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

[TheChronicOne]

This thing is so janky! 

I keep telling myself that I won't find anything else wrong with this, but I keep finding more and more.

So I finally get around to taking a gander at the cockpit area only to notice the back end has one side sticking out way too far. Nothing I can do but grab the mega file and file the piss out of it...     


Travesty.

Still sanding the beejebus out of the sides of this.... . . .   

[DogfighterZen]

I have no clue of what was going on at Revell, bad quality control staff, perhaps?
IMHO, the F-2A's wings look gorgeous on the original F-16 airframe, the F-2A's wings are 25% larger, but the F-2 also has a longer fuselage and wider front fuselage.
I'm going with the original Agile Falcon concept which was to have a bigger wing on a normal F-16C Block 40 fuselage. It was intended to return the F-16C's wing loading to the same values of the lighter A variant, for more maneuverability, rate of climb and payload. Oh, and i've just finished sanding doen the wing roots so it just needs some panel line restoring and it's on with the build.

Keep on sanding that skinny little b into submission, i'm sure it'll look fine when you're done with it.

[TheChronicOne]

Roger that!!! I'd like to get that lil feller into primer today if I can. Should be able to....  the weather is atrocious out and my sciatica is kicking my arse, so ... other than maybe doing some vacuuming and getting some things into the wash, I'll be planted firmly in this chair all day.

I need to finish fixing the intakes. I noticed even MORE terrible fitment on those. One sits either too tall or too short. There is a "rail" of sorts on the bottom where it flares out that needed to line up with the bottom of the wings. So... I lined that up because fixing the top will be easier than fixing the bottom but that means I'm either going to have a gap and a hole or I'm going to have to pour a bunch of filler in there and sand my life away. I could chalk that upper area problem(s) up to being modifications to the airframe (not like I have done mutliple other mods already!!!) but that seems a bit lazy. Still, if it looks OK, I might do that.

Otherwise..... I need to file a bunch on the nose section to get the fuselage to line up better with the new radome. That's going pretty well SO FAR but I noticed on one corner that I'm going to get might close to filing completely through the plastic before It lines up. I might have to... uhh... put something in there or something.  Then, I need to finally get the tail planes put on.  I think at that point the main construction will be done but I'm probably forgetting something.

The Raptor.... HMMM... well.....      THAT might be ready for primer but I have got to get the canopy masked and glued on first.


STILL can't figure out what other projects to start. 

[TheChronicOne]

Ahhhh yeaaah... I love getting things done in the morning BEFORE I go to work. I consider it all BONUS work and when I get back to model building later I'll be "ahead of the game."

First thing, I have everything mostly organized at my desk and I have all my current projects and supplies layed out so when I get back, I can just jump back into work. ALSO, and more importantly, I've masked the Raptor canopy. I HATE masking canopies (less so over time but still not my fav) so this is nice to have it out of the way. I noticed I need to finish painting the interiror, however, but once that is done, I can glue it on.


  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em... 

Time to head to work. It's going to be miserable. Weather change.... it's cold...not THAT cold, I mean.... it's about 10 below freezing which isn't bad, in my opinon, but the WIND is blowing about 35 mph and THAT makes it miserable.  IN SHORT, I'm not exactly looking forward to being at work today. BUT, being the boss, I can uhhh... do what I call a "patch job" and just do the most important things and leave areas out of sight until Monday.. (picking up trash, here... )  Maybe I'll find some money today, though? I'm about due... so far all year I've only found $2.  Last year, however, over the course of months, I found $180!   

TTYL

[DogfighterZen]

I've been having the same problem regarding new projects so i went back to my first whif ideas and realized i was leaving too many of them behind. Now i'm back in track with what i first wanted to do... and that meant the beautiful Revell F-4F was dug out of the stash.
Good to know you've masked it, it's not very complicated so i'm sure it was good to prepare you for a more complicated masking job in the future.
My Raptor is going into the paint shop in about half an hour...

180$?!? The most i found was 50€, a single note, just laying on the floor waiting for me on the pathway to one of the less busy villas of the estate where i work. Not much before or after that, so far...

[TheChronicOne]

That 50-spot was mighty glorious, right?!  That's a nice chunk of change.  That was akin my biggest find.....  a $50 bill just.... laying there....   very near the Chuck E. Cheese. (pizza and games place geared toward kids and also with fun for the adults).  Kids seem to be pretty dumb and lose money, but I imagine it was a stupid and probably drunken adult that lost that 50.     


I did a fair amount of work on model stuff earlier but decided to play video games for the most part of the day after I did a lot more chores than I initially planned on. I just get a weird guilty feeling if I sit around and "let stuff go." In short, didn't get much building done, but, I was sanding and filing earlier and adding more filler to the whatever the hell I'm calling it now "used-to-be" F-5 from the 1988 Airfix boxing.

My GOD, the fun never stops, this is the fitment AFTER I did the preliminary round of clean up:


Top-down view.


Starboard side...



Normally I'd just file everything until it matched up but I'm afraid there's so much room to cover here that if I do so, I'll wind up with a big gap toward the front where the windscreen attaches. Yikes! One would holler, "Build it with the canopy open; problem solved!" But... then comes interior detail work and the fact that I generally do not like open canopies. So... I don't know.. I'm going to do a bit more filing but may wind up having to create some sort of piece to go between the canopy and windscreen. (might even look cooler that way anyway! ) 

This thing is a pile, though, man.       People talkin' bout.... Mach 2.... and... and Amodel...   PFFt.  this thing is Mach56 and Zmodel. Mach 2 is some dude in his apartment, this is AIRFIX for crying out loud. I guess the 80's were rough but .... man... this should have never passed any quality control checks if any existed. This is just terrible. 

