1/48 Testors (Hawk) Gee Bee R1

by René Zass

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This is my first contribution to ARC: I am quite a fan of the colourful golden years air racers and the Gee Bees in particular.  Sadly most kits are very basic which are available in 1:48 scale for these aircraft.  The best known ones are from Hawk/Testors.

The Gee Bee kit is from the 1960s and thus very simplified (same goes with the other airracer kits from Hawk). There is no cockpit and the clearly visible engine is ... well... In fact I should have replaced it with some aftermarket Wasp JR ( I recommend the Engines and Things resin item - I ordered some for other kits in the making and they are a vast improvement over the Testors kit parts).

I did scratch build a cockpit based on few pictures of a replica and guessing and added a vacuformed canopy.

The kit decals are not correct (they are brick red and the 11 are the wrong shape) - so I did my first attempt on making my own decals which turned out OK for me.

René

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Photos and text © by René Zass