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

[TheChronicOne]

That could be a good role for my lil airplane! It has the nice big cockpit there and I imagine people would enjoy an opportunity to ride aboard a somewhat novel aircraft. 

[zenrat]

Much of that attitude, to my mind, comes from the car modelling scene, where a perfect finish is the desired result for that "showroom shine".

It's just carried over into other areas of the hobby; sometimes rightfully, mostly not so much.

The "perfect shine" desired by many car modellers is IMO way OTT and inaccurate.  Next time you walk through a car park have a look at the paint finish on real everyday cars.  They do not have a mile deep shine unless they are very expensive or have a custom paintjob.
Judges at model shows however think "shinier = better" and reward based on this leading to the "dipped in clear" look some modellers seem to favour.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm with you there Fred, and on the very few occasions I've judged at a model car show I've voted positively AGAINST that 'dipped in Klear' look.

Love the description, you hit it exactly. 

[NARSES2]

It wasn't Aloha Airlines but at one time there was a tourist airline taking people sightseeing in Beech 18s. Nice for an afternoon out to see the cliffs around Maui and Volcanoes on the Big Island. Kauai is beautiful too.
Looks like they don't do it anymore, almost all helicopters now. Bummer!

I went for a day's sightseeing trip with that airline in one of their Beech 18's. Great, if long day out. We went to the 6 main islands and overflew Nihau which being owned by the Robinson's was closed to outsiders.

[zenrat]

I'm with you there Fred, and on the very few occasions I've judged at a model car show I've voted positively AGAINST that 'dipped in Klear' look.

Love the description, you hit it exactly. 

Not my creation.  I read it somewhere.  But it does indeed fit.

[TheChronicOne]

Damn... uhhhhh....   I kinda keep forgetting about this thing lately.      Haven't said much at all about the Nakajima which is actually now finished.




Took some pics of my first two Fighterliners on my recently assembled LEGO runway crap I made. Gotta love it... I did that last night, it was pretty fun playing with LEGO.







The Phantom is still my favorite. I'm eager to do more of these. They're really fun. Someone on FB mentioned something about a "Dutch Twin Boom" in KLM and that indeed sounds like a kickass project so I'll figure out what plane he's talking about then see if there are kits of it in 1/144.

But uhhh.....   what's next? Still not vibing with the Gunships GB so I'm ONCE AGAIN going to try to convince myself to get some stalled things/repairs done. One thing about this is that I have identified what is keeping me from proceeding with the Tristar. I need to scratch build a "skid" thing that goes on the bottom to protect people sitting in the belly (in the lounge) in the even of a nose gear failure whilst on the ground. I really got to thinking about it and realized that every time I wanted to work on it, thinking about this skid is what told me to not bother. So... I'm going to try to tackle that problem head on today and get that stupid thing found/built and glued on then it's just a matter of finishing the decals and gluing on all the gear and gear doors.

[PR19_Kit]

The only Tri-Stars that had the 'skid thing' were those with the lower deck galley, and it protected the chef, or whoever worked down there.

IIRC PSA were one of VERY few airlines that took that option, they may be the ONLY one in fact.

[TheChronicOne]

You got it! Dead on... well aside from the bit about it being a galley; it wasn't a galley expressly, but a lounge for passengers.



PSA was the only carrier to ever actually order the option, with the reasoning being more along the lines of being able to load passengers through the lounge access door so they could operate in places without sky bridges (or whatever they're called, it's early lol ). They ordered three and flew them for awhile but being the size that it was, it was basically a failed experiment and they sold them all off after a short time. I mean.... it's PSA, wide bodies don't really fit their business model (early on) and even as they were expanding and adding routes having the things in the fleet made little sense. PSA was all about quick turn arounds, commuter flights (mostly in central and southern California), and avoiding the slow pace of other carriers...  you just can't really do that with Tristars and stay profitable with them.

I actually started building one... like... uhhhhhhhhh..... 3 years ago? 2 years?  Thing is, these old Airfix kits are a pain in the arse and a lot of the painting with the curves and stuff is a bit beyond my capabilities. Add to that, I bought the super detail decals set.... and well... add it all together and this thing has been a stalled build ongoing for years now.      AHEM... but yeah... the thing is, I've actually gotten a lot of it done and I'm painfully close to the finish line so it would be great to finally get this thing knocked out and up on the shelf.

