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

TheChronicOne · September 15, 2018, 09:23:56 AM

There's actually a really good, makes a lot of sense, reason why they still use faxes. Don't look at it as ancient, outdated technology, look at as a massive improvement upon the postal system. Say I'm a surgeon 12 miles across town and need to send a 23 page report and stack of medical records... Well, you can stick it in the mail and it gets there 2-3 days later, you can pay some delivery person to get it there within a couple hours, or, even in the best case scenario you can get in your own car and drive it across town in 30 minutes instead of doing surgery or doctor stuff. OR, you can send it at the speed of light, in mere minutes. BAM! Instant file transfer of hard copies that are useful for various reasons over digital copies not to mention that the bulk of hospitals and drs offices (and pharmacies) don't have connected systems for data so barring the other methods I mentioned (postal, hand delivered, etc) fax winds up the best option. It seems weird, I know, but it is hands down the most efficient means of passing lots of information around quickly throughout the medical community.

There's other reasons for it, too, that are slipping my mind, but I read up on it once or twice. It's pretty fascinating stuff. We're slowly trying to get everything digitized and all 1's and 0's but it's going to take awhile so the fax hangs on. Interesting sidenote.. it was only like... 3 or 4 years ago that the last Western Union TELEGRAM was sent. lol

TheChronicOne · September 15, 2018, 09:39:29 AM

Huh... this actually segues nicely into a conversation about a future project I'm planning for. In addition to the Civil Gunship I've started planning for a twin boomed X3 Stielleto after the conversation from the other day. I mentioned a twin boomer, Robert had a picture he made where he had start planning for one, and that sealed the deal for me. I have to make one of my own. I've already ordered two Stilettos, I just need to find parts to make the new wings.... the upper deck wing on top of the fins, the middle piece conneecting the fuselages, and then of course I want to extend the main wings. I was also considering sticking some sort of pod in the middle connecting wing for storage... because... it will be a SUPER FAST DELIVERY SERVICE plane. Same day shipping of critical items and files.

Huh?!?! How damn cool does this sound.

Can I with, wit' me shithouse model skills, actually accomplish it?

It's pretty ambitious... But anyway... like I said, two kits on the way. How nice of Dragon to put out a kit that comes with two in the box by default. In 1/144 scale so they're small but who cares, my new favorite scale right now is 1/144 and being a civilian delivery service it meshes well into my 1/144 Civil and Airliners collection. SHRUG. Kit box was open, though, I didn't ask if both kits were ACTUALLY in it........ so... let's hope so, or I'll having to be buying another kit.

kitnut617 · September 15, 2018, 10:43:31 AM

I'd love to see that come to fruition Brad. My plan was to use some styrene card for the center wing bits because the wing is ultra thin in 1/72. Main gear I was planning on having them fold away into the fuselage. My effort is hampered by not finding another Airfix X-3 to use even though the one I have is an Airfix knock-off.

TheChronicOne · September 15, 2018, 12:31:44 PM

I'm likely to butcher it but I'd like to try. Such a cool idea and I can sort of picture how it will look in my mind... very retro-futuristic.

It will be a good learning experience and perhaps I will finally break down and buy some sheet styrene and other useful styrene material myself instead of using random stuff from around the house.

PR19_Kit · September 15, 2018, 01:33:13 PM

An AIRFIX X-3?

When did they do one?

kitnut617 · September 15, 2018, 01:37:36 PM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on September 15, 2018, 01:33:13 PM
An AIRFIX X-3?

When did they do one?

Good point Kit, I thought I had an Airfix one ---- maybe I'm thinking of another kit by Airfix ---- $:-\$ $:-\$ $:-\$

Now I've got to go rummaging around to find what X-3 kit I do have

TheChronicOne · September 18, 2018, 01:31:34 AM

Uggggh....... what's going on today. uggh... I dunno, I still don't feel good. I'm finding I can't eat certain things much any more.

Per diet change to avoid gout and fat and cholesterol an' all'at I don't eat much red meat any more but I wanted to make spaghetti so I cooked up a bunch. I sprung for the lean ground chuck instead of the bottom of the shelf fatty ground but it still has had me with upset stomache and a water fountain butthole for the past week. Sorry TMI?

Well, I've reached the age where I don't care about this type of thing. It's just life and if you say you haven't been there, too, you're lyin'.

But anyway, this has put a hamper on EVERYTHING this week and although I finished off the spaghetti two days ago I'm still suffering the consequences. So, not only is stomache sour, I'm up "early". I went to sleep about 9PM which is unusually late for me then the "rumblin' in the Bronx" woke me up just past 2 AM of course I couldn't go back to bed so now I'm operating on a bit of a sleep debt.

