1/32 Gee Bee R-2 - COMPLETED 12/24

Modeling Subjects Airliners and Civil Aircraft
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Made a little bit of progress today. Been stuck on trying to solve the issue of getting the engine mounted and figuring out where to put the battery box with the on/off switch. After several hours of trying different things, I finally got the electric motor shaft extended through the engine block and spacer and ready to mount - I think… [whstl]

It’s not a great job but I believe it will do. At least it is functional and seems to be stable. Now the real issue is solving where/how to mount the battery box (Too big to keep everything in the fuselage and no way to change the batteries if I did that). I am thinking about doing a diorama base of the aircraft sitting on a patch of grass with the battery box hidden behind the aircraft “underground” with just the switch exposed, and the wires, probably exiting the fuselage at the tail near the ground, hidden by tall grass at the tail. Will need to make sure the box is still somehow accessible to change out the batteries.

Also did a little bit more work on getting the panels filled in to correct them from an R-1 model to an R-2. This is my first experience here with Mr. Surfacer - great stuff!

And test fitting the wings/stabs

Wings fit pretty good - theres a little bit of an offset so I may end up chopping off the locating tabs and installing them flush. Not sure I want to do that though as that would mean much weaker wing roots. I may try carving away part of the tab instead. Anyways - starting to resemble something like a Gee Bee but the real prize will be when the cockpit and engine is installed and the two halves come together.

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Nice!

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Great work on the engine!

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Looking great!

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Who makes this kit, DA?

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Thanks guys! The kit is Williams Brothers. Not a bad little kit at all! Worst issues, to me, are rough/out of scale panel lines, no instrument panel detail (single black/white decal, and a couple of sink marks. Not bad for what I think is a limited run kit.

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I’ve got their Gee Bee Z partially complete. I’m gonna have to redo my engine after seeing yours. :slight_smile:

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That would be your best bet, if possible, to make the stronger joint .

Another technique is to drill two holes in each wing root and wing, insert brass tube or heavy gage copper wire to act as the support, in place of the now missing tab.

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Would like to see that Z. Duster, the more I think about it, I think I’m just gonna tweak the tabs and sand it flush.

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Hey guys! Now that I finished that Huey, my focus has shifted back to this fat little bird. Made a good chunk of progress over the past couple days on this.

Bought a soldering iron and started teaching myself how to solder in order to do the wiring on the motor, and I learned that you can solder more than just wires - so I ripped apart the crappy little smash job I did on extending the prop shaft and re-did the whole thing by soldering tube & rod together to make a pretty nice little shaft extension. Okay so it looks a little mickey-moused, but it works really well and is pretty balanced and straight!

Next step was to come up with a mounting solution… which was accomplished with some foam core board…

With some more tweaking, here’s the end-result of the silly-looking soldering attempt on my shaft extension, equally silly-looking engine mount, the engine with a brass rod lining for the shaft, all put together! (dry fit only at this stage). The mount will be installed just before closing up the fuselage, using epoxy.

Hole for the wires made with files - angled for a sleek exit of the wires. Fits my two wires like a glove!

Preliminary look at my “rough draft” of the base/diorama. Just going to do a very basic hangar wall - possibly with a door but I am not sure on that yet. Still trying to figure out how I will set up the switch/wiring at this point… but you can just barely see the wires behind the rudder.

I’ve come up with the solution for placement of the motor switch - I am going to install an electrical safety switch box with the plane’s motor switch disguised as the electrical box’s power switch. Sort of like this one:

So here’s what I came up with…

I know, I know… not exactly accurate for 1930’s but I had to come up with something, and wanting to be creative, that’s my best idea.

As for the wiring, which I have not started yet, what I think I am going to do is drill a hole through the base directly below the rudder of the aircraft, run the wires down, then through a channel to a battery box behind the hangar wall, then up to the electrical box. This way the only sign of wiring is about 1/8th of an inch or less directly underneath the rudder - however I am thinking of doing a grass layout, so I will probably just add a touch of tall grass around the wires to conceal them.

'Til next time, gents!

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Oh yeah and thanks to whoever had the suggestion of using those bread bag clips as small bits of spare styrene… that’s what the electrical box is made out of!

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That inflight shot is a beauty. Was that by hanging it in front of a photo backdrop, or done in software?

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Todd, try running the motor with the prop on before you glue it all shut. I can see small globs of solder on the sides of your propeller shaft, and I am sure that the effect will lead to your plane bouncing/shaking while it (The Motor) is running. they really should be sanded smooth. It really doesn’t have to be much to have a vibration created which will just get worse. This comes from working on things like that for thirty years in engineering. I do love your creativity. I have a couple of the Williams Brothers Kits, the Curtiss Sparrowhawk and Wadell Williams Racer.

The fact that pilots were able to fly those GB racers and still live (like Jimmy Doolittle) goes to their attitudes and reactions for flying. You would hardlty get someone to try those out these days.

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Don - That would actually be the real thing… set against a real backdrop and with a real pilot installed in the cockpit :wink:

Mech - That was the very first thing I did and its a good thing too - WAY out of balance as well as not being straight enough. However, lots of filing and hammering, it hums VERY smooth now although it does indeed look ugly. I will probably work it a little more but it is very well balanced now as it is.

The Gee Bee’s lend so well to having a motor installed - the inside of the fuselage is cavernous! I just wish I knew how to install a small sound system so I could have a rumbling radial sound rather than a “weeeeeeeeeeee” electrical motor [^o)]

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Did the real airplane have a plug for a Ground Power Unit? If so maybe you can build a GPU with the wires (cables) that run into the airplane.

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Major progress on the hangar and base!