Progress so far:

[PR19_Kit]

Oooh, I didn't realise they were actually BUILT with the lower deck lounge, that must have been pretty swish. I thought that was the original idea, but it was then switched to being a galley.

The Revell Tri-Star kit that comes with the full interior has that section detailed, but I've yet to look at look at it closely. I will do now as I've got one in The Loft, albeit with the box in an ATROCIOUS condition......

[TheChronicOne]

Have a look! Sounds fun! I've seen pictures of that kit... very cool. I have the 747 they did like that. Didn't they do a third one or was it just the 74 and the Tristar?

Here's a killer article about PSA's Tristar and the lounge stuff. https://g-alyp.blogspot.com/2012/04/psas-l-1011-experiment.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1k0TXmwg424hGPqodoWbMNxEH5AtkRijI7RaOifB0y2XM-JYog-iYqRdM

Correction to my previous, PSA only had TWO of them, with 3 being undelivered and not fully completed at cancellation.


As for an update... I actually managed to get some work done last night. I found a bunch of scrap BS to make the little bumper that goes on the bottom of the Tristar. I actually took a hacksaw to a hand sanitizer bottle, then cut up some sliced of a DVD cover (thin stuff, not the thick stuff.... I suddenly wish I hadn't thrown so many of my DVD cases away, as while it's not styrene, having plastic sheet is handy!). I put some glue on it to soften up the edges and latter I'll put a top coat of Miliput or something on it and then sculpt it into it's final shape.



You can see the hump bump thing there just aft of the nose gear. Here's mine so far:



The clear piece there that came from the hand sanitizer bottle contours to the belly of the Tristar, which why I'm using it instead of just the black stuff.

The goal for now is to get stalled and old projects finished up so I've also started repairs on my Liquid Lysander... liquid because it was partially melted.



So I sawed the tail off... 



Rick sent some repair parts... I'm going to actually incorporate this into the backstory of the plane and instead of putting a new tail on and painting the camo back, I'm going to paint it white or maybe white with blue stripes or something. Fits in with the early Israeli air force!

Lastly, I'm getting underway with the 3rd of these things. I've done the red and blue one... now time for the yellow stuff which is a little tractor and a pull cart trailer thingy.

[TheChronicOne]

Not a lot done the past week! But, when I left off, I had gotten a fair amount of progress under my belt on three different projects so that's nice! Back to it now... I'm going to multi-task and work bits and pieces on these projects while I do fall cleaning here at the house. Lots of deep cleaning and organizing but I'm trying to compromise with myself and inject a little hobby time as well.


So, I got to thinking the other day and I actually remembered that I do have a couple little fighters in 1/144... the YF-23 kits. Then I remembered I have the double kit of Stilletos... I was going to make a twin Stilleto at one point but I don't really want to any more.     My skills might be up to the task now but I don't really feel motivated to actually have one. When I went to grab this stuff... I found that I had yet another one, another Japanese plane, the KI-46




I was ruminating on the KLM thing recently but thought I didn't have any decals for it but I just remembered that I actually DO..... my F-RSIN ATR-72 came with them and while they're 1/144, they're pretty small, so I might be able to cram them on one of these little planes. Might not fit on the Ki-46, though, but the option is there at least. Speaking of, here's a closer look at it:



Some pretty kickass artwork there and the tail art is really neat.



Instructions on the inside of the box lid! Hooray for less waste, I suppose. Not a bad idea although separate instructions would be nice but definitely not necessary. Not a lot of real-estate on this for liveries. I might wind up just painting it nice and throwing an N-number on it and have it just be a general aviation civvie plane. 

[TheChronicOne]

Doing my best to "stick to the plan" and knock down some of this backlog. With this in mind, I have completed the Bobkit! I started this a couple years ago or.. maybe a little more? I never really considered it a stalled project, however, and more as three separate builds but still, knowing that I started this stuff and hadn't finished was one of those nagging things saying, "What about me, though?" every time I considered starting something new.



