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

[TheChronicOne]

UGGGGGHHHHH...  woke up today with sciatica pain on BOTH sides. Nothing in my legs though, but across the bottom of my back. So annoying. I wish the weather would stabalize. PRetty miserable. I doped up on pain meds and I will go to work in a bit to get a bunch of exercise and drink lots of water and I should be right as rain by the end of it. Sometimes good ol' exercize and stretching works wonders. Sometimes it makes things worse, though.     But... most of the time it helps out as the work I'm doing right now is light duty. Really mainly walking/jogging and bending over and standing back up. Crouching.. things like that. You can imagine... I'm picking up trash off the ground (and out of bushes, etc. ) so you can picture clearly the exercize routine. 

Not sure what's going on today. I can't work on the glider. I can't work on the F-52....  well... wait.. I suppose I could put on a few of the transfers that go on the tops and sides. I might do that. I can't work on the 737. I really can't work on anything hardly!   

What I CAN do: Paint the vac canopy that I succesfully trimmed out yesterday. Only made one very minor mistake (that will disappear once the stuff is on and painted) so that's good. I've only trimmed out one of these before and I used scissors last time. This time I used a hobby blade. Worked quite well! That's that trimming from my floor covering days coming back around to serve me once again. In come cases, had to be very precise with a blade lest you ruin some expensive piece of flooring.

The main event, I suppose, will be the Nomad. I started clipping out and cleaning up pieces yesterday, so I will get back to that. Then, I'd like to start right away with the tedious bits; assembling and painting the gear, painting the gear doors, painting the cockpit, painting the canopy, and things of that nature.

I guess I need to flip a coin or something to determine whether to proceed with the gunship or the B707.


TTYL!

[TheChronicOne]

I did as much as I could on the Nomad earlier. Clipped out and cleaned up everything I could, glued the wheels onto the gear they go with, and etc. Stuck until I get some primer. Shouldn't be long, I hope. I'm paying down bills and it looks like I might squeek out alive at the end with some "walkin' around money" so I'll be able to fund my shenanigans.


In other news, it looks like I decided to get started on my An-12 civilian gunship. I clipped out the fuselage halves and spent a good chunk of time cleaning them up. Pretty damn messy. Flash everywhere... it's not so bad in places, but there none the less. Also, terrible placement of the sprue attach points and other issues means the fitment was trash. I've done a pretty good job of fixing all that, though. But, at the end of the day, there are no alignment pins and the halves stay together like trying to grasp a wet bar of soap. It's going to take some fancy antics to hold it all together and keep it clamped and STAYING together when I get around to gluing them together.

Also.... predictibly, this thing has no interior other than the cockpit (which looks, from the instructions, to be quite well done, although I haven't laid eyes on the parts yet  ) but everything aft of that is empty space. I'm going to have to do some research and figure out where the floor sits, make one, and install it. This is among other things I need to look into... I'm still not even sure how to plug the howitzers in yet but the good news is that they fit inside nicely with no "room" issues.

Speaking of, the 3D printed howitzers:





Going to trim them out soon. How neat!! And how wee! They so small!     Perfect, though, for this!

Also, I've pretty much made up my mind to just mask and paint the entire livery for this thing. Only transfers I'll use are common markings and stencils. I'll keep it simple...  bottom color different from the top, perhaps.... a cheatline, and some sort of logo on the tail that looks like a capital "A" perhaps stylized with a snowcap to kind of look like a mountain...  perhaps a combination of "AV." Might take a while, but should be easy to mask this stuff......  I HOPE.

So that's that.

[NARSES2]

Those howitzers do look good I must admit 

Takes me back a few years when me and "Young Nick" visited the Science Museum in London and the children's gallery had one of the first prototype 3D printers which you could "play with". The improvement in the product is exponential - amazing

[TheChronicOne]

It's crazy, exponential is the perfect word for it.... the rate at the increase of quality is increasing like crazy. Hell, the picture the guy uses on eBay can't be THAT old but even between the time it was taken and when these were printed the tech has improved considerably!

This is the "old" photo:




Mine look a LOT better than these! Mine are also in the smallest scale he offers at 1/144!  If I were him, I'd replace the picture to maybe sell more.....     


I've been wondering if my local library has a 3D printer yet. If I could get over my fear of learning new technology and were apt to get up off my arse I could probably be churning out parts, pieces, and whole airframes on the CHEAP if I could just invest a few hours at defeating the learning curve..... 


EDIT:  Oh yeah, I'm going to finish clipping mine out later today, so we'll take a better look at them at that point and compare notes.

[TheChronicOne]

Back to work!! I finished trimming out the howitzers. First, the left overs.... man, sure don't want to step on these things! 



Right to the trash with those... don't need any of that action...

Thingies themselves:








Lousy pictures, but they get the job done! I haven't even filed away the burrs from the connect points and they look pretty good as is! Won't take much for these to be ready to be installed. I may have to cut some bits off of the ends of the under carriage (or whatever the hell they call it) but the larger problem is getting the floor installed into the airplane and figuring out how and where to cut holes in it. I supposed I should try my best to get everything positioned correctly so as not to compromise the structural integerity and all that jive. I'm going to try to look into that this after noon. I'd like to make it as simple as possible, however, so that we can actually see inside and SEE the howitzers a little bit instead of just a barrel poking out.

