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

[TheChronicOne]

I considered making a whole new thread somewhere for this but there may already be one (and I don't feel like scouring the 8 pages or whatever it was in the search results for a duplicate) but I may as well bring it up here, why not? 


I'm curious about Eastern Express................   what is it they do? I was under the impression that they took old defunct molds and and stuff from other companies or whatever to make it anew. Is this the case or partially the case? Do they make their own stuff from scratch or whatever or re-pops or some combination? I just stumbled across a whole slew of 1/144 airport vehicles that they make (completely by accident mind, it's just a coincidence that I'm messing with my own right now in 1/72). Lots of stuff, tugs, busses, gas trucks, etc. I could look stuff up on scalemates (and probably will after I eat lunch) but I was just wondering after I saw those as I had not seen any before by any other company. Just curious how they operate I guess...

[TheChronicOne]

Does anyone happen to know which specific vehicles these Heller 1/72 airport trucks are supposed to be? Other than being Renault, I have no clue. A simple search of "Renault Fuel Truck" has me getting nowhere. Of course, I will try some other things before giving up, but I thought I'd go ahead and ask here while I'm at it.



EDIT:  Oh yeah, while I'm here, I may as well post a picture!! I'm going to work on the fuel truck first:

[TheChronicOne]

You know, it's kind of nice to decompress and work on something that is nearly mindless.

I've primered the cab, the bed, and tank on the Fuel Truck. I've found a shade of blue to use that isn't correct any more than the original shade, better though, but I've decided to the chill out this time and simply build instead of getting bogged down in details. I'd still like to know more about the vehicles, of course, but I'm not going to let it influence how I approach these.

To that end, I'm going to paint them as depicted on the box art. Nice and neutral so they work with models I would potentially put with them. There are zero instructions for painting, however, so on to me to make things up. So, I'll paint the interiors that common tan/beige color with accents in black as the interior stuff is molded that color already.  There's nothing to be seen in here... no steering wheel, no dash, no shifter.... uhhh... nothing but SEATS.     Truly, these are toys, NOT models. Still, they ARE models though if they are accurate and in scale, yeah?  At least I can paint them and assemble them!   

First pitfall (other than the interior): The cab windows.  As I mentioned, they are molded in one "bath tub" piece, as in toys like Hotwheels/Matchbox or any number of little toy cars. As a result, the fitment is terrible and wildly inaccurate. I won't even describe it... I'll just try to post a close-up picture at some point. Even so, I think with a decent paint job and the transfers these should wind up looking pretty cool. 

For now, I'll paint a little then *SNAP* some of this together. Or.. something....     

[NARSES2]

As far as Eastern Express are concerned, at one time I would have said they were simply using the tools for kits where the originating company was long gone. Now ? I'm not sure to be honest. They do a lot of civilian stuff and I don't know anywhere near enough about that side of the hobby to know whether they are original or not. They also do a fair amount of armour as well. Some interesting stuff in their catalogue and at reasonable prices.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks. I'm going to buy some of these little airport stuff I've been seeing. I'm enamored with it. I'll of course want to do a little research at that time . . ...    


Plans for today.. well.. none other than working on the fuel truck. If I feel like working on anything else later then I'll get after it but no planes because today looks to be a rough, hot, tiresome day. I'm not particularly looking forward to it. *YAWWWWWWN*   

[DogfighterZen]

Lazy boy... Get off your duff and build some airplanes, will ya? It's not harder than cutting a lawn at 12 o'clock under the sun...

[TheChronicOne]

 

I imagine I will after all. Now that everything is done as far as PAYING work is concerned, I am home and even did all my errands and don't feel too shabby. This morning I was big time draggin arse from Tuesdays nightmarish affair. I take comfort in the fact that Sept. is right around the corner....

[TheChronicOne]

I'm done with the fuel truck, but I need to take better pictures. To illustrate my point, let's compare one picture with flash and one without:




Fascinating how all that goes.....  the darker one is truer to color. There are numerous other factors affecting the outcome but just messing with those two produced such a differing result.

Anyway!! I'm rather please with the truck.. it came out well. I don't feel like I've built a model, however. This was, as I said, like a toy and when I finally got to the end construction it was just a matter of snapping it together. I did the best I could, however, to MAKE it like a model by primering and painting it and of course applying the water-slides.

