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Hi everyone, I'm starting to assemble this kit: by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr to make the Chester Special NX 93-Y “The Goon” Source: http://www.pilotspost.co.za A brief history: Built by Art Chester in 1938, The Goon, (Chester named his planes after characters in the Popeye comic strip) was the second plane built by Chester to compete in the National Air Races. His first plane, The Jeep, was a successful racer, but by 1937 it did not have the speed to compete. The Goon was a small streamlined racer that was built tightly around its small but powerful engine. At the 1938 National Air Races, The Goon, piloted by Art Chester finished a close second in the Greve Trophy Race, but he was forced to drop out of that year’s Thompson Trophy Race because of mechanical problems. Pleased with the performance of The Goon, Chester brought it to the 1939 National Air Races where he won the Greve Trophy setting a new record for the race at an average speed of 263.39 miles per hour. The aircraft was used after the 1939 Air Races in a 20th Century film entitled “Tailspin.” A red ring was added around the number 5 on the plane for the film. Bought and sold by several different owners and modified over the years, The Goon was finally purchased by the Crawford Collection in 1991 and returned to Cleveland. Source: Western Reserve Historical Society If you are interested here a video about the 1939 Cleveland National Air Race A quick look inside the box: by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr Any further information or picture is welcome.

Hello One and all... We have all heard of them and seen them. I checked and couldn't find anything like this before ? The closest was the record breakers group build a number of years ago. Anyone interested in a Group build that would cover 100 + years of Aviation, Automotive, and centuries of maritime. From the Cleveland and Schneider cup races of the 20's - 30's & 40's. To the Bendix races of the 50's and 60's. All the way up to todays unlimited highly modified WW2 thoroughbreds of Reno ! This would cover Bi-planes, floatplanes, one off civilian racers, jets, and of course completely modified warbirds, commonly seen at Air shows, car shows and every type of display. I would also allow for paper projects as well. There were plenty of aircraft that were designed for racing but never got past the drawing board. Either because of funding or war. You could do the Supermarines and Macchi's of the Historical Schneider cup's. Then there are the Gee Bee's of the Cleveland races. The famous Caudron racers of the 1930's would make wonderful additions. There are great ideas here ⬇️ for a start. So if anyone is interested please jump up and say so. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_racing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Cup https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Sailing_Barge_Match https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_racing#Other_categories I am adding auto and maritime racing seeing there is interest in it. So this would now include F1, LeMans, Indy-series, Nascar, NHRA drag racing, Baja, and Rally and anything possibly seen at classic and custom car shows. There is the Americas cup and a whole host of sailing and powerboat type racing as well. If anyone can think of something please let me know ? I have nothing against the idea of aircraft or boats or cars being built in fictitious schemes. These often change sponsorships and colors so anything is possible. If you want to build a Whif of a racer that is something i would consider as well ? Provided it was at least in the realm of possibility. Say an Bf.109, a Spitfire, a Zero or even maybe an F-86 ? As I am including Cars, boats, Aviation, and Whif's i will break it down at the end when i set up the gallery voting poll. Standard build rules will apply. No builds starting with more than 25% will be allowed in the gallery. You're welcome to work on them in unison with another build. All A/market will be allowed. There will be no restrictions on materials, so vacuform, resin, wood and whatever other materials you can work with will be allowed. No sales or trading openly here in the build threads. Please use the proper area of the forum for that. And of course above all else, please have fun if this makes it. Oh and if anyone has any interest in co-hosting I'm taking applications. 1) corsairfoxfouruncle Host 2) trickyrich Co-Host 3) Bengalensis 4) helios16v 5) vppelt68 6) Angus Tura 7) Brad 😎 uncletommy 9) Bonhoff 10zebra 11) Hockeyboy76 12) Jb65rams 12a) CliffB 14) Joel Abery 15) dnl42 16) TonyW 17) Colin W 18) Redstaff 19) Romeo Alpha Yankee 20) Wez 21) alt-92 22) nimrod54 23) Robert Stuart 24) Arniec 25) Ted 26) theplasticsurgeon 27) Jabba 28) stevehnz 29) HoolioPaulio 🏁30) Marcin Kaminski 31) Wimbledon99 32) Ottopv 33) TonyOD 34) Rob Lyttle 35) TimJ 36) Johnlambert 37) rossm 38) Marklo 39) Eivind Lunde 40) 41) 42) 43) 44) 45) Dennis

This is the old Hawk kit, in the Testors box with new decals. For a 1/48 kit it's pretty small. Detail is pretty much non existent, there is literally no interior to speak of except for a pilot figure holding a control column, but I have omitted him. The outline of the colour scheme is also engraved into the surface of the kit, so it's all been either masked and sprayed, or painted freehand. I knocked up a small base for it to sit on out of a picture frame and some floch.

The Comper Swift is a tiny but mighty air racer from the 1930s. The airframe in RAF Cosford was owned by Alex Henshaw - Mr Spitfire. The lighting was challenging as it was nestled beneath another aircraft but I was able to film from all angles. Julian has some beautifully lit stills in his walkaround section so please enjoy them too.

For those interested in such matters, following the Gee Bee and Kingcobra, Dora Wings seem set to release a Persival (sic) Vega Gull and a Proctor in both 1/48 and 1/72 scales. This could be great news for fans of air racing and record breaking flights as such famous fliers as Beryl Markham, Alex Henshaw, the Mollisons and many others owned Vega Gulls and there are a vast number of civil schemes for both types. Dora promise some interesting types for the future, including a Bellanca and in 1/72 a new Fairey Delta FD.2. (now wouldn't that be something in 1/48!). Visit their F/Book page for details. Apparently there's no UK agent as yet, but I saw them at Telford and the Gee Bee looked pretty decent, although not to my taste. Nice to see some neglected types being done for a change. Dave