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

[TheChronicOne]

Got some primer, paint, and sand paper. The sand paper is a range that goes up to 2500. That should be good enough right?? I remember seeing one fellow talking about using 4000 but then another that stopped at 2000 and both said they had good results.

They had some weird $7 sanding... pad type thing at the store that was 3000 grite... not like a normal pad but it was almost like a thick piece of cloth. I felt on it and it was smoother than my t-shirt. And this is supposed to sand? I suppose so.. I mean... I believe it but it's smoother than... like... I dunno.. it was really smooth and soft... like I said, smother and softer than my shirt but then again my shirt isn't designed for sanding things and 3M stuff is and is top notch stuff so.. I dunno. I think 2500 should be just fine though. $7 is too much in my mind,, the range of paper I got was less than $4.

I had another (not so) strange thought after getting home with this paint. The gloss black says it has primer with it. Well, that gives me pause... now all of a sudden I'd rather test it on something before I commit to spraying it on this bird. Just so happens I have a North Korean night bomber Yak 18 thingy and the 1952 version is supposed to be ALL BLACK. Over all... nothing to mask, nothing to brush... the whole entire thing is just black. Now, was it glossy black? Probably not (I'll look into it later). Either way, if it's not, I can tone it down with a matte clear afterward or, gasp, just leave it glossy because i'm I've glossed the hell out of stuff that was supposed to be matte anyway (think back to the F/U-2 HAWK in SEA camo... ).  This is supposed to be historically accurate but who wants to bet that no one probably ACTUALLY knows what type of finish the thing had anyway?! 

Long story short, this could and should be a really fast build so I might cease production on the Nipples Go and dive into this Yak 18 so I can test the paint. I could always do the test on my test bed plane but...  naaaaah..... if I'm going to go to all the effort of making the finish GOOD then it may as well be on something permanent!  No major loss if it doesn't come out right and it won't be a "wasted effort" so to speak.

Oh!! And I found my phone!    Thank God!!! It worked its way between the seats and was sitting in that open space behind them. 

This is my boxing of the kit....    the ones with the crappy digital art (Or is it painted?  If so, I'm not a fan of the "style" )...   Not a travesty I guess but the painted stuff is better IMO.


I think this is the dark green 1950 version.

Here's the painted box art:



I know which one I prefer!    I see ribs on the fuselage...  could that mean this was at least partially cloth covered?  I don't imagine it would be glossy if so! ohh well1   

[TheChronicOne]

BAAAAH. Nevermind.     This lil feller has all KINDS of flash. Looks like a super easy build though! I haven't popped open the bag to dry fit so I have no idea, could be problems there, too. I'm just going to keep going with the Mitsubishi. Heck, I said it, itself, is a bit of a test anyway to see how good I can get a NMF with rattle cans so.......the gloss black is all part of that process. If I keep going I'll be doing tests for my tests.    I'm sure the black paint will be fine...   it's Kyrlon, by the way. I opted to stay away from the Rustoleum 2X because I seem to already spray too much in a pass without the "double coverage." Seems like the same problem might creep up with this stuff anyway because of the "with primer" aspect. I was wanting a simple gloss black with no frills. Next time I reac the can more thoroughly! I contemplated just buying the Tamiya gloss black. Heard lots of good things but the cheapo in me has trouble shelling out SO MUCH for what looks like little tiny cans. ::shrug:: 

Anyway! Here's proof that I have been working on it and not just blowing smoke up all y'alls skirts. 


Now..... just what in tarnation is ol' boy in the back there up to?! Is the pilot needing a back rub? 

[TheChronicOne]

Ohhhh crap... lol    I KNEW IT! Murphy's law.. here I am blowing my overhead on model kits when my sub contractor people up in OKC called me..... talking about getting a list of irrigation work together for me.       THIS IS WHAT I GET. I knew better than to spend that money especially when I'm having trouble collecting from my customers!!!!  ACH!  But then.... check this out... they said they would supply me with a bunch of parts and stuff... WHEW!!!  Thank God... that means I won't have to run out and buy 'em out of pocket. My heart skipped a beat there for a minute.     Lesson learned, though...... buying insurance killed me and I was sad that I would have to wait another entire month before I could buy model stuff.    I couldn't help myself. I've done stuff like this before, mind you, it's a pesky bad habit.    .I'm safe for now but I need to watch this stuff in the future.

