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

[zenrat]

I was thinking about that.  And I did wonder if there was plan for it to be an agricultural aircraft with the tank for whatever it was spraying right on the CoG.

[TheChronicOne]

Plausible! It would make for a good crop duster. Another thing to consider is that these were used somewhat as aerobatic aircraft so perhaps being a bit un stable was looked at as a plus. Not sure about design theory in such a thing. I know some newer jets are sort of designed that way and rely on computers to help keep the stuff aloft. 

It could just be front heavy from inception? Front engine and tricycle gear. Not on that, but the main gear actually fold FORWARD when retracted, moving the CoG that much further to the front.

This thing is neat... sort of like the A-10, the geat all stick out still once retracted in case of some mechanical failure or Comrade With Too Much Potato-Elixir forgets to lower his glorious hero landing gear. There's even a skid on the back. 


So anyhow.... I'd definitely like to work on this one today. Talking about it has me amped up to get it done. All I need to do now is PSR the plate thing I glued on the other day. I know why it was like that, and I've already answered it myself. Of course the plate thing is there as the front cockpit was removed. DUH.     But anyway.... I get that all blended in and a little more sanding on the seams in a couple areas and I can glue on the tail planes see where I stand. I've already painted the landing gear aside from touch up so I'll knock that out then maybe start working on getting the canopy frame work adressed. I was going to try painted tape strips. Should be interesting. Once problem I can see occuring is that having to cut such thin strips, the tape won't want to stay stuck to the cutting mat and move and I wind up with curved cuts. I may wind up ordering up some tape ahead of schedule..


I'd like to get the ATR halves together. I need to put weight in it and I think I'll put in some sprue tabs or something to help with alignment and to make things nice and solid.


Time to paint the Spitfire. Time to paint the canopy for it. I have to finish painting the gear,  etc.

BAC 1-11... uhhh..... I forget what the hell is going on there but I think I decided to go ahead and sand the wing tops smooth. I lost some ever so light amount of detail getting the old wing fence areas sanded down. I still need to skim coat them and level them off, too, and by time I do this the amount of detail I've lost will make it all look bad and I'm unable to add it back so I'm left with no choice, really. I think it's probably the proper decision anyway. You can't see that stuff in pictures and them little box things would be like 6 inches tall in scale or whatever. Sheesh .         A shame though, because it all looks so cool.


Still trimming things out and doing preliminary gluing on the F-52. Usually by time I start on the blasted thing I'm tired, it's close to bed time, and half the time I've had like 5 cans of beers so I can't get started. The instructions are confusing as HELL and mainly in Japanese. At the same time, I'm trying to figure out what little bits and pieces to leave on the sprue to make painting easier and since I don't even have my paint plan locked in this is proving to be a pain in the arse.

[zenrat]

Try sticking the tape down on a piece of glass to cut it.  Cutting mats, as well as being likely to having all sorts dust and other smeg on them, will flex slightly when you apply pressure to cut the tape.  This will lead to non-linear cuts.
I got my piece of glass from the local glass suppliers.  It's a sample piece (from when I was sourcing a glass splash back for the kitchen) with bevelled edges so there is no chance i'll cut myself on it.

[NARSES2]

with bevelled edges so there is no chance i'll cut myself on it.

Famous last words ? 

[zenrat]

I'd have to break it to get a sharp edge.  Which is always a possibility...

[PR19_Kit]

I use an old mirror tile for cutting masks, it has bevelled edges too.

[TheChronicOne]

Try sticking the tape down on a piece of glass to cut it.  Cutting mats, as well as being likely to having all sorts dust and other smeg on them, will flex slightly when you apply pressure to cut the tape.  This will lead to non-linear cuts.
I got my piece of glass from the local glass suppliers.  It's a sample piece (from when I was sourcing a glass splash back for the kitchen) with bevelled edges so there is no chance i'll cut myself on it.

Ah!!!    There we go. I'll do that. I have 6-8 of these littles pieces that are bevelled and used to be like... glass shelves for some little stand or some crap... something...  Anyway, they're about the same size as my mat and I can use one of those.

[TheChronicOne]

I lost a ton of time this afternoon contemplating a build... I won't go into all that, other than to say it ate up too much time!


Either way, I'm slowly getting other things done as well. I have the Spitfire progressing now. It has been painted black. The idea being that as I paint the other colors, if I go a bit thin in places or what have you, the black will sort of bleed through as weathering. "Black basing."

I've also finished painting the props and spinner and the canopy.


"Supermarine Blackfire."

Next up will be to mask down the middle of the underside, and an aileron (or two), and paint the white on with rattle can again. The top colors, the camo, will be brush painted. I still need to ascertain whether or not the opposing aileron is painted black or white with the rest of it. As I mentioned prior, I have conflicting results on this in my research.


