Gee Bee Racer by Patrick Chung (Williams Bros 1/32)

Williams Bros' 1/32 Scale
Gee Bee Racer

by Patrick Chung

Gee Bee Racer

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Introduction

It is probably fair to say that no other brand in plastic modeling history has ever produced such a line of Golden Age aircraft as Williams Brothers. I always have some kind of special interests in building models of those flying F1 in the exciting years.

The Granville Brothers’ GeeBee Super Sportster R-1 appears as today's subject. This aircraft appeared in the 1932 Cleveland National Air Race. Tthe GeeBee R-1 won the year’s Thompson Trophy with Jimmy Doolittle at controls.

The kit features typical WB molding: translucent soft white plastic with raised panel lines and soft details plus heavy flash, sinkholes and dents here and there. Thick clear parts have rough texture on the inner surface.

Construction

Other than re-scribing the panel lines and adding rivets where appropriate, most of the assembly time went in dry fitting, filling and sanding.

Major detailing works went to the Wasp engine including replaced pushrods and added ignition wires.

Painting and Markings

To achieve high gloss finish, Gunze’s super white, super Italian red, super clear II and leveling thinner (all lacquer paints) were used through out the painting session. White is used both as undercoat and final coat to guarantee brilliant red color.

The thin black line on the GeeBee is actually spare black decal sheet cut into thin strips. Several coats of Super clear were shot onto the models with at least three days in between each coat to ensure thorough drying time.

After the clear paint dried completely, Gunze Rubbing compound was used for polishing, followed by Tamiya’s modeling wax as a final touch.

Conclusion

It is worthwhile mentioning that though the molding technology of WB’s kits released back in 1970s is not able to compare to that of TAMIGAWA standard today, the drawings/instructions of these kits are really something a gem, and the outline of the kit parts are generally very accurate.