wonwinglo

This model was rebuilt from a toy Gee Bee,she had a really ugly undercarriage with a mechanism that controlled the wheels and prop,I stripped all of that out and made a scratch built undercarriage,cut off the solid canopy,made a scale prop and fitted cockpit detail,instruments,seat etc finished off with a simple wrap round cockpit,the model was primed and sprayed up then rigged with nylon monofilament,this is the end result a unique accurate model of the Granville Brothers Gee Bee racer.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Malcolm Fisher

Looks a good job.

Any chance of details as to size?

Malcolm

wonwinglo

*** Aprox 1=24 th scale Malcolm.

No.6

I always think that the Gee Bee Racer looks more like a Caricature of an aircraft rather than an actual Plane. That doesn’t mean to say I dont like it tho!

lookin good wonwinglo

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wonwinglo

*** You are quite right No.6,it does convey that impression,the original and the replica that is flying today in America proved that a machine with such a short moment arm and frontal area can indeed fly,it is literally an engine with wings,the replica has exceeded all expectations as regard speed and handling,you need at least a 1,000 hours on a Pitts Special before they will even consider to let you loose in this one,the ground handling has been likened to a supermarket shopping trolly ! what is not generally realised is that the R-1 was merely just one of an whole breed of aircraft built by the Granville brothers in the heady thirties,sadly the Gee Bee saga came to an abrupt end when it broke up in a roll ( you have probably seen the early Pathe news coverage ) due to a weak main spar ( the replica takes account of this thankfully )
As a flying model it has made somewhat of a revival in that a quarter scale ARTF is available,and actually it is not it is not a bad flyer either ! probably due to its large size.
Its just a flying classic with chubby character,there is simply nothing like the Gee Bee.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Greyhead

Not all Granville planes look like caricatures; I quite fancy a go at a Model A

Attached Images

model A.jpg (13.5 KB, 7 views)

wonwinglo

*** Exactly Grahame,long before they ventured into air racing the brothers were building exciting designs like the one you show here,excellent proportions for a model subject and lots of character as well.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/