This is a build thread for my Cermark Fantasy Racer. Gee Bee R3.
The R3 was never made as a real plane, so, it's called a Fantasy Racer.

My final thoughts on CG are on post 22...

As of this writing, I've seen very few of these planes that are really modified much, seems most of them are flown bone stock for the most part.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1330036

...

Here's a semi-finished shot...


Here's a couple pics of the standard plane, as it comes from Cermark.

I decided that I wanted to see some more cooling in this bird, so I added a NACA duct considerably larger than the original tiny hole. I also enlarged the air passage to the "upper" section of the fuse where the ESC sits.

Seems most real planes have some sort of cowl venting at the back edge to let hot air past the engine. I decided to add some fake venting to give it a more realistic look. I made these vents fake since I made the larger opening on the bottom for the real flow.

The original cockpit area is a hatch for the rear servos and Receiver.

It came down pretty low, and left a thick open seam that I thought was not only ugly, but also left the rear of the fuse quite weak. I permanently glued the hatch down, and re-cut it up higher, just under the canopy. The seam is now hidden by the canopy. Front is held on by a thin plank of balsa, and rear is held down by tiny rare earth magnets.

This model comes with no pilot, and a white cockpit interior. A plane this cool really deserves more than this.
I painted the cockpit area black, added a pilot from another plane, and tinted the windscreen blue-green. I used Tamiya water based acrylic transparent blue and green. Mostly green, with a drop or two of blue. Mixed in a bit of water, and brushed it on the inside.

I've heard from some owners of this plane that the tail wheel plastic support can split open during a hard landing. I confirmed this just in my garage - it easily lets the wire pop out. I hopefully solved this by drilling holes in front of the wire, then wrapping kevlar thread (braided fishing line) thru the holes, then gluing the thread. Seems really solid.

I actually really like the original red and white scheme, but just wanted something different. I'm a huge fan of polished aluminum, so I tried to find something that would give results close to metal.

I've removed the original paint with mineral spirits, lightly sanded, sprayed with WBPU, then TESTORS buffing silver. Let dry about 15 minutes, then buff with paper towel. I love the look, it's VERY shiny in real life, the pics don't do it justice.

I now need to decide what else to do with it. My original idea was to replace the Gee Bee style scallops, but in a different color. We'll see.







I've discovered that by using a NON WAX (so I can paint later) Meguiars #9 polish, I can actually get the paint more shiny than just rubbing with a cloth.

Here's a pic before polish buffing...


And here's one after using polish...

Just a mockup, nothing's hooked up.

Custom Tail Wheel Pant.
Original model had just the wire. This one's made from Depron sheet stacked up. Coated with epoxy for protection from grass.

I did a few photo shops of some color schemes.
Here's the final cuts, and some pics of paint on the model with the scheme I went with.

I used a Testors Metallic Black, and then sprayed over that with a Transparent Blue. Gives a nice Midnight blue look.

All done.

That is so awesome. I agree that the stock canopy setup looks poor. But you took it to a whole new level! I'm inspired to paint now.

That's cool! I would love to see what you come up with. This plane really is just begging for mods.

Nice, did you do the graphics?

I stand in awe! You do really nice work.

RichardS

Hi Manfred, thank you!

I did make the graphics. The horse was made by finding a really large resolution Google image. I took that, put it in a drawing program similar to Photoshop, then turned the white background to dark blue. I then printed that image onto Overhead Projector Film. The ink was transparent red, so I sprayed the back side with silver paint to make it opaque. It gave a nice metallic red to match the metallic blue. I then ran it thru a little machine my wife has for scrapbooking that puts adhesive on the back. Then cut out with a brand new X-axcto blade.

For the lettering, I just went to WORD, found a font I liked (Pegasus - imagine that!), and sized it up to the right scale. I hit print several times to get it right.
Using that fancy machine of the wife's again, I turned that lettering into a stencil. Her machine has the ability to laminate, and put adhesive on at the same time. This time I used a "re positional" adhesive, (low tack), and then again cut out the letters with the blade. Slapped on the stencil, and sprayed black paint.

The red outline around the lettering is with a Red Sharpie. (probably could have been easier with a Permanent marker that's wider, not a sharpie)
The red pinstripe between the Blue and the Silver is done with a brush, Testors bottle paint.

Originally Posted by LSF226

I stand in awe! You do really nice work.

RichardS

Thank you so much! Very kind.