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

[Old Wombat]

NMF isn't a skill I've felt the need to develop, yet, but from what I've read it's all about technique & patience.

The hardest thing to get right, from observation, is the variations in colour of the slightly different alloys used in different places.

Oh, & heating effects on jet exhausts & the panelling over the engines of some aircraft.

[TheChronicOne]

NMF isn't a skill I've felt the need to develop, yet, but from what I've read it's all about technique & patience.

The hardest thing to get right, from observation, is the variations in colour of the slightly different alloys used in different places.

Oh, & heating effects on jet exhausts & the panelling over the engines of some aircraft.

Man, you said it... sure enough. That's one bit I've never paid much attention to or attempted. I've SEEN it plenty of times on builds (and on the real thing), and even before I did my Mig 27, but it just looks like so much work.

A lot of it can be achieved by simple masking or not masking certain things, pre shading, switching finishes from matte to gloss to satin, and the like, which really seem simple enough,  but I get that "lazy bone." I'm going to try some stuff like this on a future Tomcat build (won't be NMF though). But trying it in NMF will be a long ways away if at all... 

Hell, we can't ALL be master modelers. 

[TheChronicOne]

Found myself lacking in any work to do on both current projects! I can't proceed until the "cold" glue I used on them has set up another day or two. Can't sand on it until then. So.. what to do?  Space Shuttle? NAAAAAH...    Shelf of Doom projects don't sound that appealing right now. I managed to finish two of them in two days so that's not bad. I can go ahead and shelve the others and not feel guilty about it. 

Up next is a Cuban Sea Fury! Thanks to Fred and Zenrat Industries, a crate full of parts has arrived at the C.R.A.P. facilities. What we have here is the Flies Right Off the Ground Hawker Sea Fury bagged kit from the good ol' days. Many moons ago I was thinking of making it some weird camo job as an escort for the Cuban Heavy Bomber "Castro-Force 1" I built but the more I got to looking the more I like the NMF machines they had. The ones with the cool Star and Bar roundels they used. Since I'm in the midst of "NMF training" it makes all the sense!



Can't beat it with a stick!  Here's the fun part; I don't want to alter the scheme much but, I will put an anti glare strip on mine (some of them had them anyway, just not the one in this illustration) and the FAEC stuff and numbers will be different. I'll do something neat with the numerals and letters to make it apparent that this is a Presidential Escort. Not sure what... yet... but something will strike my fancy as I go through my spare transfers. 

Got the munchies again, sort of, so I need to stop and eat lunch then I'm going to take a pic or two then get to trimming parts and filing away burrs then I'll glue some stuff and paint some stuff. 

[TheChronicOne]

This kit is so cool!  Surprising number of parts. The wings can be folded, or not (not going to bother on this one) and the control surfaces all can be put on at whatever angles you choose.  By the way, what would one of these look like just sitting there not under power? Would these things naturally droop down or what? Last time I did one with these like this I think I got them wrong or something.    They're all droopy:



Ah well, that was just the second build I made after getting back to modeling. In retrospect, those were some good Yak kits!! I bought two of 'em. Can't remember who made 'em... Czechmaster or something... I had it all figured out at one time. Came in this type of box:



Getting off track here....   ANYWAY... here's the wares:




Pic got flipped upside down on this one but who cares.

Individual prop blades... the individual wing and control surfaces, etc. Neat! Also, external fuel tanks and some rocket looking......  stuff. Kinetic or are these some type of RPG?!    (left of center)

I plan to use all of this stuff whether they did in Cuba or not because this is going to be, albeit a bit subtle, WHIF anyway! I could hang a palm tree off this thing and so what!!!! 

Anyway... I'm going to start clipping parts out and dry fitting to see if I can do things like put the fuselage halves together before I glue in the cockpit tub (or floor, in this case, I guess) and see how things like the engine cowling and spinner and that stuff goes. Won't be no spinning props so I can glue the props and spinners on near last, at least, if not the whole assembly but I'd rather get as much together and attached onto the main body assembly possible to make spraying a bit easier.

[PR19_Kit]

They are rockets, WWII era British 3" unguided thingies. Just the job for digging holes in Panzers around the Falaise Gap. 

[TheChronicOne]

Moving rapidly, for now.

All these parts were "cleaned up" mean I trimmed away as much sprue and extra material as I could, leaving enough to latch on to with my meat hooks or clothes pins and also washed it all with a vinegar/alcohol/water mixture.



Next, I took it all out and primed it all.

The remaining parts are all things that will be attached to the plane body so it will all get washed and primed separately.

The kit.. well... not a lot of flash, just a couple pieces on the fuselage halves but the troublesome thingsis that a lot of the surfaces like on the wings and cowlings are marred all to hell with scratches and gouges. Like they rolled the stuff across a bunch of broken beer bottles or something at the factory.     Definitely will have to sand that stuff down seeing as how we're doing NMF. . . . .

Anyway... getting late in the day. I suppose I could bring in the stuff I have primed from outside and start painting but ideally I'd rather it dry up first to prevent any possible outgassing conundrums. What I will do in the mean time is start gluing the wing parts together, the fuel tank parts together, and maybe paint the canopy. The glorious..... glorious canopy what will only require the border and one stroke across the middle.     Niiiiiice and easy.  Man, I love building these single engine prop 1/72s. It's so nice when a build just flows. 

[TheChronicOne]

They are rockets, WWII era British 3" unguided thingies. Just the job for digging holes in Panzers around the Falaise Gap. 