Anyway!!!  glued the fuselage halves together on this little jewel....  I'm going to find some sub assemblies to work on now...I can do the landing gear and maybe a couple other things then it's time to paint the cockpit glass. I picked up a tube of silver and also gold acrylic water based last time I was at the LHS so I'm wanting to try the silver on the frame work. It won't match the rattle can paint I bought but any means but being in the middle of all the glass, it won't matter. On that note, I won't be painting the landing gear struts and stuff because they are molded in silver... being down below in shadows and up in there the "difference" won't matter.. they'll look just fine. Not like I'd want a mirror-type finish on that mess anyway.

Maaaan, this canopy has like 67 trillion little frame pieces. I have the shakes right now (I know this because of the LOUSY bead work I just did on the fuselage halves) so I may forego that little project. Hopefully eating lunch will help with that problem, though, so I may try later if the shakes subside. A combination of waiting so long to eat and all the coffee I drank this morning doesn't make good for painting!   Been up since 4 AM and it's 1:30 PM now.. haven't had a single bite to eat until 10 minutes ago. Seems I have more than one bad habit! 

As an aside... why is it kit manufacturers so often insist that we glue on tiny little fiddly tedious fragile parts early on in the build? So much of this stuff makes multitudes more sense to glue on at the very end. I've already collected a small baggie full of such parts. The pitot tube, the circular radio antenna, the landing light and glass housing, the tail wheel, and probably a few others still to come. Why risk repeatedly breaking this stuff off, not to mention it being totally in the way of sanding and painting? I suppose back in the day when a lot of this stuff was first made not a lot of mind was paid to things like sanding and perfecting the body work but even in the days when these were considered more toys for kids than anything it would STILL make more sense to glue that stuff on last. ::::shrug::::

[Captain Canada]

Looking good ! I sure does suck when people take advantage of you. It's a sad/ funny human trait, that if we don't pay for goods/ services at the time, we somehow feel like we're being taken advantage of later, when asked to pay up !

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!  This kit has been really fun to build so far. Even at my slow, distracted pace, I'm making a lot of headway. I'm totally glad I have another one in the stash to make into the green military "Nell."

Yeah I know what you mean... all of a sudden the person collecting is the bad guy for having the gall to mention that they haven't been paid in forever as agreed to. I'm reminded of last year with the lawn mower incident. I sell this moron a push mower for $40. Against my better judgment and past experience I agreed to the "I'll pay you later" bunch of garbage. Only $40 (but at the time I was VERY broke, not like the "broke" I am now... I only had 2-3 lawns and was pulling in maybe $200 a month.. so $40 to me was a LOT) but I gave this dude an entire month to pay. FAST FORWARD 8 FRIGGIN months and this dude has only paid me $10! I finally got fed up and went and re possesed my mower. I even told them I was (going to do it) ... only for the douchebag to turn around and call the cops on me!!!     Things are so backward these days....   everything else is the same way. Customer service for instance....  I could get a hamburger with a pile of napkins where the meat should be or something and if I go and complain all of a sudden I'M the rude one or I'm some type of evil person.    (side note, turned out the mower I re possessed was a different one.. same brand and stuff, but not the same. Turns out he PAWNED mine. I had to return his mower but the police told him how he was breaking a bunch of something or other laws by pawning stuff that wasn't his yet; I could press charges in other words. Within 2 days he paid me off.)

Anyway... small progress report. I drilled a hole in the canopy with my big dewalt drill.. second time I've used that thing on a kit.    I think the bit I used was ever so slightly larger than I needed but I can make up the difference. Then I dipped it in floor polish a couple times to clear it up a bit. It worked! Sometimes it doesn't for some reason (might be the generic brand of polish.)  Also, the engine cowlings are to be painted black... lo and behold, they were molded black like the tires. Won't have to put any filler on them and the glue will be underneath hidden away...... so... I dipped them suckers in the polish, too!!  The bits of scratches have diminished and the finish looks very much acceptable. No need to paint... one less thing to do, one step closer to what I REALLY want to work on... which is the paint job.

Ate lunch and sure enough the shakes went away within 20 minutes. Feeling confident now to at least start the canopy frame painting. I may have to do it in two sessions. Fatigue might set in before I can finish it and have me making less than ideal brush strokes. I've yet to tackle one with this much frame work... a bit of new territory for me.

