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

[TheChronicOne]

More work being done on the cockpit. Painted the silver on the napalm bombs. Created the longer nose gear:





Also of note but not picture worthy is the glorious seam work I did on the Boeing 737! 98% of the fuselage seams are good to go with only a couple tiny areas that needed re-filling to be sanded down at my leisure. STILL waiting on the melted nose sink-holes to dry up but they're slowly getting there.

On the Raptor, I'm doing the finishing phase on the intake modifications I did. That is going well so far! I need to finish cleaning up the seams on the nose and front area of the fuselage forward of the wings/intakes but I've already done most of it.

NOW.... I'm finally going to open up this Fokker D.21 and get started on it! I'd like to trim the sprue of all un neccessary attach points, cut out the fuselage and wings, and clean everything up with files and sand paper as I go along. It would be nice to get some of it glued together, too, but I'm in no hurry. This one won't be a whif but the plane itself and that paint job are killer so this will be a fun project!

[TheChronicOne]

Yay!! Working some more on whatever I can without the need of my exhaust fan to clean the air while I sand. Wind out of the North again and that means I can't do that so I'm going to try to stick to painting and gluing whatever I can and doing as little as I can of things like cleaning up where I clip parts off the sprue. There's always at least a little bit of "slag" left over that needs a quick dash with the sand paper but If I can stick to just doing this here and there and leave the PSR for another day I can get quite a bit done.

Now I'm building an arrestor hook and housing for it to go on the bottom of the Liberty. It ought to help the plain and boring look of the bottom of the fuselage by having it on and of course it's required for being a Navy jet! 



I'm painting the new nose gear, have finished the napalm, and the 3 pieces on the right are what I'm going to chop up and re-arrange to make the arrestor hook. The one piece is actually from the F-5 kit and would have been one of the wing tip pylons. The thing I'll use for the hook actually came from a Star Trek USS Enterprise kit. One piece there I won't use, I'll just snip the little piece off of then it joins another just like it back into the parts stash.


The fuselage and wings are together on the Fokker D.21.  I will need to PSR are that before I actually put them together into the actual plane. The fitment wasn't all that great... deleting the alignment pins helped quite a bit with that and I think now it's just a matter of sanding away the seam lines. I've also glued the gear together. Those went together quite well!



Not a whole lot more I can do to this one right now... mayber clip out a couple more things but not likely as most of what's left are the tiny fiddly stuff.


Good news elsewhere, though!! The sink marks in the 737 nose are finally dried enough that I can start work to fill them in and get them leveled off. I'm going to try to put actual styrene in the areas to be filled and have less solid putty to help keep shrink at bay.

TTYL   

This kit is neat... it comes with alternate snow gear. They look like a cross between pontoons and skis!! Those will be a VERY welcome addition to the spare parts stash. Destined for whiffery fo' sho!

[TheChronicOne]

Working on the 737 today!!  Fun stuff. I like this kit. I can't wait to get into my Zvesda ones as well! I might just wind up an airliner junkie!

Any how... doing all I can to avoid major filing but I have been doing some sanding... WET sanding!     If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em....    I can't run the exhaust fan so I had to do something. If I don't adapt and over come everything will just grind to a halt.

Anyway... I managed to start adding parts to the wings after I sanded the edges. I also painted the fans and spinners. Lastly, I cleaned up and primed all the little parts after I made another FRANKENSPRUE. I didn't use glue on the sprue this time, though, I found a roll of old very crappy tape and used it instead.







Having a wee bit of trouble finding good reference pics so some parts of this build are taking awhile and slowing things down. Paint color-wise I assume some things to be universal (like gear bays perhaps) but other things may be carrier specific so I'm going to have to figure this out as I go because the fiddly stuff is ready for paint.

In other news, the tailhook is mainly together for now. I may refine it some more before I put a bit of silver paint on, or may leave it completely alone. I do need to make the pivot point fit into the housing but I'll likely do that after I glue the housing onto the fuselage.



