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

[TheChronicOne]

 


So... what's up today?!  I dunno. Trying not not to get pissed off at idiots on Facebook, for one!! I've only had one ciggie the entire day, that's with coffee, driving, work, etc etc and even now after lunch but man..... these people get under my skin and I'm trying not to lose my cool. So.. here's the deal.... someone makes a post pleading with people not to leave their dogs (that aren't built for winter) out all night in the 30MPH winds and sub-freezing temperatures then there's always some clown that shows up and says, "BOY I WISH PEOPLE CARED ABOUT OUR KIDS LIKE THIS."        Because it's impossible to care about more than one thing at a times? Somehow, caring about animals means people DON'T care about "people."  Pisses me off. So I'm going to try to stay away from FB before I flip out on someone or worse, bust out the smokes.   

I don't tolerate stupid people too well some times. 


BUT ANYWAY.  With that off my chest, I'm going to come up with a plan now! I'm back to work on the F-52. I don't think I have enough in my can to clear it but I'm going to try.... If I can get that on there then the next step is decalling it. I'm about to grab all me transfers and look through them and hope I have what I need. There should be a number of things on the kit sheet that I can use, as well.

The wind is in my favor again so I can get back to work on the 737 which requires sanding. Same for the glider. I got the wings on, now it's time to sand the seams smooth.

Later on, I'm going to finally open up the Laotian T28 Nomad. I'm pretty darn close to finishing the F-52 so I feel comfortable now in doing so. I told myself, "Hey, you better get some work done on these other builds first before you start playing on a new playground!!!!!"    I'll try to get pics of the plastic before I start hacking it apart. 

TTYL

[TheChronicOne]

Always nice to be starting a new project! Now that I'm on the eve of completing the F-52 and that the glider will also be done pretty quickly, it's time to start another! 


Real world this time. A neat subject, though. An AT-28D of the Royal Lao Air Force! It's going to have ejection seats, too!   

It's the Heller T-28 in the Testors boxing. Naturally, I immediately cut the top off and throw the shithouse box right into the trash.     I'll stick the parts into my much more sturdy and better designed Minicraft HK-1 box.

So here's the plane:



Simple enough. I think I have everything I need as far as decorations.


Here's the wares:




This SHOULD be an easy build. Simple one engine aircraft. All over grey paint job. Minimal markings. If anything gives me trouble, it might be the weathering. But.... considering.....  look at the picture there, it's one of the cleaner ones I've seen!!! 

So there ya have it! If anyone has any good reference pics for Laotian Nomads, hook a brotha up.

[zenrat]

Looks promising Brad C.  I've always had a thing about Royal Laos AF roundels.  It's the elephants.

[TheChronicOne]

Asian Elephants! So cool...    sadly, didn't one type of Asian Elephant go extinct a few years back?  I always could tell them apart from the African ones because they have smaller ears. Hopefullly I'm mistaken about the poor elephant being extinct. I know we recently lost a type of white rhino. 


But anyway.  Hell yeah, should be nice project. I realize now that I changed pictures and my statement about it being clean no longer applies but I DID have a picture up showing one of these that must have just arrived on scene (perhaps WHY they took a picture of it.... ) and was very clean. Bad picture of a clean airplane:



You can tell that sucker is clean, and for one of these... it's VERY clean. So there's precedent for not weathering the piss out of something simply because it USUALLY looks quite dirty. "Factory Fresh" an' all that!   (This is me justifying my way out of weathering)        Although... I think I'd rather weather it anyway, just, if I don't want to, I won't have to get so carried away. 

I might try slapping some decals on the F-52 today. Not sure how to go about a few things, however. I don't think I have any low vis roundels, for instance. I'll cross that bridge later, though.

Got some figuring to do on the glider. I used some red paint.... I used this paint one time before and it would not cooperate. In fact, it was very lousy. I thought it was plastic itself (I was spraying my fire truck) but now the paint has pulled the same type of antics so really it's more that the paint is finicky. It's super slick and glossy in some parts, flat matte and "gritty" in other parts. I can tell that the plastic itself does have something to do with it because their are matching uniform patterns on the wings, etc. So.... really, I guess it's a COMBINATION of the paint and plastic but whatever. I do know one thing, this time like last time I didn't prime beneath it. I imagine if I had, this problem wouldn't be so bad, but like I said earlier, the can says the primer is in it and doesn't need separate primer!       ANYWAY...  I'm blathering but these are the things on my mind for the next bits of modelling.

