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

[TheChronicOne]

Hmmm... I wonder who's going to spot one of them next.... or both for the double point score bonus.   



Plans for the day?? I haven't thought a whole lot about it because it's going to possibly be a crazy work day. I'm behind in my lawns now but on the other hands people are coming out the wood work like crazy. I'm going to be mowing every work day from here until about 10 days from at LEAST and that would be right about when the cycle starts up again so I might not have a lawn-free day for a long time. Money coming in now so I can pay bills and buy kits. 

So yeah, as far as plans... I'd like to finish decalling the Raptor. Then I can put on all the weapons bay doors and gear doors then that's about it I think??  One last coat of clear, in satin, at the end, then peel away the tape on the canopy and see what I have. I might finish this today but I'm not counting on it.

[zenrat]

June Allyson watch:

I came in from the shed to find June Allyson once again married to James Stewart.  This time in the Glenn Miller Story.
He's just been drafted so there should be some interesting aircraft in the background.

I spotted C-47s, something small and twin engined with a NMF finish, a C-54, a B-17 and at the end a Norseman (which gets name checked when it goes missing).
I was impressed that they went to the effort of finding the correct aircraft for him to take his last flight in.  It was missing invasion stripes though which the Matchbox/Revell kit has (although that doesn't mean they are correct).

[scooter]

Man...  is it just me or is his wife annoying? 

I've never really thought about it, but I can now see what you mean. Mind you no wonder Jimmy had to quit the Air Force with a dodgy back/shoulder/neck whatever, it was all that bending down to give her a smacker. She's tiny compared to Jimmy 

Except he retired a BG in the USAFR.  Duxford has his service jacket.

[TheChronicOne]

Good God, I give up. Sooo many transfers! 

I'd like to be done with this today but I'm not pushing my luck. I still have about 40 to go and I've putting putting them on for ....   3-4 hours now?!     (not counting the 2-3 hours the other night)

Oh well, they're all going on, even the tiny ones.

In other news, I finished painting the doors, for good, and they have been glossed so they are ready to be cut apart (the ones I haven't done so yet) and can be glued on whenever I'm done with the markings. There's also a bunch of hinges that need to go on as well. I also noticed that there are a couple pitot tubes (or whatever) that go on the nose so I need to paint those (they look a lot like the hinges so I guess I missed them earlier!), I also had to stop and paint a couple things I missed around the control surfaces on the main wings.

All this malarkey combined as ground progress down to a crawl but I tell you.... I'm happy with how it's going. No hiccups at all so far (aside from the missed paint and pitot tube) so a lot of work has been accomplished. The next time I actually sit down to work on it will almost certainly be the last of it.


SO... the other 40 transfers are going on then all this stuff goes away. I might work a little on the Liberty after. I need to do touch-up paint on that one. I also got started scratch building a refueling mast and probe.    COMPLETELY spaced on that. I had two options: Do it like on the F-5E (did the others have 'em??  I dunno.. ) with the little crook-neck stuff or kind of duplicated the long pole-lookin' stuff on the A-4s. I'm trash at scratch building certain things so I'm going for the long mast probe. I've already put in about an hour on it... sanding and working on a piece of sprue to get it to the proper diameter. This has been rough...   at first I tried to find something that was the right size but failed in that so I've been trying to work this piece of sprue like a table leg on a lathe.      In fact, I almost chucked it up in my drill and would let 'er rip at 8,000 RPMS or whatever as I sanded it but naaaaaaaah.  I could see that possibly going wrong so I've been doing it the old fashioned way. The thing will still be fatter than the one on the A4 but I don't think it matters too awfully much, being a whif and all, and who's to say Northrop didn't design it that way on purpose?


TTYL...

[TheChronicOne]

Alllllll done with transfers!

Ton of hours in these. I trimmed almost every last edge right down to the actual marking to ensure a good fit and no problems. I think it was worth it because they will look better and I had only a couple of fitment issues but otherwise 99% a smooth operation (aside from all the time!)

Some of them:



The fuel tanks:




No more pictures of the "main event" because it would spoil the "big reveal." All that remains now are to glue on the weapons bay doors, the gear doors, to swiftly paint and attach the pitot tubes, and attach all the hinges. After that I can satin clear then it will be done.

Speaking of done.. it's 9pm and I've been chuggin away since about 1 o'clock so I've had enough. I don't want to push my luck!! So, I guess I'll go bomb Nazis or something in Warthunder.   

[Old Wombat]

I want to see you do the decals on a Japanese F-15 or F-4!

[zenrat]

Yes.  The Red Phantom drove me bonkers.

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,42639.msg738034.html#msg738034
I had to do it in stages to preserve my sanity.

[TheChronicOne]

I want to see you do the decals on a Japanese F-15 or F-4!

Look what I have:






Having worked on this thing, and it not being so bad, I'm not as apprehensive about it as I used to be.  Just have to been firmly on board and acknowledge the fact that "doing decals" is going to take a number of DAYS on something like that.

The one that's going to be nutty is the 1/144 An-124. That thing has.. uhh.... like... 500 some odd transfers, most of them being tiny little stencils and stuff.     The sheet is the size of the entire box and the box is LARGE.

[TheChronicOne]

Yes.  The Red Phantom drove me bonkers.

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,42639.msg738034.html#msg738034
I had to do it in stages to preserve my sanity.

Phabulous!! 