TTYL

[PR19_Kit]

Having a wee bit of trouble finding good reference pics so some parts of this build are taking awhile and slowing things down. Paint color-wise I assume some things to be universal (like gear bays perhaps) but other things may be carrier specific so I'm going to have to figure this out as I go because the fiddly stuff is ready for paint.

Airliners.net is a good source for civvie pics, their search engine works by manufacturer, right down to the sub type, and user too. http://www.airliners.net/

Be sure to hit the 'Advanced' button on the search engine right at the bottom of the home page, it's much more comprehensive.

These days airliners don't tend to be too customer specific, but if you pay the money etc...... 

Back in the day they could almost design their own aircraft, I'm not at all sure if Boeing ever built two Model 377 Stratocrusiers the same, they even have different shaped windows on some versions!

[zenrat]

737 with a tailhook.  Man that would be one heck of a big carrier.
Or maybe just a small airport with no room to expand?
I'd like to see the catapult they'd use for take off.
Hmmm, maybe this is Tracey Island?
🤓

[TheChronicOne]

Having a wee bit of trouble finding good reference pics so some parts of this build are taking awhile and slowing things down. Paint color-wise I assume some things to be universal (like gear bays perhaps) but other things may be carrier specific so I'm going to have to figure this out as I go because the fiddly stuff is ready for paint.

Airliners.net is a good source for civvie pics, their search engine works by manufacturer, right down to the sub type, and user too. http://www.airliners.net/

Be sure to hit the 'Advanced' button on the search engine right at the bottom of the home page, it's much more comprehensive.

These days airliners don't tend to be too customer specific, but if you pay the money etc...... 

Back in the day they could almost design their own aircraft, I'm not at all sure if Boeing ever built two Model 377 Stratocrusiers the same, they even have different shaped windows on some versions!

Glorious! I'll be on my way.       I visit that site from time to time... I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to go there instead of google images. I often wind up there after looking for non airliner stuff, in fact. 

737 with a tailhook.  Man that would be one heck of a big carrier.
Or maybe just a small airport with no room to expand?
I'd like to see the catapult they'd use for take off.
Hmmm, maybe this is Tracey Island?
🤓

Totally could be done on one of our existing carriers!  C-130, dimensionally, is larger than a 737 and they landed it on the Forrestal.     If they can land a C-130,..... etc.   I just wonder about other things like landing speed and such but I bet they could make it work.    This actually sounds really awesome. I'd pay money to see it happen.

Someone here ought to make one and paint it up like a modern day Skywarrior or something......... 

[TheChronicOne]

Goin' for the gusto today! I've concluded that to finish off the cockpit repair and re-structure on the Liberty that I should go ahead and paint the interior, finish tapering the fuselage to meet the nose, then go ahead and glue on the canopy and windscreen. After that, I can PSR everything as a whole and get it all nice and solid and lookin' good. Then, I'll mask the the stuff and paint it all along with the rest of the plane. I'll also glue on the tail planes, nose, and arrestor hook housing at this point just before priming. I hope to have all this done today... we'll see. I'm really eager to see what it all looks like with everything glued on and in the same color!   

This will eat up plenty of time today but I'd also like to get the Raptor to the point where I could prime it, too. This would mean I need to finish the PSR on the front/nose areas and finally glue on the fins. The intake repair is nearly done but I need to sand on that a little bit more, too.

If I get a change, I'd like to put the bondo on the nose of the 737. It's ready for it. I try to find a way to put some styrene down in the sink marks but I would have had to chop it up very tiny and I don't think it'll matter in the end. The sink marks look deeper than they are, apparently...

Lastly, there is filing/sanding that I need to do on the Fokker plane. That shouldn't take too long then I can glue the wings on.

