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

zenrat · February 08, 2020, 10:14:47 PM

Marvellous.

TheChronicOne · February 08, 2020, 10:30:01 PM

I'll tell him you said so!

Cheers..... seems like sometimes spending too much time on a build is detrimental. I rushed through this one and it turns out to be a pretty acceptable result.

zenrat · February 09, 2020, 01:12:51 AM

It's very easy to overthink things.
And as you have discovered one way to reset your brain is to do something simple.
The trick is not to get sidetracked so that simple build turns into a mega-detailed monster.

NARSES2 · February 09, 2020, 06:14:07 AM

That really has come out well mate

Like your canine mate as well

Quote from: zenrat on February 09, 2020, 01:12:51 AM
It's very easy to overthink things.

I'm really struggling with that at the moment $:-\$

TheChronicOne · February 09, 2020, 08:01:40 AM

Thanks!!!! That stuff is the worst, and for some of us (maybe a lot of us) once you start down that path, it's very difficult to come back from. I hate it... with my borderline OCD stuff it can turn into huge frustration.

You know.... one of my favorite little airplanes was the blitz build I did about 3 years ago. Less than 10 hours total in it, I started on one day, and finished it the next day.

I even weathered it and put the aerial antenna on. It's some of my best weathering, too. I hate weathering but somehow on this one it turned out nice. :::::throws hands in the air:::::

Study long, study wrong I guess. That little 10 hour airplane is one of my favorite "smalls" and is better than some stuff I spent weeks on.

TheChronicOne · February 09, 2020, 09:41:45 AM

With the school bus done, it's time to organize me thoughts.

SO.... DC-9 is out leaving me two airliners still going; the demon possessed 737-200 and the too much for my skills Tristar. Tristar has been a trial of fire. I thought I was ready for more complicated schemes but ...I was wrong! I'm learning and making my way through but now I'm "stuck" again because I can't figure out what color to paint the wings.

I have a super detail decal set from Nazca that has the corogaurd and all kinds of other stuff but I'm not sure what parts to paint and where... I can't find any pictures of a PSA Tristar wing from above or below that shows enough to tell me what to do.

I'm assuming they're universal and that all wings, no matter the carrier, will be the same. Variations on the fuselage, sure, but the wings should all be the same. Of course, I can't verify this so I remain confused. I will dig into my Nazca stuff and see if I can find any information on this. My PSA transfers sheet from Two-Six tells me that the wings are metal with grey interior (naturally) but offer no pictures or anything that would tell me just what and how far to paint. At this point I'm thinking I need to just paint the entire wings NMF and let the Nazca decals will handle the rest.

That's a lot of stuff to consider... no wonder I'm confused.

The F-16XL..... I started to inspect it today and knocked some masking loose and noticed that the canopy had fogged! Bogus, dude! I used the wrong glue like an idiot. Anyway... I have a new canopy en route and I'll use the proper glue next time.

I need to do a fair amount of work cleaning up the area where it attached but beyond that I think I was trying to get the weaponry painted.

737-300 needs the nose patched up. I think I'll get this out of the way today. I've been dreading it because I messed around and used up the spare piece of cheatline that I was supposed to save for the nose so I'm going to have to use some of the old stuff from the sheet that went bad and the colors are off on the green... not sure what to do but I have an idea... if I need to darken it maybe I can paint a little black underneath it. It's worth a shot!

I'm not going to entertain thoughts of starting a new project. I need to stop letting these old ones build up. I'm going to press through whether I have the knowledge and supplies I need or not. Flying by the seat of my pants I guess! Just going to have to improvise.

BUT...... I did say not long ago that once I got 2 of 3 airliners completed I'd start on the 1/72 Boeing 707 so this can be my motivation.

Non model stuff..... Finally remembered long enough to buy some of that fancy UV plastic weld stuff thanks to recent talk around here about it. I bought Bondic then learned of another glue Company (Veebles or... Veble...uhhh... something, I already forgot) .... BRB... AHEM... Visbella. Visbella was cheaper and comes with twice the amount of liquid! Very nice. Wish I had considered this before I bought the more expensive Bondic but this situation will serve as a great opportunity for direct comparison. Science!

Went to Hobby Lobby the other day to get some of that spray acrylic clear and pick up a couple of the cheap Testors knives I like. They no longer have the knives so I was a bit put off and then told myself I need to save my money. (then turn around and bought the UV stuff...I know, I know... ) I told myself I don't need it right away so I'll wait until next month.

LASTLY... thoughts of future project. I want to make an F-104 for the French Air Force and paint it like Vincent Van Gogh and call it "Starry Fight(er)" . Fancy pants stuff. I think the painting challenge would be neat to try.

Long winded notes are boring so I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping most of this crap.

NARSES2 · February 10, 2020, 06:01:08 AM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on February 09, 2020, 09:41:45 AM

Non model stuff..... Finally remembered long enough to buy some of that fancy UV plastic weld stuff thanks to recent talk around here about it. I bought Bondic then learned of another glue Company (Veebles or... Veble...uhhh... something, I already forgot) .... BRB... AHEM... Visbella. Visbella was cheaper and comes with twice the amount of liquid! Very nice. Wish I had considered this before I bought the more expensive Bondic but this situation will serve as a great opportunity for direct comparison. Science!

