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

[TheChronicOne]

That's the worst part.... when I help people, I do it because I want to.... so often when you ask someone else for some help, all of a sudden you "owe them" and they'll do things like throw it back in your face later on when some little thing goes wrong. Piss on that..... ain't nobody got no time for that. Then you have the ones that get downright mad and offended for some reason....  people are greedy and defensive and it's not a pretty sight. I try to distance myself from those people or in the least be sure to never ask ANY favors what so ever from them.

Work continues on the skid for the Tristar. I have it in it's final shape. It's not quite perfect but still works great as a facsimile and should look really good on the model. I'm filling in little holes on the surface from the miliput going bad. I'm going to have to look into better ways of storing it or something... I've kept it firmly wrapped up in the plastic and in its box the whole time, never having it out for longer than it takes to pinch off some to use , but air still got in there and over the 3-4 years much of the surface has dried and hardened. Try to get that stuff out of it to get to the cleaner stuff in the interior of the cyclinders of material is a tedious process and not guaranteed to get everything. Later on, if any of those hard pieces are in what you're making and near the surface... they can and will pop loose and create divets and pock marks.

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, old epoxy can be annoying like that. I don't have an answer, but if you find one can you let the rest of us know, please?! 
Maybe if you mashed them up with the end of a knife handle or something, then mixed them in?

[TheChronicOne]

The key would be to not have the stuff go solid in the first place.     I had assumed that the material would keep over time so long as it wasn't combined but the individual parts can solidify just as rock hard as when they are combined... leaving you with a turtle shell around the "good" soft material inside. (this conjurs up some funny imagery)     AHEM... anyway... putty-turtles aside...  If I were to go to the trouble to isolate the stuff in order to pulverize it, I'd rather just throw it out.... not make it smaller just to put it back.    I don't want this stuff in my putty no matter what size it is. It would be like trying to pave a sidewalk with fresh concrete that had old chunks of already hardened concrete inside it.


Work does continue, however! I'm now adding filler to the pock marks and I should be able to sand it all smooth again soon. I have also finally cracked the seal on the 1/144 C-130 Hercules..........  It looks like fun. There aren't 14 billion parts. There are plenty enough parts to have fun with and make you feel like you're truly building but not an abundance of extra parts separate from others for the sake of parts count. One odd feature are the clear windscreen parts... they are split in half, like the fuselage halves. I'll have more ruminations and pictures of all this crap later on. I'm looking forward to the build. It has some complicated masking/painting because of 'curves over round fuselages' but I've learned better how to deal with that stuff and am not worried about so... in short, this looks to be a pleasurable project.

[frank2056]

I had some old epoxy where the two components were hardening. I read that sticking the two components (before mixing) in a microwave would soften them up again, but there's no way I was going to put the epoxy sticks in the same microwave where I cooked food.

Instead, I used a hair dryer on the two components until they were hot (but not too hot to touch) and it restored their softness. It didn't get rid of the hardened crusty bits, but it was much easier to pick them out.

I tried this on A+B epoxy and Apoxie Sculpt and Magic Sculp and it worked on these. I didn't try it on Milliput or on the single stick epoxies.

[TheChronicOne]

Fascinating.. I wouldn't put it in the micro either, good point... no telling what sort of vapors come loose and leach into the surfaces. And even if it was perfectly safe... it could make things stink and possible make food taste bad. BLECH.      Next time I get some, I'm going to try storing the cylinders of material in water... if left undisturbed it shouldn't really disolve the whole thing and I'd lose no more or less than I am now to hardening. There's oxygen in water, of course, but nothing like the air and especially when it gets dry around here. It hasn't rained in a couple months and the humidity is so low..... but anyway... I'm going to give that a shot and see what happens.

[TheChronicOne]

Working myself into a stupor lately so not much time on model stuff. I have been following aviation in South America and with the whole drug war thing going on, they've taken to just torching aircraft outright rather than seizing them or holding them. Dozens of aircraft, everything from 152's on up to things like G5's, in working order or not, summarily dismissed via flame. It's been interesting watching things progress. Aircraft connected to other activities such as illegal mining are being torched as well. Brazil alone has been reported to have burned 75 confiscated aircraft. 




In other news, however, a bonus Chilean fire ranger Huey Cobra.



I like how it says "Copters" on the side. It's like a child's toy in that regard, but remember this is Chile, not some English speaking nation, so it's probably nothing out of the normal for them.. but still a humorous observation anyway. 

