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

[TheChronicOne]

Right, here we go! 

I almost decided to add this Heller kit to my "collection" because it's a sealed first boxing but.... NAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.      (I DID put the Monogram P-51B into the "hands off" collection though once I did more research on it! It's pristine, unopened, and the first boxing of that kit, too.. I can't bring myself to open it!!  I'll buy another...    )

Any how... here's the kit, the transfers, and my trusty already-built 1/72 Mustang to use as a size reference to plan where the transfers will go. I'm going to stop to eat lunch but after that I'm going to do a bit of painting on the Hercules then crack this lil feller open!! I'll be sure to stop back by with pics of the unmolested plastic before I get into trimming out parts and gluing stuff together. 


Goodies! 


Transfers courtesy of DFZ and some wheelin' 'n dealin' antics. I'm going to have to be mindful when I get to mixing paint to be sure I get the right colors. I've already discovered that what I have now are the wrong shades so I'll have to be sure to plan for this when I get to painting. It would be dumb to get all the way to transfers to realize they are the same color as the paint or something. 

Not sure what role this could play story-wise but maybe we got tired of all the drug smuggling and decided to put Mustangs back in service to shoot down their planes or some such tripe, whatever. Constitution out the window, mayhem takes over, blah blah blah.

[TheChronicOne]

Tidy package in a less than stellar box.

Turns out everything fits fine in the Galaxy box I was just done with so I'm using that as temp storage.

Instructions consist of exploded diagram. Transfers are thick, but look nice.... despite being a big yellowed. I especially like the black bars! This stuff ought to come in handy on something in the future.





Thing of glue. Pretty neat! I'll keep it as a historical trinket along with the little ones from my LS kits.      Also of note, TWO canopies.



The instructions show an option for either a periscope type device or a rear view mirror. I'm doubting it's a periscope but anyway... the instructions indicate the second canopy was for this thing although the canopies are identical... I fail to see the need for two of them. Why not simply glue or not glue the mirror on?      EDIT: I see it now... there's a post on the frame work for the mirror. The instructions seemed to indicate there was a hole in the actual canopy.   






Rest of the parts:





Anyway... got the wings and fuselage clipped out and filed and sanded away the imperfections. Wings are glued together. I got to use my lil baby clothes pins I got at the Dolla' Sto' the other day. They so cute!!! 



Not gonna lie, I have no clue what's going on now. I don't know what I'm doing next but I'll figure it out here in a few minutes I guess. 

Here's a sneak-peak of the Hercules going on over in the Boatplane GB:



Lots more masking and colors and stuff going on here!  Going to be more grey, more blue, and of course touch up in between.


EDITED

[TheChronicOne]

US ARMY Viper is under way.

First thing first was to repair this mess. Impact damage... the box tells the story. Thankfully this is all that is busted. I've glued it already and just need to sand it smooth.



The rest:







The decorations:




I'll likely not be able to use the fin flash so that and the stuff I put on the ailerons will all have to be hand painted. I'm going to paint the drop tanks in NMF and put aim 9s on the wings.


Other work right now is being done on the Mustang but it's slow going. The plastic is VERY soft so it's taking extra time to dry. The wings are on but fit terribly so I'm currently filling in the gaps. The tired and rims have been painted for the most part. Mostly, though, I've been working on the big Hercules! Getting the red and blue put on that.. 

[TheChronicOne]

Back to work on this stuff today, for sure!! It snowed and iced here so other than my contractual obligation to de-trash the shopping center, I'll be back home and inside all day. Well, I have to make a couple stops for groceries and the like but that's no biggy.

I want to get a lot done on the Mustang. It has fitment issues but so help me, I don't want to get bogged down on what should be a straight-forward build. To that end, I'll be doing PSR today on the wing roots and a couple other areas. Most of that work on the fuselage seams has already been done so hopefully this won't take too long then I'll prime it up with the green camo paint I have. Better than nothing. With no primer, the acrylic paint tends to come right back off the plastic some times so I'd like to avoid this and the thick camo paint will help with seams. 

F-16 is progressing nicely but has lots of little parts here and there that need to be assembled. Not sure how to approach it all other than just following the instructions for the most part.

Polet Hercules is advancing as well with blue paint.


EDIT:  Woo! Finally got around to opening mail that showed up 3 days ago and found some money for Christmas or birthday or whatever so I'm going to buy a can of proper primer this morning when I get to the store. I'll be steering a wide birth around the Rustoleum 2x stuff (which all are going tits-up for some reason) and will stick with Krylon. I might stop by the LHS, too. They have little 1/144 YF-23s for $4.99. I don't plan to do anything in 1/144 other than things like airliners but the parts and pieces could be useful for kitbashing, yeah?

[DogfighterZen]

I've some 1/144 kits on my wishlist, the Trumpeter F-22 Raptor looks like a good kit for donation purposes...

