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GEEBEE!


mconnelley

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14 hours ago, Cati888 said:

hate to be there bearer of bad news but the pinstripe is actually blue. They are red white and blue like the flag. If you google search there is a peice of original fabric in the smithsonian showing the blue pinstripe. I think the interpretation of the old black and white photos leads to the misunderstanding. 

@Cati888 This is really interesting!

I have tried searching Google and the Smithsonian website and can't find the picture you mention, can you post a link to the picture please?

Thanks,

Malc.

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Very cool build and great work on doing that (very challenging) pinstripe!

 

Regarding the color of the stripe, first time I have heard of it being blue; very interesting! Having found some high quality pics of the wing on display there in the pics above, it definitely looks to be a grayish blue to my eyes, but to note, the wing is off a GEE BEE model E apparently, not the R. I do wonder if the stripe has just faded to the blueish gray it is now from originally being black?

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Quote

 

I dont think it is black that has faded as red is the colour that fades the fastest under UV. So the red would be very pink if the black had gone blue. 

 

It was news to me to and I ended up repainting a quarter scale gee bee and i know have shares in tamiya due to the amount of tape involved. 

 

It makes sense really they are red white and blue rather than red, black and white as i guess far more patriotic etc. There used to be a video on youtube from one of the Delmar GEE BEE R repro documentaries where a GEE BEE expert talks about the colour schemes and that made me change mine.  I googled it but could not find it, so someone with better googlefu than I might be able to help. 

 

Anyway most importantly the model looks great and cant wait to see the end result

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Close up photos of the Delmar/Wolf R-2 replica show that the pin stripe is black.

Also the exact non flying R-1 replica in the New England Air Museum has black pinstripes, this was built from original plans and with the help of Pete Miller the R model engineer who worked for the Granville brothers and with the family blessing.

The book 'The GeeBee Racers' by Charles Mendenhall specifically says the R-1/R-2 colour scheme was red/white with black pinstripes.

Sadly the other two marque specific books - 'The Real GeeBee story' and 'GeeBee' do not mention the colour scheme.

Would love to hear/see any other evidence.

M.

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Hello:

   The discussion of the pinstripe color is interesting.  I think that helps me to understand why, in some photos, I can't see the pinstriping at all when I expect that it would be quite apparent in the photo.  Certainly William's Bros thought that the pinstriping was black, so that's how they printed the decals, and that's what I went off of.  Oh well...

 

   I have started putting on the decals, which as gone ok so far.  Not great, as the '11' on the right side cracked and fractured into a bunch of pieces.  Especially the top right corner of one of the "1's" broke apart into countless tiny shards.  

 

Mike

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Hello:

   Things were going ok until "11" happened.  I could see a crack through the middle of the decal while it was dry on the decal sheet, so I was expecting a bit of a fight.  I was able to put the big pieces together, but the top right of the "1" shattered into a bunch of tiny shards, like dust in the wind.  So I thought that a bit of tape and some touch up paint was the way to go to cover up the disaster.  You can also see that the right dice had an issue too.

 

QXgkpBT.jpeg

 

Mike

 

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