I really think this is a neat kit. It's non military stuff in 1/72 and it's also automobiles in 1/72 which is somewhat uncommon and then add to that they're still aviation related. Add more to the fact that even though they are civvie things, they still work just fine placed alongside military aircraft. They're rather toy-like but I still think they're cool. I built the fuel truck and fire truck and saved all the yellow stuff for last. Indeed, I think they are the coolest and "saving the best for last" is always a good thing.



I did this one a bit different, however. The plastic was less optimal looking on the red and blue ones but this yellow one had nice, consistent, even coloring to it so I didn't bother priming and painting it as I had with the other two. All I did was put gloss coat on after the transfers so they'll stay put and I can clean it in the future without rubbing anything off. I did paint some of it and used markers and pencil to do some detail work.





So that's that. I need to remember to use these more often when I take pictures of completed 1/72 aircraft! 

I've also done some more work on the stricken Lysander. I cleaned it up really well because it was dusty.... just because I guess... and re-attached one of the wings that had come apart from body. Rick sent me some Matchbox kit parts aplenty so I've gotten the fuselage from that and glued the rear portion together ahead of sawing the tail off. Going to be careful here so I can use the rest of it to make a new airplane.   



I'm starting to get ideas about making this thing "more wacky" but I think I'll not get carried away...  there for awhile I was thinking of extending the fuselage.... then I started thinking of extending the wings..... and adding bombs......... then I caught myself and came back to "reality." I just want her complete again! Still, I DO plan to make the new tail piece interesting and work it into the backstory as not only a repair literally but as a repair done by Israeli aircraft maintainers. 

For the Tristar... I'm about ready to start the next phase of making the skid thing that goes on the bottom. I'm going to use Miliput for that.

[Rick Lowe]

The Plan(tm) continues... 

Go for it!

[TheChronicOne]

HELL, yeah, brotha..    It's a little difficult trying to tie up loose ends sometimes when getting on to something new seems more appealing but there's true satisfaction once you actually go through with it. How many of us have whole sections of our hobby rooms or stashes dedicated to housing stalled projects? For me, that stuff can sometimes creep into my mind and nag at me and drag me down a bit. I don't know if it's like that for everyone, but it always kind of bothers me when I ignore these things by starting something new. It's not so bad with a group build thing or something but if I'm just starting a new project that doesn't have a deadline attached it feels like it's not "necessary" and I should instead finish things I've already started. 

Today I've been working on the Tristar and the Lysander both and they're each closer to completion, now. On that note, the Lysander should be back in action within days and the Tristar, even, isn't too far off.... I got to looking at the transfers and got them sorted and organized and it turns out that I could likely get that stuff done within a couple hours then it's just a matter of getting the little skid thing built and on and gluing on the gear/doors. That's not too bad....  the work load on it seems worse than it is. One reason is the transfers are difficult to keep straight.... between the kit decals, the ultra detail set from Nazca, and the others there are 4 separate sets comprising hundreds of transfers. That's why I today I decided I would sit down and get them organized better and I was able to get rid of stuff I don't need and then put stuff I did need into a different pile. Now I'm ready to actual decal instead of SORTING decals.

I have been wondering about my next project. I'm trying to do soemthing a little different. One thing I haven't done yet is a 1/144 scale prop airliner. I've done the itty bitty Nakajima but that's not really... and airliner, per se, but a Delta Air Lines C-130 damn sure is. It's not a little fighter, it's not a what if, and although I don't think they carried passengers all too often, it's definitely an airliner and definitely a prop plane so I might start on it soon.


Via pinterest w/ no credit given.



Pretty damn cool. I have everything I need already... I have decals and a kit, the old Revel or Monogram whatever one with Coastie markings. I saw recently that Eastern Express I think it was?.....  has put out a C-130 (or L-100 in this case... whichever/whatever... ) and I'd like to pick one up, although I haven't looked into whether it's a new tool or an old mould.

[PR19_Kit]

There's a slight connection with the Delta C-130s and the Tri-Star. 

The various US airlines, Eastern for one, used to send their RB-211 engines back to Rolls Royce for fixing sometimes, and they flew them into East Midlands airport near Derby aboard C-130s. Delta was one of the airlines that flew them, and the other common one was Saturn.