From what I've read and seen there are various grades of this UV curing glue, in the same way that there are various grades and strengths of "super glue". I think, don't hold me to it though, that the more expensive stuff is industrial grade whilst the cheaper stuff is for household repairs and fixing ? So the same as "super glues", particularly when they first hit the market.

I got Visbella mainly because it was what was readily available on EBay

TheChronicOne · February 10, 2020, 01:32:30 PM

Availability is better here but it just so happens you went the most economical route. Score!!!

I can't wait to try them. My luck, though, is that the next time I'm in the situation where I need it I'll forget I have it.

Going to be something I leave out on the desk to avoid that.

Stuff today.... Well.... nothing. I had to do doctor appointments and work and errands..... got home at a late lunch and it's now 3:30 in the afternoon. I just finished the DC-9 and it was pretty intensive the last few days so I'm just going to take a break from models for today and try to get Mass Effect 3 finished.

We're building a big weapon to blast space aliens with or some crap and this arseclown came and stole the damn thing so I had to go whoop his azz and get the thing back just to discover they moved an entire space station to Earth and blaah blah blah so I gotta go to earth and combine the weapon with the space station because the plot twist was....the space station itself is the "catalyst" for the weapon. So..... it's like turning your house into a death ray or something. But anyway!

Something arrived in the mail today. I think it's the canopy for the F-16XL. It came with a free- F-16 kit!

Not sure what to do with the kit though... it doesn't have a canopy now. I don't suppose anyone has a spare 1/72 F-16 single seat canopy sitting around do they? Monogram kit but I suppose I could make something from another kit work.

63cpe · February 10, 2020, 01:47:24 PM

I do have a sparen 1/72 F-16 canopy from an italeri kit. It's not tinted as the original monogram canopy, though.....

David aka 63cpe

TheChronicOne · February 10, 2020, 02:02:29 PM

Sweet! I can paypal you for it if it doesn't exceed the cost of my "plan B" (which is to buy a Starfix T-38 and put its nose on the F-16.... which sounds sort of intriguing anyway) . I gotta watch my budget this time of year but if I can unite two errant parts then a small bit of balance is achieved in the universe & that appeals to me.

I'm in Oklahoma, USA.

63cpe · February 10, 2020, 02:15:36 PM

OK, I'm in europe

Will check postage tomorrow and PM you afterwards.

David aka 63cpe

TheChronicOne · February 10, 2020, 02:24:51 PM

Thank you! If it helps, my zip code is 73507. I have another lead on one from Kit, too. Some note comparing will be in order I guess to figure out which one best matches up to my Monogram(Revell) kit.

TheChronicOne · February 11, 2020, 09:32:28 AM

Trying to jump right into the thing that gives me the most anxiety right now and that's trying to get the Tristar masked. I'm with curves and also a lack of information but I do believe I'm on the right track it's just I don't have much experience with this type of masking.... I'm having to lay down pieces of tape... equal in length so I can use my ruler to help me along.. then get them down and kind of push it around with tweezers to get it to curve right. There's no defined.... uhhh... guidelines for this... no panel lines or anything it's just a smooth, subtle transition so what I'm doing is using shadow and light to make the lines show up then I check everything from different angles and take measurments to see if things are as even as I can get them. I hope...... I'm doing this right. We'll no after I remove all this masking.

One small hiccup and why I stopped.... I forgot to clear this area.

So, I'll take my two pieces of tape back off then get 'er cleared and get back to masking later. I still have plenty of other "book" work to do such as figuring out gear bays and gear doors so they eventually are the right colors. I think, even in the NMF areas, that the gear doors are all the grey color so that's simple enough I guess.

Probably going to work on the F-16XL later, too. Just gotta clean up the area around the cockpit a little then I can work on getting the replacement canopy put on. After that, it'll be back on track and I can get back to working on the weapons and pylons. At last, I discovered that the supplies rails for the HARMs were TOO SHORT right out the factory... unless the fins fold up there's no way to actually attach them so I'll have to make some extensions with card and go from there.

TheChronicOne · February 11, 2020, 03:59:46 PM

Got the grey stuff on the Tristar cleared. Now I can officially mask the area off then all that remains is to spray everything else with NMF then I can UNMASK it all and it's just a matter of getting the 14 billion transfers on and whatever remaining detail painting.

Worked on the F-16XL. I got out of order in putting the canopy on and forgot to switch glues so it fogged up. I've since removed the old one and cleaned up the rim. I also had to fix the pylons. I correct the ones for the AGM-88's and fixed the rest because the leading edges were straight up and down so I put an angle on them for aerodynamics' sake.

737.... still patching and fixing the nose. It's better than it was but still looks like a pile of arse so I am currently investigating ways to fix it and I believe I have a solution that involves painting the green portion over with paint starting where it's pinched off below the windows. In this manner, a slight variation in the shade of color won't be nearly as noticeable.

TheChronicOne · February 11, 2020, 09:31:20 PM

Just discovered this most glorious of airliners. "Airliner."

If the day ever arrives that I finally score one of those 1/72 727's it's this or the Mexican state police for what I'll make it into.

Fancy pants.... "VULCANO" and the whole paint stuff around the windscreens... pretty cool looking. And, it's almost like a modern USAF scheme which I've never seen on a 727.