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

[Rick Lowe]

Quote:
I think that's what I want to do.. maybe a combo... run the knife through there so I don't peel stuff away I don't want to, then fix everything nice and pretty, then re-mask the clear stuff then get to the paint and gloss. This is the most labor intensive option, but, also the safest.
Unquote.

Yep, I think that's the safest option.

[TheChronicOne]

It helps to have some confirmation, thanks Rick!

I'm constantly fighting a battle with myself over being lazy and trying to get things done quickly and truly trying to make things right. The lazy part of me wants to leave it all and rip the tape off the end and pray that it works. Patient me says, "Although this has been dragging for months, what's a few more days.... make it correct."

It's never going to be completely right because I just don't have the skills and/or supplies yet but if I can convince myself that a little more effort is worth it I can turn out a better product. I'm just so eager to see this one finished, though. It's like a kid trying not to rip the wrapping paper off of a Christmas present early. 

This is my lil baby, after all.... I don't think it's entirely new, but the idea came to me out of nowhere and I just grabbed the kit(s) and started hacking and slashing. This is probably my first TRUE kit-bash project so I'd like to see it turn into something other than a sky-turd. 

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, I've done similar before - rushed the last part, or thought 'It'll be ok, no-one will notice it except me and I can fix it later or live with it' - Wrong!
You ALWAYS see the errors and they ALWAYS annoy you and you NEVER go back to tweak it, because it's too hard- 'why didn't I take the extra time when I could'... etc, etc.

I don't always make corrections at the right time - Witless for the Prosecution A: the time I hacked the complete lower hull section with running gear off a Hannomag to lower it 5 mm (!) AFTER the final paint was on (before the tracks, though - whew!) to correct the sit - but if something is going to be just wrong, or end in frustration, what's the point?

Have at it, and remember it's not a race.

[NARSES2]

(Didn't call the insurance people either)        Not going to. I've had enough infuriating things happen today already. 

Eminently sensible

  Be honest with me and i'll wait.  Lie to me and you'll never get my business ever again and i'll badmouth you round town.

Same here. I can always go for a coffee or a pint

[TheChronicOne]

Having a good day today!! I wonder if the insurance customer service is open on Sundays? 


I might give that a whirl after lunch. After my glorious fish and hush puppies. 


So, what's going on today... hmmmmmm......    I'm going to look over the Raptor one last time to make sure I'm not forgetting anything in the paint department then gloss it. Going to have to warm up my gloss clear on the stereo system. Nice, warm rattle can paint goes on much smoother than a cool or room temp can. I just turn on my surround sound system and lay the can across the vent on top and an hour later it's nice and warm, nearly HOT. No worse than leaving it outside on a hot day. No worries of an explosion or anything. But anyway.. that's my Pro-Tip for the day.

Otherwise, I'm going to grab the trusty hobby knife and score around the paint and stuff around the cockpit on the Liberty then peel that tape off. I can't wait to see what type of disastrous product I'm left with. Better to address it now than at the end when I think I'm done, though! I put odds of it "Being just fine" at around 10%.  More likely is I'll be chiseling and sanding on things.

For now I'll leave it at that until I finish house chores, washing one of my dogs, and start getting the weeks meals prepared. I like to cook big batches of food at once then just re-heat it over the week. I try to do everything "in bulk" if I feel like I can. Shopping included. It's a pain toting hundreds of pounds of food around at once but not having to step inside a grocery store for weeks on end is GLORIOUS. BUT ANYWAY... after I get all this done I'll figure out a more solid game plan I'm sure.

[TheChronicOne]

I decided to go ahead and finish out the landing gear. The two main gear are already on as they had to be per the build steps. The way they attach means they had to go in before everything else was glued together. I can do the main gear as normal, though, because they can be glued in any time. I figure since the main gear struts are on already I may as well just put it all on and hope for the best.

So, I finished painting them first (well, I have to paint some dark grey on the inside of the hub as that space is hollow for the brakes and stuff I guess).





This is good, though, because I was able to keep working while the gloss clear is warming up on the Hi Fi. ( )   Speaking of, it should be about ready so after I glue on these two wheels and the main gear assembly I can let it dry for 15 minutes then it's off to clear!!! Yay!        I did find some more stuff to touch up, too, so that's good that I caught that.

SO... yeah.... paint the inside hubs grey then glue the gear on then gloss....   good deal. I might even start putting transfers on later but that comes AFTER I get all the armament stowed.

