Ryan FR-1 Fireball / 1:33 / GPM

  • The Ryan FR-1 Fireball can hardly be described as a success. However, having both a radial and a turbojet engine, it is appealing for the modeler. I find the contrast between the dark blue overall and almost white tail interesting, too.


    Regarding the kit, it is more elaborated than I imagined. It includes 781 parts, not counting the wire/rolled paper bits needed. Many assemblies have “easy” and “hard” versions and some parts are specific of the “easy” version. Nevertheless, the number of parts is still impressive and the percentage hidden is surely less than on, for example, Halinski’s Me-262 that kept me away from this part of the forum for quite a while...


    The parts are printed on 8 pages of GPM (thick) paper. The kit, as you can see in the first pictures, also includes the usual and good looking instruction drawings.




  • Hello Ric,


    back from nuclear power plants to warbirds?


    Well, I think a good choice - they're not "radioactive" just "active".... grins 2


    It's an interesting and seldom seen plane!


    Greetings
    Hagen

  • Glad you like the choice, Hagen :)


    For a single-seater, the Fireball has a bulky fuselage. For the model, it is good because there is a solid floor plate that doubles as the front undercarriage compartment ceiling.


    The parts behind the pilot’s seat are not long enough to reach the cockpit bulkhead, despite being marked there. As the base of the seat back panel is clearly marked in the cockpit floor, I aligned the parts according to the base.



  • Thanks Dieter! Welcome aboard :)


    The instrument panel has the usual plastic sheet. Regarding the pedals, they are suspended, instead of being hinged at floor level.



  • Hi Thomas,


    My medicine portfolio is not very extensive grins 2 rotwerd1


    The kit includes parts to make the engine cowling by the cones or the slices method. I choose the second. The smaller tab was missing and I added it. Being hidden, it was not necessary to paint completely.



  • @ Hagen - Right! We never know what can happen...


    According to what I read, the plane was not a success because both engines had modest power. The radial engine has 9 cylinders in a single row. The pictures show the engine hub and part of the cylinders.



  • Thanks, Hagen and Evgeni :)
    @ Evgeni - Some parts are quite small at 1/33. At 1/72, it would be problematic, even with thinner paper.


    The external tanks are modeled in 9 sections and both extremities have slices to get rounded tips. There are no card formers and, as the cross-section is circular, it was not a problem.


  • @ Evgeni - the kit has "easy" and "hard" versions for many assemblies. The "easy" version for the engine is just a printed disk.


    The kit provides a simple paper rectangle to make the propeller hub. As the tip should be rounded, the paper roll resulting from the rectangle would have to be sanded out. I don’t like the method and made a suitably drawn paper strip, in thin paper, in order to have a rounded tip. The roll was skinned with the painted part of the rectangle provided in the kit.


    Blade construction is in two stages and quite easy.




  • The pictures show the rear fuselage construction. You can see that the engine exhaust diameter is a fraction of the fuselage section behind the wings.


    I added gluing tabs and some reinforcements to properly fix the tail hook.





  • Dieses Thema enthält 26 weitere Beiträge, die nur für registrierte Benutzer sichtbar sind, bitte registrieren Sie sich oder melden Sie sich an um diese lesen zu können.