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

[TheChronicOne]

Alllll done... just need to check the satin coat after it dries and re-apply if necessary. All that remains is to plop the pilot (I found him, yay! ) in his seat and PVA the canopy on.

Picturs coming up! Nice and sunny out and nary a cloud in the sky.

[TheChronicOne]

Hells bells!! It needed another couple of coats in the satin clear. Problem is now it's getting late in the day and if I don't take pics within the next half hour, I will lose my light!!!!

Oh and I forgot to glue on the airbrake. 

No matter... I sprayed it up 10 minutes ago so it should be dry enough to place on the tile thing for pics.

Meanwhile, I'm working on the.... ? ?  I need to name it... working on this thing:




All I know is it will be RAF. Anti-Flash white with the glorious faded roundels and other markings. No clue what to call it. No clue who built it. No clue what the story is.

How's this sound? A Mach 3+ interceptor?

IIRC the Skyray came with weapons and fuel tanks... so... the weapons will be overscale a bit so why not say the the UK developed its own big long range missile kind of like the Phoenix? That can explain the size I guess...

Anyway... working on getting the guts in this thing which means the engines (because the nozels have to attach to SOMETHING) built and glued inside. This is an interesting feature of this old 1968 Revell Vigilante... it's a bit of detail, if people want to paint it and such, but once inside and fuselage closed up, you can't see any of it!

Working on that and also, on top, where the original wings would have went there are big open spaces I will need to fill so I cut up some plastic card advertisement malarkey and slid two of them all the way through and then had to cut two littler ones to go on the top portion. Won't need nearly as much putty this way and will help keep shrinking at bay. I'll still have to find some stuff to go there toward the rear, but that won't be no thang, playa.



Next interesting bit I noticed about the Vigilante kit is that the pilots and seats and some of the cockpit innards all come molded as one piece. Now, call me crazy, but this seems like a hell of an idea instead of a bunch of different little pieces. 



Onward and upward! I'd like to build up a good head of steam on this one this evening so after I get the pics taken and uploaded (of the KX-81) I'm going to get right back after it.

[DogfighterZen]

That beast of an aircraft...

[TheChronicOne]

KX-81 of the Royal Mayan Air Force. My first kitbash!

[PR19_Kit]

Well that came out REALLY well in the end. 

Looks the business.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!! I fought the paint and won in the end. Man what an ordeal, though. Far more hours in just getting the paint figured out than building it. One thing was certain, that yella-paint had to egress feet wet. 

[TheChronicOne]

That beast of an aircraft...

Hell yeah!!! She's going to be a big, heavy, fast mover for sure. I can't WAIT to get this thing to paint..

[TheChronicOne]

I know RAF stuff is pretty big wit' a lot of folk here so to save myself some trouble doing research, could someone tell me what colors were painted on wheel wells, gear, gear doors, wheels, and in the cockpit.. like the walls and stuff in there? 

Going with the whole anti-flash white and faded roundels bit.

[TheChronicOne]

OK, in typical male fashion, I haven't been reading the instructions so it seems If I don't glue the stuff, the cowling and engines can come off/out so the engines can be displayed if one so desires. This sounds kind of cool so I think I'll go ahead and paint the engines up a little bit.

Trying to get the cockpit and pilots painted now. Waiting on a lil input as far as colors to paint on stuff. Going to call it a day now. 

[TheChronicOne]

Been busy trying to get around and look at everyone elses stuff here at WIM.  Wow!  Sometimes it slips my mind to just take a stroll through and go look at all the brilliant things going on. It's easy to get into the rut of only looking at "show new replies to your posts." Glad I took the time today, though. I missed quite a few things.

That said, I've gone to the other end of the spectrum and totally neglected my own attempts.

To that end, I'm back, though, and I can report that I've painted up the pilots and interior pieces as far as I'm going to. I glued the the stuff into the bottom half of the fuselage...half. The pilots' flight suits are the wrong color but I've decided that I'm not going to burn away precious hours trying to ascertain what this stuff SHOULD be when at the end of the day it's all what-if anyway and will be locked away inside, hardly able to see.

I also painted the exhaust tips. I glued the elevators together.. or... flaperons? Whatever.. I'm not familiar with what the term may be for the "lifty-turny bit" that comprise the rear of Skyray wings. They are all one big piece that goes across the whole trailing end of the wings so might have one of them fancy combined names.

