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

[zenrat]

Vanquish is looking good Brad C.
I might have trimmed the canards and vertical tail into more rounded shapes but she's your baby.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks for the tip. I'll grab some Krylon Ultra Flat Sand (and maybe a darker color of the same, too) next time and bide my time while Rusto' re-works their cans. Krylon products are great as far as I'm concerned. I have a rattle can of their satin clear and it works beautifully and the spray nozzle and the rest are better than those on the Rusto' cans. Pretty disappointed in Rustoleum right now... at about $4 after tax per I'm sitting on about $40 worth of near useless rattle cans. I'll monkey around with the stuff and see if I can get them working again and if I can... considered decanting the stuff but all that equals a bunch of work. They either start working again or I bin them at whatever place I take things like this to safely dispose of them.

[TheChronicOne]

Vanquish is looking good Brad C.
I might have trimmed the canards and vertical tail into more rounded shapes but she's your baby.

I considered actually doing the other side of the coin; taking my big file to the outer edges of the deltas to make those parts more... like... what is on an F-15, but that's work. Or rather, extra work... and work I could easily mess up. 

There's a weird juxtaposition going on with all the angular stuff and then all the flowing, sweeping curves, but I'm thinking it might work out just fine as an "artistic" thing or something. The paint and transfers will bring it all together I'm sure!

[DogfighterZen]

Vanquish looks great indeed. 
The Skyray's wings have a cool design but the round wingtips could use a reshaping. That's one of the changes i'm thinking of for the Airfix 1/72 Skyray i've got on the stash.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!! I'm a fan of more angular stuff personally. I'm trying to convince myself that rounded stuff is cool, too, though!  Mixing it together?! lol     But anyway!!  It's easy to go wrong but also easy to go right... the ol' Su 27 prototype had rounded stuff and looked pretty cool. 

Moving forward. My paint is fouled. I need to get out of the bad habit of just opening the cap and getting my paint right out of the bottle. Stuff up on the rim dries up then when I mix it back up I wind up with CHUNKS all in it. So.. I'm fighting that... as I sit here and paint 3/4 of projects with it. Not real happy about it but I can't afford to go spend the measely $1 it would take to get more. FROM NOW ON, even though it's more work, I'm going to start pouring my paint out into something else like I'm supposed to. I guess for now I'll have to go back and sand some things and re-coat but uhhh.... I think I can make it work.

That said, that's where I'm at today.... painting on the Vanquish, Painting on the Galaxy, Painting on the floatin' GB plane. Other work is to maybe finally finish the mitsubishi plane. I'm in No hurry once again., though. 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, despite chunks, this thing is getting whiter and whiter... just like me in winter time.   



Just painting for now. I think all I can do after I get all the white on is glue the nose piece on then I can clear coat everything. It's been so long that I forgot that I already painted the gear doors and such but I suppose I should stop at some point and be sure all that malarkey will actually go on here now that it has these gargantuan moth wings.

Slowly getting the Mitsu together! The ailerons are on now. All I have left are to glue on the engine cowlings and props then a number of dinky parts. Last will be the canopy going on. I won't be able to properly integrate it ... there will be a gap around the entire thing, but, I can live with it as a reasonable facsimile. Besides, I've cut a multitude of corners and have decided to let numerous errors go right on by because they don't take any enjoyment away having them and also I'm saving a ton of time!! I think it will look neat anyway at the end. That said, I'm also cutting a lot of corners on the Vanquish....  I think the one day blitz build did me a world of good because I've learned to let things go. 

Galaxy is at the first gloss coat stage. I need to do a bunch of masking and I can't do that on acrylic paint without priming first or the paint will come off. As mentioned prior, my primer has bit the dust. The only way around that is to gloss coat the acrylic paint before I mask... then continue the next stages of paint. A bit of extra work but handles the problem! 

Might be done with the Mitsu tonight? Nothing left now but gluing on the last pieces.. shouldn't take long but... every time I say I might get something done it goes all to hell. 

[TheChronicOne]

Chugging along. I might not be finished with this Mitsubishi tonight after all so I'm breaking my rule of not spoiling the reveal to just go ahead and show the underside. I usually only take a fraction of pictures of the undersides of things anyway so I guess it doesn't hurt the big reveal any. 

