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

[TheChronicOne]

Woke up late the other day, woke up EARLY today!      This crazy schedule is probably taking years off my life but oh well. Working out in the heat could take them ALL away!   

So any how.. I crawl out of bed at 1:30AM so I can leave out of here no later than 4 and pick up trash and hit a couple stores this morning. I have NO paying lawns today so I'm going to make an attempt on my gargantuan yard today so I figure if I get started right at 6AM I MIGHT be finished by noon. The grass isn't overly tall or anything but there's tons of little odds and ends to be done still like pick up fallen limbs and trash and work on mowers and stuff. For some reason my riding lawn tractor is cutting uneven and makes the lawn look like a pile-of-donkey so I need to try to fix that and also I'm wanting to get some of my older mowers that I haven't used in a while going and use them. Gotta use this stuff ever so often to get it from "getting stale."

When I'm done with that, it's time to finish painting the Spitfire. I need to paint the exhaust and ... I think that MAY be it?  Not sure. Then I'll gloss it and do transfers. Should be done with it today as the canopy and fiddly bits are all painted, just need to be glued on.

Also, Yak-53 will have the white paint finished today then I'll investigate the transfers.

I started it the other day and will continue to (slowly) get the windows filled in on the BAC-1-11.

Need to paint the interior of the fuselage halves of the B-58. Might glue some more weight into the halves before I close them up. I already jammed a bunch into the nose cone but I'm not sure if it's enough. I need to find them scales!

Would be nice to do.. something, anything, to the F-52 today as well. That build has stalled.


Not sure how it happened but the ATR-72 fuselage has developed some uhh... wrinkled up shrunken in gouges in the side from glue I guess? I don't recal putting enough on the inside to make it do this, yet, there it is anyway! Nothing I can do but fill it and sand it smooth. So... working on that some more and might start filing on the seams.

[zenrat]

Coming along nicely Brad C.
While at the RAF museum at Cosford I took some snaps of their Spit Mk1 for you.  It has the black white underside with contrasting ailerons but same colour elevators.
Spit 01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Spit 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Spit 03 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[TheChronicOne]

Have a go at that! Magnificent.      Thanks!   Man, that sucker is clean, yet, looks sun weathered.     I think I might do that to mine. 


If I can ever get to work on it. I'm fighting with the stupid auto insurance stuff yet again. I FINALLY have found some insurance but, My God, $333 for 6 months worth?! The hell, man. If I didn't need it to renew my tag I'd just "be that guy" that doesn't have insurance because... well....    I hate being price gouged. This stuff is a huge scam over here. It's mandated by the law so they can charge whatever the hell they want and unless you want to walk everywhere you just have to pay it. Crooked bunch of thieves.   

It's done, now, though, and there's $333 flushed down the commode that won't be turned into glorious new airliners kits..   

Next I'll take a break then I need to try to file my taxes again. I've found a few internet pages to help me along the way  but next year I'll hire an accountant instead of all this BULLCORN.

So much for working on builds, eh?    Oh well, while I'm in the mood to deal with it I need to get this done; it's been dragging along for months now....  Will I be succesful as with the stupid insurance? Tune in later! 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, I blew two hours doing my taxes only to get to the very end of the stupid thing to have it tell me, "OH, TEE HEE, FORGOT TO TELL YOU, BUT YOU NEED LAST YEARS RETURN IN ORDER TO FILE THIS YEARS!"    Uhhh, why not divulge this information in the beginning so I can prepare and actually have it? I electronically filed last year, and did it myself (with much success, I might add, unlike this travesty of a year) but in doing so I have no actual piece of paper with my ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME on it so........  the whole damn shootin' match came to a grinding halt as I become damn near livid. So, I had to go to the IRS site and request a transcript that will be here in a couple weeks so when it gets here, all I have to do is log in to the software again and put in that last bit of information. OR.. we'll see, if the pattern holds, they'll spring some more surprises on me that they should have mentioned way back at the beginning of the process.   


SO HELP ME, GOD.



OK, that's all done with for now. I wish like hell it was over, but, at least, now the work remaining is minimal. I also had to file for a payment plan because I owe $1,099 in social security and FICA taxes. AKA, "self employment" tax. Nutty stuff!       I'm just glad most of the hard part is done. I mean, paying up my cold hard cash is pretty troubling but I HATE paper work. 



So, NOW what?!  I think I'll try to work on the Spitfire after I get myself calmed down a bit. I'll start by painting the exhaust and just go from there.

[TheChronicOne]

Got some good work done! I managed to finish the paint on the Spitfire, I hope, and have cleared it. It's hanging from the ceiling fan.

Also, I put more white rattle can paint onto the Yak-53.  There was a malfunction with the way I stored it last time that messed up the paint on one wing so I had to sand that first but it's all fixed now.

Glazed up another two window panels on the BAC 1-11 with me cold glue. Once that is finished I'll start putting some putty in there. 

I think I did a couple other things but they have slipped my mind for now. I didn't get a TON of things done, but I did progress things without any mistakes so I'm calling this a successful day of work.   

