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

[zenrat]

Bang seat in the Kittyhawk has me thinking.
Could be a subtle whiff that might not get spotted...

[scooter]

Bang seat in the Kittyhawk has me thinking.
Could be a subtle whiff that might not get spotted...

[zenrat]

Having recently got another 1/72 Savoia S21 it has just struck me that the Porco Rosso pilot figure could be modified into John Belushi...

[TheChronicOne]

Sounds like a plan!!!      And a real head scratcher! 

Back to work on the Raptor now. I've got the cockpit all painted and transfers in it.





Next up I'm going to finish painting the turbofans and get them installed into their housing. After that... back to the instructions....




Warhawk has been primed. I can start painting it whenever it will be convenient. For now it can just float around up in the sky.



I even have a small update on the glider..... I got to looking at it and I think I might be able to salvage the panels on the outside portions of the wings so I masked those off. I'll start sanding ... again, whenever it seems convenient. For now I'm still working on the Raptor but may wind up in Warthunder later. 


Now.... see... that was SUPPOSED to be a real quick-fast build but uhhhh...... yeah...   


TTYL

[TheChronicOne]

Slow and steady wins the race on this one. I've turned 12 parts into 2 assemblies so the anxiety lessens as the build goes. 

According to the instructions, I should have already glued the tub into the upper fuselage half. That aside, the next steps are the main gear and bays and then the main missile bay. Well.... I'm not so sure yet whether I'm going to build this thing blown-out, with all the missile bays open or not, and I'm also not sure whether or not I want to deviate from the instructions and save the gear until later like I normally would. SO.. I guess I need to study the instructions some more then do some dry fitting and brain storming.

If I can't decided right now on how to approach the missile bays and gear I'll try to skip ahead a bit and see if I can build some more sub-assemblies.

Here's the turbofan stuff:


Painted up.


Down in the hidey-hole. 

I can honestly say I'm having fun with this one now! Pieces are coming together, certain things are finished, and I'm knocking steps out and proceeding, albeit slowly, but... since things are getting finished now I feel like true progress is being made.

Having quickly glanced ahead at the coming steps, it would seem a lot of it involves the missile bays. I could save myself a lot of time and effort by building this thing all buttoned up. That said, would it look better with it all open?    

[TheChronicOne]

Well, last night I started looking at the next sub assemblies I could put on and became utterly confused. I finally, after much contemplation, figured out what the hell was going on and trimmed the stuff out. "Stuff" would be the nozzles, by the way. Turns out this comes with two sets nozzle halves, one for open and one for closed and they are different lengths!

That's as far as I made it.   

I had a thought this morning as I was waking up on how to hide the seam on the Warhawk nose. It's a whif so why not just paint the whole front of this thing black, starting right at that line? Yeah buddy!  That'll help hide that seam like a champ. I think I recall seeing some of the Spitfire Mk. VII's with black spinners at least anyway. (I'm about to go have another look too see what's what).

If any work is done today, it'll be getting the nozzles filed and sanded smooth and to start painting the P-40.

[TheChronicOne]

Not sure how well I stuck to those plans ^ but I remember getting quite a bit done on the Raptor. Things like gluing the horizontal stabalizers together and ... uhh...  got the nozzles all fixed up and glued together. I'd like to get the canopy masked today but I think I may spend most of my time on the P-40. Time to paint it!

As far as the glider... well... I need to do a bit of sanding on the wings then I can prime it yet once again and let it dry awhile then maybe I can start painting it, too? That would be nice...   

[TheChronicOne]

For an extremely low-effort project... this is looking much better than I could have ever imagined. I didn't even file/sand the wing edges after the glue dried!! Point is to do next to no PSR. All I did in that arena is the stretch on the upper fuselage from the cockpit to the fin and the other side going forward up on the intake. Trying to PSR this thing would be a NIGHTMARE with trying to keep detail in mind and the detail on this old, old kit (sorry fellers, I'm dating some of y'all and making you want to chase me off your lawn ) is very crisp so taking any sandpaper to it would create a really terrible looking finish.

THANKFULLY, the care I took making sure the joining surfaces were decent, at least, has paid off. Now that the primer is on and a number of coats of paint, I'm pretty happy with it. I even decided not to make the nose black to hide the seam up there... 