[TheChronicOne]

Preliminary run on the glass...  got it all done. It definitely needs touch up and refinement, however!




This acrylic silver paint has potential. It ... err.....  "arrives" in the bottle very thick. It's akin to Elmer's PVA. It "strings" whilst being drawn from the bottle. That said.... it actually lays down well. Needs to be stirred often of course. I need practice, but this paint seems to be pretty neat! Seems like with proper dilution and care it can make pretty decent silvery "looking" parts. Personally, I don't plan to use it for more than small areas and things that don't contrast like the glass frames here and things like gear, maybe hilights or something.

Also painting the props. Instructions call for silver on the front, black on the rear. Makes sense to cut down on glare. That said, some of my reference material has them silver on both sides. I trust the instructions once again. 

I must re-iterate how fun building this kit has been so far! "Obsolete kits" my backside...

[NARSES2]

Neat work on the canopy framing 

They had some weird $7 sanding... pad type thing at the store that was 3000 grite... not like a normal pad but it was almost like a thick piece of cloth. I felt on it and it was smoother than my t-shirt. And this is supposed to sand? I suppose so.. I mean...

When the git is this fine and indeed finer they are really polishing cloths. Useful for canopies if you've had to work on them. I've got some very fine stuff that I use after the toothpaste in order to restore the clarity of any clear parts that I've had to mess around with.

[TheChronicOne]

Neat work on the canopy framing 

They had some weird $7 sanding... pad type thing at the store that was 3000 grite... not like a normal pad but it was almost like a thick piece of cloth. I felt on it and it was smoother than my t-shirt. And this is supposed to sand? I suppose so.. I mean...

When the git is this fine and indeed finer they are really polishing cloths. Useful for canopies if you've had to work on them. I've got some very fine stuff that I use after the toothpaste in order to restore the clarity of any clear parts that I've had to mess around with.

Ahhh ok! That sounds like something I could use, actually... I might spring for this thing next time. I get by the store!

And thanks! It turned out pretty good. I thought it would be more hassle but it wasn't bad. It was easy to hold and I could brace one hand on the other. Sometimes the things can be a weird shape and get all squirrely and simply "not sit right" which increases the tedium. And, while it looks really good from arms distance (in I probably should just leave it alone) I'm going to see if I can find a toothpick with a finer point to get in a bit closer to the framing in some areas.

In other news, I'll have to show y'all the "future dipped" engine cowlings. They turned out pretty good looking I think!  Who needs paint?!?!?  Thankfully there weren't any swirls or anything in these from new runs of plastic being injected.

Getting more crazy ideas.... this thing is coming together so easily I'm contemplating breaking the other one out and building on it to the point where I'm caught up with this one.... then build them in tandem. I'll probably wind up not doing it, but we'll see.

[TheChronicOne]

Final report on my ebay Safari. I was REEEEEALLY wanting the Coustea PBY but it way up out of my range. Final going price was $100.99. I got the Renzan, a Do 24, the Hustler, and a Haweye AWACS. Not nearly what I WANTED but at least I didn't spend too much of my money so I still have a decent chunk left to run my business on. 


Back to the Nipples GO!!! Still pitch black out and I'm not going to head off to work for another hour or so so I'm going to get another cup of coffee going then grab the fuselage and start filing and sanding the seams down the middle.

I think I'll be at the painting stage at some point today. I need to work out a plan of action. For instance... should I do a bunch of sanding before primer? After? Both?  Should I sand in between coats? How about the black? Should or could I go ahead and spray a coat of matter black then sand it then come in with the gloss? Should I just do coats of gloss? Should I sand in between coats of it IT? Etc. etc... I want to really go for it on this painting stuff. Going to be an exercise in patience I imagine.

I need some advice on all this or to locate an article or two about it.

[zenrat]

Basically if it's not smooth then sand it before putting more paint on it.
I really really think you should test out the black spray paint on something that doesn't matter.  Both to see what the finish is like and to see how well it sprays.  Some of these cheap DIY store rattle cans can have nozzles that blast out huge amounts of paint which is not necessarily what you want.

[NARSES2]

I really really think you should test out the black spray paint on something that doesn't matter.  Both to see what the finish is like and to see how well it sprays.  Some of these cheap DIY store rattle cans can have nozzles that blast out huge amounts of paint which is not necessarily what you want.