I'd LIKE to get some more work done on the skid thing this evening and get the parts for the Hercules out and going but I have a ton of work to do so I may be pretty tired by so we'll see. I can always wish, though! Think happy thoughts.......

[TheChronicOne]

Off to a good start on the Delta-Herk! I think I'll set up a new thread for it in "aircraft." It's real world, but mine won't be the first nor last posted there. In a way, it's a near-whif anyway......     When you think of C-130(L-100) I would surmise the large bulk of people think of some military thing and not an airliner.



This is the kit I'm using. I really love the Coastie Hercules and the whole box art of the photo of a built up one with the sky and everything.... all the nice, bright colors, is really appealing to me. Definitely be saving this box top, for sure!

Anyhow, I have the wings together and sanded and then got the fuselage halves prepared to be glued. This kit has quite a bit of flash but that's the only complaint so far.



I'm contemplating leaving those seams on the sides of the engines....  I'm going to re-assess after a coat of primer and after looking at some reference photos. This thing is so small, that sometimes stuff like that isn't readily noticeable so if I can save some time and effort... I just might do that!

Not much else going on... I had been on a bit of a hiatus from doing any real physical work... like outside type things... but have been at it over the last 4-5 days and I am OUT OF SHAPE. GOD, I feel like a fat pile of crap.... it's been many years since I took that sort of break and at my age... it's a bad idea. On that note, I turned 40 on the 18th... Definitely out of "kid" (which I sort of view anyone 25 and younger as... and even some people clear up to 30 perhaps...) territory and now I'm even out of "young man" territory so I'm also attempting to adjust some of my habits that only work for younger people. 

[Pellson]

Turning 40 was a really good time in my life. Suddenly, I found myself being "senior" at work, and colleagues who up to then had been bitching about almost everything suddenly accepted almost anything I brought forward without any fuss. Delightful. 

[TheChronicOne]

  That's awesome.    I've noticed similar in my own existence and I agree... it's nice.... and less stressful. I've heard from many people that rather appreciate being past a certain age and if given the chance to revert 20 years... wouldn't.

[Rick Lowe]

You young'uns don't know how good it is these days... why, I remember squatting round the fire of an evening, waiting for the Stegosaurus to cook, and chipping away at a rock (with another rock - no fancy-schmancy stuff back then) and if it looked kind-of like the object I was going for, it was on with a smear of mud, then detailing with charcoal and smooshed-up bugs... ah, the good old days... 

Seriously, it's amazing how a few years older - or being over a certain age - can add a bit of gravitas to your utterances.
We know we're talking the same old garbage, of course, but the youngsters seem to take it more seriously for some reason. Maybe they're humouring us...

I remember having a big issue turning 30... then when I got to 50, it was "Meh - whatever."


You darn kids - get offa my lawn!


Looking forward to your take on the Herk. 

[TheChronicOne]

     Sounds like you were working on this bad boy!

[Old Wombat]

Who do you think taught Fred to fly?

[NARSES2]

Thoroughly enjoyed my 40th, one of the best parties I've ever had  One of the advantages of turning 40 I found was that you could actually start to be yourself rather than the person you thought, or indeed others thought you should be. Even better at 50 and now I work on the basis of "what you see is what you get " 

Turning 40 was a really good time in my life. Suddenly, I found myself being "senior" at work, and colleagues who up to then had been bitching about almost everything suddenly accepted almost anything I brought forward without any fuss. Delightful. 

I had something similar. It became common when a question was being asked in the department to hear the answer "go and ask Chris. He'll know, been around for ages"  Also had staff who were born after I started working for BS 

[PR19_Kit]

I had something similar. It became common when a question was being asked in the department to hear the answer "go and ask Chris. He'll know, been around for ages"  Also had staff who were born after I started working for BS 

I once heard one of our Sales Secretaries, a sweet young thing at the time, say to her colleague 'Go and ask Kit, he's been Service Manager here since before I was born!' 

She nearly died as I walked round the corner. 

[Rheged]

After 25 years of teaching, I escaped and ran  customer service for a major book wholesaler. By 50 years old, I was one of the oldest surviving inhabitants in the company, fielder of all awkward problems  and repository of all knowledge about how everything worked................and 50,  you've been there, seen that, got the T shirt (and/or the mental scars)  so nothing bothers you anymore.  I even got an invite to the 19th birthday  party of one of my staff, on the basis that I was "once three times her age" and her parents would be glad to have me there as a stabilising influence.   Actually, it was a very decorous gathering!