Back in March when the state of Washington went into lockdown over the coronavirus, I needed to find something to take up the slack. So I dusted off one of the last Fisher Model & Pattern 1/32 scale RB-51 kits and made that my stay-at-home project. 4+ months later, while not completely done, the 'whole' saw the sunlight today.
I think initially there were 200 kits produced and sold at $225 each. After that run sold out, Paul Fisher made an additional run of 30 kits, but by that time the molds were starting to be worn, so these 'extra' ones didn't fit as well, had a lot of extra flash and gaps. But still...as I had already built one of the original 200, I knew that even though this one was out of the last run of 30, the extra work required would be worth the patience. (By the way, Paul Fisher's shop was destroyed in the California wildfires last year, so all the molds and equipment of Fisher Scale & Pattern are gone, unfortunately.)
Paul's kit was of the 1979 Reno version--the well-known Michelob Light sponsorship with the white wings and Old English-style "Red Baron" lettering on them. But I had always been intrigued by the very first version of the RB-51, as it looked at the 1975 Mojave races, just a couple weeks after the major surgery to upgrade the racer to the Rolls-Royce Griffon. At that race the paint was still wet, essentially. It had a different upper and lower cowling than the RB sported by the time it ran at Reno '79, as well as a different tail, and a large 'barn door' ventral fin that was hastily affixed the night before the Championship race at Mojave '75 to counter directional stability issues encountered during qualifying. And, it was painted all red. It wasn't nearly as graceful as the plane that Steve Hinton dominated with in 1978 and '79...but when it first came out, it looked meaner. I've always said that the first year with the Griffon and the 'big bulge' cowling, it looked like a bully.
I had to retro-modify the Fisher kit from 1979 back to '75.
Four and a half months later, the (nearly) finished product saw the sun this morning. I still have to put the exhaust stains on the fuselage, and paint the silver canopy rail on the windscreen...and there is a lot of detailing left to change the head of my after-market resin P-51 pilot into Mac McClain wearing a backwards baseball cap, sunglasses, headset and WWII-style oxygen mask. But those are just a couple of little things (that will probably take another two months, knowing me).
But until then, I thought I'd share the fruits of my labor...and I've added a Jim Larsen photo (courtesy of Tim Weinschenker) of the real thing from the '75 Mojave race for good measure.
I think initially there were 200 kits produced and sold at $225 each. After that run sold out, Paul Fisher made an additional run of 30 kits, but by that time the molds were starting to be worn, so these 'extra' ones didn't fit as well, had a lot of extra flash and gaps. But still...as I had already built one of the original 200, I knew that even though this one was out of the last run of 30, the extra work required would be worth the patience. (By the way, Paul Fisher's shop was destroyed in the California wildfires last year, so all the molds and equipment of Fisher Scale & Pattern are gone, unfortunately.)
Paul's kit was of the 1979 Reno version--the well-known Michelob Light sponsorship with the white wings and Old English-style "Red Baron" lettering on them. But I had always been intrigued by the very first version of the RB-51, as it looked at the 1975 Mojave races, just a couple weeks after the major surgery to upgrade the racer to the Rolls-Royce Griffon. At that race the paint was still wet, essentially. It had a different upper and lower cowling than the RB sported by the time it ran at Reno '79, as well as a different tail, and a large 'barn door' ventral fin that was hastily affixed the night before the Championship race at Mojave '75 to counter directional stability issues encountered during qualifying. And, it was painted all red. It wasn't nearly as graceful as the plane that Steve Hinton dominated with in 1978 and '79...but when it first came out, it looked meaner. I've always said that the first year with the Griffon and the 'big bulge' cowling, it looked like a bully.
I had to retro-modify the Fisher kit from 1979 back to '75.
Four and a half months later, the (nearly) finished product saw the sun this morning. I still have to put the exhaust stains on the fuselage, and paint the silver canopy rail on the windscreen...and there is a lot of detailing left to change the head of my after-market resin P-51 pilot into Mac McClain wearing a backwards baseball cap, sunglasses, headset and WWII-style oxygen mask. But those are just a couple of little things (that will probably take another two months, knowing me).
But until then, I thought I'd share the fruits of my labor...and I've added a Jim Larsen photo (courtesy of Tim Weinschenker) of the real thing from the '75 Mojave race for good measure.
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