So... no too many involved plans. I'm going to keep it simple and just try to paint some more on the Hustler and consider myself lucky to get any of that done.

TheChronicOne · September 19, 2018, 10:53:37 AM

I actually had a pretty productive day yesterday. Lots of painting on the B-58. It's really close to being glossed. STILL don't have any transfers for it yet.

I cut out a mask for the windscreen transfer on the BAC 111 then sanded the fuselage once again to get it nice and smooth for my appliance epoxy paint. It crazed, just like the gloss did! I should have figured this would happen because they are the same brand. These two brands of paint simply are NOT compatible. Good news is, it wasn't nearly as bad and I think now I can sand it again and do another coat and since the original paint is covered up at this point the new paint should finally start going down nicely as it is going down onto itself rather than the different brand of paint. Good Lord what a headache, though. I'm telling you... I'm ---->||<---- this close to just slapping transfers on the thing in whatever state it may be in at the time and throwing it on the shelf. I've about had it with this infernal thing.

Hell, I still have to glue on and sand the wing fences, then turn around and mask and paint the wing spar and that stuff.

I also sanded down the fire truck so it can get some nice red paint. Won't be long and this will be done. I have some detail painting to do and then paint the interior but this stuff shouldn't take more than half an hour and that's being conservative.

I also done what I believe will the be last application of putty to the ATR 72 then sanded the piss out of it then re-primed it. It's sitting right here, literally within arms reach so I'll look here..... well, all the structural damage is fixed but it has mutliple pock marks and I can see tiny bits of the edges of the putty in places so I'll paint these areas up with some thick acrylic paint then sand it smooth once againg and prime and see what it looks like. Getting very very close on this one! Won't be long and it will have the appliance epoxy then I can paint the props and it's on to the transfers.

No pictures this time so here's the last one I have of the Hustler. It's had quite a bit more done since including the "no walk" border lines on the delta, the nose cone, the anti glare patch, and various black patches here and there on the wings and fin, etc. No clue what they do or why they are black but whatever!

EDIT: OH YEAH!!! My two X3 Stilettos arrived today. Wow, that a kit! So cool. The entire kit is molded in clear plastic. Has lots of very fine detail and everything looks to be molded correctly including razor thin wings. The kit even includes two nearly miniscule metal rods to go into the nose cones. I'll post pictures of this stuff tomorrow. It's very impressive. I'm having second thoughts on my project, though, because... MAN THIS STUFF IS WEE. I need to get some of it in my hands, however. It's all still sealed up right now. I will know better whether I think I can handle it once I dry fit some of it. Anyway, this thing is neat.... ejection seats and even comes with engines. Like... ones you can build, paint and seal inside and never see again!

I imagine the option could exist to build the model in a way that it could be posed with the arse-end open and the engines out on a dolly or something. PRetty cool

TheChronicOne · September 20, 2018, 02:40:42 AM

All about the Hustler and the ATR-72 today. And the Fire Truck. And the BAC 111, and the 737-200 (doing a little work on it right now, it's 4:30 in the morning lol ) .

Hell, I guess I'm working on them all, aside from the F-52. That is waiting on interior parts to be painted and decalled and I'm not really in the mood for those types of shennanigans so it'll have to wait. No big hurry on this one anyway as it was an unplanned thing, rammed into the build rotation when there really was no room for it. At one point I had 6 builds going at once and I normally wouldn't have more than 3-4.

So, the Hustler just needs some masking done on the engines so the bottom grey can be painted then I'll mask them AGAIN to spray gloss black so I can put down silvery color paint that will cover the rear section of the pods. I suspect things get plenty hot there so paint wouldn't work very well. Besides, this little splash of shine will help give the build character.

ATR 72 gets thick acrylic paint applied as a thin filler and after maybe 2 or 3 coats of it I'll sand it one last time then it gets primered hopefully for the last time. If so, appliance white will go on then it sits for a week or more to gas out and dry properly. Don't want nothing weird going on with these hard-ish to find expensive-ish transfers I had shipped across the ocean.

BAC 111 needs sanded AGAIN. It may still be a bit too wet for all that but I can use a caked up fouled strip of sandpaper on it, maybe. I'm ready to assassinate this stupid thing.

I went crazy filling the windows on the 737-200 and it's taken eons to fully dry but I think I'm finally there. So, it will need file and sand paper work and also it's about time to glue in the nose weight and consider closing it up.

