Gary Brantley Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 (edited) This little air racer was built back in the early 1990s and had never been photographed before May 20 of this year, yesterday in fact. I don’t know why I had overlooked it all these years but I decided to rectify that by a trip to the airport. On Wednesday morning, I loaded it and two other never before photographed models into the Isuzu Trooper II and took them to the Cameron Municipal airport. I got there about 10 am and the wind was beginning to gust a bit. There were several planes parked there and a nice gentleman was fueling up two others. The kit is the ancient Testors (first release by Hawk was in 1949) 1/48 model of the Howard “Ike”. My instructions are dated 1976. The Ike was first introduced at the Thompson Trophy Race in 1932. Spanning 20’6” with a fuselage length of 17’, the little racer would fit in many living rooms today. With Harold Neumann at the controls, Ike , wearing racing number 39, finished fourth in the 1934 Thompson Race, with an average speed of 207.064 miles per hour. The structure was steel tubing covered with fabric and she was powered by a Menasco B-6 inline engine of 489 cubic inch displacement. It was built by Ben Howard in Chicago, Illinois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_DGA-4 http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/aircraft/Howard-Ike-Mike.html I don’t remember a whole lot of the details about building her back then. I did scratch-build a cockpit, including seat and IP. I drilled out the exhaust openings and did a little weathering. The rather crude wire bracing is very thin strips of galvanized sheet metal glued into place. (I found the port tailplane brace missing when I arrived home. oops! Its absence is obvious in a few pics-sorry 'bout that!) I wanted a pilot figure to give an idea of her quite petite size and in these pics, a WWII Japanese airman stands in for a ‘30s pilot. Oh well. 😉 Please excuse his amateurish painting and yellowed clear base, but it does demonstrate the small size of the little racer. So, here she is, finally out at the airport. Thanks for having a look and please feel free to comment! Edited May 21, 2020 by Gary Brantley 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 Gary, Very nice build, and it's held up very well over time! The Hawk 1/48 racers were a neat series of kits and ahead of their time- I doubt we will ever see modern replacements, in any scale, which is a shame, as those aircraft really pushed the envelope in power and performance; a real golden age in U.S. aviation. Mike BTW- any thoughts about whether or not the IPMS USA national convention is going on as planned? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 13 minutes ago, 72modeler said: Gary, Very nice build, and it's held up very well over time! The Hawk 1/48 racers were a neat series of kits and ahead of their time- I doubt we will ever see modern replacements, in any scale, which is a shame, as those aircraft really pushed the envelope in power and performance; a real golden age in U.S. aviation. Mike BTW- any thoughts about whether or not the IPMS USA national convention is going on as planned? Thank you so much for the reply Mike! 🍺 I'm glad you liked the old model. Yeah, those Hawk racers really aren't represented by modern kits are they? I have several of them in my age-old stash including the Wedell-Williams "Mystery Ship", Ben Howard's "Mr. Mulligan", the Curtis R3C-2, a GeeBee racer, and Laird "Super Solution", with the Supermarine S6B sitting in the display needing some finishing up. For their age, they can produce nice models in the right hands (obviously, not mine though! 🙂). Sorry, but I don't know anything about the IPMS convention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 Very nice racer!!! (you took your time, didn't you? 😉) Always glad to see a racer posted. Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Moa said: Very nice racer!!! (you took your time, didn't you? 😉) Always glad to see a racer posted. Cheers Thanks Moa! Lol, yeah I waited hoping it would start looking better! 😄 But, didn't happen...😀 I appreciate that you took time to post a reply, that is really nice. Thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whiskey Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 That is excellent! I've thought about picking up one or two of these Testors kits over the last several weeks as I've seen them pop up on eBay at very cheap prices. This has only made the temptation even stronger now that I've actually seen one built and a description! Thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 12 minutes ago, whiskey said: That is excellent! I've thought about picking up one or two of these Testors kits over the last several weeks as I've seen them pop up on eBay at very cheap prices. This has only made the temptation even stronger now that I've actually seen one built and a description! Thank you. Thank you whiskey (having a bit of Kentucky's best right now! 😀 🥃)! I appreciate your nice comments so much! Yes, you should definitely pick up a few of these kits. And I should get crackin' on another one too! Thanks again man! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 As @Moa says, a lovely looking racer, the only downer is it's 1/48 and not 1/72, so their is always ways to improve . Now let's see more of your racers. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 Looking good Gary. Something different. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 5 hours ago, Courageous said: As @Moa says, a lovely looking racer, the only downer is it's 1/48 and not 1/72, so their is always ways to improve . Now let's see more of your racers. Stuart Thanks Stuart! Man, if she was much smaller, I could store it in a matchbox. 😀 You know, I had sort of forgotten about all my other air racer kits. The Curtiss R3C-2 float-plane was under consideration for a while several years back but somehow got set aside and put away. Her most famous pilot was Jimmy Doolittle, one of my all-time favorite Americans. I wanted to build it in his honor but never felt capable of tackling it before. Maybe it's time for another go at it? Honestly, many of those Golden Age racers had elaborate paint jobs that just intimidates me a lot...you can see which one was built first. 😉 4 hours ago, Greg Law said: Looking good Gary. Something different. Thank you Greg! Yep, it is. A little variety is the spice 'o life, or so they say! 😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Well, before the little Ike flies off into the sunset for the last time, I'd like to thank all who commented, as well as the eighteen good folks who "liked" the old model! I certainly appreciate the support and all your encouragement. I enjoy the company here! 🍻 I did dig out all the other Testors air racers from the locker last night. Feeling a bit inspired, I ordered a couple reference books about air racers after a bit of internet sleuthing. I'm thinking the Laird Solution may be my next victim now, having stumbled across some excellent reference detail pics. Hopefully, she may fly yet! 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 Fabulous work! Would you be able to post some shots of the cockpit? That's my favorite era. Those Hawk 1/48 racers are indeed excellent subjects. The only one replaced by modern tooling is the Gee Bee, with Dora Wings' offerings. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 3 minutes ago, dnl42 said: Fabulous work! Would you be able to post some shots of the cockpit? That's my favorite era. Those Hawk 1/48 racers are indeed excellent subjects. The only one replaced by modern tooling is the Gee Bee, with Dora Wings' offerings. Thank you so much! 😀 I don't know if I can get a decent pic of that 'pit but I'll give it a try. Not too much to see in there and it is quite tiny. I love that era too! The air racers and their military cohorts had an air of adventure and daring. The fighter planes of that era intrigue and excite me because they were the last of their type, soon super-ceded by more "modern" monoplanes. But, oh all that rigging! Ay yi yi! If one is going to play "that game", then a cursory mastering of some rigging techniques must be attained. I still struggle with that and still find it intimidating. The other issue I note is duplicating the elaborate paintwork of many of the racers. My Hawk GeeBee has been in and out of its box so many times as I would consider it for my next project...and then I consider duplicating the intricate paint schemes and back in the box she goes! 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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