My Yellow Cobra Racer.
This 1/48 scale model is made by a different company than what I wrote in my bare metal P-39 story yesterday. I liked the pre-cut mask's for the windscreen, canopy and the door's as they fit perfectly. The modeler, (ME) had the option to finish the model with the two door's open and/or closed. I choose the open position to show the nice cockpit.
The instrument panel had no recessed/raised dials and I did not have any Waldron and/or decal dials to add to the panel. So be it, the model was built "O.O.B."
Like the bare metal P-39 some tiny "b-b's" were added to the inside of the nose area so we would not have a "tail-dragger" model.
Next come's the red Cobra model. RJW
Sweet! Like the civvy theme in hot yellow. I like to build in flight and am wondering if the Hasegawa kit (this one?) might hold the edge concerning fit of the doors?
Nice interesting reply. I saw some of these people in 1946 when I walked around the airplane's up at the Cleveland, Ohio airport. They began the races in '46 and they lasted until 1949.
Try dry-fitting the door's in their closed position.
Text Johnston was one of those truly larger-than-life characters.
I remember when I was in sixth grade, the Boeing 707 prototype visited Denver. My best friend across the street and i convinced our parents to let us go see it and play hooky from school (it was only there on a weekday). It was a cold grey day. We took four buses across Denver (can you imagine letting your kid do that today?) and walked the last half mile to Stapleton Airport, where we found the airplane was in a hangar, with its tail sticking out because it was so big. We were by the doors, sneaking peeks inside, when this big man with super-polished cowboy boots (I don't know why I remember that but I do) came up behind us. "What are you boys doing?" We were caught. "Please sir, we just wanted to see the airplane." "Well, you can't see it from here, can you?" And he took us inside the hangar, where everyone was very respectful of him, and he took us in the airplane and even let us sit in the cockpit. Wow! And then they invited us to have sandwiches with them for lunch. And after we'd been all over the airplane, he asked us how we were getting home, and when we said the bus, he turned to one of the others and said "Drive these boys home." "Yes, sir!"
That night the TV news had a piece about the airplane, and there was the guy who had shown us the airplane, being interviewed. I said to my father, "That's the guy!" My father, being a lifelong airplane nut, replied "You met Tex Johnston today?" He was really impressed.
I then proceeded to read everything I could about Mr. Johnston, and learned about this airplane. A few years later, Revell released a model of the Cobra, which I built.
It definitely wasn't as nice as this one.
Beautiful!
A nice trio!