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

Old Wombat · October 29, 2019, 06:15:28 PM

So, who's putting money on the new decal set coming folded in exactly the same place, gents?

TheChronicOne · October 29, 2019, 06:24:33 PM

Lay your bets! With the delay the international shipping entails it'll be here about the end of November so plenty of time for bookies to book.

zenrat · October 30, 2019, 04:01:05 AM

I'm thinking positive thoughts. The new set will be fine.

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2019, 10:07:00 AM

Same here!! Bummer about the wait but this thing isn't moving at warp speed anyway.

I'll be lucky to get the engines lined out by then.

Today? Uhhh.....finish painting the tug I suppose.

Good news!! I found time to work on the Tristar last night. Sanded down the problems that happened when I shot gloss on the nose and rear section. Can't do anything else because my money is late and I can't go buy paint. I can predict ahead of time when my check will be late because it ALWAYS happens when there's a holiday. Last time it was 4th of July and naturally the thing didn't arrive until the 5th and now it looks like I'm going to be broke for Halloween, too.

Wait.... I suppose this is good AND bad news.

I'm just happy to get back to work on it. It's going to turn out really nice I think.

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2019, 07:17:45 PM

Ahhhh........ this is just what I needed! No frustrating building or PSR or anything... all I had to do was paint it. Well, that was a tiny bit problematic because it's resin and I forgot to wash it but I kept re-touching it until I reached safety with gloss.

But... by the end of this I was having a lot of fun and I decided to paint it up like my VW and and my Gunship. All this stuff fits into the universe I'm making and that in and of itself is pretty exciting! I now have 5-6 things in this universe and I am looking forward to making more. Won't be long and I'll be making the Civilian Air-Refueller.

Anyway... what I'm talking about is my tug, I made a thread for it:

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=47038.new#new

But check it out! It's so small, but so cool.

More pictures and my rambling about how pleased I am in the link.

What's next? I don't know... I think I'll pick up work on the 737 engines. I need to reduce the amount of miliput on the pylons by quite a bit. I overestimated the beefiness of them... they look might beefy at the front forward of the leading edge of the wing but the inner pylon parts are a lot thinner than I thought. I hate these stupid engines. I've put a lot of work into them and I'm getting closer but MAN I wish I could just buy a pair.

TheChronicOne · November 01, 2019, 12:09:25 PM

Ever so often I get a little pissed off on someone elses' behalf. This person just showed up to the What If Modellers page and is brand new, and said, "Hello, here I am, I'm new here, here are some of my what-if builds." (paraphrase) Right off the bat someone shows up to criticize his wares. I checked, too, he didn't offer any other salutations or kind word or even liked any of his pictures so I might have let it pass as constructive criticism if not for that. The ONLY thing this person did was show up to be rude. I do NOT like this. Were it me this person said this to, I wouldn't have been nearly as kind I don't think. "Your completely fake, fictional build isn't real enough!"

Did you not read the name of the page?

Still no check. Still no paint. Tristar sits. 737...... back to work on the engines!! The wind has shifted to the South so I can use my exhaust fan in the window so I'll be grinding and chiseling away Miliput to unearth the pylon shape I need beneath....

Also, Since I've either worked on or stalled in my other builds I'm going to get started on the Skyraider. I'm curious to see what kind of options I can come up with for the transfers. I was thinking stuff from a Harrier should work....

I might even have some somewhere buried. I might try quickly to find them, if not I may just buy a set if I can find them cheap enough. I am open to suggestions, however, on other ideas for this... different plane or... whatever... whatever would work for a 1991 USMC attack aircraft.

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

EDIT: I rememnber, now! Pluto!!! I'm trying to work out how to build some housings for the main gear, I'm post some pictures later maybe and see what yous guys think.

Nick · November 01, 2019, 01:44:46 PM

I'm not as polite or verbose as you are...

TheChronicOne · November 01, 2019, 04:05:56 PM

Seems my blood pressure medicine is firing on all cylinders.

I would have had a different selection of words were it my build being criticized. I've done as much once or twice, too. I don't tolerate that type of thing very well at all.

737. I've had to completely re-do my beefy pylons on the engines. I simply wasn't paying attention and got way carried away. I didn't REALLY look at reference pictures and should have.

Turns out all I really need to do is put a little putty up front and the pylons from the leading wing edge back to the end of the engines will be fine as they are. This is good news disguised as bad news as this new process is going to be MUCH quicker than what I had initially planned.

About to look at these gear nacelle bay things for the Pluto and start coming up with some sort of plan to integrate them into the wings.