Fire Truck is ready for paint. I tried painting it once already. Thought it was good to go only for terrible scratches, roughness, and even some crazing appeared. Not sure where I went wrong there. I could have sworn I sanded it well enough before painting but apparently I did a bad job and/or I should have washed it.

If I have time I'd like to take a closer look at the X3 parts.

TTYL

TheChronicOne · September 22, 2018, 02:04:02 AM

Hmm....plans for today!! It rained like crazy and everything is wet but I'm still going to try to cut one of my smaller sized properties. Gotta keep that money coming in and I can't afford to get behind!!

Anyway.... I'd like get the Hustler into gloss, at least, if not actually start to put the transfers on today.

More work on the ATR 72. Two areas where doors where molded in need to be filled better. I had already done so but my sanding has made them sunken in so rather than hope and pray the doors on the transfers line up perfectly, I need to go ahead and fill those in. Shouldn't be too much trouble but it's just one more thing in the way of me finally getting the appliance white on.

Speaking of... I need to sand a bit along the top of the BAC 111 then I can put more appliance white on and hope it doesn't craze again. At this point most of that old paint is covered, though, so I should get by just fine.

Time to get busy on the 737. I need to sand the fuselage... all the detail and where I filled the windows in then I can put the nose weight in and glue the halves together.

No plans beyond that for now.

NARSES2 · September 22, 2018, 02:11:20 AM

Hustler is looking good mate, suits the scheme

TheChronicOne · September 26, 2018, 03:51:53 AM

Thanks!! Trying to finish that one today, in fact.

Looking quite do-able as well because there is a giant wall of slow moving rain on the way and it might not even be daylight yet by time it gets here so I will more than likely be cancelling my lawn mowing side of the schedule today. That sucks because it's my biggest lawn. I want to get it done and out of the way because even on a good take it takes no less than three hours. Good thing is I have Friday open right now so if I do cancel today, at least we won't have to wait long.

But anyway... yeah... the Hustler today and perhaps working on the BAC 111 or something. The wind is blowing, SUSTAINED, at 40 MPH right now and won't be letting up so I can't open my window here so maybe I should finally get it in gear and start wet sanding like I should anyway. So, it will be a good day to start getting into that habit since I can't run my exhaust fan. But once that is done I can put another coat of appliance white on it and it should be ready to have the yellow cheatline painted on. God I hope so, I need to get this thing done. Next time I decide to a do a "quick simple build" I will do at least some research on it to see if I need to modify 5 trillion things first. Good thing is I know now that I can't use that white paint with any of the other paint I have to eliminating the loss of days and days struggling with that will help future builds but still... next time I need to find something I can build OOB.

Fire Truck maybe? I need to paint the interior then put on the decals and I think that's about it. A little detail painting here and there on the fuel tank itself.

I'll leave it at that for now.

TheChronicOne · September 28, 2018, 04:01:14 AM

Man!!! This is lousy. I have to go mow my largest, most involved lawn today and it's past due thanks to the rain and also grown up I imagine. They always insists I cut it way lower than it should be so this crap always takes 4 hours or more. After that, though, I'll be trying to finish the B-58 then I'd like to work on the BAC 111 but it all depends on energy level and all that. Not only, but my stupid sciatica has been acting up lately because of the weather and that's putting a damper on things but it won't bring me to a hault! I'm going to chug along the best I can.

Fire Truck. I don't understand what the problem is but even after 3 or so rounds of sanding and multiple coats of 2x "with primer" paint the finish is still pretty rough looking. I don't know what the problem is. The fuel truck didn't do this. However, the difference being is that I primed it first and then painted with hairy stick. This one I skipped the primer because the red paint supposedly has it in it already so you don't need to prime first but it sure isn't working very well. I think I'll go back to priming things regardless. It never, ever HURTS to prime, but I've ran into numerous problems skipping it so.....

No more plans than this. The BAC 111 will be pretty intense if I can ever get started on it. I'd like to get a lot of this "intense" stuff done so I need to keep focus and not worry about the other 3 builds.

Random picture of a Casino Express 737 for no reason:

NARSES2 · September 28, 2018, 06:43:00 AM

Whilst mowing the lawn just keep reminding yourself that it's paying for your next purchase model wise

TheChronicOne · September 28, 2018, 10:20:23 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on September 28, 2018, 06:43:00 AM
Whilst mowing the lawn just keep reminding yourself that it's paying for your next purchase model wise

That's the ticket right there!! Today, in fact, it sure did. I bought one of them fat transport planes with the funny nose. Three rows of windows... whatever it is. If I hadn't mowed today I wouldn't be able to pay for it. Left over money is gas money. lol Same thing a week or so ago, mowing the lawn and turned it all into an old Revell Electra.