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

[Rick Lowe]

Falcon/Squadron is your friend...

http://www.falconmodels.co.nz/squadron72.html

Numbers 9175 & 9176

Tore's stuff comes up really well.

Cheers & HTH

[TheChronicOne]

Falcon/Squadron is your friend...

http://www.falconmodels.co.nz/squadron72.html

Numbers 9175 & 9176

Tore's stuff comes up really well.

Cheers & HTH

It does! Thanks. Perfect, actually, as I still would like to eliminate the ball turrets.  Reasonably priced, too. 


In other news, a short run down of things I did yesterday.  F/U-2 HAWK had the paint problems sanded away then as I was trying to get the camo lay out plotted for the fuselage I snapped the port wing off. DAMNIT.  (LOL)  So I glued that back... or tried.... without removing the masking on the underside. I think it worked well! I can sand it and paint it today maybe or.... well, the cold and wind is back so we'll see.

F-84 is going good. Got the crazing sanded away then like an IDIOT I didn't wash my hands then grabbed my beautifully painted white tail plains and put two glorious finger prints on the top and bottom of one. So I grabbed my paint thinner to take that off and got carried away so I'll need to re-mask one of them then do a tiny bit of sanding then hit it again with white. Nothing major and will take less than 10 minutes to fix but now I have to factor in another couple days at least drying time!  WASH YOUR HANDS, BRAD!

Romulan went perfectly because I didn't lay a hand on it. 

Any how! I have some work today so I'll be able to try to find a can of matte or satin clear so I can get the F/U-2 back to its proper sheen after transfers application.  Really coming to the wire on this one.. not like I've been procrastinating because I started it all months ago but... still... with budget problems, my lack of know-how, and numerous set backs I don't know if I can get this done in time so that extension period will be nice if the mods see fit to implement it.

That's it for now I guess..     

[TheChronicOne]

Awww man!!  One of my customers I had today just canceled!  Now, I have just the other job and it's only $20 so the matte/satin clear will have to wait....  I think the tiny little midget cans of Testors stuff at the hobby store is around $6 all said and done and I can't afford that.  (not with $20 being all my money...)

Oh well, that ain't going to stop me from continuing work on it. I'll keep plugging away. 

On second thought... I have an old, partial can of clear something or other in the kitchen. Not sure what type of finish it leaves or if it is even any good any more but I'll have a look, might get lucky!  Barring this, I might use floor polish as it will make things better for the transfers but won't make my flat camo look super shiny. It's an option at least. 

[TheChronicOne]

Looked and found TWO cans of clear. Both with about 1/8 left in them but neither indicate they are matte or satin so I assume they are gloss. I think I'll spray some on something and see what happens anyway.

In other news, my lil Romulan ship has been drying for a few days with the silver paint. Now I'd like to put the goldish color on the fronts of the nacelles:



I think I'll play with my 6mm Tamiya tape and see if I can somehow mask it... if not I'll break out the fine brush and free hand it, hoping for the best. I'm going to try mixing 1 part silver to 1 part gold paint and see if I can achieve the proper color. Maybe 2 parts gold...

Not much else to report. I sanded and re-painted the fouled tail planes to the F-84G.

U/2 remains untouched since I glued the wing back but I can sand that repair down and get back to trying to lay out the masks for the fuselage.

EDIT: I will wash my hands THOROUGHLY before I handle the glorious Romulan micro-ship...    Speaking of, I think I'll dig out my Star Trek Micro Machines when I do pics as a comparison as they are quite close in size, actually.   

[zenrat]

... I have an old, partial can of clear something or other in the kitchen. Not sure what type of finish it leaves or if it is even any good any more but I'll have a look, might get lucky...

Try it out first on something that doesn't matter.
Don't ask me how I know this...

[TheChronicOne]

 

Yeah, I don't even think I'll bother, now... I got a $25 Visa money card thingy for Christmas which leads me to my next great discovery. Hobby Lobby let's one use a %40 off coupon per day. Good for kits or compressors and airbrushes... every thing model kit related this can be used on. SO, I'll find me a nice kit to buy and pick up a little thing of the proper clear. 

I can't help but think about taking advantage of this 40% off a day deal and milk it til they get tired of me.  Buy one item per day and never pay full price for anything. 

[zenrat]

The fact they can make that offer shows what their profit margins are.

[TheChronicOne]

You nailed it! That's why it chaps my donkey when people talk about paying workers a decent wage as if that would break a company when in reality the CEO could downgrade to a smaller yacht and sell a couple mansions instead.  The profits are obscene but they act like paying someone an extra $50 a month would destroy the whole operation.   

[zenrat]

Don't get me started on CEO salaries and bonuses.  You'll get me banned for bad language, political remarks and incitement to lynch.

[TheChronicOne]

Don't get me started on CEO salaries and bonuses.  You'll get me banned for bad language, political remarks and incitement to lynch.

