Circus King stories? It was the first "full size" plane I built, in mid to late 1951, maybe mid to late 1952. I had a used Torp 29 for it, and I was advised before building it that I'd soon wreck it beyond repair, so copy / trace off all the parts on the back of the plan to make repair parts and/or scratch- build a replacement.
My first one was covered in silkspan, applied dry, and never shrunk on with any water. It was pretty baggy. The red Testors nitrate dope didn't shrink it much. The (Testors) fuel proofer that went on top of that was nasty stuff that stayed sticky as long as the finish lasted, and attracted dust/lint like crazy.
I put a Perfect tank on it, with Veco's 1 7/8" streamline wheels, and used OK Cub glow plugs, Francisco Blue Blazer fuel, and Top Flite's 9-6 wood props. My lines were Pylon, on a large cardboard reel, and my handle was a (red) Hot Rock from Phillies Hobby Shop. My pit box was a metal tackle box that I painted in my school colors later (red and blue).
I had it for almost a year before there was more glue on it than there was balsa between the globs of glue. I built two more of them. One was all black Aerogloss, and one was a better red than the first one - Aerogloss again. Those two had a new Torp 35 on them (same one, each of those two came and went faster than the first one -- already trying Combat in 1953 or 1954).
Between the first one I owned, and a Ringmaster Jr, I learned insides, inverted, outsides, horizontal eights, and overhead eights.
There were a half dozen other young men in a club I was in; it was the Jeff Aces MAC, and most of the other boys used Fox 35's on their Ringmasters. I thought that both engine and plane were way too ugly compared to my Torps and Circus Kings.
The only Lion Tamer kit I ever had is the one I have right now, in my stash, "to be built some day".
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Kiwi