[TheChronicOne]

Right on.... I need to show you the box art for this Black Widow I found. It's Trumpeter, too...  I actually noticed the box art over a year ago as I was surfing the web....I was like, "Wow this looks weird!!."    When I picked up the box at the store the other day, I was like, "Whoa, I remember this!!! This is that terribad box art!"

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps they knew that the sprues would come out warped and printed the box art to match? 

[TheChronicOne]

"Truth in advertising!"   

I'm curious now... I'll have to dig up some reviews of this'n to read over lunch. 


(Found some stuff)

https://modelingmadness.com/scott/mod/yf23preview.htm       Scott Van Aken... I think he's reviewed or previewed damn near everything.. 

https://modelingmadness.com/scott/mod/yf23preview.htm    What if build, here, huzzah!


http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/135442.aspx

[TheChronicOne]

Finally found the sun and went out and took some pictures of the recent builds!! Galaxy pics didn't turn out well but the Vanquish ones did. I had problems regardless because I couldn't see the screen on the phone because of the light so had to mainly guess at the angles and stuff. I'm surprised they turned out as decent as they did.

It snowed a bit over night so the first thing I had to do was make a buddy to come along:



Galaxy:















Vanquish:















And some of the older pics because I skipped certain angles outside... like I said I couldn't see and guess I missed some shots.. 





More to come soon!

[TheChronicOne]

Done for the day. I have a hankering for shooting digital people right in the face so have elected to play some video games as I swill some beer. 

Got a fair amount of stuff done today but I've been playing it loose and fast and really had no plan of action and thus am not sure what to report. I did some PSR work on the Mustang. I did some construction on the F-16. It is progressing nicely. I've glue together and in turn glued those pieces to other pieces and now have a body. I also glued the little piece to the bottom of the fin and took it and all the flight surfaces and created my own "sprue" to hold them all for priming and painting.





Cool!!  As I was going through my pictures I realized I did some other stuff. I don't think it needs it, but, thinking about it, pondering, and wondering, was beginning to eat up way more time than simply gluing some lead into the nose so I just jumped in there and did it:


I put in a couple more smaller pieces of lead and more PVA to keep it all in place after this pic.

Last but CERTAINLY not least, the two main colors for this bird:



I don't care what anyone says.. the pre-war blue and yellow of the US Army is some of the most gorgeous paint job to every land on an airplane..  (Navy didn't do bad either with their NMF and yellow!) 

Personally, I'm loving this F-16 project.... one of my most favorite planes and most favorite color schemes and decorations.

[DogfighterZen]

Like i've answered your question on my blog, i never had to use any weight in any 1/72 F-16 kit before but i've never built the Fujimi, although it's identical to the Italeri kit, of which, i've built 2.
When i'm not sure if nose weight is needed, i try to tape up the main parts onto the fuselage to check where the center of gravity is. If possible, attach the landing gear legs to be more precise.
Funny fact, the Italeri 1/72 F-35's instructions say it needs weight in the nose, although they don't say how much... But the stupid part is that it doesn't need any weight in the nose, there's way too much plastic in front of the main gear... It surprises me that a company like Italeri still has so many mistakes and omissions in a model... the kit suffers from several inaccuracies regarding panel lines and detail, assembly/painting instructions and even in the decals... And the kit costs the same as an Academy kit, which is much better in most aspects.
The other Italeri F-35 kit i have in the stash has already been assigned to the spare parts depot, that's why it's donating it's nozzle and EOTS clear parts to other projects...

[Rick Lowe]

Hey, Brad - nice to catch up with all y'all's stuff from the last time.

C-Fury turned out really SHINY! and cool.
Floaty Mustang works well, quite different.
The Mayan Interceptor turned out good, glad the paint issue was able to be rectified.
The Nippon came out well, and did I mention SHINY! ?? Just about needed mah shadez...
The Vanquish is cool, too - nice imagineering (or is that term (C)DizneeCorp?)

I'm looking forward to the Yellow & Blue Viper - I have the same project in mind, though I'll be using an old cheap kit and just cobbling close enough markings together (yeah, I'm cheap - but I'm average, so at least I've got that going for me... )
TBH, I'm not really a fan of the F-16, even though I have 3X whiffs planned (ok, 2 - the pre-war livery is RW), but I figure if I can make them way different, or at least something other than GREY!, I can live with a 'yawn dart' or two...

Keep up the good work!

Cheers, Dude

Rick

[TheChronicOne]

Like i've answered your question on my blog, i never had to use any weight in any 1/72 F-16 kit before but i've never built the Fujimi, although it's identical to the Italeri kit, of which, i've built 2.
When i'm not sure if nose weight is needed, i try to tape up the main parts onto the fuselage to check where the center of gravity is. If possible, attach the landing gear legs to be more precise.
Funny fact, the Italeri 1/72 F-35's instructions say it needs weight in the nose, although they don't say how much... But the stupid part is that it doesn't need any weight in the nose, there's way too much plastic in front of the main gear... It surprises me that a company like Italeri still has so many mistakes and omissions in a model... the kit suffers from several inaccuracies regarding panel lines and detail, assembly/painting instructions and even in the decals... And the kit costs the same as an Academy kit, which is much better in most aspects.
The other Italeri F-35 kit i have in the stash has already been assigned to the spare parts depot, that's why it's donating it's nozzle and EOTS clear parts to other projects...