Old Wombat · November 02, 2019, 04:38:26 AM

May I point out that Stuart Beatson is a South Australian & is a member of SAPMA, the guys who put on the SA Plastic Model Expo recently.

More of his builds (RW, Whif & Sci-Fi) can be seen here: http://www.saplasticmodellers.com.au/gallery.shtml

One proud Wombat!

TheChronicOne · November 02, 2019, 02:11:42 PM

Well, now!!! THERE we go! Thanks for that!! Good to know information right there and what a small world, yeah? I like his B-36.

TheChronicOne · November 02, 2019, 02:51:08 PM

This could well be the first forward progress of any merit on the 737 within the last half year. FINALLY on track with the engines. They'll never be as good as the ones I've seen others make but they'll work. As I've mentioned numerous time before and will continue to repeat... all this cutting and extending and scratch building things etc. is still new to me so I'll count my blessings and be happy I've managed this much with these engines and won't push my luck any further by trying to further detail them. (quit while you're ahead.... )

Pretty much done with this one.

I need to add a little more putty to this one.

Won't be long and I'll prime these up to see what needs sanded smooth then I can paint them and I SHOULD be done with ALL the paint on this aside from the vortex poles and maybe one other rinky dink thing.

This is the first time I've seen any light at the end of the tunnel on this one.

TheChronicOne · November 03, 2019, 03:53:15 PM

In the midst of this huge pile of crap are my two JT-8D engines for the 737-268C I'm forcing to be built. (Rest are stuff for the Skyraider)

So you know what that means; I'm one tiny step closer to the end and have progressed again instead of reverting to a prior phase of the build.

I've primed them already in fact and the good news is the overall general shape ("silhouette" perhaps) is good. So strange to see this mess advancing at a regular pace all of a sudden.

I'll have to sand a bit and refine some of the rougher areas but that's pretty simple I hope.

PLUTO: I think I have figured out how I want to do the landing gear but it poses a potential problem. I was thinking of having them in a fashion that they fold into the fuselage. BUT... I wonder if this would make the "wheel base" or footprint or whatever too narrow? This is where I ask you all for some advice again because I need it. I'll try to get pictures of the proposal soon.

NARSES2 · November 04, 2019, 06:16:00 AM

Ah, the good old "peg forest"

I've some slightly padded double sided tape that I attach to pegs and then I can secure small parts to them for painting etc. Pegs have scores of uses and if you get some of the very much smaller ones then's "Bob's your uncle"

TheChronicOne · November 05, 2019, 09:22:23 AM

i have some of those little ones that I keep losing and finding.

They so cute!

Today I have plans for the Skyraider, of course, which for now seems like I'm hauling arse through. I'm almost done painting and clearing all the fiddly bits (and there are a lot!) and like I wanted to do, I've completely finished off the canopy and landing gear. I'll be on main construction today.

737....................... I have a bit of work to do on my modified engines but we're nearly ready to paint them bad boys. Nothing fancy... just going to paint them silver and let the transfers do the detail work for me. I'm OVER these engines. I want to get them out of my face I'm tired of lookin' at em.

Ha!!! Kinda but not really!! I'm pretty happy with them!!! I was at the point where I thought I was going to have to trash them and buy the innaurate BRA.Z set.

After I get them painted and decaled the last thing is to glue on the vortex poles and that SHOULD be easy. I already made stretched sprue for them, it's just a matter of cutting them to size and gluing them on. Might throw some decals on it today, too. I can see if the cheatlines on the folded sheet are long enough after I cut out the bad parts. If they are, I put them on and spray gloss so I cat get to the next phase of painting the fuselage.

TheChronicOne · November 06, 2019, 08:23:02 AM

Didn't make it to the 737 but I finished the rest of the fiddly bits on the Skyraider. I kept finding more and more! All I have left now is to finish painting the engine stuff. Main construction can start today.

Also... I'd like to get to work on the 737 engines since I ran out of time yesterday. I think they just need a quick sand then I can paint them.

Not sure how much or how fast this stuff will happen. I'm starting to get a little pissed off because my check is STILL late. I sent the new invoice in Monday with the late fee added in and I heard back the same day and was told they would get it to me this week. Well, I was hoping they mailed it off Monday and it would have been here today at the latest but apparently they didn't so who knows! Supposed to rain all day tomorrow so I suppose that's when I'll show up so I have to do hours worth of errands in the rain.

All this crap is starting to affect my mood. Same thing happened last year. It's always before a holiday. So two years running my check was late causing me to miss Halloween and two years in a row also missing 4th of July for the same reason. Not counting the 5-6 other times it has been late over the last almost 3 years.