The construction of the hangar is essentially complete, and base has been drilled/carved as needed before sanding, staining, painting, and sealing.

As discussed in a previous post, I am building a hangar wall as a background for the base - which I guess you could just call a diorama at this point.

A few firsts in this build, and big firsts for me - first scratchbuilding on anything larger than 1/48 throttle levers and the like… this is a major undertaking for me and I am truly enjoying it; first wiring/soldering project; and first diorama of any sort.

The hangar has transformed from a square foam core board cutout with scribbles on it into a full-fledged 3D hangar, thanks to lots of Plasticard and Evergreen. Couple of changes from the original draft on the foam core: Roof is now a curved one, hangar door is not “X” braced but now vertically braced, entry door added beside hangar door, and full structural details added on the backside of the hangar for an “interior” feel.

I also changed up the plans for the wiring - it is now going to all be underneath the base with the exception of the on/off switch on the hangar wall and the battery box behind the hangar door. The wiring exiting the tail of the aircraft is going straight down into the base so you only see a very small amount of wiring, and even then, only if you are looking for it.

Onto the pictures!

Intial cutout of hangar shapes from plastic sheet

Inital application of (very expensive) Evergreen metal siding sheet:

All the basic parts laid out:

Trial fit of I-beams and trusses to get an idea of my desired end result. I learned that trusses were mainly used in roof supporting roles and not wall support, so they were not used for the walls. I-beams will be used in those locations instead:

After a couple of days of cutting, filing, fitting, sanding, shaping, and LOTS of test fitting - here’s what I was able to come up with:

The brass rods are extended on purpose - they will serve as mounts for the wall. I added another rod at the other end of the hangar door after these pictures were taken.

After a bunch more drilling and test fitting, I got this thing mounted onto the base - dry fit only, of course.

Mock-up to check placement of the aircraft and determine wiring layout:

This stuff is FUN!! I have had so much fun scratch building this hangar - enough fun that I will be doing it again, for sure!

Can’t wait to finish this thing and see how it looks!

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It looks like fun; and you’re doing an excellent job too.

Have you thought of a sign/placard for over your switch box like “Main Power” or “Emergency Shut Off” or??

looking forward to your next update

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Hola, Steve! Thanks for the compliment. I will probably do something similar to whats in that picture above - an On/Off label on the box itself with a “DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE” sign above it.

Got a small update for y’all! Did a couple of things today: I built a cover for the battery holder, primed the hangar with a scary amount of Mr. Surfacer (scary because that was a lot of money shot through my airbrush!), and did some assembly on the Gee Bee (Installed the motors - the fake 550-hp Wasp and the real unknown-hp Wasp wannabe, along with the cockpit and motor wires. Electric motor and wiring installation looks uber-messy but its all hidden from view and more importantly, it is not going anywhere!

I also had some company today too… that was nice!

Battery Box - this will get a “HIGH VOLTAGE” treatment as well.

Hangar Wall:

And the Gee Bee! Wires have been painted white to help them blend in since there is no cockpit floor to run them underneath. Should be looking at putting the other half on tomorrow, or maybe even after work tonight (1:00AM) so it can dry overnight. And yes, the tail bulges very slightly with all that glue back there… I fixed it as much as I could but its a small enough of a gap that I can easily fix it. I know, it really does look crappy all over the thing, but it runs smooth as silk and is very strong which is the most important thing. It will look good in the end… I promise!!

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Just a quick-n-dirty update on my progress… Snapped a couple quick pictures with my phone before leaving the house and am now posting this via my iPad so I do apologize for the brief update/bad pictures. I will add better pictures from my camera next week along with a thorough update.

I got the hangar painted up - I just need to tweak the color of the backside of it. I painted it Alclad Steel but it came out way darker than I was hoping for. I was aiming for more of a cross between this and Alclad Aluminum. I will probably lightly spray some aluminum to brighten things up back there. I also need to paint the door, the electrical box, and do all the other detail work and weathering. Front side got a treatment of custom tan and green mixes (tan is MM Flat White with a bit of MM Leather, green is a mix of MM Green, MM Aircraft Interior Green, and a touch of MM Olive Drab to tone it down.) I did preshade but only the hangar door preshading came out well - everything else kind of disappeared. That’s okay though I think it looks good. Also did a strip of Alclad Aluminum above the hangar door, along with the roof being done in the same with some Steel post shading.

The Gee Bee got assembled, re-shaped in a few areas, rescribed, and all gaps filled. This is one of those things that I will need to fill you guys in on the details later but I took a picture of how it is right now with the first layer of white base coat done. Will do some light sanding and then add a few more coats of white before letting that cure and then starting on the red.

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Okay here’s the more thorough update I promised y’all! I wont rehash much of what I said in my previous post so I’ll just get right to it.

The following are various pictures of the fuselage construction, wing/tail assembly, seam-filling/sanding, and rescribing of the panel lines as well as blanking out the R-1 specific panels and creating new panels for the R-2 model.

Carved some new louver vents where the seam ran right through them. Came out kind of crappy but I guess it will have to do for my first attempt with that. Was hoping I could find PE vents but wasn’t able to find any… anyone know where I can get some?

Fixed a gouge in the wing - not sure how that happened!

Installed the canopy. I love Future!! Such a miracle product. Dipped it in Future, marveled at how beatiful and clear it came out, then set it right in place and let that stuff, along with a couple drops of superglue, fasten the canopy to the airframe.

Just before masking off for painting. Wet tissue used for filling in the cockpit entry.

Primered with Mr. Surfacer 1200 - a quick swipe or two with some fine sandpaper and she’s ready for some white!

Some better shots of the hangar:

That’s all for now, folks! Off to bed for me… ZZZZZZ!