And now for someting completely different: 1949 Chris Craft 19' Racer

This one turned up from Micro-Mark today. I ordered it for a couple of reasons: it looks cool, it's the right scale (1/24), and I have never worked with wood before. I presume it should be easy to open up the deck and shoehorn a flathead in there -- I've got one with Ardun OHV heads that's just looking for the right spot, although this one has some sort of flat-head 6 in it. We'll see how it goes ...





The manufacturer's website, www.dumasproducts.com, lists three other Chris Craft kits in 1/24 scale, all added to the catalog in 2006. I am not sure how many they might still have in stock, although the bits are pretty simple -- three thin laser cut sheets, a bunch of thin planking, and a small handful of urethane resin deck fittings -- no complex and expensive tooling for injection molding in styrene. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to make more. Most of the website is devoted to boats and planes, in 1/8 as well as a range of oddball scales, all suitable for RC projects.