Wings are glued together and I even managed to file and sand all the rough parts away.

I don't think a whole lot else was done but I feel like I actually made some decent headway today so that's cool! 

[TheChronicOne]

Not unlike Towelie of South Park....  I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW.   

I think I'm working on the wings but I still feel strange trying to combine multiple kits into one.. I keep thinking I'm going to do something out of order or something but uhhh....   I think I'm on the right track.

I need to file and sand a bit on the ailerons or whatever they are that I glued together the other day then I'd like to glue them onto the wings. After that, I think it's time to put the fuselage halves together but I need to stop and reference the directions to make sure I'm not skipping things.  I know I need to put the engines in and it's a good idea to put in nose weight with the big heavy wings way back at the rear... better safe than sorry, right!



That there is the extent of the interior work. I painted the spaces where instrument panels would be a grey color and dotted on some circles to represent guages. There's not a whole lot to be seen inside with the canopy framing being what it is so I hope this is enough detail to look good.

Made an executive decision to not paint the engines after all because I doubt highly I'm ever going to display it with them out. I won't glue them in, however, in case I change my mind 40 years from now.

[TheChronicOne]

Well, the Lindberg Skyray has these aileron things in a fashion like a toy; they fit onto hinges that are on the back of the wings. Of course, being not 5 years old, I decided to delete this. Easy enough to chop off the hinge deals but now I'm left with these rectangle shaped holes in the ailerons. You could say, they're AILEWRONG.  NYUK NYUK NYUK NYUK!



I'm clipping up some of the little number tabs froms sprues to cram in there. I'll drape them up with glue then later on finish off with a bit o' putty then they should be looking like a million bucks!! 

Not moving as fast as I'd like because I'm out on the ol' Facebook hollerin' about douchebags that take up multiple parking spaces when they park.     

That said, I'd like to have the fuselage together and wings glued on by the end of the day, if possible. I still need to dry-run the engines to make sure everything will work right and also add in that nose weight...

[TheChronicOne]

OF COURSE I forgot the damn nose weight!!! 




Oh well... it occured to me after that the main gear are actually way toward the back (nose gear is way back, too, considerably further back than the cockpits) so I might not have a problem with tail sitting after all. If I do, I see a way to add weight going in through the air intakes so... no biggie.

So, anyway... the engines are constructed and the fuselage halves are together.

The spacers things I made for the ailewrongs are in and sitting with glue to dry. Might be able to sand on 'em by later today.

You know.. this thing is starting to look less complicated than it looked. All I really have left is to paint and assemble the gear then that's pretty much it for the plane itself. I guess at this point I can decide what stores/fuel tanks I want to add, if any.



Things I've noticed about this old box scale 1968 A-5 Viglante: Fitment is rather crappy with injection tower bits in numerous spots along the joining edges! Frustrating! Also, sever sink marks. One was so bad it was literally an open hole. 4 of these right at the focal point that is the nose/cockpit section of the front.

This said, and this is the NEAT part.... The panel line details on the Vigilante fuselage (1/77 I believe) and the Skyray wings (1/48) are not only the same pattern, but nearly the same size! Now how lucky is THAT!! 


Kind of hard to see, but it's there!

This is such a neat project though and it's going really well so far. And, while I'm using my fast glue, I wish it was faster because I want to get the sanding done with so I can get one step closer to painting on that glorious anti-flash white!!!!   (which is glossy, right?)


NEWSFLASH: I had a stroke of either genius or stupidity when it occured to me that I have an H4 Hercules in the stash in 1/200 scale and also...... a pair of C-5 galaxy wings and engines!!!!  NOW, I know, it's not proper for a boat plane to have engines HANGING below the wings but.... perhaps this sat tall enough off the surface that it wasn't a problem? Input, thoughts on this??  Either way, I just want to log this as a possible idea.. I think I'll fish the stuff out of the stash here in  awhile and see if it is even possible to mix this stuff together without having to call in a plastic surgeon.

Boaty McBoatplane GB coming up!!

[PR19_Kit]

...... that glorious anti-flash white!!!!   (which is glossy, right?)

Yes. 

[Squizzette]

...... that glorious anti-flash white!!!!   (which is glossy, right?)

Yes. 

Oh yes, absolutely. Super glossy for maximum anti-flashingness. 

Squizz