Shrinking The Shelf Of Shame. Episode One - Williams Bros 1/32 Schoenfeldt Firecracker

I bought this kit new during the late 80s as I was slowly getting back into modeling. Always an aviation fan and having become an EAA member, I was seeing a number of recreations of golden age air racers at the annual convention. The Thompson Trophy Racers were the hottest thing going in the 30s, and there were two schools of design: Biggest engine mated to smallest practical airframe (think Gee Bee), and the smallest most streamlined design with enough horsepower to be competitive. The Firecracker was from the second school, a diminutive airframe with less than half the horsepower of the radial engined competition, but still able to hit speeds nearing 300 mph. The narrow profile of the inverted inline engine and the extreme rearward cockpit give it a distinctive racing look.

This kit is very simple, with some fit and finish issues. Unfortunately,  I had a near tragic liquid glue spill that effectively destroyed the landing gear and that, along with the amount of puttying that would be required to smooth out the wing-to-fuselage joint  caused me to move on to greener fields.

Now, it was time to drag this across the finish line.

Putty. Lots of putty...

Combination of kit leftovers, parts box bits, and scratchbuilding and you have gear.

Many putty-and-sand sessions later, I primed with some Tamiya leveling primer. The top mounted radiator surface was sprayed with Vallejo Chrome, followed by clear gloss, and covered with a hand cut mask. 

Tamiya gloss white over everything, followed by..

...Gunze Sangyo yellow. Wet sand, followed by a second coat. 

Once dry, pull the mask 

Now that radiator really "pops".

Next: will the decades old decals go on properly?

As it turns out, they won't go on at all. First attempt, the old film just brokes into tiny fragments.  I sprayed the remaining with Testors decal fixative, which creates what I hope would be a new tougher film over them.

After 90 minutes, only portions would lift.

(the decal disaster. Top one crumbled; bottom wouldn't release. I scanned it before it curled and broke)

I am now scanning the sheet to print my own copies 🤞

In order to get a clean graphic, I need to remove all the old yellowed "paper" from the image. This involves a few hours of pixel-level "trimming", but provides a good basis for printing.

Here it is, on Testors decal paper, off an HP Envy Photo 5800 printer. After a few hours air drying, it was sprayed with a coat of Testors spray fixative and let dry.

This is now a single sheet of decal, so trimming close with a fresh #11 exacto is needed. Here is the result:

Other than the lack of white firecracker burst lines, it is as good or better than the original IMHO.

The original had a distinctive laminated prop, so that was recreated.

Now for some clear gloss to seal it all in.

I need to add a pitot tube, control cables for the rudder, and a tail skid, and finish up the detail painting. Tomorrow may be The Day...

Once I realized I needed to have put "70"s on the wings, I got back to decaling, then added homebrew control wires, pitot tube, and exhaust stacks. Time for a few glamor shots.

And by way of comparison,  here it is with the winner of the 1939 Thompson Trophy race, the Lair-Turner Meteor. The 2 design philosophies, side by side. Yes, they are the same scale.

.....

I  guess it's true: there is no replacement for displacement...