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

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah!! I can't believe people have the patience and...skill to work on such things. Amazing!  Well... have you seen the stuff like pencil lead carvings and the like?? People using stuff like microscopes and other..  uhh.. "micro-tools?"  Nutty stuff.  I have problems enough working on 1/72 scale things but stuff like that is... like.. I don't 1/10000000000 scale or some such. 

Thanks!!  F-84 is a champ in my book.. it turned out pretty decent, better than I thought it would, for sure!! It'll look great sitting on the shelf. 


On to the Space Shittle!     First up is to glue the nozzles back on I think they ought to just go right back on the way the came off, no??  Never seems that easy, though, does it.    Heck of a way to get back into a project though... fixing old, dumb mistakes. When I first started snapping them off I think I was thinking it would make it easy to uhh... paint the thing? Or something? I dunno.   

After that, I think I'm just going to wash the thing then mask up the areas needing masked. I tried taking the innards out;  this thing come with a payload,  but it just wouldn't snap free. I was afraid I was going to break something so I left it in there. Anyway... point being.. it'll have to stay inside the model which will make painting it all more difficult, but oh well!  Funnily enough, those 25 years ago, I did put ONE decal on this thing... the ESA (Europeans Space Agency) logo on the side of the "round thing" in there so I'll mask over that.

After I do the washing and masking I'm going to just go ahead and hit it with primer. I could start sanding on it first but I'm just going to go ahead and "help" myself out by highlighting all the flaws with the primer. Might serve to give me a feeling of getting more accomplished that way, too. Instead of looking at the same surface I've seen the last quarter century, I'll see primer instead. Make it feel like a new project instead of an old one! (Pyscho-modeling!)

Also... I think I'll grab the Ferengi ship I was talking about doing for the SF GB and have a look at the plastic and see if any Starfleet paint schemes jump out at me. I still need to find some transfers though! I could probably just paint the stuff, though.....   Numbers and letters are easy enough to come by, I suppose, but up and finding loose Starfleet transfer sheets is more problematic than it might seem. I had a look at Starshipmodler and they had nothing suitable.  I'll try eBay later but most likely I'm going to wind up just buying a sheet of letters and numbers and just masking and painting the rest. You know... the red striping and yellow deltas and all that crap. I think I've progressed far enough with my painting abilities that this almost sound like a BETTER idea than transfers anyway!!! Nothing lays flatter than paint...

[DogfighterZen]

YAYA! Love that F-84, very unusual and attractive scheme, excellent!

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks! It's pretty neat. I thought it would be an Air-Turd but it turned into something quite nice I think. It utulizes my three favorite colors so that has a lot to do with it I suppose. 

[zenrat]

Cracking F84 Brad C.


Is the colour scheme entirely your own invention or did you get inspired by something?

[TheChronicOne]

Cracking F84 Brad C.


Is the colour scheme entirely your own invention or did you get inspired by something?

Thanks, bud!!

Well, the LAYOUT... was all mine.. but all I did was use the official State Colors of Molossia.

I forget which nation the flag belongs to, but, the cats over in Molossia just flipped it upside down and called it good. Works for me as it is a lovely flag upside down or not. 



There are a whole slew of these Micro Nations... things like Sealand over in the U.K. , the "Conch Republic" here in the U.S., and a bunch of others....  just begging for someone to create their own armed forces (or non war monger stuff as well).

List o' Micro Nations:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations

[TheChronicOne]

Change of plans!!! Shuttle will have to wait. I was at the Hobby Lobby today looking around and catching some glorious Air Conditioning when I layed eyes on the very sanding cloth pad things I was needing to properly polish paint with!  So, back to the Nipples-Go project.

The stand is finally dry. No more smell and no longer tacky. So... I just need to grab me some water to use so I can wet sand and then work my way up the series of pads until I reach 12000. According to the tutorial thing I was working with..... by time I am finished with the last one this thing should be glassy smooth and very shiny.



Used my 40% off coupon to make it $6 instead of $10. I didn't budget for these cloth/pads. Was going to order them online next month but uhhh.... there they were in my face and the price was good with the coupon so I snagged 'em!  While I was there I also grabbed one of them helping hands things (working on the 1/700 stuff the other day pretty much had my mind made up.. wasn't sure I wanted or needed one but I think it will help out a lot in the future!)  I also picked up what is, supposedly, a quality SILVER pencil so I can start trying to simulate paint chipping and scratches with the goal in mind up increasing my weathering aptitude. I think I got the hang of an over all sludge wash but even things like oil stains and exhaust still elude me. Never really tried chipping, though, but I imagine if I take my time I could do pretty well with it.

[DogfighterZen]

Good stuff!

[TheChronicOne]

Certainly!   


The stand... uhhh... I went back to the tutorial how-to thing and realized I forget to get liquid polish!!!  WOOPS!!  I proceeded without it as the stand is practice and I'm mainly concerned with how the different brands of paint will react with each other.

Here's the thing... I know very well that I didn't get all parts of the process quite right. For one thing, I didn't put enough coats of black on there...  (trying not to waste paint on this though.)  But in short... I was starting to sand through to the primer in a couple spots. Eh well, it's a good opportunity to see how the silver paint copes with going over a less than stellar paint finish. But...yeah, anyway... here's the thing... I did two mist coats then decided to stop "wasting" paint on this thing so went in for a wet coat.  Wow!!! Not perfect, by any means, but I'm impressed!! It really does look pretty good and I could see, although hazy, reflections in the finish. And this was before it had set up any....  I'll look at it again here in a bit. I'm not going to do anything else to it so I can go ahead and just leave it alone.. but... yeah, after it dries... I'm curious to see how it turned out!

