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

[Rick Lowe]

Another old build!!!  The good ol' Republic of Molossia F-84G!    This one had a canopy mishap but oh well, I still like it!

I remember that one!

Hey now, if you had a replacement canopy, you could let everyone see the fine work y'all did in the cockpit... just an observation... 


And great news about the quitting smoking thing - keep it up, we're all thinking positive thoughts for ya! 

So another plane went overhead en route to Wellington airport, and the shadow swept across the house... I know it has to go somewhere, but it's still a little strange when you're right underneath it...

[TheChronicOne]

Now THAT is a plan! Thanks again for the glass-house, .... solutions for problems!  I had it req'd for a Thunderbirds build and the though never occurred to me! The lil feller would look much better. It's funny, because I've recently entertained ideas of making more builds for The Republic of Molossia to go with it.   

[Rick Lowe]

No worries, glad to help. 

[TheChronicOne]

I pulled the F-84 out of storage earlier. Or, well, it's not really "storage." It's up here with a few other builds I haven't found a place to display yet.    In fact, I have a number of these here and a couple elsewhere. Builds that I either simply haven't gotten to displaying or ones that are just too large. I wonder if anyone else has this sort of "limbo" situation going on?

But anyway.... going to to start scoring around the old canopy, SLOWLY, until it pops off. This ought to be a relatively simple affair. Luckily, I still have the same paint I used on it so the finishes will match. So.... I should have everything I need now to re-furbish this thing. It didn't really go over too well last time which is a shame because *I* really like it. It's all down to the stupid blacked out canopy. It'll be interesting to post it again and see what people think... being completely fictional and all. (here and elsewhere... mainly elsewhere so I can confuse people which is tremendously entertaining)

I have one other "re-furb" planned, since I'm on the subject...   my Vatican City build. I tried to paint the inside edges of the control surfaces but I used black and all it did was make it look like I did a lousy weathering job so I'm going to paint that shizz back white. That'll be another fun one to confuse the masses with.

So these are the things I'd like to work on, or start working on, today. Also, I'm working on the glider. I've found some prospects for the transfers and it's just a matter of picking out which ones I want and getting them on. 

Might do a little painting on the F-52 if I have time.

[kitnut617]

Now THAT is a plan! Thanks again for the glass-house, .... solutions for problems!  I had it req'd for a Thunderbirds build and the though never occurred to me! The lil feller would look much better. It's funny, because I've recently entertained ideas of making more builds for The Republic of Molossia to go with it.   

The Academy 1/72 F-84E/G kit come with two canopies, a framed one and one with no frames

[TheChronicOne]

I have a fancy vac canopy thanks to Rick up there...   I just need to put 'er on!

On that note, I found it which is pretty amazing because my stash is a bit of mess right now. I'm seriously considering NOT buying any kits for a month or two so I can buy some shelving instead...   Luckily I did find it, though, nestled with the F-84 kit I put it in. So, I have everything I need now. I might do a couple other things to this as I go along. I'm thinking of changing the finish from the "gloss" it is now into a more matte finish. Also, it's quite obvious that I need to paint the inside of the intake....   I did this back when I just re-entering the hobby and not only did I not have much "skillz" but I also had around $5 worth of model building materials. I'm sure there's room to find things to improve. This ought to be fun..  this is first time I've done anything like this. I've old stalled builds, and things I've repaired, but I've never taken a completed build and tried to refurbish it. 

Still haven't gotten started, however. I found the canopy, like I said, and I've wiped some of the dust off of the plane itself but otherwise I've been busy on the lil glider I'm making. I just have to glue the canopy on it and it's done. 

[TheChronicOne]

I don't understand washing sprues. Why not wait to wash everything until right before you paint, to make sure you get off anything that may have stuck to it, like oils from your skin, since you started building it?? Why not kill two birds with one stone? Washing things twice seems silly to me.... or.... washing everything at the very beginning only to turn around and mess it right back up.... then NOT wash it.    (YES, I'm still quitting the damn smokes and haven't had any yet today because I don't allow myself any in the morning while I have my coffee any more).  STILL, this has always bugged me a bit. 



ANYWAY!!!!!! I finished the glider the other day......:



...... which leaves me with 3 build left. The 737. I need to do a wee bit of sanding on the nose area then it's about time to start constructing the housing for the modified nose gear. I'll be balls-deep in reference pictures for that. This may be the point where I finally start buying styrene stock. I have my PE set but oddly it doesn't come with anything to make this housing.   

Oh yeah, on THAT note... the airstairs on the PE set???  These are begging me to make an in-flight display of a Northeast Orient 727 with the rear air stairs lowered.....    You can fill in the blanks and know exactly what I'm trying to achieve here. I may even attempt to finish out some of the inside of it and light the interior. I thought about nav lights as well but that stuff is Sooooooo small in the this scale. I'm sure it could be done, but far beyond my skill level.




Otherwise I might try to work a little on the F-52. It's need paint work and some more sanding I'm sure but it's coming around very nicely from the utter disaster that I created with the incompatible paints.