And they are not necessarily friendly to the type of plastic used in the kits 

[scooter]

I really really think you should test out the black spray paint on something that doesn't matter.  Both to see what the finish is like and to see how well it sprays.  Some of these cheap DIY store rattle cans can have nozzles that blast out huge amounts of paint which is not necessarily what you want.

And they are not necessarily friendly to the type of plastic used in the kits 

If its Krylon, you should be fine.  I've mainly used their Ultra Flat series on a slew of various plastics, especially ABS, without any issues.  And if I've got a rattle can that isn't Krylon, I'll prime first with Krylon ultra-flat sand

[TheChronicOne]

Primer and gloss black both are Krylon. Only wild card is the silver paint...   I'll be sure to keep an eye on the layers as I go and if need be, I'll let it dry up the requisite time then sand to smooth. I'll keep the off brand matte black out of the equation completely.

I'm confident in the paint but I will go ahead and do a bit of a test so I can see how the stuff sprays and what the "baseline" might be. I have a decent sized styrene stand thing that came with one kit or another. I can wash it, prime it, then hit it with a quick bit of sanding then spray black and see how it goes...  I'll acclimate with how the stuff sprays and practice following the directions on it this way.

I think the biggest problem here is ME. If anything goes wrong it's because I'm not doing things the right way. I'll be the first to admit that I've always just flown by the seat of my pants when it comes to painting with rattle cans. Fact is, if I actually followed the directions and put a little effort in I might be able to teach myself to do it the "right way." I know it can be done, I just need to unlock the process myself and get familiar with it.

Da help is always appreciated!!  Thanks y'all! 


EDIT:  Speaking of ME.... one reason why I get less than stellar finishes is trying to spray in friggin' wind storm that is normal Oklahoma weather. I either have to paint outside in my shop (FAR, FAR, FAR too dusty to risk it), outside on one porch or other (TOOOOOO windy right now) or I open a window in my spare (storage) room and spray in there. Problem is it doesn't vent fast enough for my liking so a cloud of paint kind of hangs in the air.... I don't particularly relish the idea of a cloud of rapidly drying paint circulating the project... potential for orange peel all over the place.

So...   all this mess is dependant on the weather. Humidity is also damn high right now and it's about 100 degrees so I'll have to wait until all the parameters line up before I attempt anything. What I'll do is just get the test stand ready as far as I can, then the next time the weather is good, I'll progress with the test. I'll have to do the same on the actual project, too, of course.  So anyway..  it might be awhile before this gets any further. I may as well plan on working on my shelf of doom stuff in the interim! 

[Rick Lowe]

But then the instructions are all different for every brand of paint, anyway...

If you have a large enough food storage container (plastic ice cream tub, cake tin, tupperware, etc) you can place that upside down over the drying model and that will help keep dust/dried paint/assorted cr@p off it until the paint dries.
Even an old shoe box would be ok.

HTH

[TheChronicOne]

Working on three models at once! WOOOOOO!!!   

Got all the sanding and filing done on the fuselage of the Mitsubishi. SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH man let me tell you. Ain't no ridge or none of that... no little tiny hairline stuff that catches on a fingernail;.... smooth as ice. I think I'll give the whole thing a once over with whatever appropriate grit sandpapder to make sure I didn't miss anything then I need to address the tailplanes and fins. That won't take hardly any time at all then I'll glue them on. Next, it's time to build the wings and let them sit. Tomorrow, or next time I work on it all, all I'll have to do is my sanding and filing routine on said wings after the glue dries then I can glue them on to the fuselage as well. After that, putty in the seam if I need it then........    That's about it for major construction.

The minor stuff: I need to paint red stripes on the props, paint the engines, then glue the props to the engines. I also need to mask the windows. I'll have to re visit the instructions but I think that's about where I get to stop working because nothing else can be done until the very end --after the paint and decalling process.

True to my word, for a change, I have been working on my two stalled projects as I said I would. Since I'm no longer in a hurry with the other project, I'm rotating and doing these others in the in between times.  Feast your eyes. . . . .


Check the engines and engine cowling pieces. Molded in black, all I did was dip them in future about 5 times and they look really nice! Nice and shiny and smooth! 

Hey, it's going to be a good feeling finally getting these done!!!  It's never as fun having to go back and redo things because of my own shoddy work and mishaps but it's not really "fair" to my beloved kits to abandon them like that! After these two, I might even have enough motivation to tackle another stalled project or "rehab."