In the meantime, while it dries, I will proceed with taking the masking tape off of the Liberty canopy. THAT ought to be interesting...     I till need to finish the last bit of PSR on those there areas, then re-prime, first, though. Ain't no thang.....   gives me plenty to do. 

[TheChronicOne]

 

I'm seeing red, my ears are ringing!!!!!!!

I've been tolerating my internet services poor speeds ever since the first week of January. It has all but ruined my online gaming and now this....       First a bit of background: the internet company was upgrading the infrastructure around here and less than optimal net speed was to be expected during this. Well, OK... it was only supposed to last about 3 months I thought but at no time did I have a definitive date for when they would be done. I was expecting around mid-March but it has only gotten slightly better and now here it is a couple days short of May. I wasn't too bothered by it... I was going to give them plenty of time before complaining to make sure they were indeed done with the upgrades.

ANYHOW!!! I missed me some glorious airplanes now!       (    I'm starting to get over it. . .. . )  I draw the line at this! I will be complaining like mad when they are open for business again. So what happened was I was watching this airplane lot on eBay:


The glared out one is a 1/72 Lightning 3...   

So I do like I normally do and wait until about 7-10 seconds left to bid... normally is no problem. But.... I forgot about the crappy slow internet and by time the stupid bid uploaded the auction was over!!!!   AFTER shipping I would have payed less than $6 a piece for these! 

Oh man...the frustration.      That's a hell of a steal on them kits. Oh well. 

Win some, lose some... there will be more and likely better auctions eventually.       But..... 5 dollars and change for these.... UGGGGGGGGGH.  Can't even buy a DC-10 for less than $30 by itself.        Whatevs......   besides, I got a sweet deal on a Minicraft DC-8-73 the other day so I can gawk at it some more and feel better. 





Moving on. 

I got the wheels painted. Turns out I had to put some fine detail on the outter hub but it was pretty easy. Doesn't look the best, but, then again, I'm not requiring it to.  Looks fine!  I've also done what I can to get paint off of and out of the joining surfaces of both these and the nose gear so I guess it's time to glue them on, then on to gloss coat. 



Good thing I'm at this point because I'm anxious to get on to the Liberty! I want to peel that tape off and see what's going on.

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yes, those Minicraft DC8s are pretty darn good. 

A pity about the job lot you missed out on, there looked to be some good stuff there.

[The Wooksta!]

Tip - open the auction you're bidding on in a separate window.  Now you have two.  Enter an increased bid and enter.  Do not hit confirm until about 5 seconds before end of auction.  Usually beats auction sniping.  If it doesn't?  Well, you've made them pay more.

[TheChronicOne]

Ah ha!!!! Thanks for the tip! That's the type of insider-info I need. Next time around I won't be caught slipping. Usually when I lose a good lot, it's because I have a memory lapse and forget about it... even momentarily is enough. This, though... was maddening. I was sitting there like a good lad and still blew it. 


Kit... that DC-8 made my day. I've read 3-4 reviews on them and not a one has anything bad to say about them. Everything from accuracy to how it builds. I need to post it in the stash thread. I was waiting on a couple others but they're coming from Canada and will take longer so I may as well. 


Progress on the Raptor! I swallowed up my rage and converted it to glue  :





Oooh... ok, I see some places by the intakes where I need to touch up some brown paint. After that, however, it's off to gloss. One problem, the wind is blowing about 800 miles an hour, as is typical in Oklahoma....  I was just going to go outside, now I'll have to come up with some other plan to safely spray this contraption. 

[TheChronicOne]

Good news and bad news.

So I primed the Liberty one last time and the last areas I had to fix aren't perfect but are to the point where I'm happy with them:


Finally smoothing out.


Not bad!!

But now comes the hard part........  look how "thick" it is:




So, I went ahead and scored everything wit' me trusty hobby blade. So here's the good news.... I did a pretty good job of getting my cuts right. Also, after I peeled the tape off, everything was, amazingly, pretty smooth and no big ridges or anything.... certainly no chunks or anything coming off. This worked out better than my expectations BY FAR. That 10% probability I was talking about earlier? Looks like I lucked out and nailed the 10% and have something that will only require minor tweaking.

THAT SAID... the unexpected:


$%%^&$!   *$^*%^&!






    Well, hell, nothing I can do about this!!!    It's on the inside. It happened AFTER I glued the canopy on.. must've been fumes from all the filler because some of it was pretty hot and I know where were still gaps plenty wide enough for air flow so.... .. ... .. . .. . .      damn.   

