A Rolls Royce Griffon powered
Mustang with contra-rotating props - how cool is that?!
Steve Hinton set the world propellor driven speed record
at 499.018 mph in August 1979 in the "Red Baron".
The following month the RB-51 was completely destroyed
and Hinton was badly injured at the Reno Air Races. The
propellor blades went into flat pitch due to a lack of
oil pressure to the prop governor; the supercharger gear
drive (which drove the oil pump) had self-destructed.
Red Baron crashed into Lemon Valley and burst into flames.
Fortunately, Hinton recovered to fly again and won the
Unlimited Class at Reno 6 years later in the R-4360 powered
Super Corsair.
I'm a big fan of High Planes
Models from Australia, not just for the quality of their
kits, but also for the subjects they model. I've always
thought the highly modified warbirds in the Unlimited
Class at Reno were some of the neatest and most colourful
aircraft out there and would make for some fine lookin'
models. Yet there were no kits available for a long time,
short of a few hard-to-find and very expensive
resin kits. High Planes has a line of Reno racers in my
favourite scale (and a growing line in 1/48th for the
visually challenged), that are high quality limited run
kits. They require more work than your average Japanese
mainstream kits, but the end result is worth the effort
and the colourful racers really stand out amongst a collection
of drab miltary types.
Everything went together
well and I was quite impressed by the fit after the parts
were cleaned of flash and the inevitable short-run moulding
flaws, which were very few. I did have to build up the
top of the cowling directly in front of the canopy with
superglue to get a nice straight line, but I think this
was an error I caused rather than a fault of the kit.
A combination of a bit too much liquid cement and rubber
bands that were too tight caused the sag. Oops. The resin
wheel wells were very nice although I decided to go for
the lean 'racy' look and closed the inner doors, effectively
hiding most of the detail there. Excellent resin wheels,
white metal gear legs, decals, and a beautifully clear
vac-formed canopy finished the kit off nicely.
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