I'm not moving so fast on it because of hiccups in the research, the parts here, and what the instructions say.  I've settled that issue but it ate up a good half hour of work. It's almost silly to worry about anyway because that this point, so many things are inaccurate that this actually qualifies as a WHIF! I won't do that, though, it's just a poorly sourced real world build.  This said I'm not at all disappointed in all the mistakes. Another thing is the lack of decent resource material. There's probably more out there than what I could find but I'm not bothered enough to find it. I think overall it will do a good job of representing this historical aircraft! 

Any how.... here's the bottom of the Mitsu with the Glossy Baby G! 



Dinky little fiddly bits, but, believe it or not some parts are still on sprue. I'll have to clip them out then file/sand them then try to get them glued on. Might be a bit of a task with all the paint and stuff that's on now so... still not saying I might be done soon.. but I hope so.   

[TheChronicOne]

Today  is masking the Galaxy to paint numerous things that will make it less "boring" as a real world subject. I'll get into more once under way but there are some silver looking stuff at the rear of the gear bays, the green nose, and the camo wing block sans American roundels.

Mitsubishi is still Sloooooowwwwwwly being assembled. I gave up the other night when I found the engines/cowlings didn't want to go on to the nacelles for love nor money. I started filing them and got the situation better but stopped before I started messing up the paint job. It was getting late and my concentration was slipping... so I thought it better to just put it away.

Vanquish is ROUGH but I'm not too worried about it. That said, there are a few areas that I really do need to fix before I keep going... things involving chunks of paint and paint build up in areas like the edges of the canards. I should sand all this stuff and re-paint. Good news is I investigated the gear issue and even with the Mega-Moth wings everything will fit just fine!  Score!

Float plane build is on hold because I'm pretty sure I don't have enough white paint to actually put enough coats on it. A lot of real-estate on that so I'm going to try to remember to stop by the LHS and pick up another bottle of it. At less than $1 I can afford it although it seems silly to make a trip for one little thing of paint but I need it. I'm tired of fighting these chunks for one thing..

Starting to wonder now what the next project will be. I'm getting close to finishing 2 or 3 of these, depending. The Mitsu will be done today I'm almost certain and the Galaxy won't be far behind. All it is is masking and painting on that one then the transfers. No more glueing or refining. The Vanquish, even with the dozens of mistakes, is also getting close so I'll be putting thought into the next thing. Probably something easy like a Thunderbirds P-51 or something. 

Also, I'm starting to get a hankering for another "big" involved build and my thoughts return to the real world WB-50 weather "bomber" which I already have a bunch of conversion/aftermarket parts for. I just need to take inventory again and see what I'm missing (transfers, for one thing... may have to have someone around here print them up for me ). If I decide to take this on it had better be soon because I won't have the time or inclination for such things here in about 3 months when the growing season starts again and work becomes a hassle.

[TheChronicOne]

Finicky paint work. For some reason it is taking eons to paint this thing and I still have a long way to go. Oh well, it's starting to take shape! I've completed the first round of painting with grey. I think I will have to do some touch up at the wing roots on the bottom side once I remove the masking, though. Can't seem to locate many pictures of the UNDERSIDE of a Galaxy so I'm not sure where the white stops and grey begins down there. I might just "wing it."  NYUK NYUK NYUK NYUK!!!! 



Masking comes off then time to gloss coat again but I want to put more white on the Vanquish first so I can do them both at once. Working on that now, I suppose.

After that comes what I hope will be final assembly on the Mitsubishi. I got the cowling onto the nacelles finally... tight enough fit that I don't need glue. Remaining are some air intake things and some exhaust things for the engines. Then there's some stick thing that comes out of the bottom side of the nose then another pole stick thing that pops up out of the canopy for the aerials. Speaking of.. I'm omitting those this time because.... work. 

[TheChronicOne]

4:20 AM. I woke up at 2... crawled out of bed at 2:43... uhhh...   I couldn't turn my brain off. Probably would have taken another 2 hours to finally go back to sleep so ...I just got up. This would be great in Summer but in winter it's a touch annoying. I run the risk of feeling a bit like a zombie by early afternoon! 

Oh well, not one to wast an opportunity I think I'll mix up a little paint and do the touch up parts on the Galaxy. I was just going to gloss after I took the masking off but that doesn't make sense until I do touch up. I don't know what I was thinking.    Also, there's a bit of a ridge where the grey meets white on the fuselage. I'd like to try to smooth that out a bit with a sanding stick. There are blue cheat line transfers for the kit but ... still might see the ridge after so I'd rather just bite the bullet and do it right.

