1/48 Testors (Hawk) 

Travel Air Mystery Ship

by René Zass

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The moulds for this kit date back to the 60's, so not too much detail can be expected.  However the engine is quite good - it is in fact the best engine of all Testor airracer kits.  And it is the one radial engine which can be seen hardest after finishing the kit...

I scratchbuilt a cockpit (I had no reference so I had a guess - not much can be seen through the small cockpit opening anyway) and added a vacuformed windshield.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Some rigging with fishing line added additional detail.  I use the following easy and quick method for rigging:

I drilled small holes into wings, fuselage and wherever the rigging was to be installed.  I started the rigging from the inside of the fuselage with a long piece of fishingline - the end which will stay in the fuselage got a knot, so it will fix itself at the drilled hole.  A drop of superglue secured it additionally.  Now I guided the line through all other holes (wing, landing gear) and back inside the fuselage (I left the engine off until the rigging was finished so I could access the fuselage for fixing the rigging through the front).  I attached a small weight to this end of the fishing line to pull it tight and added a drop of superglue to all holes. This is now at least a year ago and the rigging is still tight.

The red paint is from a Revell spraycan and needs several days to dry - I can hardly recommend Revell spraycans but they are easy to get here in Germany.  The gloss black colour is also from Revell and was simply brushed on, because I was too lazy to mask all the lines for airbrushing. The Revell gloss black is quite easy to paint with a brush as this colour too takes rather long to dry.

René 

Photos and text © by René Zass