Saturday, December 16, 2023

Anson Johnson 1949 Mustang racer - Airfix 1/72nd conversion



Another conversion to racer, this time involving a somewhat extensive surgery, based on the Airfix kit complemented by a Draw Decals sheet and a couple of aftermarket items.

(here is the Tom Mayson's Mustang racer model in this blog:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/12/tom-maysons-1947-mustang-racer.html

And James Hannon's A-36:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-36-james-hannons-racer-1949-cleveland.html

More Mustangs here in this blog:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/03/mustang-beguine-racer-converted-arma.html 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/08/hi-time-ii-mustang-reno-racer-academy.html

Anson Johnson won the Thompson Trophy in 1948 with an almost basic version of the Mustang, but took the risk (erroneously it may seem) of effecting radical mods -shown here on this model- and had to abandon the 1949 edition due to mechanical failure. The plane had the prominent belly radiator and the air intake lip under the spinner both deleted, a new carb air intake added, the radiators and coolers moved inside the wings now fed through leading edge air intakes -exiting on top of the wings, and clipped wings.

The details and step-by-step process can be seen here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/11/mustang-n13y-anson-johnson-racer-1949.html

This exercise in kit surgery will now fly to the hangar of friend David the Tall -the intrinsically vertical- who provided, as usual, the wrong accessories, some of which were not used -as they were unnecessary-, some that had to be replaced with the right item as they were wrong, and some that I had to add since he didn’t provide. But he otherwise knows a lot about math and how to transplant ferns. He also thinks that the transformation of the normal kit to render the much modified racer -involving all kinds of shenanigans- is achieved by putting the kit in a blender and adding cement and paint… blessed be the ignorant, for they will be given the chili. There is nothing more rewarding than working like a dog extensively converting a kit for someone that will never really understand what is involved in such endeavor. Sigh… the life of the Modeling Monk. On the other hand, the model will make him very happy, and that is ultimately the goal of the hobby.

 






























4 comments:

  1. A beautiful and accurate job with the wing radiators and cooler. A lot of carving; excellent

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did you do something with the tail? In some shots it looks like the ventral fin is non-standard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure what the question is, the Mustang did not have a ventral fin, at all.
      In any case, besides removing the ventral radiator and associated ducting, nothing was done to the tail.

      Delete