I posted a question some time back about how to cut a canopy to get a good fit.  I bought a pair of the curved scissors and this is what I came up with so far.  I'm still trying to decide whether to tint the canopy or not.

James

Hi James,

Great looking cockpit!  A light tint to go with the paint scheme would have a very *Classic* look.  I believe Mr. Kostecky used a light tint on his Formula S.

Bill

I like, I like it, I like it!!!!!!!!
Blessin's
Will

After looking at my slides of the Jim's beautiful model....any chance of finding another canopy that is closer to the format, size and shape of the original? This one appears to be noticably "blunt in da' front and do  you really want to lock yourself in with that baby blue base canopy floor & Alum.green primer head rest?
 Don't mean to be mean or picky but canopies always seem to get lots n' lots of attention from appearence judgin' folks.
Again...I too agree that you have done an amazingly beautiful job of building one of the most beautiful renditions of Jim's beautiful 68 Olatha 2nd Place winning stunt model.

I will never forget seeing that beautiful flight Jim put in that day at Olatha. He flew that strong wind with style and grace. Nothing was as beautiful as that bold RED-BLACK stunter against that start deep blue Kansas summa-time sky.
JET STYLE MODELS WERE REALLY THE VOGUE during those mid-60's. Although the Jet style age of stunters seemed to be in fashion...however!!!!!!even waaay back then we could see another style of CLPA model that was beginning to appear on the horizen. Those amazing VIRTUALLY FULL SCALE STUNT MODELS by Al Rabe, Keith Trostle, Big Art...etc started to show the traditionist Nobler-ized folks that other styles of models were equally competitive. Even Bob Baron with his little 19 powered flapless stunter...showed everyone that a new day was dawning on the horizen in stunt model design concepts.

Again, thanks for sharing your progress on that beautiful model of yours in pictures. Keep them comin.

Shultzie said;
After looking at my slides of the Jim's beautiful model....any chance of finding another canopy that is closer to the format, size and shape of the original? This one appears to be noticably "blunt in da' front and do  you really want to lock yourself in with that baby blue base canopy floor & Alum.green primer head rest?


What I do to make the canopy have a steeper front slope is buy one way too large and cut the back off until I get the angle I want. I believe this is one of James' first attempts at the jet style canopy stunter so he is coming along nicely. It looks as if he is mocking it up in the pic as the top block flat spot from the spinner to the cockpit and canopy look like they are still being shaped.

If he goes with a dark grey tint, I can see the baby blue being OK, but I know that getting the cockpit colors to make sense takes some thought. I usually do black and green like a military fighter.

James,
Looking great. Maybe we can be an influence to get more detail into current stunters. I hate people referring to Stunters as 'lawn darts".

Tom,
It wouldn't matter if they refered to them that way or not for me. The detailed stunter is beautiful no matter if it has a slick no-profile canopy like the Genesis or Novi IV, or a jet style like the Formula S or Sabre, or a semi-scaler like one of Al's models. They are all what the builder brings to it through thoughtful detailing.

The Formula S was a stylized work of art, bringing the lithographic techniques of modern art of the time period to the surface of a model airplane. I built Renwal plastic kits with completely printed surface detailing when I was a child and that was as close to what Jim did as I have seen. Neat technique of continuing the rivet detail over the different trim colors with contrasting ink, a technique that I have used and really like.
That time period is a special era of stunters and it continued until the mid/late-seventies in models like the Tropicaire, Genesis, Stiletto, Sea Fury, and many others.
The tradition isn't dead, Ted Fancher's models always bring a detailed look of that era even with his "Extra"-like efficiency designs. There are many others, too.

Thank goodness there are modelers that desire to bring the careful polish and detail to the event still.

Chris...   

I remember taking my Rapidograph pen (the very smallest in the set) to draw a Stunt Pattern on a piece of paper about 3/8th" X 3/4" on the dash for the pilot to see.  I figured if he could see it, he wouldn't leave out any maneuvers!