SPA Modeler

This little air racer was built back in the early 1990s and had never been photographed before May 20 of this year. 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/air ... -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!

As Monty Python (?) used to say, "now for something completely different." Well done sir. It is a small one, for sure.

Thanks Lyle! She is "reet petite" for sure. Man, I've got a bunch of those old Hawk racers and I've seen some really neat builds online, where folks really went to work on them to bring out their best. It's a shame that there is so little interest in making more modern versions from current model manufacturers. Why doesn't Eduard or some other company step up to the plate with new ones? Just not enough interest in non-military aviation I guess.

languishing in the stash now:





I do have the Hawk Supermarine S.6B more than half-finished on the bottom shelf of one of my display cabinets. It just needs a little push to get 'er done!

Nice one, Gary. Same stuff in my stash, I should build some of them. Maybe we need an air racer GB!

That’s a nice old build Gary! That pilot looks a bit familiar. I had most of the Testors Racers in my stash, but gave several to my kids to build when they were little and wanted to build models with dad. They are fine starter kits. And like you said, with a little effort and ingenuity can be built up by the experienced modeler to really shine. Too bad Testors stopped making them and those that you can find now are comparatively overpriced.

Once again, very nicely done!

Thanks John and Carlos! I'm glad you commented on ol' Ike!

That pilot figure came out of the old Hasegawa J7W1 Shinden I believe. I started painting him years ago and just gave up. Man, I just really suck at figure painting; I should really "sub" them out to someone who knows what they're doing!

I thought that he looked like the typical Tamigawa IJN/IJA pilot figure.

I’m no master of 1/48 figures, but simple washes and dry brushing can make them look good fairly quick and easy. And since older Monogram 1/48 aircraft kits are full of figures to practice on, it’s easy to find test figures without going to buy more...

Oh man, I want that Supermarine S6B Racer kit!! I've got one in my stash (I believe it's in 1/144 scale).

Me too! I never built that one.

John, set up an Air Racer Gb if you want. I think I have the ever popular Gee Bee...