Have you ever wondered "What if"? What if this had happened, or that had happened? In my case I had an attack of the "what ifs" about the time I was deciding on the color scheme for my latest (no. 3) Extra 3.25. Not long ago I built a fun scale model of the Gilmore Special that Roscoe Turner flew in the '32 Thompson Trophy race. What if Gilmore Oil was still in the oil business? What if old Roscoe had a son and grandson who were pilots? What if Gilmore was interested in sponsoring aerobatics competition instead of racing? I couldn't resist.
The original Gilmore special had a garish red and cream paint job, but that was racing and this was aerobatics, so I chose a slightly more conservative scheme using the original cream and adding a lot of black for contrast with red or gold graphics to set the colors off. Monokote did the job and then I started on the graphics.
Gilmore Red Lion on the wings, top and bottom, with red lettering on a cream background for the wing top surface and gold lettering on a black background for the bottom surface. The lettering was generated on my computer and printed out for patterns. The patterns were taped to Monokote taped to a piece of glass and carefully cut out by hand using an Exacto No. 11 blade(s). The letters were then bonded onto the pin striping color (Red or gold) Monokote and cut out once more with the pin striping outline about 1/16" larger than the original pattern. The resulting letters were then arranged on glass with a pattern under the glass for positioning and a one inch wide strip of frisket paper (a low tack semi-transparent material used in the art and printing trades) applied along the length of the graphic to hold it in alignment as I moved the whole graphic onto the wing panel where it was positioned and one edge bonded using Trim Solvent. After a short wait, the frisket paper was removed and the graphic was in place for final bonding using trim solvent to fasten the letters without bubbles. Repeat three more times for the remaining wing panel graphics.
The traditional Gilmore Red Lion logo on the front of the fuselage was a little different and more tedious yet. I drew out a line drawing of a lions head, copied it and adjusted the size of the final drawing with the copier. The final rendition was taped onto a piece of red Monokote Trim material and the cutting began. Starting near the center of the figure, I carefully cut the pattern into the trim material without cutting through the backing paper. From time to time I removed the excess material leaving the lions head drawing in place on the backing. Two hours later and I had a red lions head ready to apply. Using the Frisket paper again, I covered the figure and lifted it off the backing with the Frisket paper holding the lines in place. A little soapy water on the fuselage allowed positioning, and then squeegying the water and bubbles out from under the trim. The Red Lion logo was in place.
Since I like to scratch build, I made my own fiberglass cowl, and pulled my own canopy using the kitchen oven as a heat source. The model uses a Magnum 0.25 and a homemade muffler to keep the muffler in the cowl. The pilot figure is a modified Williams Bros. painted with acrylics to get a realistic feel. Roscoe Turner III has his legs painted onto the floor of the cockpit due to the wing structure interfering.
So now I have a model of the Gilmore Red Lion Extra 300 flown by Roscoes grandson and with a little luck it will fly as well as the previous two Extras I have built before. The 'Model of the Month' trophy is his first trophy with this plane.