Well, I finally did it. Needed to have something to make the homely Gilbert .074 look at home, somewhat modern, but somewhat vintage. Came across an old keith Laumer 1/2-A Gee Bee Z profile plan. Then wanted to have a little fun with it, somehow relate it to the Ringmaster Brotherhood.

I came up with the Ringmaster Gee Bee Z variant. It adapts the fuselage of Laumer's Gee Bee, but retains the cockpit, rudder, elevator and wing of the .049 powered Sterling Beginner Ringmaster. To make it quick building and inexpensive, I used 3/16" thick (5 mm) poster foamboard, $2 from Wal-Mart. To keep it "scale" looking, it needed a cowl. I took a 3" (76 mm) diameter vitamin supplement bottle (GNC Mega Men Multi) and took a section of the bottle.

Attached is what I have come up with so far. With the look of the cowl and the genuine Gilbert putting out the horsepower of a Cox Sure Start .049, you can almost feel the 535 HP from the Pratt and Whitney Wasp Jr. engine.