Is it strange that I'm having almost as much fun whinging as I am building?     Honestly, it's bad, but I'm enjoying it well enough to keep going. It's a good learning experience. 

Nothing else going on right now, but, I'm about to grab my Raptor and try to finish the interior painting. After, I can glue the canopy on.

I think I FINALLY figured out one of my next builds: An airliner! Funny how the mind wanders, but I was real excited about starting my airliners collection and wanted to build one but I guess I just forgot. It's the Minicraft 737-400. I might start clipping it out here in a bit and see how the fitment looks! 

[DogfighterZen]

The 50€ bill was a good bonus, didn't last long, though...
That canopy issue reminded me that the Hobbyboss i've built had a similar problem, i had to do quite a bit of work to get it to fit well without gaps. I also had to sand the back of the cockpit area and on the area where the windscreen sits.
One suggestion, you can use a bit of styrene to close up gaps. use thin plastic card to build up the canopy framing instead of sanding away a bunch of plastic and end up with bigger gaps to deal with.
Re your next build, get them liners going! 
It is good to look back and think about what you've been forgetting, isn't it? I've had the Phantom in the stash for a couple of years now and it was bought with the PoAF in mind. I remember that i originally wanted to finish it in an air superiority scheme but after i read an article about the history of the PoAF where there was a profile of the F-4E in SEA camo and PoAF markings, i knew i had to build it like that... I guess i forgot about it during the all the Viper builds...

[zenrat]

Cut that poor old F5 a break man.  It does date from 1966.
That level of fit is about what you get from Airfix that has been continuously produced since then.
Try a DH 88 Comet if you think this is bad.

[DogfighterZen]

Cut that poor old F5 a break man.  It does date from 1966.
That level of fit is about what you get from Airfix that has been continuously produced since then.
Try a DH 88 Comet if you think this is bad.

I agree, i've never built the DH Comet but i've built the 1973 P-80 airfix kit and although it had similar issues with the fit of some parts and the fuselage halves, the intakes were also a problem... but with some TLC it ended up being a very enjoyable build.

I find these kits are always good as practice and to improve/learn new skills so take your time and it'll come out fine, Brad.

[TheChronicOne]

I'm going to press on! I have to admit.. the whole canopy thing was the last straw as far as that round of work was concerned. I keep hoping to heading into a phase that doesn't have some glaring issue that needs fixing so when I went into canopy dry fitting and saw the giant pneumonia-hole I was a bit put off!!   

One problem is I have no "easy" build to do as a counterbalance to these two "more involved" builds. I need to grab some dinky lil prop jobber and get it cracking, along with the 737.

I also need to stop reading so many kit reviews... I keep finding things in them that make me eliminate kits from my on deck list.

To that end, I just selected a.....  ::::drumroll::::::     Pioneer2 1/72 Scale Fokker D.21 to be built OOB with glorious orange trianglels and tri-color camoflauge! I have two of these Fokker D.21s... one is this one and the other by Pegasus. Since I'll be doing no mods to it, even if it has problems, it should still prove to be a relatively simple, easy, and relaxing build.



Here's the 737:


I should paint it SEA cammo and hang bombs off it!!  (yeah right    )

[PR19_Kit]

They did use 737s as crew transports for the F-117s which flew out of Tonopah when the crews were based at Las Vegas. Somehow I do8ubt they were painted black though. 

[TheChronicOne]

HMMMMmmmm..... hmmmmmm..... Stealth Airliner....   ::::ponders:::::   


Actually I've been thinking a bit on my airliner as I do other things... whether or not to fill in the cockpit windows and just do the whole thing like a desktop. I guess I'll have a closer look at the clear piece that goes in there and determine whether or not it's something I can mask at my skill level. Can't recall if the kit had alternate transfers as those windows in which case a third option of filling them in completely comes into play. 

Work on the A-4 Liberty proceeds finally that I can open my window and use my exhaust fan! This is why I was so frustrated with this one.. at every stage I'm finding myself needing to do some heavy handed filing and sanding and I'm not trying to do that if I can't get that stuff out of here. I don't like wet-sanding.

Alas, I'm making progress on the canopy!!!! :



As I predicted, however, there now exists a fitment issue at the front where it meets the windscreen. Oh well, I'll take what I can get and just work this thing from back to front and it'll all be good eventually.

I'm putting it away for a while however because I want to play with the airliner kit!       It's coming out and I'm going to start trimming out parts and getting rid of attach point burrs and all that..... do a lil brainstormin' and instructions readin', etc.

[TheChronicOne]

Civil Real Airliner Project(say that 10 times fast. . . )  is underway!!!   



This is awesome. I've never done an airliner before and so far this one is really nice! 

[PR19_Kit]

Minicraft do quite a good job with their airliners, but you should try a Revell or Zvezda kit for 'state of the art' airliners.

[DogfighterZen]

Airliners are the type of aircraft i like to see painted with bright colors, i think that if i ever build one, it's gonna be blue and yellow with some black thrown into the mix...