Zenrat's Flying Circus

kerick · May 12, 2020, 08:44:26 PM

Quote from: zenrat on May 12, 2020, 04:25:35 AM
Boxcar is nearly done. Just got to put a lick of paint on all the little aerials I attached today.
While attaching doors (UC doors, access door and rear loading doors) and pin washing the control surface panel gaps the resemblance struck me between the C119 and Thunderbird 2.
If I ever get another then maybe it'll get the detachable pod and an International Rescue paintjob.

While looking for pictures of the Boxcar or Packet that I remember with a detachable cargo pod I found this, which is cute.

Drops five paratroopers at a time! Cool!

zenrat · May 13, 2020, 02:19:52 AM

Boxcar is finished.
I have built ramps and modified a ladder from a Mirage. They are being painted.
No more pics until the Merc and the ramps and ladder are completed.
Except this one.

Boxcar WIP 13-05-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

To celebrate this completion I started on A Revell 1/25 Starsky & Hutch car ('76 Ford Torino) which I will build OOB.

NARSES2 · May 13, 2020, 06:13:33 AM

Boxcar is a stunner mate, well done

PR19_Kit · May 13, 2020, 07:20:30 AM

^^^^^ What Chris said, and I'm SO looking forward to S&H and their Torino!

zenrat · May 14, 2020, 04:42:36 AM

Thanks guys.

The Torino is TBH a slight disappointment. It has some oversimplified features (front and rear suspension springs portrayed as plain cylinders for example) which make me think it has been designed to serve both as a styrene kit and a die cast pre assembled model. The Revell '68 Mustang is similar in design in some areas (although in its case is started life as a die cast). Thankfully the Torino doesn't appear to have anything as gross as the bonnet hinge slots the Mustang has in it's scuttle panel.
We'll see. It's not like there is any other option to build this car.

Apropos of nothing it struck me today that Fred is the perfect keyboard name as it can be typed by sweeping ones finger in a circle around four keys. Try it, you'll see.
I can't see any other names for which this is true. Des and Wes maybe, which both use three keys.

zenrat · May 14, 2020, 05:41:13 AM

One Week GB.
This appears to be a week later than usual. Normally the first weekend of the GB is our Queen's Birthday public holiday weekend. Not that I get an advantage as that weekend is also Model Expo (cancelled this year for the obvious reason).
Whatever, it's a mere four weeks off and I have been thinking about what to build.
I think I have come up with a plan. It enables me to do some serious up engining (doubling the power) while solving the resulting CoG issue (the new engine being twice the weight of the old). Engine and airframe are both new Airfix and there will need to be minor scratchbuilding. Can I have an extension Chris?

It will be part of the world of zenrat studios Dieselpunk anime My Sky the Free Winds.

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=41084.msg698355#msg698355
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=41640.msg713674#msg713674
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=44239.60

NARSES2 · May 14, 2020, 06:10:00 AM

Quote from: zenrat on May 14, 2020, 05:41:13 AM
One Week GB.
This appears to be a week later than usual. Normally the first weekend of the GB is our Queen's Birthday public holiday weekend.

Probably is. I have to allow for the current G.B. to finish and it's inevitable extension will take it in to June.

I always find it amusing that some Commonwealth countries get a public holiday for the Queen's/King's official birthday, whilst we in the U.K. don't

zenrat · May 15, 2020, 04:46:29 AM

As a republican I feel i should turn down the day off and insist on sitting in an empty dark post office to make a point...

...but they wouldn't pay me. So i'll stay at home and make models.

Today at work a customer who definitely had a kangaroo loose in the top paddock posted a painting to The Queen. She told me she had read that Brenda was running out of money so she wanted to send her something she could sell. When I asked her what it was worth for the customs form she had me put "Valuless". I wonder what the import nazis will make of that?

NARSES2 · May 15, 2020, 05:58:43 AM

Quote from: zenrat on May 15, 2020, 04:46:29 AM
As a republican I feel i should turn down the day off and insist on sitting in an empty dark post office to make a point...

...but they wouldn't pay me.

Should you let that "small" fact stop you ?

zenrat · May 15, 2020, 06:06:46 AM

There's also the fact that Monday at Expo is always the swap and sell so I will have to work out how much I would have spent impulse purchasing kits I didn't know I "need" and then go on line and blow the equivalent amount on evil bay...

NARSES2 · May 15, 2020, 06:08:30 AM

Quote from: zenrat on May 15, 2020, 06:06:46 AM
There's also the fact that Monday at Expo is always the swap and sell so I will have to work out how much I would have spent impulse purchasing kits I didn't know I "need" and then go on line and blow the equivalent amount on evil bay...

I've been doing the same sort of thing. Days when I would have been at a show and bought some stuff I've gone on to the Big H and bought there instead

zenrat · May 15, 2020, 06:34:52 AM

TBH i've already started. But i'm spreading it about the local hobby shops. Don't get the random selection of pre-loved kits in them though.

zenrat · May 15, 2020, 10:31:41 PM

Two Pack clear. I love the finish, how easy it is to get that finish, the hardness of the finish and the speed with which it goes off. I hate the fiddling about mixing it up, the waste when the hardener goes off (I rarely use more than half a bottle), the cleaning up, the need to wear all that PPE and the speed with which it goes off.
I just sprayed the '60 Chevy Ute with it. I must have faffed around too long between mixing and actually spraying as while the first parts I sprayed look good they get worse until I achieved the mother of all orange peel on the cab.
I'm telling myself I can polish it out but I know its going to be too hard and i'll end up stripping it.
Lucky i've got four of these kits.

ChernayaAkula · May 16, 2020, 09:04:27 AM

Two Pack clear? I don't know whether they're all created equal, but you might want to be careful with them, mate.

LINK #1

See LINK #2 for PPE myths regarding the stuff.

Read about it first on Jamie Haggo's FB page (LINK!).

zenrat · May 16, 2020, 05:03:06 PM

Thanks Moritz. I am aware of the hazard. I have a full chemical filter mask I acquired from a previous job, goggles, gloves, long sleeves, ventilation etc.
Zero paints (who sell it for model use) plaster it with warning labels.
Main protection is only ever using the stuff once in a blue moon.

However, given the abysmal finish I achieved yesterday and the sheer PitAedness of using the stuff I think I will be choosing to use the first control one considers when mitigating risk - elimination. I will eliminate the risk by piffing the remaining two pack into the bin.