Zenrat's Flying Circus

Old Wombat · December 23, 2019, 04:25:03 AM

Whole paint job looks great but the pin-striping is exceptional!

NARSES2 · December 23, 2019, 05:38:40 AM

Quote from: zenrat on December 23, 2019, 01:47:10 AM
I did get out to the main street Toy World at lunchtime (had to buy girl lego for a niece) and noticed that they had sold most of their stash of aircraft kits, which is nice to see.

It is

Very neat work on the Analogue

jcf · December 23, 2019, 12:26:47 PM

Rick Lowe · December 23, 2019, 05:08:34 PM

Quote from: zenrat on December 23, 2019, 01:47:10 AM
noticed that they had sold most of their stash of aircraft kits, which is nice to see.

Maybe your Rellies have all had the same thought for your Christmas presents?

zenrat · December 26, 2019, 02:43:02 AM

Thanks folks.

Quote from: Rick Lowe on December 23, 2019, 05:08:34 PM
Quote from: zenrat on December 23, 2019, 01:47:10 AM
noticed that they had sold most of their stash of aircraft kits, which is nice to see.

Maybe your Rellies have all had the same thought for your Christmas presents?

Unfortinately not. It's odd, I don't hide that i like to spend my free time building models and yet when it comes to gift buying they will spend more money on something I care less about.

Finishing time now. Mitch, Analogue and SkyCabRaider are all within a spit of completion. Analogue is furthest needing a coat of clear, the other two just need detail stuff done. Should get two out of three finished this weekend. Back stories are already written for Mitch and SkyCabRaider.
And, given i'm close to finishing a few i've obviously started another - one of the growing eggplane stash, the P51. Going to be in this scheme.

NARSES2 · December 26, 2019, 03:32:13 AM

I've not seen a profile of that P-51 without the Southern Cross before, interesting.

zenrat · December 29, 2019, 03:44:44 AM

I set up Dadswell Bridge and photographed the SkyCabRaider and the Mitch today.

Also some work on the Gnome and Dodge A100 and I finished up the basic assembly on the Eggstang. This will need some PSR to hide the seams and then some rescribing.
As the Mitch is done I feel obliged to pull a kit out of the "large models" section of the stash and begin work. I tend to avoid these as it is quicker to knock up another single engined or light twin kit. However, it is time to gird my loins and jump in with both feet (excuse the slightly mixed metaphor). After my pulling out of boxes, poking around inside tham and looking at instruction sheets I decided on the kit which has been in the "large models" stash the longest - an Italeri C-119 Flying Boxcar.
Plans for this are to build it OOB (although I will be investigating a turboprop conversion) with a Mystery Inc paint job similar to this...

...but having a large NMF component to it.

TheChronicOne · December 29, 2019, 03:20:56 PM

Cool.... Scoob would make for good nose art, too.

I'd love to see this. I have one I'll build some day so I'm curious. I can imagine it being a beastly, finnicky build for some reason.

jcf · December 29, 2019, 08:29:06 PM

Backdate to C-119B/C config with R-4360 engines?

Steward-Davis, producer of the Jet-Pak J34 pods, built one STOLmaster conversion
that could take 1, 2 or 3 of the pods in over the fuselage and underwing positions,
it was capable of sustained flight on the thrust of two underwing pods alone.
Three pods would look cool.

http://www.warbirdsintlnow.com/issue-spreads/warbirds-dec-2016/WIdec16STOLMaster.pdf

zenrat · December 30, 2019, 03:29:51 AM

Well the turboprops are out. The resin Hercules nacelles I have will need too much work to blend them into the existing structure. I'll save them for something that came with inline engine(s).
Thanks for the info Jon. Small underwing jets would be scratchable and I have many spare weapons pylons to hang them from.
I started work on the cockpit today. I have a whole heap of interior photos of Boxcars and there is a temptation to add detail but when it's all closed up not much is going to be visible through the narrow windows. Same for the load area. I'm going to build it with the rear doors open but other than the insides of the clam shells and the immediate tail end not much will be visible.
I think it'll need a lot of nose weight. Lucky I have an SAC white metal undercarriage set for it.

Quote from: TheChronicOne on December 29, 2019, 03:20:56 PM
... have one I'll build some day so I'm curious. I can imagine it being a beastly, finnicky build for some reason.

Just looking at the parts breakdown I imagine alignment of the separate tail booms when attaching them to the wings cold be tricky. Lego jigs may be needed.

In other news I progressed on the RAN Sea King. I have decided the this will be completely OOB. I'll even be using the Airfix flight crew which means it'll look like its being flown by twins.

Rheged · December 30, 2019, 10:16:28 AM

Quote from: zenrat on December 30, 2019, 03:29:51 AM

Just looking at the parts breakdown I imagine alignment of the separate tail booms when attaching them to the wings cold be tricky. Lego jigs may be needed.

This call for several dry assembly experiments. Cue the song "Dem booms, dem booms, dem dry booms........"

Rick Lowe · December 30, 2019, 05:56:05 PM

Quote from: Rheged on December 30, 2019, 10:16:28 AM
Quote from: zenrat on December 30, 2019, 03:29:51 AM

Just looking at the parts breakdown I imagine alignment of the separate tail booms when attaching them to the wings cold be tricky. Lego jigs may be needed.

This call for several dry assembly experiments. Cue the song "Dem booms, dem booms, dem dry booms........"

Ooh, how very dare you?!

... wish I'd thought of it first...

zenrat · January 01, 2020, 01:30:58 AM

I glued together several large chunks of Boxcar today. Centre section with nacelles, outer wings, clamshells (after drilling out the holes in the reinforcing framework) and the booms. I've used every clothes peg in my box plus all the new small clamps I got for xmas.
I also painted various parts of the cockpit and wrote "NOSE WEIGHT" on the nose gear bay box in an attempt to remind myself to add some before closing the thing up (bet I still forget).

I also did some PSR on the Eggstang - sanding and priming. It looks great. You can still ell its a Mustang but it's nicely deformed and eggy. Prolly the best of the Eggplanes i've built so far. Well done Hasegawa.

Plus the Sea King is now ready to have its fuselage closed. Although I do want to mask the windows before I do so - just in case during masking I push one of them out of its hole.

PR19_Kit · January 01, 2020, 05:05:03 AM

Yeah, the C-119 surely needs nose weight!

I did a RW AC-119 a while back and even though there's LOTS of room in that big box of a fuselage I didn't add enough before gluing it up. It has a loose chunk of lead that I dropped in there before adding the tail doors, and I have to tip it nose down before putting it out on a show stand now!

zenrat · January 02, 2020, 12:36:36 AM

My Gloster for the current GB has that issue as the fishing weights strung on a length os wrapping wire have broken loose and slide up and down under the cockpit.

Here is Scale Reference CRS man examining the crudely mocked up Boxcar.

C119 WIP 02-01-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Yesterday, while cleaning up ejector pin marks in the interior I snapped the chisel blade I was using. It pinged up and ricocheted off my (close up work) glasses. I didn't think any more of it.
This morning when I put them on I thought there was a piece of dirt on them. Closer inspection showed a big nick (about 1mm deep) in the lens. I dread to think what this would have done to my eye if I hadn't been wearing them...

Glasses by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr