Hi–

I see what looks like “MH”; is this the long-awaited MH367? Whichever it is, that’s certainly a unique livery she wears. Long ago there was a good chance that Spit was coming to Ontario…not any more though.

S.

Hi–

There was an instance of the sort of thing suggested here, back in the mid-eighties, that hasn’t been mentioned: T-6 racer Jim Mott’s foray into the Unlimited field with Sea Fury “Super Chief”. Instead of an R4360 “corncob” as powered “Dreadnought” to victory in ’83, or the subsequently much more common Skyfury setup with an R3350 in a semistock cowl, “Super Chief” flew behind an ex-Beverley Centaurus that spun a square-tipped four-blader of colossal diameter (presumably also ex-Bev). Not much success followed, but at least Mr Mott gave it a good try and the Fury was impressive if nothing else. Like nearly all Furies this side of the Atlantic, the former “Super Chief” is now R3350-powered.

Now: will someone please try the same transplant in the slightly earlier Tempest? Same number of blades this time, and who cares if they spin in the wrong direction if it gets one of those glorious beasts into the air? C’mon somebody…”do Wright” by the longsuffering Tempest! :rolleyes:

S.

Disentangling Fury variants…

Some of the present Fury survivors are composites, remember; and the Iraqi batch was a mix of diverted/reconditioned FB.11s and new ISSs…so it can be very difficult to state what variant a survivor definitely is, though rather easier to tell what it’s ended up as! Many of the flyers have been customised to varying degrees as well. At least one owner has painted his R3350 Fury, an acknowledged composite involving ISS and German TT20 parts, in a deliberately basic, anonymous livery to avoid implying the Fury has a specific history…very cool it looks too, but what variant would one call it? Dunno! 😀

S.

Black Knight–

Yep, Fawcett’s VH-BOU became Lloyd Hamilton’s N588 “Baby Gorilla”. She was one of three consecutive FB.11s (WH587/588/589) at Bankstown, all of which became Warbirds. 587 is Ellsworth Getchell’s N260X; 588, owned by Mr Hamilton for many years, went to the UK and I think is now in Sweden; 589, which went to Ormond Haydon-Baillie in Canada then the UK, crashed in the seventies and parts of it were incorporated into Lloyd Hamilton’s R4360-engined racer N4434P “Furias”. (WH589 is the “paper” ID of that airplane…which is now for sale BTW. I’d never actually noticed before that Mr Hamilton had owned a consecutive pair of Fury IDs…)

S.

Hi Gnome–

Several of these beautiful little racers were built by Curtiss; at least one wore an Air Corps-like scheme of mid-blue fuselage and chrome yellow wings, with much of the wing surface also being taken up by the brass facing of the flush radiators (like those fitted to several other Schneider Trophy types). The model in your photo is probably one of the Testor/Hawk 1:48 kits built-up, as it was offered in the blue-and-“orange” scheme. There were wheel-equipped Curtiss racers as well, but they’re best known in float Schneider Trophy configuration. And yes, one of them has survived, a lovely black-and-gold (and brass) CR3 on floats, on display at NASM in Washington.

Somebody should spin this into a Schneider Trophy thread: quite a few of the most strikingly beautiful–or just plain striking–airplanes of all time were built to contest that series…thinking of the Gloster IVs or the Macchis, for example…And of course the Rolls-Royce “R” engines in the last few Supermarine racers led pretty directly to the immortal Merlin, too.

S.

Mike–

More likely Thunder than Legends, at least initially…The former Soplata F-82E is being restored to fly by C&P Aviation at Anoka, Minnesota. (BTW it was owned for a time by the Arnold family in the UK, but I’m unsure whether the actual airframe came across the Atlantic or not).

S.

TJ–

Not Kismet, and there are no decals as such on the model (yet). Represents the Russ Hosler/Bob Eucker Kingcobra from the ’48 Thompson. Haven’t got the sponsor decals (Kendall etc) yet but the main markings were put on using model-railroad dry transfer lettering. Eventually I hope to get pix of some more models onto Webshots (already have my Walt Soplata diorama on there). To see the real Hosler P-63A–which was one sexy beast–check out the Russ Hosler website. (Googling “Hosler P-63” will snag it straightaway)…

Cheers

S.

Humbrol paints

Last time I used Humbrol? That’d be about three weeks ago; painting an old KP Avia S.199 with some very old matt Sky that went on like new. Before that it was gloss Humbrol black on an Aoshima P-63A converted to a Thompson Trophy racer: no paint touches gloss Humbrol for smooth even finish.

Funnily enough at an antique market near here I ran across what looked like a late 50s/early 60s vintage wire Humbrol paint rack. Not particularly odd, except the thing was still full of tins of Humbrol in period labels. Picked up a few and shook ’em; they gurgled as though brand new, and I’d bet they were just as good as the stuff I’d been using.

Two of the first three plastic kits I had were Airfix and there have been many more since; most recently I refurbed an old built-up Airfix Me109G (using, partially, Humbrol paint again) that was a “take it or we’ll toss it” proposition from our local model club, and now looks quite smart as a Finnish AF “Mersu”. I hope someone is able to resuscitate both these famous old brands…keeping what works and tossing what doesn’t. I’m old enough to miss Frog and all its then-unique subjects; Matchbox aircraft kits are much-missed too for similar reasons…wouldn’t want to be remembering Airfix in the same way (nor Humbrol paint either).

Cheers

S.