Oooooooh, Barracuda!

[KiwiZac]

Nine years ago I decided to build an Airfix (Pioneer?) 1/72 Sea Fury as a fictitious air racer named Barracuda that I'd found on FlightSim.com:
cuda by Zac Yates, on Flickr
(This is the preview image of the plane you see when you download it.)

cudafs by Zac Yates, on Flickr
(Some screenshots I took while "flying" to help with painting the model.)

This was when the Airfix kit was expected but not yet in New Zealand. Because of this, and I think because he liked the idea, a member of a fellow forum named "sotoolslinger" kindly sent me a Hobbycraft 1/48 Sea Fury kit. To my shame I sold it a year or so later, and that kind man has since died.

Fast forward to the other day, when I found Barracuda was a simple repaint of a flight model of a real Reno Unlimited racer named Critical Mass. Reno fans will recognise the name. CM retired in 2006 and had been restored to full stock condition - first flight was two months ago - so the most radical Sea Fury is no more.

A very cool thing about Critical Mass is that High Planes Models make a few 1/72 kits of her and her Blind Man's Bluff guise. I imagine you can see where I'm going with this ;-) I can't remember the speed of postage from Singapore to New Zealand...

Like an earlier Unlimited racer build, the Yak-11 Yak Attack, Barracuda will wear sotoolslinger's forum avatar on the cowling in tribute to Ron. I'm excited to get started.

[Robomog]

Nice touch using the Avatar, Looking forward to see this built, striking colour scheme

[Old Wombat]

Ron Fulce was one of the nicest people I've never met, a real gentleman online. I miss him.


Good use of his avatar but a pity it's not on the kit he sent you, Zac.

[Frank3k]

Sotoolslinger died? When?

[arkon]

When did he pass?

[KiwiZac]

Good use of his avatar but a pity it's not on the kit he sent you, Zac.

When I rediscovered the thread over at WhIf I felt horrible when I saw that offer and my acceptance of same, as I remember selling the kit. An awful moment.

[Old Wombat]

Sotoolslinger died? When?

When did he pass?

I can't remember &, typically, the link I found to a notice of his death yesterday on Google is now nowhere to be found.

[KiwiZac]

1997 Critical Mass has arrived, so work can begin:
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

And here's the Yak-11-based racer I mentioned, with Toolslinger Engine Works branding on the cowl 
N11157Aprofile by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC06650 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
I'm contemplating a more plausible version, hopefully when I have some more cash I can make it happen thanks to HPM's range of kits...if you're feeling generous PM me 

[KiwiZac]

Back to Barracuda, I did the backstory on Friday and started the build Saturday. The horizontal stabilisers are missing but I've emailed HPM to get replacements. The build is going well but you won't see it for another couple of weeks as Sam and I may be going away this weekend.

[Brian da Basher]

Thank you for that most excellent shot of the red racer featuring the far-too-infrequent Hand of God.

Looking forward to the Barracuda, Zac!

Brian da Basher

[KiwiZac]

Thanks Brian, that Yak Attack photo is from the glory days of the aforementioned Hand, where barely a week would go by at a certain forum without it appearing!

The lovely HPM team have emailed back saying they'll slip a pair of stabs in the post. Good stuff!

[Dr. YoKai]

Ron Fulce was one of the nicest people I've never met, a real gentleman online. I miss him.


Good use of his avatar but a pity it's not on the kit he sent you, Zac.

I only knew Him from here  and just missed meeting him at a couple of Texas shows. This build will be a worthy tribute.

[GTX_Admin]

For those unaware, the model shown in the banner at the top of the forum is Ron's (aka sotoolslinger) Hawker/Grumman GT-X24 Hellstorm which is based on this original drawing I did ages ago:



Here are some other shots:

[elmayerle]

Other pictures are not showing up, Photobucket is being obnoxious.

[GTX_Admin]

Bugger - they did yesterday.  I see if I can recover them over the weekend.

[KiwiZac]

I got to see them at home (work PC = can't download the extension) and was very impressed. I think I have very foggy memories of seeing it the first time around.

Any chance you could repost them in their own thread?

[KiwiZac]

I just wanted to bump! The fuselage is together, pilot and cockpit included, and the wing is mounted. A fair bit of work is required...and that's before I decide whether to do away with the wing root radiator and oil cooler inlets as per the Flight Sim model....