In the late 21st century, Mars has been colonized, and amongst the common settlers are the very rich and adventurous. Baron Von Brecken is just such a young man, who made a name for himself by winning the Martian 500,000 space race four years in a row with his Space Racer, the Red Baron. So identified with his craft was Von Brecken that he took on the nickname of 'The Red Baron' for himself, as well as his ship, even though the real Red Baron had been a fighter pilot during World War One, 170 years earlier.

The Red Baron was poised to win his fifth straight race until he radioed in, reporting engine trouble. Rescue vehicles were dispatched, but no sign of the Red Baron or his space racer was ever found.

The Model

The Red Baron is a fusion of a 1/48 scale Hughes 500-D police helicopter from Academy Minicraft, and a 1/72 scale Tornado jet fighter from Monogram. I wanted my space racer to have a compact cockpit, and the tiny, oval-like shape of the police copter fit the bill. I built the interior of the Hughes as instructed, but in place of the rotor assembly I installed a spare model part that serves the purpose of a retro rocket.

I cut off the majority of the tail assembly, leaving just a small nib to insert into the body of the Tornado, which had the cockpit and nose cone removed. I found that the twin vents of the Tornado held the Hughes cockpit snugly, and added glue along the seams to make it appear like the racer was a unique, one-piece ship, and not a merging of two totally different aircraft.

For the wings I used only the top half of each, and positioned them forward, so the space racer appears to be reaching forward as it soars ahead of the competition. There were covers for the aft engines, but I chose to leave those exposed, giving the ship a crude look to an otherwise sleek ship. I also didn't use the covers for the landing gear sections in the center of the racer body. Taking on the role of reactors on the either side of the engines are a pair of bomb casings from the Tornado kit.

I pictured the fictional pilot, Von Brecken, the so-called Red Baron, as a serious competitor, so the space racer was adorned with only a small amount of racing stripes in black, and painted over most of the copter windows. Only two personal decorations are on display on the racer; on both wings are fictional family crests for the Von Breckens, and on the nose of the racer is a crude silhouette of the original Red Baron's triple-winged plane.

To account for the holes in the model where the landing gear and fighter bomb rack would have gone I painted in reaction-control thruster ports, which the Red Baron would use to change course during a race.

I finished the Red Baron with a few number '5' decals from a race car kit, and additional aircraft decals from various fighter kits.

Image: Top view

Image: Bottom view

Image: Front view