Here she is with most masking removed, I forgot to take the pieces of the chrome parts on the gear bays though:



Going pretty well so far for being so small!!  Can't wait to tackle the camo wing block.  I still need to do the nose, as well, and paint chrome onto the front edges of the turbine cowlings. At 1/480 there's only so much detail I can fit onto this thing but I'll stop and reference my ....references again to see what else I can do. One thing I did to help matters was completely fill in the windows as they were grossly misshapen and there is a transfer for them anyway that will look much better than anything I could do to try to paint them. 

Mitsubishi... HMM.. for some reason the canopy has me stalled. I said I wasn't going to fret too much over stuff like that but it's simply not right. I don't know what to do at this stage to fix it without it being a somewhat large undertaking. I guess I'll try to make my mind up on it today, though, because it's time to kick this bird from the nest.

TTYL

[DogfighterZen]

Shame about the Mitsu's canopy, what's wrong with it?

[PR19_Kit]

4:20 AM. I woke up at 2... crawled out of bed at 2:43... uhhh...   I couldn't turn my brain off. Probably would have taken another 2 hours to finally go back to sleep so ...I just got up.

I know the feeling.

I find my best work is done in the wee small hours when my brain just refuses to stop bumbling on and on.

[TheChronicOne]

Shame about the Mitsu's canopy, what's wrong with it?

Well.... I haven't put it on yet because I usually save it til close to last but this canopy doesn't "open" like a normal one. I think the top parts of the roof part open but not the rest of it. When I DO put it on there will be a big gap around the whole thing that's not supposed to be there. It should have been glued on early in the build, puttied &  blended with the fuselage then painted along with the rest. I don't mask canopies, but, I still could have done it rather easily by hand painting the frame work then mask all BUT the outside edges then proceed as normal. Oh well! It might not look too bad after all. We'll see. Learned a really good tip for the next one, at least!

4:20 AM. I woke up at 2... crawled out of bed at 2:43... uhhh...   I couldn't turn my brain off. Probably would have taken another 2 hours to finally go back to sleep so ...I just got up.

I know the feeling.

I find my best work is done in the wee small hours when my brain just refuses to stop bumbling on and on.

I'm with ya. I really love this/that time of day. It's almost like "getting away" with something being able to just relax, drink my coffee, do little odds and ends of work things before I go to "actual" work so that by time I get back home I'm a little bit ahead with daily chores or even what I have planned for the day modelling wise. Only drawback is sometimes when I get up a couple hours early like this is the energy drain later. I don't eat lunch any earlier to compensate for waking up so early which leads to a couple hours of "haze" there before I eat.     

I'm not complaining though! I'd rather be zombified from time to time and stick with this night-owl crap so that when it gets back around to summer I'm still accustomed to waking up between 3-4AM. Not only that, but I went to my "paying work" today and got it all done and returned home a good half hour or more before sunrise. 



ANYWAY....  I decided things are boring w/out pictures so I stopped and gently placed the canopy onto the airframe..  It's not THAT bad... it doesn't look TERRIBLE I just wish I had done it right from the get-go. I still need to dry fit it a few times and file some things to get it more snug but I suppose I can live with it. 

[TheChronicOne]

Touch up done for now. Trying to mask the nose. This is easier said than done for sure.... 



I'll just eyeball it and if I have to redo it or touch it up then oh well! 

[TheChronicOne]

More progress on the tiny ALMOST A WHIF "Baby Galaxy."

I muddle through getting the nose painted... well.. I still need to go back and finish doing touch up because the edges are rough but overall it's passable. It was a nightmare getting it masked... all the curves and stuff... I just eyeballed it and tried to "split" the arch points then just keep things straight visually looking at it from as many angles as possible. Honestly, it turned out better than I thought it would.


Is green! 

Now I'm trying to mask off the wing block. Easier than the nose but still a pain in my azz.  I took a few measurements here and there and then just tried to do the best I could, again, by eyeballing things. Most of is grey already but I need to go ahead and fill in the middle part the rest of the way then I can do the two green colors. Just going to eyeball the camo scheme. At this scale it doesn't matter as much as say... on anything bigger whatsoever.    This small I can just "get it close" and the visual approximation in scale will do just fine I hope. I might do a bit of pencil outlining though.. we'll see. 



Only other thing I have been doing is laying down yards and yards of white paint on both the Vanquish and more largely the H4 Hercules. That sucker is just soaking it up.. I think the vanquish has enough on it but the biggin will need more. Paint seems to be helping this Moth look better. 



I need to paint some of the cockpit detail then I can gloss this I do believe..... then..nothing left but the transfers and to finally glue on the gear and windows.