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

[TheChronicOne]

I think all the early morning and late evenings are catching up with me. I didn't even have that heavy of a day but I've got the "yawns" and can't seem to get motivated.    Either way, I've managed to work on model kits. All three, again, so that's nice!

Mitsu: Filed and sanded wing seams. Still have some areas needing filling so I ran a coat of glue across the seams and now they're sitting. I also sanded the wing root areas on the tail planes and did the same. One more round of filing and sanding and that stuff should be done.

Blew 20 minutes looking for my roll of 2mm tape.

F 84: Removed the masking tape from where I painted. Will have to do some touch up but I'm getting close to gloss coating it (again). I'll think I'll order the Falcon canopy sets so not much else I can do. I suppose I can go ahead and build the thing then do the canopy dead last. I don't see why not? I can decal it and everything then let 'er sit until I can afford to buy the canopies.

Enterprise: Finished sanding.. it's far from perfect but I'll never get done if I don't just settle on a point to resume going forward again instead of fixing prior mistakes. Should be hunky-dory, though! If I can get it painted by later I can take it and the F-84 out and gloss them at the same time.

Billion MPH hour winds have returned but I'm determined to wait it out and see if it slows enough to spray on the stand.  Here's the thing, according to my weather thingy the wind is out of the North so I could potentially go out on the front porch which faces the South and be in a bit of a "dead zone."  Might work out. I'll have to go and see. I put my can of paint outside in the heat ~1hr ago so it's nearing operating temperature.

SURPRISE BONUS 4TH PROJECT!!  Remember the Space Shuttle I dug out of mothballs a while back?? I cleaned it up real good, ran some glue down the wing seams, then threw it in a paper bag. I think I'd like to have a look at it again and if it's ready, I can mask the windows and prime it. The sucker is built, it just needs refining and properly painted and decalled. Of course.... fixing 25 year old mistakes isn't all it's cracked up to be but back when I first worked on it... well... I'm sort of surprised I put it together without the wings upside down or something..   


NOT some of my finer work but I'm getting this stuff rehabbed the best that I can.

[TheChronicOne]

Really starting to DISLIKE rattle can painting. I used to swear by it but that was when I thought orange peel was somewhat tolerable so long as it was an orange peel that layed somewhat flat and was consistent, blah blah blah.

Anyway, long story short... follow the directions to the letter and still have orange peel!!!  Not as bad as in the past, mind you, but ... it's there none the less..   I'll let it dry up all the way, though, then look at it. Maybe I'm being too impatient. Not entirely done with the steps, either... I should sand it again then go back in for the final coats but at this stage I find it hard to believe I can get the finish I desire without having to find those polishing pads! 

Eventually I'm going to try airbrushing. I hope that works. I've all but given up on rattle cans!      Oh well, I just need to stick with it and see the whole process through and judge the final result instead of what I see early on. For all I know I'm doing this stuff perfectly right and it will turn out fine. I just hate seeing that damned orange peel!   

I'll snag some pictures later. I don't even want to breathe on the thing right now... 

[zenrat]

I think all the early morning and late evenings are catching up with me. I didn't even have that heavy of a day but I've got the "yawns" and can't seem to get motivated...

I find having a nap can work wonders for motivation.
Darken the room and follow Winston Churchill's advice and undress and get into bed.  I set my alarm for 1 hour as any more than that and I feel like crap when I wake up and don't sleep at bedtime.

[PR19_Kit]

I find having a nap can work wonders for motivation.
Darken the room and follow Winston Churchill's advice and undress and get into bed.  I set my alarm for 1 hour as any more than that and I feel like crap when I wake up and don't sleep at bedtime.

Absolutely, what Mrs_PR19 calls 'Pensioner Snoozes' work wonders for me too. 

[zenrat]

Nanna (or Poppa) Naps.

When napping I could never actually get to sleep until I read Churchill's advice and tried it.  Now, if I don't set an alarm I won't wake up for 2 or 3 hours and the day is gone.

[NARSES2]

Yup, I happily accept the fact that I now sometimes drop off for 30/45 minutes mid afternoon whilst listening to the radio and after a mug of tea. Once upon a time I fought it ; not now 

[TheChronicOne]

I like the sound of these naps!  I have one every once in awhile.. I had one the other day and managed to do it right... woke up after an hour.  About 2-3 weeks ago did the same... I normally wind up sleeping the 2-3 hours though. Only the last two times did I manage to get up at a decent time to not feel weird and not have burned through the day! You know you did it wrong when you wake up and are confused as to what day it is....  "oh I guess I better get ready to go to work...  oh wait, it's 7pm"

I think I'll take y'alls advice and make these naps occur more often. The alarm trick I'll try... I  hadn't considered that because normally I become fixated on the alarm and can't shut my mind off. But... as tired as I've been lately I don't see that being the problem any more.

Good ol' Churchill!! Are we sure he didn't just get drunk and pass out? "Naps."   

[TheChronicOne]

https://www.facebook.com/taines.cheung/videos/367464353651880/   

[zenrat]

https://www.facebook.com/taines.cheung/videos/367464353651880/   

That'll teach him to remove the shrink wrap before he gets home.
I find it hard to understand why someone would stand there filming all that on their phone.  Nothing better to do obviously.

[TheChronicOne]

I'm under the impression it was staged. 