[NARSES2]

Working for yourself has advantages, but it also has disadvantages and filing your tax returns is just one of them. I just did a year of "self employed" after I retired and that was an eye opener. I couldn't believe some of the things I could claim  , but the amount of paperwork compared to being PAYE was 

[zenrat]

Have a go at that! Magnificent.      Thanks!   Man, that sucker is clean, yet, looks sun weathered.     I think I might do that to mine.  ...

Glad to help.  Note that the UC bay on the black side appears to be painted white while the one the white side is darker.

[TheChronicOne]

Working for yourself has advantages, but it also has disadvantages and filing your tax returns is just one of them. I just did a year of "self employed" after I retired and that was an eye opener. I couldn't believe some of the things I could claim  , but the amount of paperwork compared to being PAYE was 

Indeed that's the good part. I actually kind of got tired of entering things to deduct. 

Very eye opening, though, yes.  I had no idea the added difficulty. I failed numerous times because I didn't understand what the hell I needed to do and what I wasn't allowed to. I finally sat down and did some research and learned all the forms and read up on the hows and whys and it eventually started to clear the fog of war. I mean, I should have done this way back in the beginning but better late than never. Once I learned what in the hell was going on, the actual filing part became easy thanks to Turbotax free online edition but it STILL took 2 hours to do it all and I read and type fast!        Next year, I'm doing this stuff early.

[TheChronicOne]

Have a go at that! Magnificent.      Thanks!   Man, that sucker is clean, yet, looks sun weathered.     I think I might do that to mine.  ...

Glad to help.  Note that the UC bay on the black side appears to be painted white while the one the white side is darker.

I saw that, yes. ppears to be shadow but still white, to my eye??  I did finally figure it out on mine. It was all a matter of what time of the year in 1939 it was or some such pinpointing method but mine was an "in transition" pre-painted stage where the belly had been painted but none of the bottom control surfaces or well wells so the control surfaces were the silvery dope color and the well the alluminum color.

Mind numbing sometimes and I can see why some of us here at WIM don't do ANY type of real world modeling I mean...   if you have a weird "become obsessed" brain like mine, once you are aware of a problem or inaccuracy it HAS to be fixed. This can become tedious and frustrating!!!  WHIF build? paint that crap whatever color you want if it suits you. Like on my RAF  B-58. Probably should paint the cockpit interior the same color as a V bomber but I'm just completely making it up because I want to cut out having to do research.


Real world builds - to be taken in moderation!!!

[NARSES2]

I had no idea the added difficulty. I failed numerous times because I didn't understand what the hell I needed to do and what I wasn't allowed to. I finally sat down and did some research and learned all the forms and read up on the hows and whys and it eventually started to clear the fog of war. I mean,

Her Majesties Inland Revenue were very helpful over here when it came to getting the thing filed. If I'm honest that surprised me a bit after all the stories I'd heard, but speak as you find 

[TheChronicOne]

I had no idea the added difficulty. I failed numerous times because I didn't understand what the hell I needed to do and what I wasn't allowed to. I finally sat down and did some research and learned all the forms and read up on the hows and whys and it eventually started to clear the fog of war. I mean,

Her Majesties Inland Revenue were very helpful over here when it came to getting the thing filed. If I'm honest that surprised me a bit after all the stories I'd heard, but speak as you find 

Right?! I hear ya, brotha. Same here with our IRS... some people are all like, "OH MAN, that terrible evil IRS, so evil and incompetent!!!" If anything, they're a little too lax in trying to get their money (as I found out this year... like I said at one point, it's as if they don't even want me money  ) but, they will work with you and all the information you need is on the website and I'm sure if one were to call to ask questions, they'd be more than helpful. People just don't like the idea of paying taxes...

It's a lot like the Post Office here. Some people complain but I've never had any real problems and I love our post service. They're not exactly profitable, and that's a worth complaint, but most of that is due to restrictive gov't regulations, mainly having to do with pensions and the like.

Some people just thrive on complaining about things. 

[NARSES2]

Some people just thrive on complaining about things. 

Never has a truer word been written 

[TheChronicOne]

Hasegawa Spitfire Mk. I 1/72 acrylics w/ hairy stick (real world):















No mods other than to replace the mast that I lost and I had to mask for and hand paint the black lines on the wings. You'd think that even on an old kit they would have transfers for those! Nope, not in this one!   



In other news, I have the white paint all the way on the Yak 53 and it looks really nice! Some may scoff, but It's up to MY standard and using $1 a can paint I think it's good to go, all day long!

Also glossed up the landing gear and tires for the B-58. Also glossed all the interior parts so the glue will adhere better. Next I'll be gluing all that into the interior but I need to do a bit of painting on the inside fuselage walls. I think I'll work on this next. After, I need to investigate the best way to approach doing the clear parts. Also, I am wondering if there is a masking set I could buy for this. I'll investigate that. Might be worth picking up.

I've also done the preliminary filling of the recessed cockpit glass on the BAC-111:



All for now I guess. Time for some Hustling action..

[NARSES2]

Spit looks good 

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!

Tomorrow I'll grab the one I did when I was 10 years old and we'll do a lil side-by-side.    It's one of my models from way back then that has not only survived, but made it the entire way with nothing snapping off. Amazing!