During the golden age a air racing it often
happened that the racers where faster then the most modern fighters available.
This was the case for the Boeing P-26. Although the Peashooter was a credible fighter, air racers where faster.
Both Boeing and the military where not content with this situation. The fact the civilian aircraft where faster and therefore "uncatchable" looked bad on the airforce and
threatened its funding. So Boeing was
ordered to fix the situation by building a P-26 racer.
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To make a racer out of a P-26 many changes where needed.
Boeing mated the P-26 fuselage to the a new engine, enclosed the cockpit and
shortened the wingspan. The new enclose cockpit was moved to the back of the fuselage to make room for a large fuel tank for overland racer like the Benix trophy. The wheel spats where moved outboard the enhance the airflow.
All military equipment was deleted to save weight. To finish it of, all rivets where sanded down to decrease drag.
The improved aircraft was called the P-26R (for Race). The P-26 designation was used even though this was a very different aircraft. The main reason for doing this was to create the illusion the the ordinary P-26 was a fast fighter.
I made this model using a 1/72 Revell P-26, the engine of a Macchi MC-200 and some
styrene and putty.
The photo's below show the model during construction. I did a lot of test fitting, with the engine and canopy where tacked on with Blue Tack.
The canopy was "smash molded" over Folland Gnat fuel tank. The model was primed using Duplicolor primer from a spray can. Painting was done with Humbrol paint, using Blue Tack for masking. Decals came from the spares box and are from a Hasegawa
Shinden.
Borg R3-MC0
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