Not much else has been done but I'm about ready to work on something else. I might sand a bit on the BAC 111 nose, and see how that goes.

After that I might get back to work on the ATR 72. I need to put weight in it.

[zenrat]

I don't remember ever seeing white ailerons on the backs side & vice versa.  But then i've not exactly made an exhaustive study of the subject.

Did they paint bigger aircraft in the half and half scheme?  A Heyford might look quite good done that way.

[Old Wombat]

Well, a quick search reveals these;





Actual period images are few & far between for these short-lived recognition schemes but;





Hope this helps, Brad.

[TheChronicOne]

I'm getting three different results. Only one matches the instructions but the instructions aren't the be all and end all. I've find numerous mistakes in instructions! 

So far: Port side black with white aileron, stdb side white with black aileron

           Port side black with white aileron, stbd side white with white aileron <-------------------   Best one so far, matches instructions and most pics of other peoples' builds

           Port side all black (icluding aileron), stbd side all white (including aileron).

Here's my theory... the control surfaces are "white" but only in as such as a descriptor. Being cloth they aren't the same shade as the rest of the white on the bottom of the aircraft and look a shade or two darker.  Maybe some of the people looking at black and white instructions misinterpreted the color coding or something, I dunno, and wound up with one black aileron or painted them over completely on the black side. I think the both-ailerons-white combo is the one I need and that the person(s) that painted the one on the white side black goofed and either the solid colored versions are wrong completely or on a different aircraft, not my WZ-T.

I'm going with this unless some breaking news comes across my desk.



Nothing going on today! I managed to get a lot more of the tedious clean up work done on the ATR-72 wings last night. I stopped short of gluing them together because it was getting late. They're looking good though. Like with other things, I had to sand and file and check fit about 30 times and each time I'd find some new little nook or something that needed to be filed off. I accidentally filed away a couple of tiny nubs on the lower side of the wings that connect to control surface hinges or ARE the hinge housings or whatever but, amazingly, I had the conscience of mind to not only notice it, but make a note of it (on the wing itself  ) so I don't forget to take a wee bit of putty (or hell, I bet gel CA would work, these things are smaaaalll) and put a couple little blobs back on the wings.

I can close up the fuselage any ol' time if I had just put the damn weight in. I don't know why I keep putting it off but there's nothing holding up putting the main "stuff" together other than that. If I can get the weight in I can also glue on the wings and we'll have a proper plane. Luckily, the horizontal stabs are single pieces (although the instructions show them as 4 split pieces... must be a carry-over from the ATR-42 kit or something??? When they made the 72s the switched over to whole stabs?  )  Whatever, it's brilliant because on a kit like this, them being whole will save a ton of work and time. So yeah.... I'll have the whole plane together at that point and it'll be a matter of getting started on the engines and gluing on the little triange things. I guess they're the "rails" or something that the flaps ride on or.. something..   whatever, hell, I'm not an engineer. 


EDIT:  Oh yeah, heading closer and closer to, hands down, the most troublesome part of this kit: the prop blades. I've looked closer at these and at real ones and just get more confused. So.... there's a 6 blade and 4 blade prop. I think I would like to use the 4 blade version (earlier versions) although the 6 will work, too, if need be. Pretty sure both types flew over head... anyway. The props they give you for the 4 blade version DO NOT look right. The 6 blade ones do (although terribly molded in most cases). All the picture I see, the blades themselves look the same, it's just the number of them are different. In short, the 6 blade props look more accurate AS the 4 blade props than the actual 4 blade props. So....   I'm going to have to RESEARCH hARD CORP , yet again, on all this crap, until I come up with a happy solution. As it is right now, I'd be tempted to use the 6 blades props on the 4 blade spinner and call it a day.  Another thing, 98% of the pictures of these I see on the ground not running show the props feathered. I wonder if the kit allows for this or if I'll be doing surgery . . ..

[TheChronicOne]

Well, a quick search reveals these;





Actual period images are few & far between for these short-lived recognition schemes but;





Hope this helps, Brad.

Ahhh!!!      Most glorious... you posted while I was typing out my bigass pile of text I just posted!


So I'm NOT losing my mind here... and neither are other people. I just need to figure out which one was on WZ-T and pretty sure not the prototype version, for sure!! I'll look at these closer now.   

Thanks!!!!

[TheChronicOne]

Oooh yeah, there we go!! perfect!!  1939 early.... the control surfaces where the dope aluminum color prior to paint. That's what I want!! fantastic!!!!

PROBLEM solved.

Combat Wombat saves the day.

[NARSES2]

Did they paint bigger aircraft in the half and half scheme?  A Heyford might look quite good done that way.

Not that I'm aware of. I think it was just a Fighter Command recognition feature. Could well be wrong though, that early period of the War can get a tad confusing.

[PR19_Kit]

The Whirlwind looks REALLY good with the black/white undersides. I didn't know they did that.