Chronic's Research and Aeronautics Project (C.R.A.P.)

[TheChronicOne]

Oh boy!! I've had things dictated to me by the rain! It's not only raining, but raining quite a bit. Hmm...  So... won't be no mowing today and next week is guaranteed to be wall to wall. (And wouldn't you know it is the week heading into the weekend before Independence Day when everyone suddenly wants theirs mowed but conveniently forget to call ahead of time).

But anyway!!!! You know what that means... I get to sit around inside all day.  I'll do my household chores then I'm free to tinker. 

[TheChronicOne]

In typical fashion, I have changed my mind once again.


Now that I've finished all the PSR and have it primed and ready for paint.......   I've decided to go ahead with the modifications to make the BAC-111 correct.   

So, I need to delete the old stall fences, make some new ones, and glue them on where they go. I also need to hack off a good sized chunk of the engine housing on the rear of the engines.  I need to add to the nose and make it more pointy.

That's it I think? Something to do with reverser inlets or some jive but I'll either find a suitable transfer to use or just paint that stuff on... or.... something.......  I'll have to get back into my reference photos. There's probably some other things as well but this stuff here is a good place to start. Looking at it again, I don't think it'll be TOO bad... not too much work. Still, it would have been nice if I had it done before I got the finish all perfect and stuff. 


So anyway, here it is now:


I'm going to get back to work on the Yak-53, though. That's what I've been doing so far today and I'm getting close to closing up the fuselage halves.

Lord,but this thing is finicky. The area where the halves go together back on the fin (one side sort of nestles into the other instead of two complete, equal halves) has terri-bad fitment and I've had to dry fit and adjust about 50 times to get it to a mediocre fitment. Other little quirks here and there in places has things lining up but not quite and it's not readily apparent what is causing all of it so It's taking extra time and trial and error to slowly get things lined up. I'm pretty close now and with use of clamps I can probably get things together but it's going to be tedious. INDEED, Amodel kits take extra work, even the nicer looking ones.     Pretty challenging, I must say....   Still, if these are considered short run kits, then, AS short runs kits, they're pretty good. But, if these are supposedly mass produced with good machinery then they really ought to spend a bit of extra time working out the finer aspects of the moulds. It's one thing cleaning off a bit of flash, it's another re-shaping things to get a good fit.

I also glanced a little at the canopy and wind screen per fitment and noticed a couple things with those as well. It would appear that they attempted to mold frame work onto the clear parts but it is extremely soft and nearly not existent. This will make free-hand painting the stuff a bit more difficult. We'll look at all that closer later, though... I just want to get the fuselage together.

OH YEAH, nose weight. This thing has trike gear so I don't want to forget that. Problem being is I have very littly room to work with in the nose and may have to find other oddball places to put it closer to the main gear.


Some of it.

[TheChronicOne]

I put nose weight on either side of the bulkhead thing that also has the exhaust pipes:




Then I add one long and two smaller spheres of lead:




Yak-53, by the way.

I've also painted the cockpit and put the instrument panel decal on so the fuselage is ready to be closed up. I'm going to do that next and clamp it up and it can sit for a couple days.


Also working on the Spitfire:



I had to put a lil more putty on the wing root in a low spot but once I give it about 5 seconds of sanding it'll be good. I've also been filing and sanding on the seams. Top ones are almost good but there's still a lot to be done on the bottom side, including filling a gap outboard on one of the wings. Shouldn't be too much of an ordeal. If I get that done, I can glue on the tail planes and it's ready for primer!

If I get all this done... I'm going to start to take a closer look at the F-52 USSF project.

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks!! Good to see ya gettin' caught up. lol  That F-15 is a hoot, right?! Turned out pretty nice. The little one didn't want to build up no matter how hard I tried but it's decent. 

It's a shame that it gave you such a hard time to build up. Still, it is pretty decent if you ask me. It looks like a son of the A-4 with the F-5. 
The F-15 sure looks good, the mods and scheme came out great, that's a winner in my book.
The USSC is also a very good thought, should produce quite a few good models. 

[zenrat]

Welcome to the world of A Model construction.
I would suggest using painted masking tape for the canopy framing when you get to that point.

Persevere and you will end up with a nice lil Yak.

[NARSES2]

Welcome to the world of A Model construction.
I would suggest using painted masking tape for the canopy framing when you get to that point.

I use painted tape a lot for frames. I've got some rolls that are 0.5mm and 0.75mm wide. Ideal for 1/72 

[TheChronicOne]

That's the very first thing that came to mind when I looked at it. "Now's a good time to try the painted tape strips". I'll have to cut mine down to width, however. I've been meaning to buy a stock of different sizes of tape but no telling when I'll actually get to it.   (Probably when the 3mm Tamiya tape finally runs out  )

So, I'm going to give it a whirl. It appears to be really simply frame work, so a good one to start on. 