So, overall thoughts on this relic of a kit???   I gives it a B-.   Not bad!!! I had to file the crap out of the rear-end of the canopy to get it right but even it fits very good on the rest of it after I filed the edges smooth.

I'm at the stage now where I'm going to paint small details like painting the insides of the intakes black, maybe the shell casing dispenser thingies black, and whatever else I can find. I've already touched up the main paint job and even the canopy is nearly good enough (maybe some more filing on the back, and a wee bit of touch-up).



I dunno about yous guys, but I'm not used to seeing such a bright 'Hawk!!!   

I'm going to put it away, now. Amazingly, I've had not one actual hang up or disaster happen so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. I'll either work more on the Raptor or go play Warthunder. 


EDIT:  HMMM.... some of the blue underside paint that is back near the tail may have to be painted over in the pale grey.... the "step" action looks kind of cool but might not work with the codes and roundels and stuff. 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, construction is complete on the Warhawk. In a break with tradition and in order to try new things I went ahead and attached everything but the canopy and drop tank. I left the drop tank off to use the hole for it to hang it by for spraying. Didn't work anyway and I have to hang it by the prop but anyway.. 

No "main" pictures until done. Should be done this evening because all that's left are transfers and the last coat of gloss (and the fuel tank and canopy). I'm looking forward to NOT having to go into "fiddly bits mode" after doing the decalling so... this is cool....!!  Good stuff.

Anyway... I decided to not alter or really fix up anything on this kit aside from the bits I mentioned prior.. to that end, the pilot guy with his alien head:




The gear "bay" for the tail wheel:





The glider.... wellllll....... my decision to try to save the outlying panel detail on the upper wings didn't pan out so I'm going to have to.... AGAIN... go back and sand it all smooth and AGAIN prime once more. Holy crap... I'll never make the mistake of not shaking up the rattle can again. See, I had just less than 5 minutes prior shook the piss out of my can of clear so I was in "it's already shaken up mode" and just grabbed the primer and started spraying. That one little tiny lapse has cost me BIGLY. 

Oh well... It'll finally be dealt with after this next round of primer I'm sure. 

Raptor..... hmm... I decided to go ahead and..... . . . . . .. .. .   do the missiles and missile bays!     More work but hell that's all part of the appeal of this one if you ask me so it would be a shame (and lazy) to skip it all and have them all closed up. Probably will add a "work" day to the build but who cares. Not exactly blazing a trail with this one anyway.

[TheChronicOne]

Here I was thinking I'd finally get through a build with no mess-ups.

I mix up my usual blend of vineger, a drop of dishoap, and warm water so I can decal this plane. I put the first one on and in less than 2 seconds it sets so firmly that I couldn't budge it for love nor money. Even completely under solution and scraping on it with a knife wouldn't budge it. Trying to lift the corner wouldn't work.... the transfer laid down like paint and it was impossible to even find the edge and get under it.




After doing this entire thing as a minimal effort build I'm not about to stop now with mere minutes left until completion to undertake whatever harsher methods will be necessary to get this stuck transfer off. What I'm going to do instead is just put the roundel over this, do the same on the other side, and make it an alternate scheme type deal I guess.   

Oh yeah... in order to avoid the same problem, I tossed out my solution and will use straight water so I have surface tension to help keep the transfers mobile until they are properly aligned.

[TheChronicOne]

Well... hmmm......    didn't help any with straight water and the next transfer I put on, instead of acting like it was made of titanium or something, started falling all apart but yet.... what did remain stuck to the plane like the other one and wouldn't budge! I burned another roundel on it and got it positioned somewhat correctly but I'm not going to try any more right now. I went heavy on the gloss to make up for the rivets and stuff but it's being counterproductive and I guess the surface is so smooth that transfers get on there and just adhere like crazy. Weird... I've used these transfers before (different sheets, but from the same batch and manufacturer) and had no problems. Only difference was the amount of clear I put on. Oh well... now this is REALLY going to be a what-if because I'm going to try these again after the gloss dries more but if they don't work I'll have to grab something else out of the stash.

That's all for now folks!!!  A nearly flawless build procedure with less than 30 minutes of work left to it.... ground to an utter halt because of nonsense!  Oh well... I might come up with some really cool transfers to put on here and it'll be better than ever. 