That said, don't some Japanese makers omit the shrink wrap on some new kits? I read something the other day about it and I know certain varieties of Hasegawa kit I've never seen shrink wrap on. I bought a brand new just released a month ago kit and it didn't have it either. Kind o' confusing if you ax me...   I know they DO shrinkwrap because my OLD Hasegawa F-14A sure had it but all of these style (my favorite style of Hase kits!!! ) I've yet to see one shrink wrapped:



I'm not saying that they don't shrink wrap the new kits, just that some of these like this I've never seen it.... and of course I wish I could remember now where I saw the conversation about the lack of wrapping on brand new kits.. 

[PR19_Kit]

I don't think I've ever seen a shrink wrapped Hasegawa kit. Perhaps it's UK market thing?

[TheChronicOne]

Found this regarding new Hasegawa kits and shrink wrap:
http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/215202-hasegawa-new-kits-no-longer-shrink-wrapped/#comment-2044540

Just placed an order with Sprue Bros. and noticed the following message:
(Copied directly from Sprue Bros site)
  Quote
Hasegawa Kits No Longer Shrinkwrapped
All Hasegawa kits we sell are new. Please be aware that the new US importer of Hasegawa (Hobbico/Great Planes) is no longer shrinkwrapping any kits. Thus any Hasegawa kits you order will likely come without skrinkwrap. The previous importer (DragonUSA) used to skrinkwrap all the kits they imported. We assume this is a cost cutting measure by the new importer (Hobbico/Great Planes) although the SRP for Hasegawa kits as set by Hobbico/Great Planes is relatively unchanged.
Apologies if this has been posted before, I found it quite interesting and wonder how it would affect second hand sales? As a buyer myself, I don't care so much about exterior shrink wrap as long as the inside bags are sealed, so perhaps is of no great concern.



IN OTHER NEWS:


I love it.  So I'm joined to the "Wings of Russia" facebook page (neat page) and someone asked if anyone in the group built models as well of the Russian aircraft. 

Well you know what that means!! Time to confuse the masses with the WHIF builds!!  I didn't post the historically accurate double seats Yak 9 first, oh no...  I had to post the NMF MiG 27 in 1950's USAF attire first!!        Stuff like this amuses me to no end... 

Anyway.  What to do today??  A couple weeks ago I made a lot of GOOD progress toward getting this place cleaned up and organized. I would like to get back to doing that. When I first arranged the furniture in this room, I did a poor job of it.  There's even a never used, mainly empty computer desk with lots of shelving and a cabinet directly behind me. With the way things are now I can't even use it. If I can finally get a handle on things I'd like to move it forward to where I am sitting now and re-arrange the furniture so I can even get to the thing. Easier said than done with all the CRAP in here!!

First step is getting my meager kit stash organized... including getting rid of old boxes... I just going to slice the tops and some sides off and keep 'em as mementos but keeping whole boxes is dumb unless I'm using them to store things.

Wish me luck on this stuff.... sheesh.

[zenrat]

Staged?  Never! 
Even if they are not shrink wrapped they tend to have some sort of seal to keep the lid on and sticky fingers out.

[TheChronicOne]

 

UGH... Trudging along, now. Trying to get this room fixed. If I can stick with it, I could reach my goal by evening.  Having this accomplished will speed things up and make things so much easier in the future.... a couple days of work to save countless hours in the future seems like a good investment to me.

So far, I've been trying to get things OUT of here completely. Some will surely trickle back in over time... but for now.. if it's not something I want in here it will be helpful to have it out of the way.  About done with that. I've managed to pigeon hole a bunch of my MTG stuff into the buffet cabinet I have in here. The Computer desk is 90% emptied and all the heavy stuff is out of it. I just need to get back going through my kits so I can get rid of the empties and stuff and more-better stack it all.     Its going to be a two phase type deal. Once the trash is out and all the loose items and what not put together I will stack things in one corner so I can do the re-arranging of furniture. Once that it done, the final storing places will be mapped out and I will finally be on the down hill slide!

[TheChronicOne]

Getting very close to making this furniture moving stuff a reality! I could do it now, in fact, but I want to do a little more organizing my kit stash first. That said... the desk is cleared out and broken into two pieces and there is enough open space in the room now where I could move things into their new spaces. I had to stop working though to run out to the contract property where I pick up garbage. Turns out some douchebags unloaded an entire Uhaul worth of household stuff around back by the dumpsters. Everything from bottles of barbecue sauce to mattresses to couches and appliances. STUFF EVERYWHERE!! So I blew a couple hours messing with that ...... went out and tried to catch them in the act, found some stuff with address on it, went looking around nearby neighborhoods for uhauls, etc...   lost my head of steam... got all upset and lost my motivation.  Then, to top it all off, I whine about it on Facebook and people are telling me I should just blow half a day, my gas and oil and time, pay my worker, etc etc and just haul all this stuff of for free like I'm out here playing checkers or something instead of running a damn business. I swear man... some things really piss me off and that's one of them. "Oh just take it to dump it's free to get rid of it!!"  Yeah but who is going to pay me to do so?? "charitable contribution take it and resell it and give it to charity blah blah blah get tax deduction "like I have time for that poo-poo. Name me a company that operates not by getting paid but by going around doing pro bono work.....  PFFT... none that are of my type. I don't run a thrift shop and I don't work for free. Some people give me the impression that they think I just play around all damn day instead of running a legit business.

RANT OFF.  Sorry.. I just need to vent.

ANYWAY.   

After I cool my jets I'll likely start playing Warthunder instead of more organizing.     One more day, max, though!! Not much left now... just a couple boxes of stuff just thrown in there... things like old sprues I've been saving, the empty boxes, etc etc and other random stuff that needs to be organized.   SO... within a day or two or 3 I will have a REVAMPED, streamlined, LUXURIOUS work space!! It's going to be awesome!