I'll try to get better pictures later, but these will do for now I guess.  1/72 Fuel Truck     :







Good enough for now...      I WOULD say this is my first automobile model since way back in the early 90s but like I said, this stuff ain't no model kit. It's neat, but no model kit.

(but, I'm very happy to have them......   )

[zenrat]

It looks better than I was expecting given your description of it.

[DogfighterZen]

It's a plane... But it doesn't look bad at all...   

[NARSES2]

It looks better than I was expecting given your description of it.

Same here 

[TheChronicOne]

I'm really pleased with it, to be honest, and if it weren't for certain uhh... "accuracy" issues I'd be stoked about how super easy it was to build. It's just....  the way it's built to assemble means it can't also be made to be highly accurate so it's a give and take. I'd prefer it to be more accurate but now that it's all together it really does look nice. I can't wait to get the other built, they'll look really nice all together. I'll take me some nice outside pictures at that point.

PLANES... Tomorrow is planes again. time to start decalling the 1-11. I need to check up on my little Yak 53 that is on deck for photo bleaching. I'm wanting to make some sort of cradle for it in case the wind picks up. I'm just going to stick it outside and let 'er rip. 

EDIT: Oh yeah... I think I'll start the little fire truck tomorrow as well so the fuel truck isn't lonely.

[zenrat]

You don't necessarily want your background vehicles to be too detailed as they can then detract from the main act which is usually the aircraft they are supplying.
Depending on your depth of field they might not even be in focus in the photos.

[TheChronicOne]

Good point!! The thing that really bothers me are the windows. I'll live. 

Plans today? uhhhhhh........ Time to decal the 1-11. After that I'll let it sit a couple more days at least before I seal them all up with gloss. I need to go back and see what day it was I sprayed it with white then I want to wait no less than 10 days past then to avoid the crazing issues.

Probably back to work on the Hustler as well.

Will work on the Firetruck,for sure... I could probably whip the entire thing together today, in fact. I can use my red spray paint that finishes nice and glossy. 

[TheChronicOne]

Damn it, all to hell and back!!!!!  %&%^&%$*%^!#$^$&      This thing will not die!!!     

OK, so here I am... finally got all the motivation and stuff in place to tackled decalling this little airliner. For the most important single transfer of the entire shooting match (port side cheatlines!!!)  to shatter into no less than 100,000 tiny fragments. So... what to do? Time for yet ANOTHER livery change.

So for the THIRD attempt at this blasted infernal thing, I'm bringing it home and we'll wage war on *MY* turf.    Damn right, it's time to flip the script and turn this into a bonafide WHIF and not because I painted the hush kit a different color, either. Talking about complete fantasy world here. OK... so...    the PACEX planes were formely the British/Caledonian birds, then went to Pacific Express.. so.. since the things are already in California let's just say that AIR CALIFORNIA bought them when PACEX went tits up, yeah? Sounds like good bullshit to me so we're off to the races! 

You know, it's a shame about the PACEX stuff because it looks so neat but I guarantee you I can coax an awesome looking bird out of this thing by using my Micro Scale Air California transfers. Here's the thing, 1/144 scale would be too large but, by golly, I also bought a set in 1/200 and they look to be PERFECT. I'll need to paint the fin yellow..... no, scratch that, I'm going to paint it black as a "shout" to the former Pacific Express heritage. Then, I'll paint the belly NMF to go with the NMF engines. All I'll need to do aside from that is paint a yellow cheatline. Lord almighty I hope the windscreen transfers work. The ones I have are also ATP and from the same era as the ones that shattered but they came in a different set so hopefully they'll be good. If NOT, I have spares and I'll have to pick up some decal fix to slather on them. Otherwise, I'll be hand painting the winders and I ain't lookin' forward to that.

SO... uhhh... yeah.... once more into the breach. I'm going to pick up some yellow rattle can paint for this. I'm more than happy to brush paint black but I already know that if I brush this yellow cheatline on it's going to wind up looking like a sunny strip of armor down the side.    So, to that end, I'm going to shelf this sucker for a few days (no problem, I'm happy to let this white paint gas out some more anyway) and get to work on some other projects.


RIP Pacific Express.