>John. The Fornof's bearcats in
>the bronze finishes were pretty.
> I've talked to Corky
>about the airplanes. They
>had two with similar paint
>schemes. Corky's dad was
>killed in one of them
>so the subject is sensitive.
>We belong to the same
>pilots orginization. as for
>other paint job of racers,
>the big problem is that
>almost all of them have
>small canopys. A semi
>scale stunmt stunt ship needs
>all of the identifying characteristics
>of the original we can
>possibly include. when we
>depart from the classic lines
>of the real airplane we
>quickly lose its character.
>I would consider one of
>the earlier racer finishes which
>still have the full size
>canopy. There was a
>red and white one with
>a gold stripe which would
>make a beautiful model.
>Also, what do you do
>about clipped wings? There
>is just no way to
>do clipped wings justice in
>a stunt ship. I
>tried to design a clipped
>wing appearance for the Critical
>Mass but it just didn't
>work and I reverted to
>the l970-1975 Sea fury wing
>with its wonderful eliptical shape.
> Attempts to show it
>clipped were just too ugly
>for words. scale like
>or no, the high aspect
>ratio Sea Fury wing with
>its outboard dihedral breaks has
>an elegance about it that
>made the model Sea Fury
>popular. When designing a
>semi scale airplane for competition,
>we are terribly limited by
>the clash of design objectives,
>but every now and again,
>there presents an opportunity to
>actually improve the appearance of
>some aspect of the original
>airplane. the dorsal fin
>of my BBQB is nothing
>like the real airplane, it
>looks better and contributes to
>the overall pleasing appearance of
>the stunt ship.
>You know, I may just use
>that red and white finish
>on the profile Bearcat.
>Al
Al,
I understand... I just will never forget Bill at Olathe in '68 come streaking in at full bore on the deck and pull straight up right in front of the crowd and do a vertical roll almost into the cloud base. You could hear the growl of the incoming airplane several seconds before you could see it. He got a lot of ohhs and ahhs over that one. I watched him taxi back in after his routine, canopy open and that big polished prop ticking over like a Swiss watch to the applause (deserved) of the crowd (me included). What a memory...
"Miss Bardahl" as far as I know was "box stock" with no major mods. I remember reading the guy that painted her said his shop laid out the checkerboard scheme four times before he got it right. He swore he would never do another one.
Hey red and white is always pretty, and one of my favourites!
