up to her name.  to Emma and huge to Howard you lucky Daddy, and a very lucky daughter.

Jonny Roscoe I havent forgotten you or the pictures I did find the box they should be in just haven't had time to go through it yet with illness and my sister visiting, haven't seen her in 5 years.

Jonny Roscoe I am both sad and a bit ticked off the pictures of all those aircraft are gone and no where to be found a half dozen airshows pictures, even a few rides I took, all gone . I did send off an email to Bill ( Tiger ) Destefini in hopes of getting some pictures for you.

I have a few WIP pictures for you guys, and a new build addition to the group. I hope it turns out as I picture it in my head.

The Travel Air is about ready for paint I just need to add the canopy and mask it.

The new build is the Testors F-5 Freedom Fighter that will be in the ultimate racer section, gotta give Fermis some competition ya know 

Come on up, I'll race ya!!!!!

Hehe i shoulda entered with my MIG, while not technically a racer it damn well looked like one lol

fermis

Come on up, I'll race ya!!!!!

Fermis sounds like a plan to me my friend

Scorpiomikey hey jump on in we do need another racer ya know

vetteman42

Scorpiomikey hey jump on in we do need another racer ya know

I would but unfortunatly shes already "finished"(waiting on roundels for the wings). unless i can just start posting WIP shots to make it look like im working on it hehe

Finally got the front page updated with my builds, about time huh

Scoripomikey would be a good excuse to build another ya know

lol i would, but it was a bit of a rare find to start with. I havent seen another like it anywhere since i bought it.

Finally got back to my little build the Travel Air Mystery Ship, the red is on so now for the fun part. Masking for the black scalloped paint job.

I think the frisket paper will be perfect for this job as it worked so well on Miss America.

Randy that is some smoooooth paintwork there!!! She's going to be a stunner!!!

Simpilot34 thank you sir, I hope it looks good when I finally get it finished

Time for another small update of my build. The P-51 Miss America I did, and now this one have me a firm believer in frisket paper as a masking medium. The tiny little Travel Air, for me, would have been impossible to mask  with masking tape. You can see thru the frisket paper and it cuts easily and cleanly with a sharp knife. All I did was apply the paper then ran my hobby knife along the engraved paint lines and it worked out well. Took me some time though as these eyes get tired fast and my hands get a bit shakey. Anyway here are a few pictures.

I hope to get another gloss coat on it in the morning and mask it for the dark green stripes tomorrow evening.

Looking good Randy!!!! Almost there buddy!!!

Nice work Randy!   I bought some friskit paper a while back but have never put it to use. I need to try it out!

How do you plan on doing the stripes? That seems like it will be tough!

Thanks guys this build has had me on edge because of the paint job on such a small subject, but all the nervousness was for not in reality. The frisket paper worked out very very well for me, although there were a few places where it was challenging to get it to stick, some careful slicing and trimming took care of that with a bit of liquid masking here and there. So all but the cockpit was masked using frisket paper. Anyway its a small WIP picture this time, but it has been a huge step for me with this paint job so I have to show it off a bit.

Just a few small touch ups to do mount the engine and cowling and main wheels, decals then clear coat again. Then the next challenge, rigging this little puppy. My eyes hurt 

Very nice paintwork, Randy.

Looking good ,Randy. I know the feeling about the tired eyes. I'm also dealing with old eyes syndrome. Nothing a magnifying visor can't help with. What do you plan on using for rigging in that scale. On my Williams Bro.s Gee Bees, I used florist wire. But they are 1/32 scale and that wire would be too heavy for your situation.

 I've also got a couple racers in the paint shop currently, and have also discovered the fun of printing my own decals as well as learning how to use the paint program on my computer. Will have some interesting sponsors on   Tantrum and 'Magic.

 Now for some pics.

My very first printed decal sheet. I'll have to reprint some on white decal paper or back up some of these with some scrap white decals. I also don't plan on using every one on the racers. Just started having fun with what can be printed and stuck somewhere. Already have the group build logos applied to my work desk.

Tantrum ,all masked , awaiting paint.

First color on is Testors, Colors by Boyd , Aluma Yellow pearl.

Second color is Color by Boyd , True Blue pearl. Next ,I'll outline the yellow with a custom mix red/orange.

  Next up, Little Miss Magic.

First, on with the Color by Boyd, Ice Blue pearl.

Then the True Blue pearl as the team color.

Next ,I'll outline the Ice blue with Model Master ,Hot Magenta. You can see a little of that started already on the left side of the fuselage.

Here's a side by side of the Daddy 1 race team so far.

I get past the paint and decals , it's just the landing gear , maybe a little light weathering, and fiddly bits.

TTFN Howard

Howard, the team colors look fantastic!!!!Can't wait to see more!!!!!