The Projectile is a Planetary Racer possessing a crew of three. She has a length of 198 feet, a wing span of 126 feet, and engines capable of light speed. The crew enters through an airlock hatch at the front of the yacht, and passes through a compartment containing bunk beds, small galley, and washroom for extended trips between race locations. Access to the upper cockpit is gained by a gangway. The Projectile requires only a single pilot for flight, but during space races a navigator and radio person take their places in the cockpit.

The Projectile started out as a 1/72 scale Northrop/MDD YF-23 Black Widow jet from Italeri. I wanted to customize it in a special way, so when the Space Racer contest was announced I knew what I wanted to do with it.

The first thing I did was build the model upside down, and remove the cockpit and upper nose section, replacing them with backwards-facing wings from a spare jet fighter kit, and a couple loose model parts to act as the entrance into the yacht.

Otherwise, the model was built as instructed, just upside down. I decided not to add any form of rear wings, leaving the tail section open so the sleek engines could be seen from all angles.

I spray-painted the racer dark blue 1211 from Testors, and added three coats of white for the racing stripes, and added red and silver sparingly for several vents and sections, while the cockpit windows were created using a pair of yellow decals. The lone racing touch is a small twin checkered flag under the forward wings.

The final touch was placement of the 'Projectile' decals. This was from a race car or dragster decal sheet sold separately at a hobby store that I bought for $3.

Image: Starboard side

Image: Top view

Image: Front view