That's the only way to do it, really. I started work on the Raptor knowing I wouldn't finish it that day. Took my sweetazz time about it and did them one or two at a time, trimming them to zero the whole time. It was pretty fun, really. I'd stick a couple on and mark them off on the instructions and while it was slow, I definitely felt like I was making progress.

[NARSES2]

Man...  is it just me or is his wife annoying? 

I've never really thought about it, but I can now see what you mean. Mind you no wonder Jimmy had to quit the Air Force with a dodgy back/shoulder/neck whatever, it was all that bending down to give her a smacker. She's tiny compared to Jimmy 

Except he retired a BG in the USAFR.  Duxford has his service jacket.

Absolutely, and I've seen it.

I've always been a great admirer of Mr Stewart

[scooter]

Man...  is it just me or is his wife annoying? 

I've never really thought about it, but I can now see what you mean. Mind you no wonder Jimmy had to quit the Air Force with a dodgy back/shoulder/neck whatever, it was all that bending down to give her a smacker. She's tiny compared to Jimmy 

Except he retired a BG in the USAFR.  Duxford has his service jacket.

Absolutely, and I've seen it.

I've always been a great admirer of Mr Stewart

As have I, and SWMBO appreciates his ability to act in Westerns.  He kept his Hollywood and Air Force careers distinctly separate, which today would be almost impossible today.

[TheChronicOne]

Saint Jimmy preserve, I'm making the "big push" today on the Raptor and Liberty BOTH. I'm aiming to be finished with them by early evening.

The Liberrty just needs maybe 20 minutes worth of touch up then I can gloss it, let it sit for a couple hours (maybe one, depending on atmo. conditions), then start on transfers. There aren't many.... so, at my slowwww pace even, it shouldn't take more than an hour (two, max; I'm distracted easily) then I can glue on all the fiddly bits which are already painted and ready to go. That's that on that one after the last coat of clear.

Raptor just needs hinges, pitot tubes, and doors glued on then it can have it's last coat of clear (I hope this works, if it goes candy coat on me again I'll have to go get some matte) and the masking taken from the canopy.


This is all if everything goes well today. I have 3 jobs scheduled with a doctors appointment sandwiched right in the middle. I had initally planned on only ONE job today -- the picking up trash one, but the rain has forced my hand and I have had to put two on the schedule. The saving grace is that they are both smallish so I should be able to do one before I go, then after, when it's nice and hot, the other one shouldn't take more than half an hour so hopefully I won't fry too long in the heat. If all this mess goes well I ought to be home by noon and hopefully I still have energy by then to move swiftly with my building.

[TheChronicOne]

8 parts to go on the Raptor!! I'll have pics of that, ETA: 2 hours.

Finishes the painting on the Liberty, too, I THINK. All I need to do now is glue on the fuel probe and maybe the gear. I'll make a judgment call on them as to whether or not they are stout enough to travel along while I do transfers. Then.. it's off to gloss. I don't know if I'll actually finish it or not... but.... I figure while the Raptor is having its last coat of clear sitting around to dry, I can start decalling on it. That's all I can really do anyway unless I were to finally start my F-15 project which still hasn't seen the light of day other than to clip out the fuselage halves.

After all this, I have my next builds planned out already. The F-15 will definitely be started. It's for the GB but for now I'm not planning any others for it because I'm wanting to do another airliner. Love me some airliners!!! I'm going to build real world BAC 111 Aer Lingus. Neato!!!  Also, real world, I'm going to build one of my Cousteua PBY-6.     I think them bad boys are covered up in huge rivets?! May have to sand it all away if it will make transfers treacherous?! We'll see!! I'll post some pics of the plastic before I get started so we can gawk at it and make conclusions.


Sorry, no pics. No point in posting any. Liberty, while "cleaner" now with the paint work finish basically looks just like it did before and any pictures of the Raptor might spoil the "big reveal" so we're stuck in "text only" for now. 

[TheChronicOne]

2 hours to the minute from last update. I WOULD have had pics by now but I accidentally cleared it with gloss!!!!!     Woops!!!!   So I had to grab the RIGHT can and re-do it in Satin. Thankfully it worked but it set me behind a bit.

I'm peeling the tape off the canopy now. I sure hope nothing goes wrong at this late stage of the build. 

In other news... the fuel probe was finished and attached to the Liberty and it has been glossed. I'll start the transfers on it in about half an hour. I'd love to get it done tonight but I still have things that might slow me down like getting my scratch build nose gear bay to talk to my elongated kit-bashed nose gear...   That's after the transfers. One of which I'll have to chop up to get to fit between weapons pylons.      (good ol' star and bar has to go somewhere!)

[TheChronicOne]

All done!!

Revell 1/72 F-22 Raptor painted with Anita's acrylic craft paints with the trusty hairy stick(s). Somali Air Force.



Big shout out to PantherG for whipping up the profile for this so I'd have something to work from. The paint scheme was initially on an F-16 and I told him I'd like to slap it on an F-22. Less than 24 hours later he had a profile made up. 

Said Profile with my attempt:














































AS ALWAYS.....   It's bright and sunny all afternoon until I decided to go outside and take pictures so... I might take some more at some point. 

This was pretty fun! It was a ton of work, though.





EDIT:  OOOhhhh boy!! Postman brought me a bunch of stuff today!!!!   Catch me in the stash thread.