  This is why there is no truly "bad" kit because even the dogs that's are wildly inaccurate or build up wonky can be re-purpose in such a manner!!  That said, what you mention is why I don't subscribe to the idea that any one kit manufacturer is any worse or better than other (FOR THE MOST PART.... ). Some kits are good, some aren't.

Good info on the nose weight. I won't bother with it any more after this one. It's hilarious... all the builds that need nose weight I seem to keep forgetting it or almost forget it then when I come across something that doesn't need it, it's foremost on my mind.    I'll have to remember the tape up method you use and try that in the future.

Hey, Brad - nice to catch up with all y'all's stuff from the last time.

C-Fury turned out really SHINY! and cool.
Floaty Mustang works well, quite different.
The Mayan Interceptor turned out good, glad the paint issue was able to be rectified.
The Nippon came out well, and did I mention SHINY! ?? Just about needed mah shadez...
The Vanquish is cool, too - nice imagineering (or is that term (C)DizneeCorp?)

I'm looking forward to the Yellow & Blue Viper - I have the same project in mind, though I'll be using an old cheap kit and just cobbling close enough markings together (yeah, I'm cheap - but I'm average, so at least I've got that going for me... )
TBH, I'm not really a fan of the F-16, even though I have 3X whiffs planned (ok, 2 - the pre-war livery is RW), but I figure if I can make them way different, or at least something other than GREY!, I can live with a 'yawn dart' or two...

Keep up the good work!

Cheers, Dude

Rick

Thanks, bud!! I can't wait to see your colored up pre war F-16. It'll be neat to compare notes at the end. For the longest time there I was wanting to pick up the Hase kit with the 90th Anniversary Texas ANG where they did this but, damnit, I'm not spending no $50-80 on the stupid thing and I got tired of waiting around to score one in an auction. I got to thinking... the only part stopping me was transfers so I decided to instead of doing that one, just to find some pre-war decorations from some other stuff and use that. Happy coincidence, really, because, while I didn't mean to or plan for it, these ones I picked came with those neat black bands and some of the birds look like falcons!!! 

[TheChronicOne]

Turnin' 'n burnin'!!!   



I'm about to prime this up and see if it needs more PSR. I'm not going to get too involved with it but if anything major pops up, I'll deal with it. If it's OK, I can start painting the two grey colors. It's doubtful because I'm also doing some pretty involved mask/paint work on the Hercules but I might be able to get this glossed this evening and, depending, start in on transfers.

Exact same can be said for the Hercules. It is coming together now and I'm close to masking the fuselage and the white stripes that go on it. I'll have to do touch up after but if that's not so bad I could gloss coat it, too.....   but, look for more in depth update and pictures for that one over in the float plane GB.

Also..... out on the Facebook a couple days back I was hootin' and hollerin' about me builds and talking about future projects on the "what if modellers" facebook page when I started in talking about my Somali F-22 project. Well, our own PantherG showed up and let me see his Somali F-16 and I said, "hey, that is too cool, I think I'll use that scheme on my Somali Raptor!"  Well, lo and behold he showed back up today with like 7 new drawings of Raptors including the Somali one!!!! Well, that sealed the deal. I'm close to being done with the Mustang and Hercules both so it's already time once again to begin a new project so why not this one?!     

I'll dig out the kit (I know where it is, THANK GOD, and won't have to blow an hour hunting it down) later and we'll take a look at the plastic and also PantherG's profile of the Somali Raptor. It's a really kickin' camo job and looks great... I can't wait to slap it on my Raptor!

Nothing much to report on the F-16 other than I primered all those wings parts but the primer was RUNNY as hell for some reason... I don't think I shook up the can enough. I wasn't putting it on thick, either... I was misting. So... paint problems again.      No worries, though, once they dry adequately I'll sand them back smooth and do it again. No biggy... I'm waiting on 3mm masking tape anyway so I can use it to mask the aileron and fin to do red/white striping, so no hurry.

[TheChronicOne]

Haven't done anything today other than work on the Hercules. The other day I was highly motivated and had a head of steam built up. I got a lot done on a lot of different things. Today though was different.. I was in no particular hurry and often just sat here looking at Russians wreck their vehicles and holler in "Russian" on youtube and peruse the internet. When I felt I want to, I'd work on the Hercules.     

NOT very productive, but, I enjoyed it just as much as the other day when I got a TON of things done. Different styles of work for different days, neither better or worse than the other. 

With the bloviating out of the way, I have pictures at least, so folk ain't bored to tears.

Empenage is mainly done.. still need to do some touch up here and there:



Early version of the nose section:



A few hours later, the whole thing:



A lot of the tedious "hard" work is over with but there are still a couple pitfalls coming up, one being getting the black horizontal stripes onto all the engine nacelles. Eight engines, 16 stripes.