Williams Brothers Gee Bee R-1

[kensar]

I guess I'll be the first to break the WW1 mold here.

This is one I have wanted to build for a long time.  I like the 'between the wars' era of aircraft and their streamline styling. 
I think the molds are from the 1970s, but the kit has been reissued more recently than that.  Not many parts here.



I added a pilot because I am working on motorizing the prop and building a display to depict the plane rounding a pylon in flight.  We'll see how it goes.







Apologies to Mr. Doolittle.



The interior longerons didn't come out as well as intended, but the reason I didn't actually build them from plastic strip is because they probably won't be seen anyway.  One interesting thing about the kit is that the monofilament flying wire rigging is not round but actually flattened as it should be.  The instructions also contain 1/32 scale drawings of the R-1 and R-2 if one wants to build the R-2 version.

[Alexis]

Cool subject , always want to build a racer. Following along 



Terri

[lcarroll]

   Wonderful Kit! I have never built a Williams Bros. Kit but have always wanted to. I love the designs between the Wars and have started picking up the odd "Yellow Wings" subjects including:



   I am thrilled to find that it too has the flat monofilament you noted included, I wonder where/if we could source the stuff?!
   According to Scalemates your model was released in 1978 and last re-issued in 2009. I'll be following your efforts on this one with great interest.
Cheers,
Lance

[kensar]

I find that the kit is very accurate and fairly detailed, but the 1970's era mold technology is what lets it down compared to more modern kits.
I wonder if a call to Williams Bros about the rigging would be fruitful?

[pepperman42]

I think they updated the decals in later releases but if you have an old copy of  the kit be very careful with the decals. There was a lot of colour bleed.

Steve

[kensar]

Lance, I have emailed Williams Bros about the flattened monofilament line and they didn't know it was flattened and wanted to know where I had seen that.  I am responded that it is in their Gee Bee kits and the Sparrowhawk kit and that a lot of WW1 aircraft modelers would be interested in getting this monofilament.  I am awaiting their response.

[lcarroll]

Ken,
    Great work, I'll look forward to their further response. They "didn't know it was flattened"?! Maybe, the Kits being old releases, the info will be lost to time.
Cheers,
Lance

[Berman]

 I used to live twelve miles from the old Williams Brothers factory in San Marcos, California. Bill Hannan, Larry Williams, and Granger Williams would first start with a mostly hand carved wood male master of at least three times the actual size of the finished kit. Then it was a laborious task using a Gorton pantoraph to create the reduced female metal molds. Some added details were machined directly into the molds. Very interesting to watch the injection molding machines. I am sure quite boring on a daily basis.

[kensar]

The Tommy is delayed temporarily while I acquire materials for vacuum forming.  In the meantime I have come back to this.
I have assembled the motor, battery, and switch.  the motor is from a micro drone.  Planning to glue it into the kit motor, shown below.
The motor assembly will be fixed to the airframe via friction fit - hopefully.





I have also been spending time sorting out a Silhouette Cameo cutter, making painting masks for the R-1, so this will take a little time.

[lcarroll]

Very neat stuff Ken. I'm still picking away at the Sparrow Hawk, she's a brute but so far so good! I'm looking forward to your next several posts to see how you do with this one.
Cheers,
Lance

[kensar]

Well, I circled back around to finish this one.  I dropped the motorized prop idea and just built OOB except for remaking the prop hub from aluminum.  I didn't put on the black pinstripes separating the red and white colors as I didn't know how to replicate the very thin black lines.  The pilot figure is from Immense Miniatures.









First kitted in 1978, I think it holds up well.  The panel lines are a bit wide, though.

[Dutch522]

Great job, Ken, what a testament to stick-to-it-ivness!

The Gee Bees were early favorites of mine due to the old 1:48 Hawk (?) kit and the fact that the Granville brother's factory—built in an old dance hall—was located about an hour away from me out in Springfield, Mass.. They actually used to buzz in and out of our local airport in Great Barrington on test hops in the various a/c since it was just a few minutes flying time, and I knew a couple of old-timers who remembered them.

Dutch

[KiwiZac]

Bravo Ken, it looks terrific!

[lone modeller]

That is a stunner. I used to have the old Profile on these types (long since lost of course), and they were fascinating machines.

Stephen.