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

[TheChronicOne]

I have the cockpit window frames painted. Should work out fine. Might need to touch it up at the end.




I decided to go ahead and gloss the engines to see what the clear would do to my silver pant and sure enough it zapped the luster and changed the color completely. STILL.... I think.... I'll just leave these alone rather than mask and do it all over again. Lesson learned and I'll be sure to mask off all the slats and the window frames before I gloss any more. The masking never ends on this one!! Odd thing is, I can say I've enjoyed it all for some reason.     It can be fun when it all works right and when it's not some crazy glazing on canopies and all that.

Anyway, here's an engine:


Not too shab on the whole!!  They get some red fan-line and stencils transfers so I'll probably get those put on later. I'm not sure if I'll make to doing the transfers on the rest though because touch up work will probably take awhile. Also, fixing the blue could involve sanding and re-masking if I wish to do it properly. That could take a bit longer but will probably be worth it because the finish is starting to look rather lumpy. . ..  ("lumpy" not literally, but "lumpy" as in kind of junky lookin'...   I think it's Bri'ish slang.    )



See what I mean? Not stellar. It might be ok if I was going to weather this, but I'm not so this stuff has to go. Since I need to mask off the silver stuff anyway I may as well mask the lower fuselage at the same time and go ahead and add more blue.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Ahh the good 'ol Seven-Three!  I was an Instructor on the 737-300/400 for USAirways for a few years before their retirement.   

[TheChronicOne]

Ahh the good 'ol Seven-Three!  I was an Instructor on the 737-300/400 for USAirways for a few years before their retirement.   

Oh outstanding!!  Sounds like a dream job! 

Pleasure to meet you; I hope I can do this one the justice it deserves. 

I have no feet left from shooting them off with mistakes but I'm still going to try my best to put out a decent end result.  Pretty neat liveries on these. 

Update... I peeled away the masking around the windscreens and eyebrows and am left with a somewhat gaudy result? I may re-mask the windows and let the clear tone these down like the de-icing rings on the engines because this stuff is bright. Also, I'd like to get in there and file down the ridges. Still, it could be worse and it's better than if I had skipped it all.   


Could be better, could be worse. I think I may have goofed on the eyebrow windows. My lil picture above of the weathered plane shows them not having frame like the windscreens so I may paint over that with blue. 

I also masked off the slats and stuff:



This thing is gobbling up tape at an unprecedented rate and I'm still going to need a bunch more.

One other thing I did was sand a bit then put more paint on the bottom. I got some silver on it and some of it was dirty so why not? If I'm going to freshen up the top, I may as well freshen up the bottom as well!

I guess next I'll fix the ridges and ponder the eyebrow windows for the glass work but after that I think I can go ahead with the new coats of blue then... maybe... it will finally be time to gloss this contraption!

[AeroplaneDriver]

One point of accuracy....the eyebrow windows were removed from pretty much all of the 737-300/400s by about 2009 IIRC.  Looks great though!!!!

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah! That's a shame, if you ask me. I understand why, and eliminating all the maintenance hours and saving money is great, but they're just so neat.    Going to keep mine and call it "old school cool."   



With that said.. I think I'll close up shop on this particular build for the day. I'll tackle the window work on a day with a fresh start because I need to pay attention and do what all I can to thin and de-gaud those framework.    Just getting rid of the ridges will help but in addition to that I'll likely delete the frame work around the eyebrows and then either darken the rest or re-mask the windows and let the gloss clear tone it down. We'll see, I'll cross that bridge another day.

For now..  uhhhh..... I guess I can paint some stuff for the raptor or play video games. I'll make my mind up on THAT after I make sure the food I'm cooking isn't about to go critical or something. 

Time for a dooby snack, too, I do declare. Between work today and the Masking Marathon after, I think I've earned a break. 

[zenrat]

If you make up a wash with the blue acrylic you used for the fuselage and some water and apply it over the silver enamel framing it will tone it down some and make it stand out less.
being acrylic it shouldn't affect the enamel.
Err on the "less paint - more water" side when you mix it as you can always do more coats if its not dark enough.

[TheChronicOne]

Copy that... I was thinking along the same lines. I was gong to use straight black(thinned to a wash) but I think I like your suggestion better. I know one damn thing, I don't relish the idea of re-masking the windows. If I can just put that wash on the frame stuff then I can mask the whole bit as a patch instead of 8 or whatever little individual patches.

Holy hell, though.. I wish I had left it alone though because the effect that the gloss clear made on the silver rings on the engines would have been perfect for that framing. Oh well.. I'm still learning and especially with these airliners. 

[TheChronicOne]

Back at it. I played some video games long enough to accomplish some goals then I was bored! I need to wrap this game up and get rid of it. 

I decided to get back to model building and jump head first into some stuff I wasn't exactly looking forward to. It wound up being pretty fun, though, in the end because "checking things off of the list" is always productive. It mainly involved trimming more sprue, doing some sanding and filing on edges where things were clipped out, and even some paint, primer, and gloss coat.

I finished the AMRAAMS and decided to paint the internal drop tanks a lovely shade of doo-doo brown, then glossed:



I also filed and sanded the external fuel tanks and the main gear. Then I gather them all together and primed it all along with the main gear I already assembled:




I got a really decent chunk of this stuff worked on and it helps a bunch to eliminate visual and mental clutter to help making plans for the rest of the build become simpler.