Roger that brotha. We'll leave this one to lie with the dogs.   


MEANWHILE! I Actually DID do some stuff yesterday and somehow forget completely to remark on it.. so...better late than never!

I fixed the crazing on the F-84 fuselage and got the silver color painted. I sanded the external fuel tanks and have decided to paint them blue.

I painted the goldish color on the Romulan ship nacelles.

I sanded down seams on the Klingon ship.

I glued the secondary hull halves and nacelles pylons together on the Enpterprise.

I sanded and threw another coat of primer on the U/2 Plane (over the top of a layer of the dark green I put down but I had to fix so much stuff I just decided to go back to black and start in again).

Tomorrow a trip to the ol' Hobby Lobby here in town to see what they have on the shelves. I'd like to snag a 1/72 something or other. Being a brick and mortar store their prices are right in line with every other online place and every other store but higher than what I like to get things for on Ebay so with the %40 off we'll be back down in "ebay range" I hope. They have a C-54 on their website for $50 which would be $30 with the discount but still too rich for my blood so if they have one I hope it's not no damn $50. Other wise I'll just see what they have. They have less planes than they used to (my favorite) but they have tons of automobiles.  I'll also try to pick up the clear flat or satin if they have it and I want to stop by the 50 cents - dollar paints that I love and pick up some good old white, black, and see if I can find light gull greyish colors.

Thanks for stopping by! 

[kerick]

I was at HL this afternoon but didn't find anything to light my fire.

[TheChronicOne]

Sometimes I swear the universe hates me. I go to use the formerly flawless printer to print out my coupon and the damn thing won't even turn on. 

I wonder if they would accept it if I drew it by hand, making sure to keep the number code....    

Ohhhh welllll.....     I think I would like to work on my Spyplane today.  I can shoot the dark green then I think If I let it sit a couple hours I can begin the masking for the next color.   

Let's see how many parts I snap off today! 

[TheChronicOne]

Back to butchering kits!  Glued all the wings onto the F-84. Wing roots should have been filled but piss on it. I didn't want to get too involved with this and the gaps aren't severe or anything. It'll look fine on the shelf. I'll let the glue dry up a spell then gloss it.

Romulan midget cricket ship is proceeding into the final stages now!  I'm about to whip up my magic brew of warm water, vinegar, and a couple drops o' dish soap then it's time to apply these tiny transfers. I'm in danger of putting out a decent model with this one...  not sure about the rest.

Painted the green on the Spyplane and saw a couple spots needing to be sanded pop up so I'll do that pretty soon. Progress on this thing is sluggish...  I don't know who's going to kick whose donkey but I'm not giving up. I have a fair amount of anxiety about doing my paper masks correctly but I think I'm on the right track and am also pretty excited to see it coming together.. I just can't seem to get past stupid stuff like repairing mistakes, breaks, and stuff like buying things. 

Speaking of.... I found some clear stuff at Wally world!!  Going with the advice I saw I elected to get the satin instead of the flat. SWEET LIL BABY JESUS LET THIS BE THE LAST THING I BUY FOR THIS. I've got more money in this damn thing than some entire nations spend on their entire Air Force.   

[TheChronicOne]

%^*$$!^@$%^%*&  Heheh...  Working on the Romulan Ship:  Whatever moron QAd this stuff needs to be slapped in the mouth. A couple of these transfers that go on the fin are about 33% larger than they should be but it's not apparent until you try to put them on... so here I am taking scissors to transfers already wet and off the backing.     

Got it taken care of but that type of thing shouldn't happen especially with stuff that is supposedly NEW TOOL.  How are we to cram a decal that is close to 12mm wide onto a space about 8mm wide? Who measured this stuff?!   

[TheChronicOne]

I got the Romulan guy decaled!!   

Some pretty maddening happenings along the way and I think I need to invest in the micro sol system but at the end of it all I'm pretty stoked. I need to gloss it to try to hide the edges but this turned out pretty neat. The finish is pretty nice and although I hand panted the goldish color on the nacelles, they don't look too bad. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll gloss it because I need to gloss up my F-84 as well so I can start the transfers for it. I need to paint the wheel wells and insides of the gear doors and also paint the canopy for it as well. I tried yesterday (canopy) but the paint wasn't working at all. My fine brush is a good brush and I like it but too large for this.. I bought some new brushes today that I can't wait to try! I just need to get the paint to cooperate, too. Most likely user error. 

It seems like these days I do my hobby stuff in spurts...  a ton of stuff one day, nothing the next, repeat, but at least stuff is getting done. Lately I've been so busy trying to do fall cleaning that has now dragged into winter.. I keep having to MAKE myself stop and do fun stuff.    It's only going to get worse as I start this new contract on 2 January so I need to kick it into high gear if I want to get my OKGB project done.. . . .