CONTROL LINE SCALE
Bill Boss 77-06 269th Street, New Hyde Park, NY 11040
A QUESTION ANSWERED
In my November 1995 column I included a picture of Norm Skuderin's P-51C Mustang air racer, Beguine. While we had some information about the airplane's unique configuration (wing-pod coolers were added and the lower fuselage air scoop was removed), the "who and why" of the unusual paint scheme was in question.
Responses were excellent. While J.D. Reed (a top Beechcraft distributor and avid race fan from Houston, Texas) was the driving force behind the procurement and development of the Beguine racer, Walter Beech (a highly successful designer of commercial aircraft) provided the major design work. Beech was responsible for removing the lower air scoop and placing the coolers in the wing pods.
The airplane was named Beguine by J.D. Reed's wife Jackie, because of her fondness for Cole Porter's song "Begin the Beguine," which was very popular in the 1940s. The musical notes applied to the airplane's fuselage are the first few bars of the song. The trim paint and the design were applied by an artist named Ted Grohs of Los Angeles.
Ownership of the airplane changed hands just prior to the 1949 Thompson Trophy Races when Jacqueline Cochran became the owner. The Beguine was said to have been flown by Cochran at unofficial speeds of more than 500 mph. Plans to attack several world speed records with Bill Odum as pilot never came to pass.
Piloted by Odum, the airplane crashed during the 1949 air races. The addition of the wingtip coolers and the shortened ailerons were said to have caused a reduction in the airplane's roll control. These factors are given as the probable cause of the fatal accident—the airplane crashed into a suburban residence. The crash raised questions of public safety and effectively ended air races in populated areas. Unlimited races were not revived in unpopulated areas (such as Reno, Nevada) until the 1960s.
Thanks to the following for their time and effort in providing the above material:
- Bill Markus (St. Petersburg, FL)
- Lyman Slack (Miami Lakes, FL)
- Dan Gates (Poughkeepsie, NY)
- Tom Read (Pinckney, MI)
- Bob Heywood (Dayton, OH)
- Dick Burkhalter (Kapaa, HI)
More information on the Mustang and air racing can be found in the book Mustang: The Racing Thoroughbred by Dustin Carter and Birch Matthews.
Placards Again
Tom Read passed along a shorter method for making cockpit placards. He has used a Macintosh computer for years; drafting/drawing programs can help you create large individual items, group them, and reduce them in 1% increments. Most programs can insert white lettering on a black background or vice versa.
If you have a laser printer that will accept transparency stock, replace the paper with transparency material and print your design. Word of caution: make sure your laser printer is capable of accepting transparency material. If your printer is not designed for transparency stock, you risk damaging the printer's fuser drum. Read your instruction book or check with the printer manufacturer. If your printer will not accept transparency material, the local print shop can print your designs.
To finish the placard:
- Spray the back of the transparency with silver paint.
- When dry, attach it to the model using 3M artists' spray adhesive.
Contest Activity
October 1, 1995 was a great day for the Garden State Circle Burners (GSCB) and their all-scale-oriented George L. Gaydos Memorial Scale Meet, held in the Bendix Company parking lot at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey. After being rained out in mid-September, the weather cooperated and provided a warm, sunny day with only moderate winds.
Events offered at the contest were Precision, Sport, and Profile Scale (per AMA Competition Regulations), as well as fun and team Scale (per GSCB rules). The objective was to offer events for all levels of expertise, with special emphasis on inexperienced scale modelers. The Circle Burners achieved their goal with 38 entries across the five events:
- Precision: 5 entries
- Sport: 7 entries
- Profile: 7 entries
- Fun: 14 entries
- Team: 4 entries
Trophies and merchandise were awarded to the top five competitors in each event. The club established and awarded the George L. Gaydos Perpetual Competitors Award, given to the contestant who accumulates the greatest number of points based on individual placings in the Precision, Sport, Profile, and Fun events. The Gaydos Award was presented to Mel Mondschein of Wharton, New Jersey.
Watch the "Contest Calendar" for dates sometime in September 1996. The photos in this column were all taken at the GSCB contest.
Hints for the Workshop
Bob Furr returns this month with some workshop tips, this time relating to pegboard.
- Securing pegboard hooks: If hooks tend to pull out when removing tools or packages, secure the tool-holding hooks to the pegboard with sheet-metal screws. Drive a 3/8-inch-long sheet-metal screw alongside the hook where it goes into the pegboard hole. Use #10 screws for 1/4-inch holes and #4 screws for 1/8-inch holes. The screws will wedge the hook in place yet be easy to remove if you wish to change the hook location.
- Resurfacing a workbench: If the workshop bench surface is scarred and worn, resurface it with a 1/4-inch piece of tempered Masonite hardboard. Cut the hardboard to the shape of the bench top and tack or screw it in place. Finish with a couple coats of polyurethane. After a few years of wear, remove and replace the top with a new one.
- Safety reminder: If you are using a power tool (such as a Dremel Moto-Tool or a scroll saw) and the power goes out, be sure to turn the tool off before the power comes back on. You don't want the tool starting by itself with no one attending it.
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL Scale events, contest reports, and especially photos of CL Scale activity to me at the address at the top of this column.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
