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

[DogfighterZen]

Just caught up with this now, that is great work for such a short time!

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, hoss, and its getting even cooler! I decided yesterday to WHIF this bad boy so............ the roundels were stripped off using me trusty hobby blade and a lil good luck.

Going to turn this into a retro-Ace Combat bird.  Republic of Ustio......      Just so happens some of my stuff from Japan came with lots of extra roundels and decorations. Some of them were full sets to make complete Ace Combat planes out of other kits, some where just extras and stuff that don't go to any specific plane but still make up everything needed to make a complete set of decorations... SO... this will now be a Republic of Ustio P-51B.    

[TheChronicOne]

I get it in where I can fit it in..... 5:30 AM and I started decalling this bird.      

I jacked some racing stripes from a car kit and now I'm having to measure, mark, and cut, to get them to fit right.  This takes a little bit of time so I figured I'd get started so that by time I get back from work today I'll be "ahead" of the game.

To that end, I tried the kit decals again. NO JOY.  I used the two checkerboards.  I had to trim them right down to the decoration and after a long soak I had to take the edge of my hobby knife and miraculously slip it underneath the transfer and peel it off the backing paper. What kept happening was the backing paper itself was splitting in half.    I made it through, though, and got the two checkerboards on but the rest of these transfers are going into the garbage.

Luckily, the car stripes work.

Almost certain the brand new Hasegawa transfers will work... 

This thing just might wind up looking pretty neat!   


In other news, C-Fury is getting gloss black today... 


Next issue... can someone recommend a good scribing tool for a novice such as myself?

[TheChronicOne]

Decided to add a couple more touches of paint since I have more time now. Painted on some kill marks and the black area up front below the nose just behind the prop and spinner. Air intake I guess. 

Anyway... done with all the painting and the transfers as well. I just need to glue on the fiddly bits then clear it with satin then............ last thing of all is to glue on the aerial wire and she's a wrap! 

[TheChronicOne]

OOOPS.. If I'm putting kill marks on the stupid thing, I better weather it a little bit.   

SO, more delays... I also decided to paint some of the cockpit which , right now, is entirely one color. So... I'll do those two things then it will be time to clear it with satin as I've already glued on all the gear and doors....  just saving the prop and aerial post for just before clear then lastly the canopy at the very end.

Anyway.. I think with a bit of color in the cockpit and some weathering I can make this a little bit better. Still plenty of time.... no reason I won't be done this evening.

[TheChronicOne]

Alright!!! All done! All I have to do now is.... let it dry, then snap the canopy on. Won't even have to glue it... it snaps into place and sits there just fine.

Anyway... painted the details in the cockpit then did the weathering... never thought I'd say this.. but I think I'm finally starting to get "better" at it. It definitely looks better with than without. Supposedly this thing is flying around knocking other aircraft out of the sky so it wouldn't make much sense for it to be factory fresh.

Pictures later. 

[TheChronicOne]

No story... use your imagination. It's just an old plane with Ace Combat markings for the nation of Ustio.


























EDIT:  OI!!!!  I used my hugely bright hallucogen ... hallogen.. whatever...light and STILL this stuff looks dark. Can't really see much of my weathering which I thought I did well for a change!! I will try to take outside pictures soon.... Sun was already below the trees at the time so I figured I'd try this light. This thing is so bright it will blind you and is as good as any space heater. Plug it in and you get sunburn.... dunno what the hell... I just can't seem to get good pictures sometimes.

[zenrat]

Looks great Brad C.

Are you taking the pictures on your phone?  Have you cleaned the lens recently?  Phone camera lenses pick up all sorts of crap from grubby pockets and dirty fingers.

[Rheged]

Looks like a superbly finished model to me.

I agree with the comment about cleaning lenses......you don't want to even contemplate what came off my glasses yesterday after  a bout of fruit picking.  I thought for a short while that the  whole world had gone fuzzy in the bottom left hand corner  (but the raspberries tasted lovely)

[PR19_Kit]

That looks superb Brad, notwithstanding the super quick, Dizzy-like speed of the build itself. 

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, fellas!!!!  Glad you like it! I totally dig it, myself. Killing that gloss and getting back to the satin finish sure helped matters. This thing looks great sitting here. Even with a camera that is functioning fully I think it's nearly impossibly to truly capture what the eye can see in person. BUT ANYWAY, I'm biased...

Hadn't thought about cleaning the lens but I did that just now. Great tip. Another problem, though, is that it seems to be and probably is scratched all to hell because of the way I carry it around (in a bag with tons of everything else).  I may consider buying a dedicated, actual, digital camera. Could get one for $40-50 maybe and might be better than the camera in phones 3-4 times the prices simply because the entire device is dedicated to photography rather than just being a small feature.

Anyway, thanks again!!!  This was a blast building this.


Cleaned the screen. Also... update... a nice glossy black Sea Fury ready to take on ~SILVER PAINT!~ tomorrow. Then... it sits for like.......  3 weeks. 



Better I think, but under different circumstances; it's really dark right now, the sun isn't even all the way up and the only light in here are off a 60W light bulb and two screens. I'll try out in actual sunlight, outdoors, in a day or two.

[NARSES2]

That's come out really well mate 

[NARSES2]

OOOPS.. If I'm putting kill marks on the stupid thing, I better weather it a little bit.   

The two don't necessarily go together. The pilot/ace would have repainted his kill markings every time he got a new mount. They weren't just those achieved on that particular airframe. Also the more "kills" then the more likely it is that the aircraft was better looked after. Again not necessarily so, but more likely.

Anyway my aircraft are all presented as though they'd been especially prepared for some high ups inspection  I'm useless at weathering 

[Old Wombat]

Good lookin' 'Stang you built there, Brad!

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks y'all!!!   And... truth be told... I WANTED to weather this one (for a change). I was just looking for an excuse and... there it was!   

Tricky-dicky.  Anyway... I used ground up pencil lead (graphite) in dry and wet phases. I need to get some outside pictures so we can SEE it!