If anything else, I might spend a bit more time working on the F-84 refurb. Last time I was gluing stuff in the cockpit and painting so I'd like to continue that process as much as possible then get my pilot guy painted. He's going to be the real hero because he will help fill things up and hide the fact that I didn't paint certain things. 

[DogfighterZen]

The T-28 looks very good, reminds me of a smaller A-1 Skyraider. Get it going but don't forget the F-52, that thing is looking gorgeous.

[zenrat]

I have a couple of Texans.  I might have a go at a Royal Lao version as drawn by Clave.

https://www.deviantart.com/ws-clave/art/T-6G-Laos-1-171648966

[NARSES2]

Asian Elephants! So cool...    sadly, didn't one type of Asian Elephant go extinct a few years back? 

I don't think so, although some of the sub-species are in serious danger.

There's also the African Forest Elephant which is native to the Congo Basin and is smaller then both the Asian and African types. I once saw some fascinating film footage from the 1930's of Forest ones being ridden in the then Belgian Congo. First time I'd heard of them.

There was also an elephant species native to North Africa and the Atlas Mountains (probably a sub-species of the Forest type) and it was these that were most likely* used by Hannibal when he crossed the Alps. As such most illustrations of Hannibal crossing the Alps are wrong as the elephants are often portrayed as Asian ones which are way to big. Hannibal's would have carried a rider and one warrior, two at the most.

* I say most likely as there is a slim chance he might have had access to some Asian Elephants as they were available to Alexander's Succesors. The Seleucid's had them and there is some thought that the Ptolemy's had some. It's unlikely though.

[TheChronicOne]

The T-28 looks very good, reminds me of a smaller A-1 Skyraider. Get it going but don't forget the F-52, that thing is looking gorgeous.

Thanks!

That's the impression I got from looking at pics of the well armed AT-28D pics I found on the net, then lo and behold I got to readin' up and turns out they took the same ejection system from the Skyraiders and crammed it into these. So... there's some shared lineage along with the similar looks and roles. One is papa, one is baby!  In fact.........  HMMMM... ....   RLAF Skyraider would be a really cool whif.....

[TheChronicOne]

Clave never fails to impress, I like that Texan. Good idea to make that, and it would be a quick build. Might even look good with some rockets. AT-6.. lol


Man that's cool about them wee Forest elephants. More manageable... it would be cool to have one as a pet. An elephant about the size of a pony or whatever would be nearly manageable in the city.     

[DogfighterZen]

Clave never fails to impress, I like that Texan. Good idea to make that, and it would be a quick build. Might even look good with some rockets. AT-6.. lol

https://hiveminer.com/Tags/fap%2Ctexan

Check out the PoAF T-6G used in the Portuguese colonial wars. They carried cannons, rocket pods and bombs so i guess that makes it an AT-6. Should give you an idea of what to hang on it's wings and also some inspiration. If you google T-6 harvard FAP, you'll find even more pics for reference.

[kerick]

Boy, everyone is coming up with cool whiff ideas!
Just my $0.02 but I try to stay off farcebook. Either it's full of "special snowflake" crap or stupid politics. Waste of time. Unfortunately members of my extended family use it to plan family events instead of actually talking to me. Either I use it occasionally or I get left out of things.

[zenrat]

...Man that's cool about them wee Forest elephants. More manageable... it would be cool to have one as a pet. An elephant about the size of a pony or whatever would be nearly manageable in the city.     

I wouldn't want to have to pick up after it...

[TheChronicOne]

The neighbors would soon complain if it were me (and had I more neighbors) because I'd just leave it all sitting there. 


Very very slow start to my day. I'm NOT feeling good. My back is/was killing me. We have multiple fronts moving through the area and it's playing havoc on me. But uhh... the pain meds are finally starting to work and I finally managed to take a hot shower (always feel better after a shower, pretty much no matter what! ) so I'm going to try to get back to work here. Not a whole lot I can do thanks to the wind but I'd like to try to find SOMETHING to do on each build before I throw in the towel and go play video games.