With most of the tedious "difficult" work out of the way on this one, it's only a matter of time before paint! I'm going to rattle can the white and hope in one hand that the transfers work. Some go too wide but if they GET ON THERE AND WORK... I'll be happy! Save me from all that masking and then painting white on to red. I can trim them down nice and tight and dry fit them and make adjustments before I dunk them. If this doesn't work, I'm in masking again. 

Contemplating picking up a can of red paint. Rattle can. The entire bottom side of this thing is red.... you do the math... 

No thoughts on the others, this one is turning into my pet project of the bunch. It's a neat little kit and a neat airplane. Looks so cool, too! My only lamentation is that I DON'T get to paint the cockpit that glorious blue color they have in all their military crap. Man, that would look nice in contrast with the white and red.

[zenrat]

...My only lamentation is that I DON'T get to paint the cockpit that glorious blue color they have in all their military crap. Man, that would look nice in contrast with the white and red.

You know you can if you want to, don't you?
No-one here is going to judge you for it.

[TheChronicOne]

Too late now!     I'm fine with the grey, anyway. I get a little bit of the JMN in me when I do RW builds and strive for accuracy so I'd left it grey regardless.



So, so far today I've worked on the Yak-53, the Spitfire, and the BAC-111

Yak fuselage halves where glued together and clamped. It's ready now for a bit of filing and sanding on the seams then I can work on getting the wings on.

Spitfire had some more putty slathered onto one of the wing roots that had the stuff split and crack when I slightly put a bit of flex on the wing. That's no good to have it bust apart like that. I'm going to sand it smooth and hopefully the problem won't persist. If it doesn't I can glue on the tail planes and do whatever sanding on those I'm going to do then I can prime it.


The bulk of the work has been spent on the BAC-111.

I deleted the prototypical stall fences and sanded the area smooth. That was very tedious as I am trying not to obliterate the wing detail. I still may wind up sanding it all off after I put on the skim coat of filler in those areas and get them smooth. I did the best I could, however, and it might work.




Next up I hacked off the rear portions of the engin pylons and got them filed into the proper shape/angle. I also shortened the exhaust tips because the ATP instructions told me to.....   doesn't quite jive with reference pictures, however. According to those the kit pieces where the right length but whatever..... 


Drastically different. I should have taken a before picture.

Next up, I took a piece of sprue and shaped it into the APU exhaust, sanded off the primer, and glued it on to the tail-nub.




Roger that #$^&!    I was apprehensive about all this malarkey but it's going well.


OH, yeah!! I also have cut out two new stall fences. I used some more of that pressed laminated paper crap and since the things are so small they started coming apart so I'm coating them in glue to get them solid (and to a point where I can file on them a wee bit). They should work out just fine. I'll get a pic of those once they're actually glued on.... 

Next thing to address is to glue in the two clear parts for where the landing lights go. I guess they moved those down to the gear or something because they need to be deleted. I can see why, they fall awfully close to where the new fences go. So anyway, I glue those in and put a bit of filler around them and sand them smooth and blend them into the wings like they were never there. As far as I'm concerned this is better than just cramming a bunch of putty in the gaps and hoping for the best.

Turns out I have transfers that will represent the reverser thrust intakes so that solves that problem.....

Lastly, I still need to add a bit of putty to the nose and re-shape it. The kit one isn't too far off the mark but when one holds up the kit to to a profile shot of the actual plane the "missing" bit becomes apparent. The real thing is slightly longer and also more pointy. Shouldn't be too big of a problem to fix.

I think that's it for now. Well on my way to having all these modifications done. 


I'll go ahead and glue in the two landing lights and probably put this one up for now and check out another build.

[PR19_Kit]

That 1-11's coming along really nicely Brad, and you're right about the nose, it looks lots better when it's sharper.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!! 

Yes, it certainly does. I was trying to "get out of" having to fix it and was looking at pictures and trying to convince myself to skip it but it sort of had the opposite effect. I kept seeing the proper nose in the pictures and then looked at mine and in comparison mine is STUBBY.      THAT AIN'T GONNA WORK. lol  So now I'm more resolved than ever to fix it.

It's fine, more practice is great because misshapen noses seem to be a common theme in airliner kits. But hell, after the disastrous recovery of the nose on my 737-400, this should be a breeze. That said, I've never completely made something from putty. I really need to go buy some ... what is it? Squadron green, or white, whichever I seem to like better?  I have this filler putty stuff by testors which works great for its intended purpose and I have my red glazing putty which is also glorious but neither for really building up shapes. I think I can manage it with the glazing putty but I might have to do it in a few passes instead of one whack.



But anyway...   no plans today.  Pretty tired from yesterday and tomorrow is going to be hell on Earth. It rained BIG TIME last night. Tomorrow it will be ~100 degrees out. The grass will be soggy and heavy, and it will be HUMID and HOT and watch......... won't be no clouds.     Point being.. I'm not lifting a muscle today. I'm just going to internet, stuff my face, and watch tele.

