Zenrat's Flying Circus

[scooter]

I built 'em then played with 'em. 

Didn't we all?

[TheChronicOne]

I built 'em then played with 'em. 

Didn't we all?

Yessir!! Us smart kids anyway!

I couldn't resist the temptation had I even tried.

[DogfighterZen]

I built 'em then played with 'em. 

Didn't we all?

Yessir!! Us smart kids anyway!

I couldn't resist the temptation had I even tried.

I remember my Italeri Tomcat getting into epic dogfights against an F-4S and Mig-29... 

[TheChronicOne]

I built 'em then played with 'em. 

Didn't we all?

Yessir!! Us smart kids anyway!

I couldn't resist the temptation had I even tried.

I remember my Italeri Tomcat getting into epic dogfights against an F-4S and Mig-29... 

Glorious dude!  I had (and still do) a ton of the die cast metal planes and also a load of the Micro Machines.....  playing with these and the models was always so fun;  I never understood the lack of interest of my friends. They'd have cars and hot rods and action figures and stuff... but I was always like, "But what about the fastest, coolest, awesomest stuff?!?!  Your hot rod is cute but what I have goes about 800 MPH faster and also can walk on air!"   

[zenrat]

Playing with my models led to my love of floatplanes.  Landplanes built with their wheels up could dog fight but not land amongst the masses armies battling on the floor.  Sea planes could if I moved the blue rug nest to the battlefield.

I had a look in my stash and the only kit I have that really fits the bill is a very old Revell FW200.  The first version with all the rivets.  What I was really itching to build was an Airfix B-25 but I don't have one.  I'll have to have look on Evil-Bay.  Should be a few of them going really cheap as they are so ancient and crude but yet still being knocked out by Airfix.
Instead I found a part started Hot Rod build I had forgotten about.  It's the 1/25 AMT Bill Cushenberry Tiger Shark kit (2006 Toy Fair re-pop) from which I had used the wheels and tyres on something else.
Now the Tiger Shark was a modified version of the Dream Rod built in the then fashionable asymmetric style.  It was actually impossible to drive because a normally proportioned adult could not fit behind the wheel.  But hey! it was a show rod so who cared?
Opening the box I found I had glued the engine halves together and was intending to fit a supercharger with six carbies.  In place of the asymmetric body I had chucked an AMT Ala Kart body into the box plus an AMT Parts Pack Turtle Deck and a '29 Ford grille.
First job is to fettle the chassis sanding off the mould separation lines, flash and filler I had put into the sink marks who know how long ago.  The Dream Rod wasn't built on the usual early Ford chassis but used one from a <goes to google to refresh memory> Jowett Jupiter which was fitted with a VW Beetle torsion rod front end.  The kit item is actually a fairly good representation of this.
Information about the Dream Rod here.

[DogfighterZen]

Glorious dude!  I had (and still do) a ton of the die cast metal planes and also a load of the Micro Machines.....  playing with these and the models was always so fun;  I never understood the lack of interest of my friends. They'd have cars and hot rods and action figures and stuff... but I was always like, "But what about the fastest, coolest, awesomest stuff?!?!  Your hot rod is cute but what I have goes about 800 MPH faster and also can walk on air!"   

Same here, never understood why most of my friends liked cars and motorcycles so much, aircraft can fly!!

Playing with my models led to my love of floatplanes.  Landplanes built with their wheels up could dog fight but not land amongst the masses armies battling on the floor.  Sea planes could if I moved he blue rug nest to the battlefield.

The wonders of a child's imagination...
I only had one other kit when i was kid, the Hasegawa EA-6B Prowler, but that was my first kit and i didn't last long enough to be flown with the other 3...
All my planes were VTOL, it was technology adopted from Star Wars space ships...

[TheChronicOne]

Blue rug...         

Six carbs?!   

[zenrat]

Obviously the blue rug became the water.  The red one was usually mounded up to make the mountain whichever army was on the offensive was attacking.

Yes, six carbs.  Like on this but with a low rise manifold and with air cleaners instead of velocity stacks.


So anyway, having glued together six carburettors, a manifold and a supercharger I sprayed it with primer in preparation for a coat of gloss black in preparation for a coat of alclad chrome. 

I've also been thinking about my urge to build a Mitchell.  There are none cheap enough to suit me on Evil-Bay (although a Frog Hornet has attracted my attention) so I thought why not make a medium bomber out of that Revell Lanc i've been robbing parts from.  I can cut the wings down for twin engines and shorten it and Lees information about the bomb bay being torpedo length will be useful. 
It even has a name, Project Wrathchild...

[zenrat]

Project Wrathchild has started.
I have shortened the nose of one fuselage half of a Revell Lanc BI/III by 10mm and chopped the tail off with the intention of removing slightly more and slimming it down.
I have also cut down one wing (antispackmanation?) just outboard of the inboard nacelle.  This of course means no undercarriage but then I have already used most of the nacelles on my first civilianised Beaufighter.  I'm thinking of Liberator style undercarriage folding up into the wings.  Maybe with a nose wheel although that might mean sacrificing some of the bomb bay.
Don't know yet if I will retain the nose turret (probably not due to weight considerations) but the tail guns are gone as I have used that turret on something else already.  I may construct a Mitchell style gunners position using a single seat fighter bubble canopy.
Mid upper turret also may or may not stay.

[Old Wombat]

Sounds like one interesting build. Carry on!

[PR19_Kit]

.......I have also cut down one wing (antispackmanation?) just outboard of the inboard nacelle.  This of course means no undercarriage.......

But isn't the Lanc's main gear mounted on the inboard nacelle? 

[zenrat]

.......I have also cut down one wing (antispackmanation?) just outboard of the inboard nacelle.  This of course means no undercarriage.......

But isn't the Lanc's main gear mounted on the inboard nacelle? 

Usually.


I now have both fuselage halves truncated and I think I have worked out how to modify the rear end.
If I don't lose interest in this then i'll start a separate thread for it.

[zenrat]

Well, it had to happen.  The day had to come to pass.
Xmas at stately zen mansion is over.  I have taken down the lights from the car port and deconstructed Fred's tunnel of Light.
I was hoping to break my record for bone idleness this year and leave them up until Queens Birthday weekend but it wasn't to be.

In other news the neighbours opposite have started the construction of a huge fence.  Mrs z has enquired whether we are the Mexicans or the Americans.

[Old Wombat]

My wife's always saying we should build a bloody great fence along South Australia's eastern border to keep the Victorians out ... Maybe she's started it, albeit a few klicks further East than geographically accurate, without telling me?

[zenrat]

Funny, i've been known to say the same about Victoria's Northern Border...