This leaves the ATR which is still being UV bleached to clear up spots of yellow from where I sprayed clear too heavily and it ran the glue out of the decals.  The weather is absolute garbage right now, however, to putting it outside might have to wait for another day. Sure would like to get this thing finished! I'm contemplating plugging in my "bright as the sun" halogen light and using that. Just have to keep the subject far enough away as not to melt! Thing is also HOT as the sun. 

Lastly, I'd like to continue/start work on my two refurbs. 

TTYL! 

[TheChronicOne]

Alright!!!! Made it back home nice and early... had no errands to run and chores around the house only took about an hour so it's right to work on me builds. 

Trying to do a rapid-fire advancement of each and so far, so good! I sanded away the itty bitty run on the nose of the 737 and hit the windows area again. One side is 97% or so to where it needs to be but the other side is about 90%. I need to get these areas smoothed out. They won't have to be PERFECT because all the windows decals go there but... still... I need it a little better than this. Can't do anything about it today, however, as the weather is not cooperating and I have other things to do. Besides, before I get too carries away, I need to get the wheel housing onto the nose.

F-52 has another coat of paint. This time I thinned it some so the bigazz brush strokes aren't everywhere.  No point in taking a picture of it right now.

Popped the canopy and windscreen off of the F-84 refurve and did the initial run of clean up around the edges. I'll need to do dry fitting and adjustment next. I also need to make the inside of this thing more interesting. Knowing that the canopy was fouled, I didn't finish it out and what we have is a control stick and some guages... there isn't even a seat in there. 



Lastly, I got the main gear onto the ATR-72. This is a big win, seeing as how this is an instructionless short run kit...   Next go 'round I'll try to get the nose gear on and then it's just a matter of the gear doors and props...  the easier bits.




Check this out... I find this pile of %^&W$%*^ at work today (not all at once though):



Funny money!! Someone even tried to spend at least one of them (possibly) as it had the counterfeit detection marker pen mark on it. First one of these I saw, I thought I had hit a pay day but nope! 

[zenrat]

I'm not up on your cash.  Are they obviously fake?

Should you not hand them into someone?

[scooter]

I'm not up on your cash.  Are they obviously fake?

Should you not hand them into someone?

The serial number- LB12369599T B2 is identical on all the bills.  There are probably other things missing, like the security thread, watermark, and paper quality (US bills are actually made of cotton fibre).  But these look pretty decently done.  Since banks have the most annoying hours on weekends (usually 9-12 or some such rot), Brad's probably got to wait until Monday.  They'll then report it to whichever Secret Service office that isn't furloughed.

[zenrat]

Thanks Scoot.  I didn't notice the number was the same.

[NARSES2]

I don't understand washing sprues. Why not wait to wash everything until right before you paint, to make sure you get off anything that may have stuck to it, like oils from your skin, since you started building it??

I understand where you are coming from and I only wash sprues before I start where they are very "oily", usually, but not only, limited run kits where they have used a lot of mould release agent. If you don't wash this off it will effect any pre-painting and possibly even gluing.

[TheChronicOne]

Makes sense! I had thought about the glue a little bit but forgot about the pre-painting. I TRY to wash them before I paint but sometimes forget...   washing everything in the beginning would safeguard against this.

Re: the money. My picture is lousy but this is "prop" money. Same stuff they use on TV and in theater or whatever. Looks great from a distance, looks fine even up close....  films, and photographs well as the pinkinsh Chinese writing fades away but this isn't counterfeit, it's just prop money. Scribbled all across it is red (pinkish) Chinese writing. It's perfectly legal and you can buy it by truckloads from multitudes of venders if you so choose.

[kitnut617]

There was actually a court case going on up here in Canada, where a Chinese travel agent was using similarly mark Canadian bills as a training aid for the plane loads of mainland Chinese tourists that arrive here in Canada. The outcome was the court decided it's still counterfeit so the travel agent got jail time.

[PR19_Kit]

...... which leaves me with 3 build left. The 737. I need to do a wee bit of sanding on the nose area then it's about time to start constructing the housing for the modified nose gear. I'll be balls-deep in reference pictures for that. This may be the point where I finally start buying styrene stock. I have my PE set but oddly it doesn't come with anything to make this housing.   

That's because it's only a PE set and you need some styrene to make the gravel kit housing. When they first released them Fotocut used to include an extra sheet that gave instructions and drawings on how to do that, and to make the vortex generators that hang under the engines, but the later sets were just the basic set sadly.

Oh yeah, on THAT note... the airstairs on the PE set???  These are begging me to make an in-flight display of a Northeast Orient 727 with the rear air stairs lowered.....    You can fill in the blanks and know exactly what I'm trying to achieve here. I may even attempt to finish out some of the inside of it and light the interior. I thought about nav lights as well but that stuff is Sooooooo small in the this scale. I'm sure it could be done, but far beyond my skill level.

Yes, those airstairs are exactly designed for the 727, either Revell or Airfix -100s or -200s, and they work pretty well, but are fiddly to fit together. They don't fit any DC9 kits sadly, but a short-lived UK firm (I can't remember the name I'm afraid) modified the Fotocut design to fit all the DC9 range, DC9-10 to MD95, and I used them on my DC9-60TW, see pic below.