Zenrat's Flying Circus

[TheChronicOne]

Spook!!!  That's cool.       

[zenrat]

Spook!!!  That's cool.       

Yes.  And usable with any scale Phantom II.

[TheChronicOne]

I'm going to get an egg B-17, I wonder if it comes with anything cool like that. Then again, I don't think the B-17 had a "mascot."

[zenrat]

I must admit i'm seriously tempted by the Egg He 177.

[TheChronicOne]

I finally bought my Accurite 5 in 1 Weather Thingy.  I might pick your brain when it comes time to set it all up or whatever. I might have issues getting it to "talk to" my computer here...

[zenrat]

I'm no  expert mate.
Have you tired turning it off and on again?


Public holiday today (because tomorrow is the Australian Football League Grand Final - I love this country.  In November we get one for a Horse Race!  ) so I spent as much time as possible in my shed.  Due to dog sitting, an unplanned visit to The Mad Woman and impromptu Uncle duties this wasn't as long as I expected or would have liked (why do people assume because you have free time you want to spend it with them?).atchbuild
I've got the Egg Phantom ready for clear, more paint on Spook and the El Camino ready for colour paint but most of the time was spent on SPOKAN2 - I started to scratchbuild a vertical tail.
SPOKAN2 WIP 27-09-19 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[zenrat]

Today I put the transfers on the Egg Phantom.  Being applied to an egg shaped surface some them needed gallons of magic decal juice (MDJ - it's just citric acid isn't it?  It certainly tastes like it) to conform to the surface.
Between sloshings of MDJ I dug out another couple of Eggs - both prepainted Chinese versions by 4D Models (very cheap knock-offs of Hasegawa Eggs - the sprues look identical to photos on the interweb).  The first, a J15 I knew had no canopy but closer inspection showed it was short shot and also had been painted badly.  It became parts.  The second, an F16 I threw together in about 20 minutes.  It'll need PSR but it'll be easy PSR and then I can get on with the fun bit and give it an interesting paint job.  I've been wanting to try a modern Russian blue camo for a while so it'll prolly become an RAAF aggressor.

Analogue got its vertical tail and a couple of small parts attached to the fuselage.

And I did more work on SPOKAN2's tail.  Sanding and scribing the vertical and increasing the span of its original horizontal (because it didn't look right with the new vertical).  I have also written the back story.  Although it may be modified before publication to fit the model.

[NARSES2]

I thought most products designed to soften and fix transfers were based on Acetic acid - vinegar ?

[Rick Lowe]

I thought most products designed to soften and fix transfers were based on Acetic acid - vinegar ?

Maybe that's the difference between microsol and microset? 

[zenrat]

Maybe one is rice wine vinegar and the other is balsamic?

Gloss cleared over the transfers on the Egg Phantom today.  It looks spanky but it'll get a satin finish in the end.  I will however be masking the NMF areas around its backside as I want them to remain shiny.
Egg Falcon got some putty.  It's not too gappy (prolly due to it appearing to be a direct copy of the Hasegawa sprues, maybe even made with their tooling and then shipped out the back door?) except around the back of the intake which is a separate part.

Continued widening SPOKAN2s stabilisers by adding styrene which will enable me to sand the added section back to profile.  I'd post a picture but someone here would be bound to identify the aircraft despite them being heavily modified.

Analogue is now lying on one side while the glue attaching the starboard wing dries.  Attachment is by butt joint with four locating pins.  A slight improvement over a straight butt joint but not much.  There is a big gap on the underside which will need plenty putty.

Star Farrier (not sure about the name, I think I can do better but it'll do for now) is undergoing work to add undercarriage bays.  I am using an old (1963) mould Hasegawa F104J kit which in a remarkable (yeah, right) similarity to the Academy F104 has no undercarriage bays at all - just gaping holes.  Canopy however looks better than Academy's strange bulbous anomaly.  I have already added liners for the air brake bays so I can pose them open (OOB they are just holes in the fuselage sides).  Plan for this is Harrier wings with lots of anhedral, Harrier undercarriage and wing tip stabilisers.  Maybe a different nose.  Not sure about the use (although strike appeals) or load out it'll have but there will be big tanks.

[NARSES2]

Maybe one is rice wine vinegar and the other is balsamic?

[zenrat]

I've started sorting out my transfers.  I have been keeping them in an absolutely overstuffed display folder, the tin a limited edition AMT Double Dragster kit came in and a free slip folder from HLJ.
However, I have been unable to find anything and so they need sorting out.
I have purchased five 2o leaf display folders (89c each - bargain!) and have started sorting.  It's going to take a lot longer than I expected.

[NARSES2]

I'm sorting my stash at the moment (read moving it around) and my transfers are contained in 5 plastic boxes with "lock down" lids, which are slightly larger than A4 and about 3"/4" deep. Got them in one of the cheapo home bargains type stores and it means I can keep different nationality groups and periods separate, with one box for all the odds and sods.

I find this far easy than the folders I used to use. They can rather annoyingly stick to those clear plastic folders.

[zenrat]

I store them indoors (less severe temperature & humidity variations than my shed) and there isn't room for boxes.  I can put folders in the bookcase with my reference library (what an old fashioned concept...).
I plan to sort aircraft transfers by nationality.  I am currently feeling slightly annoyed by mixed sheets but i'll get over it as they tend to have some more interesting countries/services.  Car transfers are harder to sort and it's easier just to have them so I can flick through the whole lot looking for what I need.

Not much actual shed time today due to work rearing it's ugly head.
Analogue now has two wings.  They both have almost the same dihedral...
I did some minor touching up the on Egg Phantom and sanded and primer the Egg Falcon (which painted grey looks very shark like).

[zenrat]

MiG 21 Analogue 1 WIP.

MiG 21 Analogue WIP 03-10-2019 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr