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

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah it is pretty funny how that goes! Gotta shut off that critical eye sometimes.

This time I got lucky because as it dried and laid down flatter, some of the crazing all but disappeared. I had to make a call on this; I'm over here thinking that I could do it alright but I've never tried to sand back and redo just patches of an already finished paint job. Like I said, I THINK I could do it, but since I never HAVE, I decided not to risk it. With the tailplane, however, It's isolated from the rest of the plane so I can mask around it and redo the whole thing, no worries, so I did that part (and it was by far the worse bit of crazing). But a section of fuselage in the middle of the plane??  If I don't blend it right, it could stick out like a sore thumb. I'll save that battle for another day...    for now, I'm really loving how this is looking and I decided I like the paint work so much, I'd rather not risk losing it.    (then I WOULD have to redo the entire topside.  )

I'm going to try to get it finished up tomorrow. I need to decal it which will involve some trimming of the transfers. Also, I heard through the grapevine that the decals dont like to conform over curves (like forward wing edges) so I have purchased some Mirosol and Microset as an emergency measure if I encounter this problem. At some point I need to glue on the canopy, as well, so I can put on my tape framing. I decided I wanted to actually put the canopy on first so that the bottom pieces of tape can be properly places so as to leave no gaps along the bottom.. 

[zenrat]

I sometimes find I am too close to the problem.  Literally.
Because i'm peering at it up close while sanding or whatever I forget that it will be usually seen from a distance of greater then 2 inches and when I hold it further away it looks fine.

[NARSES2]

I sometimes find I am too close to the problem.  Literally.

Especially when wearing a magnifying visor

[TheChronicOne]

I've done the same thing to "big" runs a few times. Like, with my clear....  it looks terrible and huge in the moment because the paint is so wet, and I'm right up in it. But, once the paint dries up that run smoothes out considerably then looking at it a couple feet away on the shelf.... it's like..... "Eh!  It's fine!!"   Turns out the work and effort... and time.. spent trying to correct it (which is never guaranteed to be succesful) is harder to live with than the run I can't see unless I stick my face in it.

This right here always helps, too: Any result is a result and even when things go bad, if you can figure it WHY, you have still learned something so a valuable gain in knowledge is a success. Then I say, "i'll make sure to remember this and do better on the next one." It makes it easier to just leave mistakes and move on. Besides, if i were to go on as a quilter, I'd leave a mistake in the quilt model anyway per SOP. 

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, Brad!  That's one of my favorite little models, to be honest! I love how it turned out and it was a masking success story with all them sunbeams and stuff.  Has glorious cigarette transfer on it which is a favorite touch, too. The like is verboten these days in most instances.

Good ol' Racin' GB is coming up soon and I have 2 or 3 more little glider kits that I'd like to turn into racing gliders as well. Fancy colors and schemes and more race car corporate advertisement jive. 

[TheChronicOne]

Started trimming out the transfers for the Yak 53. They have a very wide border on all of 'em. Some are slightly too large so I need that stuff gone so I can place them on the plane and see what I need to trim away. I'll do this with my blade and trusty cutting mat.    I'm not sure if I'm going to do any of this right now or not. I've put it away for now to work on other things.

One of which is the BAC-111 which is now having a solid smooth nose/cockpit area:



I did the best I could to maintain the facets so the windows actually look flat like they're supposed to. I hope it works. It looks alright but I'll know for sure when I put the transfer on.



I've masked the wings off and now I can spray it white then I'll let it alone for a few days, then I'll need to mask so I can paint the black lower portion of the fuselage and rear part of the fin.

After that, I'll gloss it. Then, I'll take the masking off the wings and mask the fuselage and glue the fences on, prime the wings one last time, then that will be the end of masking aside from silver strips on the wing leading edges and the engines, which I will do dead last because I will spray them with my magical silver paint. It can't be touched or glossed over so it needs to be put on last.

Going to try to get the Hustler fuselage situation figured out. I need to figure out how to address the windows, canopies, and the order in which to start priming it.

[Old Wombat]

IT'S A DRONE!!!

[TheChronicOne]

IT'S A DRONE!!!

Actually, that would make for one hell of a whif!! Drone airliners....  wow, could you imagine? I'd never set foot on one.     

It's probably just a matter of time, though. They're already in the process of perfecting driverless taxis.



Anyway, a quick update, the second coat of white is on. Picture quality is lousy but it gets the point across! I'll now let it sit for a few days then I'll put the black on.

[zenrat]

Drone airliner?  I'd fly on one no problem.  They're on autopilot all the time while cruising anyway and i'm sure they have some sort of auto land system now as well.
Just don't do away with the flight attendants.

