I saw this picture and was instantly wowed! Smitten even! Super way cool!

I felt I needed to own this one till I looked closer... the plans and even the parts do not match what I would consider to be the same shapes one should wind up with so that you had something close to what the picture teases you with.

Does this thing look familiar to anyone here?

What I see is a round nose and just behind the engine and above are torpedo shaped bubbles that easily appear to be significantly wider than the firewall. The pictures on the plan and the carved hollow log fuselage are not like that at all. With the parts and pics provided the firewall, fuselage and cowl area looks to be pretty well standard with the exception of no landing gear and a dorsal mounted sub fin for which you need a special launcher which is also supplied.

Anyone here built or know a friend who built one of these?

Let me know what you know or think!

Robert

Oh! This thing looks so sweet!~ However even if you had the sheet or even the parts therein you still could not make it look like the picture. In my opinion.
Had I ever seen this one on the shelf at the LHS I would have bought it on sight. I would have been quite disapointed once I had opened the box to find these parts. If you look at the assembly instructions there seems to be no way to wind up with the same plane as the picture depicts.
I will include the box picture to let your mouth water even more.

Robert

Box art is made to sell kits.  Kit parts are made to save money in the manufacturing process. End of story.  Sad but true, some are more misleading than others. How many stories have we heard about kit manufacturers changing a plane's design to save wood or so the pieces fit in a smaller box?  That's why the only kits my designs will ever show up in, are the ones I make myself.  (Well, also because no-one else ever saw one of mine worthy of kitting!)

--Ray

A little update. The style looked familiar and after I got home from work I dug up the instructions of another old hollow log called Razzle-Dazzle. This, like the Moonliner was designed by Jerry Brofman. I am not really familiar with this name but I hope to remember from now on. From New Zealand ?

Has anyone any info on this great modeler who has brought these two (and who knows how many more) fine designs? I only have the Razzle-Dazzle myself. I wish I also had the plane. The assembly drawings are almost identical to the X-27.

Robert

Bill, thanks for your interest in this model, or rather the image of this model.

When we were young and just getting started in flying model planes we were not interested so much in performance or whether the plane would do the complete stunt pattern (although those words on a box seemed to mean a lot even if you did not know what the complete stunt pattern consisted of). It was how cool the plane looked in presentation. Whether it was a scale type model of a warbird that you always liked or a civilian plane like one your dad had or just one you had seen or flown in. Sometimes it might be something radically designed or futuristic in nature.
These were the things that drew us to these inexpensive models and made us choose the ones we did buy.

I know that, had I seen one of these on the shelf when I bought my first flying model kit, it would have went home with me in a heartbeat!!!
I love the retro-futuristic styling of this and since my last post I have given a lot of thought to similar designs that even though they may not be champions in the flying circle, would indeed be a head turner on the flight line and in the air. I have been thinking of twin rocket tubes, one on either side of a fuselage, Airliner styles and fighter style types. I have a few sketches and dozens of ideas!

I realize these may not fit the mainstream of interest but I do know there are a few out there who love sci-fi and a bit of imagination. The Tie fighters and Naboo fighters have already been tried. Those were based on images of craft not to fly in the air as we know planes do. However a spaceship designed around the parameters of real airplanes such as the X-27 was done is the answer.

I say to all who read this thread to give it a shot yourself! Try to make one that looks close to the X-27 or if the imagination strikes you something different!

Robert   

I have that same kit in real nice shape if you are interested.......