Yesterday I started the process of trimming out the vac canopy on my F-84F Refurb. I'll go ahead and continue that process today. I was going to wait until I get new blades but the one I'm using is working fine, because I'm taking it very slow. Going to score, score, score, bend, snap, sand. So far it's working well and this is a very well done canopy. Has good detail, the dimension and shape look right, the plastic is clear and also strong. I've seen others that look like some dude made 'em in his garage (and probably did).

I'm also having to re-build my BAC-111. I spilled some mail on it the other day and it knocked off a main gear, gear door, and the nose gear. Nose gear went flying and I can't be arsed to find it so I'm taking spare sprue pieces and a toothpick to make a new one. Glued all that up yesterday so I can paint it today and finally get it on. Shouldn't be a bit deal at all.

Red glider needs sanding. Some parts of it crazed when I put primer over the top of that troublesome red paint I'm using. You know.... I forgot to wash the thing before I started painting (sue me, I was into my 3rd can of beer at this point, I should know better  ) so some of this is my fault but this red paint is sort of weird anyway.

F-52... I can do too much to it. I can cut the alignment pins off the pylons for the ordnance, however. I'm moving it all so the pins have to go. I know it ain't much, but, hey... it's something and one less bit of work I have to worry about in the future!! 

The 737....  HMMMM.... I really don't have any plans for this. I'm ordering in guide all about how to make a proper cargo version of the 737-200 advanced so I'm not doing anything until it gets here. I can't even work on the fuselage because I've no primer and have cut myself off from leisure spending for the rest of the month. What a bummer. Being an adult SUCKS BALLS.        (I'd rather pay my insurance and not lay awake at night wondering when I'm going to get pulled over by the police    )

I've done next to nothing on the Lao Nomad. I can start trimming things out of the sprues and getting them organized. File and sand away burrs from the attach points, and possibly start getting the cockpit together. I know I need to trim up the ejection seats but thankfully they will fit very well into the cockpit tub!

What else?!?  Still working on quiting smokes, if anyone was still wondering (or thought I had given up; I haven't....)   Going to try a new vape flavor starting either today or tomorrow. The one I had wasn't working as intended as it was too fruity and "yummy" tasting. Kind of like with black coffee, part of the appeal of a smoke is that it's a bitter type of taste, not a sweet one. So.. I've picked up some vape juice that more closely mimics ciggies!     Another set back in this endeavor are the lozenge things. Big time failure there. I can't tolerate them. I get the impression they're geared more toward people who dip. Same mechanism and all that. Hold it in your cheek, etc. It even tastes and feels like it (I tried it once in high school). But... I can't tolerate the things. The burn the hell out of my throat and are a pain in my arse. Going to replace them with patches I guess.  BUT... that doesn't mean I'm failing. I'm still chugging along. Hell, it's nearly 2:30 today and I've not had a ciggie YET. Also, recently it has gotten to the point where I don't WANT ciggies even when I think I do?  If that makes sense? I'll start smoking one then find out I didn't want it, and it's not enjoyable so I throw it out. This has just recently started happening about a week ago so I think I'm finally getting used to the reduced intake... or... something. It's a good sign, though.

Longer term ideas: I've gotten my howitzers in for the civil gunship so I'm considering cancelling the TWA MD-80 and doing it instead. Funny how I sometimes decide to start a new project, then simply don't. Not too long ago I decided I was going to build a CL-604 Challenger but I guess that's out the window as well. 

Also longer term: the real world 1/72 Boeing 707 for the RAAF. I'm itching to dig that big b@stard out and start working on it but I'm not sure if I should. I guess I need to decide which I want to do more, the gunship or this thing.

TTYL! 


EDIT: Damn, but I can ramble on, yeah?!   

[DogfighterZen]

EDIT: Damn, but I can ramble on, yeah?!   

You sure can... but someone's reading...

[TheChronicOne]

Well, that's good to know, thanks! Sometimes the length of a post is inversely proportional to the amount of folk that read it. ----  "I ain't readin' all that!!!"    Of course, this is why paragraphs exist so I do my best to break things up. Helps to add pictures, too, but sometimes I just blab on and let it ride. People will either read it, or not. Being a blog, I tend to use it as such. I keep the main focus on building, of course, but this is a blog, not a build thread so I reserve my right to talk about anything going on that impacts me.