[NARSES2]

Drone airliner?  I'd fly on one no problem.  They're on autopilot all the time while cruising anyway and i'm sure they have some sort of auto land system now as well.
Just don't do away with the flight attendants.

Yup. I'd trust a drone airliner far more then a drone taxi or bus

[TheChronicOne]

Not me, man! They need to perfect the technology first. Computers can only do what they are programmed to do, that's why these automated cars are already racking up body counts. These, compared with aircraft and all the stuff involved like talking to ATC and doing checklists, both of which would require some new fandangled systems and hardware, are so much simpler and they can't even get it right yet. They can drive, they can park, they turn, but they can't account for the drug fueled crackhead that drops from the light pole into the middle of the street(of course, neither can we sometimes, but that computer might not be programmed for crackhead-avoidance where I've had things magically appear in the street, like animals, and I've managed to avoid them). If I'm in my 737 and taking off and we fly through a flock of crackheads... er... geese.. I wan't Sully in there, not an iPad.   

We've already had big airliner crashes due to faulty programming in automated systems. Just a single system thinking one thing was happening, when actually another was, was enough to smite the aircraft. It would just get worse with dozens of new ones. In fact, the tech exists now to make it happen. There are aircraft that could be made to take off, fly, and land with out a human taking the controls but we just don't trust them to do it without supervision so even these aircraft have have human pilots in the cockpit to take over in the event R2 flips his wig and wants to fly into a mountain.

Who knows what the future holds, however? 50 or more years from now? We could have a massive breakthrough in tech that makes "living" AI computers that can think and do stuff like a human does but then it's all "Skynet" this and "Terminator" that...  blahb lah blah..       I think I like the sound of "Aerodrone" Airlines, though. Could blank the cockpit like on the 1-11 up there and then put a few antennas on top and bottom for the new widgets and gear. Could be pretty neat to make it slightly future-ey-looking with the paint job or additions to the airframe.

[NARSES2]

Who knows what the future holds, however? 50 or more years from now?

Absolutely when I think of the changes I've seen since 1952  and really even in the last 20 years or so 

[TheChronicOne]

Who knows what the future holds, however? 50 or more years from now?

Absolutely when I think of the changes I've seen since 1952  and really even in the last 20 years or so 

Same!!     It's funny.. sometimes I stop..... and say to myself, "Wow, I'm in the future!!!"     I truly feel like that sometimes and I think to myself how nice it is to have some of the stuff around. I can barely remember the way things were before some of this stuff. Like a cellphone even..... I remember having to drive all the way home... or... find a damn payphone just to be able to talk to someone. Now, I couldn't imagine the colossal PITA it would be if I didn't have the capability to make and take calls from anywhere I may be at.   Then stuff like wireless technology, talking buttons that shop for you, and all the other fancy really nice stuff coming out these days...  If I could stop buying model kit crap I could own some of this stuff...       

[PR19_Kit]

They're on autopilot all the time while cruising anyway and i'm sure they have some sort of auto land system now as well.

The world's first commercial aircraft auto-landing took place on June 10th 1965, with a BEA DH Trident at Heathrow.

A year or so before 9/11 I was lucky enough to be sitting in the cockpit jump seat of a BA 767 which did a  full auto-land at Milan Linate, an awe-inspiring experience!

[TheChronicOne]

Early morning cobwebs aside, I think I can come up with a plan today. I'd like to mask and paint the black portion on the BAC-111 then gloss it. It will sit a few days then I can remove the masking on the wings, mask the fuselage, then glue the fences on and re-prime the wings. I'm trying to wait until as late as possible to glue those fences on because of how easy it'll be to snap them back off but I can't wait much longer to get the wings painted...   

Today may also be the day that I "go for it" on the transfers for the Yak-53. I trimmed out the more tedious shapes the other day and have all that sitting ready to be further trimmed after I dry fit them to the plane. I'll have to use hobby blade, straight edge, and cutting mat to keep things straight.



My thoughts now turn to the flying avalanche mitigation artillery battery, so far "Avalancer" for privately ran civil company that flies to ski resorts and mountain passes clearing avalanche prone areas.

I'd like to use something OTHER than a Hercules. Something stable at slow speeds would be nice... something w/ a decently sized fuselage with room for a couple of these avalanche cannons (and people and stuff). I'm not sure if it being pressurized or not makes any difference. I suppose I'll need to make a short list of suspects then start eliminating the ones that won't work. Off hand, maybe a DC-6 or.... an Electra 188 or something??

Other thoughts about a name for a company, a livery for the plane, and how to build some avalanche cannons (which I think are pneumatic for the most part) and cut holes in the side of the plane without compromising structural integrity if it is one of those types where the skin and frame work are also part of the load bearing stuff.