This is a pretty ambitious agenda but I have nothing but time on my hands today once I get back home from work. Should be a rainy day so .... no point in trying to get any more outside work done and I've been busting my arse on inside chores all week so I can sit down and build all day without feeling guilty. 

[TheChronicOne]

Huh!!!  I got carried away. I'm working on the rest but I have to stop and cut a hole in the bottom and build a new gear bay! Can't be forgetting that!



Won't be nuttin' fancy. Just some of this card stuff cut up and glued together. 




.. .. . OOps!  LOL!!!  I forgot I was making this post!!! HA!!! It's about an hour later and I've already completed the entire thing (gear bay). 

I'm not even working on that one any more!     Working on the Raptor now. 

Anyway... I am DONE with PSR for now on this Raptor and I am going through and making sure I'm not forgetting anything. If not, I glue on the fins, then glue on the canopy and it's ready for primer!! 

[TheChronicOne]

Wow!! Sure enough, I was forgetting some things. Odd, though, as this is COCKPIT stuff that should have went on when I did the rest... Instead, the HUD and the stuff that attaches (two parts) to the canopy are way in the back of the instructions booklet.    I guess it makes sense in a way because this is when they would have you glue on the canopy but uhhh.... that's fine I guess but not how I would have done it and obviously how I'm NOT doing it.   

So any how.... I painted and glued on the ram and other stuff that goes in the back of the cockpit and then did the same with the HUD. I also had to go back in and do touch up here in there on high points and corners where some of the paint rubbed off from handling. Cockpit looks better now though and is all done! 


Yeah I know the grey edges are rough but that will be hidden under and behind the bottom of the canopy... no fuss, no muss. No point in making that look perfect just to glue something over it. 


HUD up, homies?! 

Fins are on also and now it's starting to look like a whole airplane:



I'm starting to feel pretty good about this one!! There is a lot of fiddly stuff (tons of doors and hinges and yadda yadda) ahead but if worse comes to worse I can chuck it all out the window and build it all buttoned up. It's nice having an option play. 

Here's the current status of the Liberty, as well. For now I'm having it sit around and some of the stuff I've done on the cockpit walls dries up. After it is nice and solid I can go on ahead and get the nose put on and matched up with the fuselage. I've decided to do that before I put the canopy on in case I need to grip the piss out of it and apply elbow grease.




AWWWW HOW CUTE!!!  They made friends and givin piggy back rides! 

[TheChronicOne]

Spamming the place up because lots of things are happening. Not every day is this productive!

I found one more item to put on the Raptor pre-primer and those would be the exhaust thingies:


Good to go! I decided to pose mine open because .... well.. I forget why.. but I researched it one day and came to the conclusion that this is what I wanted...

I found a small stretch of fin that wasn't actually glued together somehow so I glued that and put a mini clothes pin on it... then...   I did something I've never done before........ Brad's first integrated canopy build!!! In other words, I glued the canopy on before primer and paint instead of nearly dead last. Good practice and will definitely make a better end result.


Look!!! I even managed to NOT put too much glue on and have it splooging out all over the fuselage!    Looks like I need a lil more sanding down by the wing root....



It's coming along nicely. . .       

Time to put it away for awhile and let everything settle. I'll start tinkering with the Fokker, now. It needs filing and sanding of seams and while I'm running the exhaust fan, it's a good time. 

[PR19_Kit]

Erm............. shouldn't those exhaust thingies both point the same way?

If the top part of one side is down the bottom part of the same side should also be down too, but on the other side both parts could be up, or anywhere else even.

[TheChronicOne]

I dunno! I just do what the "stuff" tells me to. 









No clue why they're like that. 

[PR19_Kit]

Oooer, I didn't know they could do that. 

I wonder why?

[zenrat]

Oooer, I didn't know they could do that. 

I wonder why?

Open wide, here comes an Archer...

[scooter]

Oooer, I didn't know they could do that. 

I wonder why?

Open wide, here comes an Archer...