BUT, that's it... I'm done.       

Until next time! 

[PR19_Kit]

Update... I peeled away the masking around the windscreens and eyebrows and am left with a somewhat gaudy result? I may re-mask the windows and let the clear tone these down like the de-icing rings on the engines because this stuff is bright. Also, I'd like to get in there and file down the ridges. Still, it could be worse and it's better than if I had skipped it all.   

Another good reason to go the decal route for windscreens on 1/144 scale airliners......

[TheChronicOne]

No doubt!! I wish this one had came with one. I need to build up my spare transfers collection so I have some on hand. When I did my little 1/480 galaxy I filled the windows in and smoothed it off and used the transfer and it turned out great! SOOooooo much easier.

But anyway... I have a fun filled work day involving trash pick up and multiple lawns but when I get done with that I'll be fixing to the too-bright, too-wide, and ridge-lined windscreen framing. I think I can fix it with not too much fan-fare, It's just I need to concentrate and have a steady hand.

Otherwise, I need to put a couple more coats of blue on to get that refurbished then I can gloss it.


Also, since I built up a head of steam on my Raptor the other night it will be nice to continue work on it, as well. I'd like to knock out as much of the fiddly piddly small crap as I can and get it out of the weigh because the thought of that stuff hanging is a bit bothersome!

Lastly, I think I might try to sync these up and do Phase I of transfers at the same time. Meaning, there are stencils, rings, lines, etc that go on the armamement of the Raptor and the Engines of the 737 so I can whip up some decal-water and do all that at once and get that stuff done and ready for the encapuslating second coat of clear.


Ambitious, I think, considering the amount of real world work I need to get done today. No telling how much I'll get done if any at all!

[TheChronicOne]

Alright, having shot off both feet , I'm starting on my shins.


Trying to fix the bunk, crappy window framing I did. (Lesson learned, if you think they're narrow enough, go narrower).



Before & After.

Probably could stand to be even better but we're at the outer limits of why my tape and brushes care capable of. It looks fine to me and even the color itself is much better having done nothing other than make the framing narrower.

SO..... moving on. I'll need to mask the windows off one last time before I gloss but I think we're finally moving forward again, instead of backwards. Next up will be to indeed mask the windows then I think I'll quicky slap some masking on the grey bottom and put another coat or two on the blue upper. I already sanded it all down pretty good so that ought to help as well. By time the gloss coats are on the finish should look pretty decent despite all the things I've done to butcher it. 

Break time for now, though. I'll either get cracking on the Raptor armament again (Painting then glossing the Sidewinders then figuring out which "pylons" and stuff go with the loadout I selected) or I might start Phase II of PSR on the Liberty since the wind is finally allowing me to open the window and have my exhaust fan running. We'll see... for now I'm going to sift through the box of goodies I just opened and put some pictures in the stash thread.

[TheChronicOne]

True to my word, I've stuck to "the program" without much deviation and have knocked out some of the more tedious actions required to advance these builds!

Earlier I fixed the winders on the Boeing; that was a pretty satisfying ordeal and one I wasn't looking forward to but found to be not as bad as I was expecting.

But, also, I continued the "less thrilling" work on the Raptor and have been painting missiles and stuff. Specifically, the Sidewinders. There are transfers with the Raptor kit for some stuff but I couldn't get the proper amount or combo to do the AMRAAMS and Aim-9s both so I had to paint the yellow and brown bands on the Aim-9s. I have transfers for those bands for the AMRAAMS, though, so that's why I DIDN'T paint those. The kit gives plenty of BLUE bands for training rounds but the Somalis don't play -- all our stuff is fully armed!! 


Also pictured: the Doo-Doo Brown fuel tanks!  There are a couple red transfers that I think might go one these. 

I also trimmed out all the bands and stencils that go on these then threw them all into my lil measuring cup thing:



I did the same a month or more ago with the Liberty stuff:



No telling when that stuff will be used!!  Right after I remarked about being able to use my exhaust fan the wind switched around so I had to cancel any sanding plans. 


I think I've had enough fun for one day. The C.R.A.P. workers are about to go on strike so it's time to close down shop. 

[NARSES2]

Alright, having shot off both feet , I'm starting on my shins.

Not heard that one, I must "borrow" it 

Nice progress on your bits and bobs

[TheChronicOne]

Weapons free! 



C.R.A.P. is indeed closed today; the workers are on strike and will be watching movies and laying around all day resting their back and getting ready for another epic work day in the morning and later in the day whence "the big push" begins on the 737.  Shouldn't take more than an hour or two to get the windows masked and the paint finalized then it's off to gloss. That's all I'm going to speculate on at this point, though! 

[TheChronicOne]

UgggggGGGGghhhhh.      I feel lousy. I think the last couple weeks of work are catching up with me and I didn't sleep worth a damn last night so I'm feeling a little zombified and not too well rested! I have a BEAST of a yard today to mow. I've actually been mowing on it off and on since last Thursday but it hasn't been properly cared for in probably years. I hope I can get it done finally, today, because I have multiples on Friday and I can't afford to be behind!

So anyway... that's that.. I might not get a whole lot done today. Hopefully after I get out there and start the trash contract I'll muster up some energy. Either way, I'm trying to get some more done on the 737. Going to mask the windows off first thing to get it out of the way then it's time to paint some more blue on top then I'll seal it all up! Might be doing some transfers later.