[Rick Lowe]

Hey, Brad

F-84 looks great, glad it turned out ok for you after all the hassle. 

Big E looks fine, too - I don't remember all those small decals when I built mine, but if they had been there, I'm sure I wouldn't have finished it anyway! 
There were a multitude of decals for the -A variant in the 3-set though,  so it evened out... 

Re the generic Trek decals, try Federation Models

http://www.federationmodels.com/

or Starfighter Decals

http://www.starfighter-decals.com/federation-commander-decal-sets.html

I have some from JT-Graphics which are very nice and comprehensive, though are for the larger scale 1/1000 kits.
However, they also do 1/2500, among a range of other scales:

http://jt-graphics.com/D_2500.html

There are probably enough bits'n'bobs out there for all your needs, again it comes down to how much you want to spend.
(Sorry - I do seem to be good at finding ways for you to spend your money, don't I?) 


Cheers

Rick

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!!

And yeah, other people better at spending my money for me than I am myself, always been that way! 


I'll check those out!  I still need to grab the plastic for the kit. I purchased the three piece adversary set... the old one.. because I built them all 20+ years ago and had good memories with 'em. Anyway....    I keep forgetting to do this. I'll make it a point today then have a look at them sites. 

[TheChronicOne]

Ahhhhh yiiiiiiiihhhhhh......  Back to work on the Mitsubishi! I sanded the seams on the tailplanes now it's time to glue on the main wings. Well, I need to sand the edges first, and do a little work on the butting surfaces, but that will only take about 5 minutes.

After that I'll have to look at the instructions again and tally up the parts that haven't been glued on yet and determine whether they come now or later... then it's window masking time.

[TheChronicOne]

PFFFFFFT.       I dry fitted the wings multiply times of the course of the build including about 15 minutes ago. Yet, in typical fashion, I go to put the starboard wing on and some how magically all of a sudden it won't fit into the slot. Not even close. What the hell changed in the last 15 minutes? All I did was glue the other wing on.  :::shrug::::  I dunno.   Oh well.. I had to really quickly file on the tab and finally got it to go in but not after a bunch of elbow grease buste the seam open on the rear edge of the wing. 

Oh well.. no biggie. There's a huge gape between the wing and the fuselage but hey, I can fix that.

This isn't the first time this has happened. It's like.... magic. Application of glue causes the molecular structure to shift or something and the entire model changes shape all of a sudden. It doesn't make sense! 

Anyway... this is a bad omen so I'm not even going to touch the thing for the rest of the day. The glue needs to set up anyway and with the huge gap I could really mess it up if I touch it before it dries. Don't need no crooked droopy wings.


I think I'll finally grab my Ferengi ship and see what inspiration hits. 


EDIT: Got da munchies, too, time to plan for lunch. 

[TheChronicOne]

OK, I decided to go ahead and try at least one build for the SF GB. It's going to be a what if Ferengi Maurader Starfleet production ship. Painted all up in the glorious Starfleet colors... gone will be all the amber and orange and we'll be back to the gorious whites, greys, reds, and blues of the Federation.

Also, here's the current state of the Nipples-Go. Can't see the huge gap on the starboard wing root but it's there! I'll have to putty that up but no problem.

[TheChronicOne]

Hell, hows about another post why not?!

A sneak preview of a real world build I'd like to tackle probably around fall/winter this year. The venereal.... errr uhhh.... VENERABLE F-14 Tomcat. Going with the A version.   I've been collecting parts together for it for some time now. Going to be my first attempt at using photo-etch. So far...  I have the inside frame work and mirrors for the canopy, a full set of Bilek PAINTED (thank God) PE for the cockpit, and a PE ladder and steps for crew access. I also sprung for a really nice set of VF-84 transfers for my favorite.... JOLLY ROGERS.... chillin' on the U.S.S. Nimitz in the year of my birth, 1981. 











I think this sums up my modelling activities for today with a note to self and reminder that I need to go to the picture post aviation section and update my poor neglected "Chronic's finish builds thread."  I always seem to forget about it for some reason.

[TheChronicOne]

Doing the same thing to two different projects. The Federation Maurader and Mitsu both are getting putty/more layers of glue as filler and some good old fashioned sanding.

About time to put things up and play Warthunder, though. I just recently unlocked the Pe-8 and I'm bombing the piss out of people.   

Oh yeah...  I guess I should stop being lazy and provide a picture.



Wing roots draped up in filler.....     and.... the stand! Finish not quite as glassy smooth as I'd like but I didn't polish it any, either. Pretty much have to let this thing sit for months or more after spraying it with the silver color from what I've read. It says right on the can not to touch it without cotton gloves and the like so I'm just going to leave it be. I think it looks pretty good. It's not some ridiculous chrome or mirror finish but certainly looks like metal and does have a reflection coming off of it...   :::shrug:::    I dunno though... this is my first real attempt at trying to get a somewhat decent NMF instead of just throw silvery grey colored paint on the thing and calling it a day.

As a reminder, this was my last NMF attempt and while it looks alright, I don't think it's that good as NMF...







See what I mean? Not too bad but could be better!

Then there was this thing...  the very first model I built after my decades long hiatus... it being a highly weathered NMF (why I was even attempting weathering at this stage is beyond me... but... I wanted it grimey as hell for the Mirror Universe... )







LOL      I think it's really neat, though!!  This would have worked in the SF GB if I hadn't already made the thing. 

But anyway. I think I'm heading in the right direction. Some of this stuff takes years to master so I need to just be patient.