Jb65rams

Mine arrived today. Looks good. I am going to build it in the Prototype, Racers, Research,Record Breakers and Special Schemes GB that is just starting.

My entry in the prototype category is Xtrakits Saunders-Roe SR.A/1. A jet propelled flying boat fighter. This was a surprise announcement/release last weekend. It is a subject that has always interested me so I. The postie just delivered and it is going straight on to the bench. Initial impression, it is a big aircraft. In addition to the plastic, the kit includes some etch, a mask set and some 3D printed decals for the cockpit. Looking forward to start this one.

Sprue shot Initial thought is that quite a lot of cleanup is required on flash and mold seams. Also might need a bit of filler. Made a start on some of the sub assemblies.

Rigged with EZLine. Was a relatively straight forward process using the molded in fittings. Was then just the simple task of fitting the engine. With that I am calling it finished, will am to take some better pictures for the gallery over the weekend. A thoroughly enjoyable build of an aircraft from the golden age of flight.

As my first planned build is the Hall’s Bulldog Air Racer, I need something for it to race. So my second entry is another Williams Brothers 1/32 racer, the Laird Super Solution. From the Williams Brothers website “Designed by Matty Laird in 1931, it was designed to minimize all frontal area to reduce drag and obtain the maximum possible speed. Rolled our of the factory just 5 days before the Bendix cross country race- from Burbank,California to Cleveland, Ohio. The plane had some initial stability issues, but they were corrected overnight. Jimmy Doolittle took the plane and flew from Lansing, Illinois to Burbank for the Bendix race! Immediately, he was off for the race to Cleveland, which he won with an average speed of 223mph, but he immediately refueled and went on to Newark, New Jersey to set a new coast to coast record! And then, he refueled, and flew back to Cleveland to enter the Thompson Trophy Race-a total of 2882 miles! Alas, the trip was too much for the engine, and after an early lead, he had to drop out in lap 7.”

Making slow but steady progress. Started decalling before final assembly. The 3 colour prop tips where provided as decals. Tried them but didn’t like the result, I struggled to get them to wrap the tip, they just fractured, so stripped them off and broke out the paint and masking tape. Finally beginning to look like an aircraft.

My first entry is Williams Brothers 1/32 Hall’s Bulldog. An air racer from the 1930s. From the Williams Brothers website “The Bulldog racer was the brainchild of Bob Hall, previously known for his design efforts on the Gee Bee Z with the Granville Brothers. It was built under a contract from Marion Guggenheim, who named the plane in tribute to the Yale mascot. Best known as one of the most beautiful racers of the 1930’s, Hall strongly desired to prove his design prowess in the ’32 Thompson Trophy race flying against his former employer’s Gee Bee R1 and R2, as well as the Wedell Williams contenders. Without enough time to work with a newly introduced variable pitch prop, the engine did not develop performance horsepower and he placed a disappointing 6th place, yet still earned a his place in aviation history for the effort.” If you are interested further information can be found here http://www.airracinghistory.freeola.com/aircraft/Hall Bulldog Racer.htm

Whilst looking for a bit of background on my proposed entry, I came across this site on the history of air racing which I thought I would share with you. http://www.airracinghistory.freeola.com/index.htm

I would be interested in this. Was planning a French Schneider CA Tank for the proposed “The stuff you wouldn't want to go to war in” GB. It still sitting in the stash. Wiki has the following to say about the Schneider. “The vehicle was considered a very imperfect design, because of a poor layout, insufficient fire-power, a cramped interior and inferior mobility due to an overhanging nose section, which had been designed to crush through the belts of barbed wire but in practice caused the tank to get stuck. The first combat actions showed that the fuel reservoirs were prone to explode when the vehicle was hit by an artillery round. To remedy this the reservoirs were replaced by fuel tanks with a double wall, using a felt filler layer to absorb gasoline leakages. Furthermore, these fuel tanks, each containing 80 L (21 US gal), were moved to a safer position under armour though still outside the hull, in vertical rectangular steel boxes to the left and right of the rear door.” The earlier post about the K class submarine also reminds me I have one of them in the stash as well.

Red and Yellow surfaces painted. Main wing is only dryfitted. For an old kit, it’s proving a very enjoyable build.

The main sub assemblies have been completed and primed. For the yellow wing and red tail I am employing the power of pink.

Started work on the working feature of the undercarriage. Designed to work when you wind the propeller. Assembly was fiddly. The plastic to quite brittle, I tried it when assemble, it worked after a fashion, but the joints look very weak and seemed to be under a lot of stress. So I decided to fix them in the down position. You can see the large cog that forms part of the working feature sticking out of the side of the fuselage. Now I have fixed the undercarriage down I am going to remove the cog and fill the gap.

Small steps. Made a start on the cockpit.

Just to let you know I have not forgotten this. I have finished my entries in the F-5, Canadian and Blitzbuild GBs so now have some time to work on this. I’ve decided to build it out of the box and see if I can get the working undercarriage to work.

Thanks for all your kind words. An enjoyable build and nice to do something different. Total build time 9 hours and 19 minutes. Gallery update