Good deal! I was just curious. Wasn't familiar with the knob on the end. A blob of iron I suppose. I'm more familiar with the ones like on more modern aircraft... The ones that are relativiely smooth around and just pointed on the end.. no blobs or knobs. 

[PR19_Kit]

They are rockets, WWII era British 3" unguided thingies. Just the job for digging holes in Panzers around the Falaise Gap. 

Good deal! I was just curious. Wasn't familiar with the knob on the end. A blob of iron I suppose. I'm more familiar with the ones like on more modern aircraft... The ones that are relativiely smooth around and just pointed on the end.. no blobs or knobs. 

No, the blob was the 60 lb warhead, the rest of it was a tube containing the solid rocket motor, and there's some fins on the rear end to keep it flying sort of straight. The 3" part of the designation was the dia. of the rocket tube.

They continued in use by the RAF as late as the 50s-60s, even Hunters carried them.

[TheChronicOne]

They are rockets, WWII era British 3" unguided thingies. Just the job for digging holes in Panzers around the Falaise Gap. 

Good deal! I was just curious. Wasn't familiar with the knob on the end. A blob of iron I suppose. I'm more familiar with the ones like on more modern aircraft... The ones that are relativiely smooth around and just pointed on the end.. no blobs or knobs. 

No, the blob was the 60 lb warhead, the rest of it was a tube containing the solid rocket motor, and there's some fins on the rear end to keep it flying sort of straight. The 3" part of the designation was the dia. of the rocket tube.

They continued in use by the RAF as late as the 50s-60s, even Hunters carried them.

Ohhh ok, so they DO explode, they just aren't "grenades,"  cool!  I follow now.  I know the modern ones like what an A-10 would carry have no explodey bits, they just use kinetic energy. More over than my curiousity, all this will make a difference in how I paint the things. Warheads means I'd like to paint the tips red and keep the body and fins a different color. OR.. something to that effect.

I still have lot to learn about Royal wares. Hell, when I first saw the things I thought there were GUNS of some sort 'til I saw the fins. 

[zenrat]

Having recently looked it up for my Jet Mossie I can tell you that the RAF painted their 60lb rockets bronze green.
Obviously as this is Whiffworld, your model and also a Cuban plane you can paint them whatever colour you want.

IIRC IRL the stars and bars markings were used by pre revolutionary Cuba and when Fidel took over they painted them over with the triangle markings.

I just found this which I thought you might like.

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/fantasy-aircraft-full-series.23533/page-21
As its one of Clave's it might be here somewhere already.

[TheChronicOne]

Were the whole rockets painted that bronze green? I know for certain the drop tanks are being painted red on this one so I was thinking of doing at least the tips green on the rockets instead of more red. It may get a bit too gaudy to have them two colors or even three, however. All green could be nice...perhaps with black fins or something. Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad.

Definitely love the Phantom. Clave is my hero. 

Whif world, indeed. Despite my crappy back story or any association with the bomber, this one will definitely have the stars and bars. I really like the NMF sea fury and the livery they had going on. The roundel appeals to me, for sure. It ain't going nowhere.    Sure would be nice to reconcile the difference somehow.... but if I can't quite get the historical what if gymnastics right then so be it. Perhaps, in this alternate reality the star and bar was the "regular" roundel adopted for the entire air force(s) and the round triangle thing was a new thing just for the presidential bomber. Or something!  Gotta love whif-world. 

Anyway... while I'm here.. a quick update. I did indeed get more work done. I cleaned up some of the wing segment parts and glued them together and have them clamped with clothes pins to dry. I also recovered my primered "bits" from outside. Thankfully, I have achieved good coverage and no apparent flaws in the primer coat! These pieces are all ready to receive painting wit' me beloved cheap acrylic hobby paints. 

To that end, looking at these prop blade pieces.. man, what a nice design. Despite being extra pieces, and, seemingly more work, it's NOT!!!  The way this stuff is molded they will fit into the spinner nice and level and at the right angle. This is great, because I can paint all this crap separately. Genius, really..  little small things like this make my day. It makes one wonder why certain specific things like this weren't copied or done (more) by other manufacturers.

[PR19_Kit]

To that end, looking at these prop blade pieces.. man, what a nice design. Despite being extra pieces, and, seemingly more work, it's NOT!!!  The way this stuff is molded they will fit into the spinner nice and level and at the right angle. This is great, because I can paint all this crap separately. Genius, really..  little small things like this make my day. It makes one wonder why certain specific things like this weren't copied or done (more) by other manufacturers.

FROG were quite revolutionary in some areas back then, but that engineering seems to have been lost for a long while. The current Airfix stuff has similar undertones to its construction, little ingenious touches that make you think 'These guys know what they're doing'. 

[zenrat]

Generally both rocket tubes and warheads were bronze green.  But they were made and stored separately and so there would possibly be variations in shade of green.
There were coloured bands on the warheads but I deemed it not worth bothering in 1/72.
I got my information from here.
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234938660-colour-of-rockets-fitted-to-hurricane/

[Old Wombat]

My memory's really foggy on this but weren't the original warheads, also, 4.7" or 5" or 6" (something like that) naval artillery projectiles?

[NARSES2]

My memory's really foggy on this but weren't the original warheads, also, 4.7" or 5" or 6" (something like that) naval artillery projectiles?

The body was 3" and was based (might have used) AA rockets from the Z Batteries. The warhead was either a solid 25lb 3.44" AP warhead or a 60lb 6" H.E. warhead. There was also a solid, initially mild steel, then concrete practice warhead.