Other than that, miracle of miracles my monthly trash check has arrived a bit EARLY so within the next few days I will be able to go replenish my supplies of primer and clear!       That makes me happy because I'm fighting the urge to start more projects and I don't particularly want to do that because I'd be having 5-6 going at once. I'd rather keep it to 3-4 at most.

On that note, however, I'm seriously considering making a Laotian Skyraider whif to go with the AT-28D. I have a kit of it somewhere... it was one that was innacurate so I decided I'd never build it as real world anyway and wait instead to get my hands on a Hasegawa kit. I think the one I have is Revell or something? Anyway, the cockpit is too far forward or some such mistake like that but that makes it perfect for a new, cheaper variant that was made to sell or lend to our third world "allies."  SO, this would mean two matching RLAF aircraft! 

EDIT: Oh yeah, since it is officially underway now, I will be making a stand alone thread for this AN-12 Avalanche Mitigation Platform so look for that if you wish to follow along.

[TheChronicOne]

How's about a quick update...  uhmm...   uhhh.....   Let's start with the ciggies. I've made it damn near to 8 oclock at night on only 3. Not bad. When I get my patches in I'm going decrease the intake even further.

Back problems went away then came back!!    Another cold front came through. Work was interesting today because of the wind!!!! I'm a big ol' boy and a gust nearly knocked me over.

Went and ran errands and stuff and paid bills and stuff...  uhh...   Shouldn't have to go to any stores for 4-5 days. Nice!

Got some neat wares in the mail! Check the stash thread for that...     some of it was the last bits of things I need for the 1/72 Boeing 707. I dragged that big b@stard out from under the bed today so I could put all the new stuff into the box. MAN, it's big!!!!!  Holy crap, dude!     I'm really looking forward to the project, though. It's been over a year since I've done anything "big."

Been working on my Gunship! Man, I've having a BALL with this thing!! I've had fun literally every minute working on it. The kit has a few problems, too, but somehow I don't mind!    Go check out my thread for it in the aircraft section of the projects forum if interested. Here's a couple hilights, though:

I came up with a livery:



Made holes and test fitted the howitzers:



And now I'm building the cockpit:



Good stuff, I can't wait to get back to work on it.

Lastly, I've finally got some new primer and clear so I managed to finish clearing the F-52!     Yay!! Next step is to start trying to get the transfers on.


TTYL! 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, in all fairness I managed another 2 or 3 before I conked out but I'm down to 1.5 packs a week and holding. It's taking awhile but I'm trying to get used to it at each "step" kind of like how they ween people off of narcotics. When I get my patches in I'm going to try the 1 pack a week bit. I had some lozenge things but they are HORRIBLE so I lost a chunk of my support network but I've been chugging on anyway.


The 707 is glorious. I think the weirdest part about it will be having the space to work on it. That said, I'm kind of looking forward to having bigger parts because I've been working mainly in 1/144 for these types of projects and the fiddly parts can be a pain in my arse!  I'm going to start on it pretty soon I think but I feel obligated to get a couple other things off the bench first. That won't stop me from doing a little research first, however. To keep sheltered from ridicule, I'm going to go see what, if any, problems the kit has and if there are any things I can add or delete to improve accuracy and interest factor. Then..... after it's all said and done around early 2020, I'll have to find a place to PUT the blasted thing!! 

EDIT: OH YEAH!!!! FORGET MY PLAN. Sheesh.     I'm going to see if I can put some transfers on to the F-52. She's ready, finally.   

I have to sand a bunch on the glider and do PSR. I'll at least get started on it.

More construction on the civvie gun ship. 

The afore mentioned research work on the 707.

[TheChronicOne]

Haven't posted a funny in a long while but dare I say this afflicts most of us......

[NARSES2]

That is so true 

[TheChronicOne]

It is, man!!!!  It's a ton of fun brainstorming and daydreaming about new projects, digging out a kit, researching and coming up with a plan...  it's easy to get carried away.

[TheChronicOne]

Just like yesterday, I have plans to work all afternoon on my builds but other things keep pulling me away. I admin on a couple of larger pages on Facebook (one is a modelling page, even! hey!    Star Trek Modelers Group) and I've noticed a trend.... when the weather goes into extremes, it drives people indoors and onto the internet. It also puts them into pissy, ornery moods. Some pretty extreme cold weather has moved into the lower United States and boy can I tell it...   trolls and otherwise people pretending to be (or actually are) stupid.....  increase in reports, and just generally having to baby sit infants.     I might have finished the F-52 by not if not for all this. BUT:

I have finally glossed the gear doors and weapons and glued on the tail planes, it's a full aircraft now! 






I glued the tailplanes on in a different configuration than the kit told me to, yet another simple way to modify this thing and make it more different from the kit OOB.


