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Post by bearcat on Nov 9, 2009 16:18:00 GMT -5
I just saw this movie, and I recommend it. It's very good and very well-acted. Hillary Swank was very convincing as Amelia Earhart. Anyway, I just love the Golden Age aircraft, and I would love to build Amelia's Lockheed Vega. However, I'd have to scratch-build the plane from plans, as there are no kits. Wouldn't this make a nice gas-powered sailplane tow-aircraft???  |
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Post by kimbuehre on Nov 17, 2009 13:43:19 GMT -5
I Think the Lockheed Electra that she tried to fly around the world would be a good model. It has enough wing and tail surface to scale down well.
Kim
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Post by bearcat on Nov 17, 2009 13:59:16 GMT -5
It certainly would. It's a twin-engine and would have lots of power. I am contemplating buying a Mr. Mulligan kit from Aerodrome RC, which is a 48" span I believe. It doesn't have to be gas, but it'd be cool if it was, because of that SOUND! The Mr. Mulligan looks almost IDENTICAL to the Lockheed Vega. The tail feathers aren't as rounded and the cowl and landing struts differ slightly, but it sure looks almost the same. I was thinking about just painting it to RESEMBLE Amelia's Vega. We'll see. If it's a long, cold winter, a couple of airplanes will probably come out of it. Here's the Aerodrome RC kit:  |
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Post by Lt Swiss on Nov 17, 2009 18:33:46 GMT -5
Try to find this old kit...   |
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Post by bearcat on Nov 18, 2009 16:39:49 GMT -5
LT Swiss, that appears to be an old plastic model kit. The box mentions "high quality injection molded kit", which sounds like plastic.
I basically have a few choices. Dumas makes a 30" Vega kit, but it's open cockpit and to scale it up to a more desireable RC size would be like building one from scratch. There's a few guys on the RCGroups.com forum who found plans and will be building them from scratch based on those plans at about a 52" wingspan. There's also an old rubber-powered balsa kit. There again, it has to be scaled up.
It would be really not too hard to adapt the Winnie Mae 48" balsa RC kit from Aerodrome RC to be a very close resemblance of a scale Vega. The plane is almost identical. Change the tail, landing gear, and cowl, and you can turn it into a Vega. Or, leave the kit a Winnie Mae and just PAINT it to look like Amelia's Vega and in the air, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
I'll either leave the Winnie Mae be and give it the paint job, or maybe I'll think about changing the tail, cowl, and gear to resemble a Vega's. I'll think about it while I'm building the powered sailplane.
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Post by Lt Swiss on Nov 18, 2009 20:41:03 GMT -5
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Post by bearcat on Nov 19, 2009 8:22:19 GMT -5
Some pretty good work on source possibilities. Thank you, Mitch.
Building from scratch is something you almost had to do in the old days. Even the Comet airplane kits had to have the printed balsa pieces cut out by hand. And if you didn't have a sharp enough exacto knife, you'd ruin the piece. That's the main thing about scratch builds. You have to have a LOT of very sharp, new exacto knife blades.
I wonder what 1/5 scale would be. Let's see, the original had a 41 foot wingspan. So one fifth scale is approximately an 8 ft wing. Wow, that is big. I think a 1/8 or a 1/10 scale would be plenty big.
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Post by bearcat on Dec 15, 2009 15:58:45 GMT -5
I've changed my mind on the color scheme for the Mr. Mulligan. The original was white, and if I painted it exactly like Amelia's Vega, it would be red. I think I'll definitely build the plane, but I'd prefer to do my own thing with color.
This is gonna sound strange maybe, but my daughter's favorite color is purple. So maybe I'll make this vintage racer purple, with the Vega's gold trim stripes maybe. I'll do it for my little girl. Then she'll love it, hanging up.
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Post by Lt Swiss on Dec 15, 2009 17:52:48 GMT -5
My High School colors are purple & Gold... we were the "Thunderbirds"...  |
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Post by bearcat on Dec 15, 2009 18:30:26 GMT -5
Ours was green and gold, and we were the Trojans.
Or...as our rivals called us, we were the "rubbers".
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Post by bearcat on Dec 18, 2009 16:37:26 GMT -5
I went to the hobby store today (i.e. my toy store) and stocked up on a bunch of supplies. Believe it or not, I bought the ultracoat before even BUYING this Mr. Mulligan plane. I decided on a color scheme. It'll be different. I decided not to copy the Vega color scheme because I have a lot of red planes already. I chose purple, because it's my daughter's favorite color. I'll probably trim it in silver, and have a decal made for the fin of a purple-haired monster.
The name of the plane will be "Purple People Eater".
Cool huh?
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Post by bearcat on Dec 27, 2009 12:06:50 GMT -5
Here's what I'm going to have made into a decal for the tail:  |
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