Am I going to tear all this apart? Find a new canopy and do it again?   Hell nah, playa!! Time for them TINTED WINDOWS.   

I'm going to just paint the canopy black and let 'er ride. It won't be bad looking.. I prefer a clear canopy any day of the week but this isn't such a had option that I would throw this in the trash or something. In fact, it means I don't have to mask it any more.. I can just paint it black and it can ride along with the rest of the paint through the various coats of clear, etc.

Still, it's a damn shame this happened. Lesson learned, however... next time around I'll be sure to take measures to seal things air tight or... something.. to prevent this.


In other news, the bottom half and partial sides have been glossed on the Raptor and it has been allowed to sit for over an hour. Now I will flip it over onto its legs and spray the rest of the sides and the top and it will be ready for the next phase be it gluing in the ordnance or starting transfers. I do know I want to leave the external fuel tanks off for awhile so I can put transfers on the wings but I can probably go ahead with all the missiles and the JDAMs.

[TheChronicOne]

Well, for the most part, I seemed to have stuck to my agenda for today! 

The Liberty PSR work is all done and all it needs is window tint and two shades of grey then it can be glossed and transfer slapped on. I'm using some from an A-4 kit... Esci I think?  They look really nice. Just not all too detailed...   enough detail that matters, though!     

Now that all the canopy work is done sans black paint, the rest of this build will progress rapidly from this point forward. The paint scheme is simple and all the fiddly bits are already built and painted to completion so it's just a matter of gluing them on.

One caveat is having to possibly adjust the length of the nose gear strut. I kitbashed that to make it longer. I also scratch built the gear bay because the whole thing was deleted when I sawed the old crap off the old kit. No telling how these will mesh together. I may have to cut more out of the nose gear strut so that it's not ridiculously long. 


Glossed up me Raptor. I just opened the window and got after it. Had the novelty of working just fine so why not.




Now after it has dried for awhile:



Shiny so the transfers work. I just hope I can tone it down enough after. I've had it work in the past using differing brands of paint. In other words, I used Rustoleum Gloss then after sprayed Krylon Satin and it worked beautifully. Thing is I ran out of Rustoleum gloss and bought Krylon. Now, the gloss and satin are both the same brands. I did this combo on my last airplane and instead of dulling the gloss it turned it into a candy coat. I hope this doesn't happen again. If it does, I'm going to go snag a can of clear matte.


That's it for now. A pretty fun day working on my projects!! Got a lot of good progress done. 

[TheChronicOne]

Trying to come up with a game plan for the builds today.  Today is going to be rough... about the only I can say is I have no mowing jobs scheduled so....  there's that. I still have to pick up garbage then go trim some hedges. But, after that, it's on to errands and such. I have to go to the bank and throw money inside..... I have to go buy and have mounted a couple tires... then I need to go and see the autobody person to fix the door on my truck. Half the hardware that holds it on is missing so it's rickety as hell. I need to hit the grocery store. I need to call and re-schedule my doctors appointment that I won't be able to make tomorrow. I need to go see my insurance agent and try again to renew the insurance on my truck. I tried a month ago but they wouldn't let me buy insurance because Progressive thinks I live in Florida, of all things. I lived there only very very briefly nearly 20 years ago and have HAD insurance with them in the between time so I don't know what the hell is going on. It's pissing me off.  They want like 80,000 forms of ID for some reason to prove I actually live here. A BRAND NEW State Issued drivers license and the fact that my name is on the deed of this house don't help... they still want more and the thing is they don't most things as proof. So stupid.....

But anyway... I'll make it home eventually and when I do I guess I'll get started gluing in all the missiles and stuff on the Raptor. Might get started on the transfers at that point. There aren't a whole lot, but enough that I might not get them all on in one go.

Also, since the canopy glass is garbage, I can skip all the rest on that (Liberty) and get started on the paint. I could get it painted pretty quickly. Just have to paint the glass black and the two grey colors then I can gloss it.

[zenrat]

Busy day.  Take care on the roads.

[TheChronicOne]

Wilco!!! Things are kind of sort of going smoothly. I put a bunch of money in the bank to cover all this junk and they put it in some else's account, though.     

So now I'm behind.... I couldn't get fuel so I'm on fumes now and I had to come home and take care of all this... get on the computer and look at my accounts then get on the phone and get my money back where it's supposed to be. So now I've lost half an hour and still will have to back track to the petrol station.     

Is it going to be one of them type of days?! I hope not. 


On to the next errand..