Also... I've worked more on my F-84 Refurb. I'm now doing the finer adjustments to the canopy/fuselage so that they will work well together. Rear canopy is going well, but the windscreen stuff isn't. Still, It's progressing nicely.

Also, I worked more on the gunship. This round, all I managed to do was clip out some parts and get rid of empty surplus sprue so that I have much more maneageable and less cluttered "stuff" to work with. I also finished clipping out the wing pieces and spent some time filing and getting the edges all smoothed out and the nasty "nubs" from the sprue gates removed.

Sanded some then primed the glider. It'll need a few more rounds but it's much improved already!! 


So that's it I guess... I didn't get much at all done, but I did manage to do at least a little bit to a number of things so I'm pretty happy. Any advancement at all, on any project, is always a plus! Hopefully soon I'll have an un interrupted afternoon of modelling...   It won't be long before days like this will be extremely rare because I have to start getting ready for Spring. It comes on fast. Last year we had a day where it was 100 degrees F in FEBRUARY. When things like that happen, it kick-starts the growing season earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm arse deep in lawns within a month and a half. 


TTYL!

[TheChronicOne]

Hmmmmmm......      It's been difficult to gather my thoughts lately. I guess too much is going on or something.  I tried to post yesterday but just couldn't figure out what to say. Every time I turn around something demands my attention. I'm staying busy, at least (although I'm feeling a bit worn out! A lot of that is a lousy night of sleep the other night, though). But anyway... surprise work appeared yesterday and I'm not one to say no to $$$$$$$$.     I'm cheaper than the next business but I still charge $30 an hour to pull weeds and I'd be a dipshit not to take my azz to work and earn that.  But.... they want it done pretty fast so I started yesterday and will try to finish it off today.

I still managed to get some work done on stuff yesterday but I'm not sure what. A little sanding and priming on things. I don't think I did anything on the F-52 or the gunship.

That leads me to today's (sort-of) plan. I'm going to jump right in the middle of putting on the tiny stencils and placards decals on my F-52. If I can make good time, I could finish this sucker today but I'm going to have to tap into some yet not-found energy.    I'm going to try to work on some other stuff, too, though. Oh yeah!! I did more work on the F-84 Refurb yesterday... forgot about that...  that's one I could do. I need to finish painting the pilot then there's a section on the nose I need to putty so it will marry to the windscreen. 

I'll leave it at that for now.       I get all these weeds pulled and I imagine I'll come up with some more to do. 

[TheChronicOne]

I felt better once I got to work and got moving around.     Tired and sore, now, but I got ALL the weeds pulled! Won't have to worry about THAT malarkey any more.

I checked on my glider....  YAY!!!! PSR is done on that one! I can try to paint it now... I'll do that in a bit, I need to warm up the can of paint.

Going to check the 737...  I HOPE I finally worked myself out of the PSR nightmare.  I was reading up and it is suggested to create the nose gear fairing thing for the advanced planes with moldable putty......  so uhh....  I bought some Miliput. While I was doing that, I also bought some 6mm Tamiya tape, some silver/grey Tamiya putty, and some Tamiya extra thin cement!  I'm going to start working on the deflector plate for the nose gear pretty soon. Also, I'm going to try my hand at making some stretched sprue. Going to need it for the vortex dissipators. I think mama has some tea candles around here somewhere..... . .. .. .

[TheChronicOne]

I wound up getting quite a bit of things done! I repaired two broken, already built models and got them out of the way then I started on the F-84 refurb. I finished painting the pilot and glued him in and then glued the gas tanks back on. The nose gear doors are still off but I'll wait until the rest of the work is done because they'll just snap back off.






Glider is looking better. It gets a coat of red paint here in a minute....   hell, I'll do it now....   ::::::goes off to paint:::::::     ....    hey it looks good for now!!!  No crazing or weird changes in finish....      This is how it looked earlier:



That's about it, though. Considering the repair of the old models this was a pretty productive session. It's not right to let my babies be injured and not fix them!

[TheChronicOne]

One plan today. Finish the transfers on the F-52. I started yesterday and worked my way through quite a few. I decided to do the smallest things and stencils FIRST to try to avoid burnout and see if I can manage to get them all on. I got to the littlest ones and ....   these things are about 1/3 the width of a needle and a little less than 2mm long. SO TINY. They wouldn't stay put. I guess I didn't have quite enough dish soap in my mix and they kept wanting to float off... so damn tiny I could barely move them around.  I became genuinely upset and in a pissy mood and nearly smoked a ciggie so I had to put it up. It's a new day, now, and I'm going to try again.   

Worked a little on the gunship yesterday as well. I glued in the gear bay doors and glued the wheels to the gear. All the little filing and sanding in between, of course. I doubt I'll do much to this one today because after I get the F-52 done (IF I get it done) I'm going to work on the glider! The red paint is finally on and I'm going to try to come up with a way to put a fancy livery on it.

'Bout time to go pick up garbage and run errands, though!!!! Yay!! Sun's out, white people like me need vitamin D!