My kind of day! 

[TheChronicOne]

Time for the "gather your thoughts and make a plan" pre-dawn post.

Today I'd like to get as much possible done on the BAC-111. It's always weird going backwards on a build. I was ready to paint, now I'm nowhere near ready to paint. 

So I'll at least get started on all that but in the in between times I'd like to work on the Spitfire and Yak-53. I'll worry about the two bigger builds if I find some free time while something dries or whatever.

On said Spitfire, I need to sand the wing root one more time to see if the repair will hold. If the stupid putty splits apart again I might have to just sand it nearly all away. But, if things go well, I'll finish sanding seams and glue on the tail planes then it's ready for primer. I could be done with this within the week, maybe.

Yak-53 is getting things filled in and ready for sanding. Should be able to do that today and if I get it all good to go I can build the wings and put on the tail planes. Won't be long before I prime this one, just like the Spitfire. 

[TheChronicOne]

Suddenly I'm reminded that I haven't updated my build page in ages. Got to remember to do that soon. I'm 3 or 4 behind now I think!    So.... note to self.


So, I've been working on builds. A little bit on 4 out of 5 so far.

Yak-53 had some seams and stuff filed/sanded away and smoothed out then I glued the top piece on the fuselage. It's a separate piece for no known reason... I guess it made making the molds easier or something.


Time to dial back the over head light. 


Started to build the new nose on the BAC 1-11. This is taking awhile to dry up so nothing else has been done. I also put some filler on the lights. Also, I've all but decided to sand away the detail on the tops of the wings. That stuff looks cool but is ridiculous so if I'm doing all the rest, I may as well. I won't be putting any panel lines back, though, PFFT.    I ain't THAT entusiastic.




Need to whittle it down but it already seems better from simply being longer.


PSR is all done on the Spitfire and it has been primed up:






Time to paint it, next. I've done some cursory research and it gets some nice green and brown (I bet that eats some people up  ) camo on top and this on the bottom:



Friggin awesome. I thought it was a single color for the belly at first; this just makes it cool.    However, I'm getting conflicting results for the ailerons. All pics I see agree that the bottom side of the aileron, on the black half, is painted white in contrast. The other side, the white side, however, I can't figure if that one is black to also contrast, or is white along with the rest of that half of the bottom.    I'll have to do some more lookin'.

Other little things have been done like fiddly parts primered and some have been painted. Neat lil project. I haven't done a "Spit" since I was a wee lad, about 10 or 11 years old. I still have it... and will do a side-by-side. 


Up next... the ATR-72. I continued the sanding/filing cleanup work on the fuselage halves and all the ins and outs therein. I've also finally glued some things in! There are zero instructions. All the kit came with was a VERY exploded diagram (I took a pic of it, did I post it??  ehh? ) with no arrows or anything and zero written steps. All it say is that certain prop blades and two fin things go on the 500 series.     SO, I'm having to surmise all this stuff and it is slow going. All this excuse making aside, like I said, I've managed to glue in two interior parts, the gear wells, and it took quite some doing. A ton of filing and repeated dry fitting. After about 30 rounds of each I glued them in and everything looks really good!!!! 





Oh, yeah, I had to put a patch on the inside of the fuselage where the wing goes as it was "short shot" and VERY thing. There was even a hole there and when I put glue on it (with the patch) it even made the hole BIGGER.    That's how thin it was....    Transversely, the other side is QUITE thick and no modifications necessary.  But anyway... I'll have to file the outside down and if it look sort of bad it won't matter as it will be behind the wing root.

Numerous other little odds and ends have been done like drilling holes and wallowing out the spaces where the wings plug in and cleaning up ridges on the radome.

Took a quick look at the main gear set-up and it's confusing as piss, so there's that....          I decided to go ahead and knock out as much other things as possible first to clean up the sprues and do away with "mental clutter."

Haven't done anything to the F-52, but, the other night I did a good bit of sorting through the parts, clipping things out, and even glued some stuff together that go in the cockpit and a couple other things. I think now I'll get back to doing that. More of the same... slowly trying to get through the initial stages in the instructions whilst getting rid of surplus sprue bits and cleaning up trimmed parts. 

(I also mowed lawns and stuff    )

[zenrat]

When I painted my car door Hurricane I used the camo pattern from the instructions but swapped the green and brown over and also switched sides for the black and the white.

Yak looks good.  I like how far back the cockpit is,

[TheChronicOne]

Oh that's just evil!   



The yak... yeah, how bout that? When they took it from two seater to single seater they got rid of the forward cockpit instead of the rear one. I wonder why? CoG issues or something? But I agree....    looks cool.  Kind of like a racer!