Germs, Figures and Hydroplanes

It's been a week since I returned to work from the President's Day holiday. For some reason micro-organisms have also chosen to return to work with me and I'm sick, sick, sick. It hasn't kept me from heading off to work every morning, but when I come home I'm just dying. I'm living on a steady diet of Dayquil and Nyquil. Probably not a good thing, but I'm making do. Combine that with deadline week, and it doesn't make for a real productive week.

I've picked a little bit at my AWI figures, but most of the time I've painted was devoted to my Gold Cup project. Last week I carefully razor sawed the openings for the tails and cut them from my super thin sheet plastic and primed them. I decided to work on three boats: Tahoe Miss, Smirnoff, and Such Crust IV. All three boats are pretty and look different than other boats I've already put together.

Tahoe Miss has a squarer, jet fighter look to her tail. Not exactly a beautiful craft in 1965, but very effective, Tahoe Miss was very fast, with Chuck Thompson an effective driver. Unfortunately she was pretty beat up in the race, with a blown supercharger and a hard bounce that broke one of Thompson's ribs. Tahoe Miss finished third.

Smirnoff is an interesting boat. Sponsored by Heublein's, the vodka distiller had a big picture of a properly labeled bottle on the fighter plane tail. In 1964 This did not comport with Washington State Liquor Control Board regulations. The booze bottle was replaced with an image of A-1 Steak Sauce, another Heublein product. Miss Smirnoff finished eighth in the '65 Gold Cup

The last boat I have ready to work on is Such Crust IV. This was an older boat in its final season of racing. Boasting twin Allisons, this Detroit boat was a sled. Qualified by Bill Muncey, one of the best drivers in the business, he was unable to race because of an ailing back. The elephantine Such Crust, finished seventh. This is a much larger boat than Sean's models represent, but it was in the race, so I'll have to do my best.

So it's Smirnoff in the blue and red with the bottle on the tailfin, and Miss Tahoe in the bright red and green. Colors are bit shaky. It's tough to find good photos, and I often have to resort to photos of R/C models. The colors also frequently changed from year to year, and often within a racing season.