[TheChronicOne]

Done!! The P-40N Kittyhawk turned into a "paint and markings test bed."










Doing all I can to coax good pictures out of this but it's always difficult with brightly colored subjects. No matter the settings, no matter the background. I'll get it figured out eventually but at this pace it's going to take years!!  Either way...... this is what we have to look at until I can get outside into the sun.


EDIT: Oh yeah! ...  -- I guess what was wrong with the first transfers I found were that they were somehow defective. I tried more, from the same manufacturer, and they worked PERFECTLY. So.. that's that. Mystery solved....       I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. 

[TheChronicOne]

 

Surprise kitbash project!!   


I was looking around for a pilot figure to cram into my glider when I picked up the travesty known as the 1988 boxing (I think it was '88.... ) of the Airfix F-5. What a pile of garbage!! One of the worst looking kits I've ever seen...  fitment is totally garbage, tons of flash, grossly misshapen pieces.....  mainly the nose... It's like the nose piece doesn't even remotely belong with the kit. Scale wise, it's like 2 feet too wide and I'm not about to put the stupid thing on a lathe so..... I just grabbed a hack saw and the nose from my 1/48 U-2A and started surgery on it and the F-4 itself. (oh yeah, the pilot guy wouldn't fit into the glider... I'm starting to think it might not actually be 1/72. Fred mentioned it looking small, and it IS small but even for 1/72 I don't think it's right. I'm going to peruse Scalemates in a few to see what's going on...) 

ANYWAY... long story short... what if the U.S. Navy went with the Freedom Fighter instead of the Skyhawk?  Put a stubby nose on it to reduce footprint and since the wings are so narrow.... they work well on a carrier but won't need folding wings, thus keeping weight down. Also, if I can, I'll move the tailplanes into a T-tail cruciform configuration opening up even more space to cram these in like sardines. Being so small and lightweight already it makes sense that the Navy might want a variant tailored just for them!   

So anyway.... short stubby nose...... T-tail cruciform (if I can), put a tail hook on it and elongate the nose gear and we have a carrier based Navy F-5. 




Also.... finally painting on the glider!  Should be done with this white base coat pretty soon then I can start laying out the pattern for the rest of the colors.

[TheChronicOne]

Friday and I'm the only loser sitting around at home, on the 'net. 

Anyway.... I'm knocking certain things out pretty rapidly which is a nice change of pace for myself! I normally have big time anxiety about hacking up kit pieces but today I'm just chopping all kinds of stuff up. "Study long, study wrong." As luck would have it, so far, everything is going well. I had a boo-boo on the nose earlier but I cut another piece to go in the middle to fix that but... even that didn't take long.

Any how.. the tail elevons or whatever they are come attached to a piece of fuselage that glues on to the rear-end so I had to cut those off. I grabbed a hobby knife and scored the top about 3 times then the bottom once or twice then just snapped them off. Then, rather than stew on what next and become mentally bogged down, I immediately grabbed file and sandpaper and cleaned up the pieces. To that end the left over tail piece of the fuselage is clean and ready and I also fixed up the joining surfaces of the two cut-off tailplanes. They fit remarkably well onto the fin right where I need them to!

Tail piece with one of the tailplanes next to it to give an idea of how it used to be:



The NEW arrangement as cruciform and the fitment:



Not bad!! This could turn out to be a really fun build and if I can sort out all the lousy fitment and flash issues, it might even come together pretty swiftly. 

[TheChronicOne]

Alright! I stopped to mock it up to see if it "looks alright."



Looks like U.S. Navy contraption to me! 

The nose is going to be the most problematic and labor intensive aspect of the entire build, I can already tell. The fuselage up there is a bit boxy and the nose more round so I'll need to address that. Shouldn't be too hard because the actual nose on an F-5 is more rounded than the fuselage so if I can get a nice transition going like on the original it should look alright.

Enough for now.. this thing is almost creating itself at this point and since it's going so well.... it's time to put it away.    I'm taking a "don't press your luck" approach to building these days. 

I'll either continue paint work on the glider or hop into my Pe-8 or Soviet P-47D and go blast on some Germans in Warthunder. Internet connection has been terribad the last 3 weeks so I might not be able to tolerate online gaming very long..... I've already had 3 or so matches ruined because of it.  .