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

[PR19_Kit]

Seen any children on leads? I've seen it if a few times and I always snicker and kind of shake my head. 

Yeah, me.................! 

My Mum used to have me hooked up with a harness thing until I was maybe 4 yrs old, just in case I stepped off the pavement (sidewalk...) under a bus or tram.

[scooter]

OH! Now, here's one......      how many times have you seen someone walking a cat? 

How to walk a cat

[TheChronicOne]

I avoided any such shame myself back in the early 80's when I was that age. (cue the "pup" jokes and blah blah blah  )  But I think the reason why leashing kids was out of style up until relatively recently here is that the U.S. is largely a motor nation and not a pedestrian one. Thinking back, when I was a toddler, there was nothing even remotely near us that we could walk to (suitable for dragging a small child along anyway) so all the travelling was done in the relative safety of vehicles. Could have something to do with it, perhaps? Mass transit and city areas designed with foot traffic in mind are a somewhat new development in many areas. Stands to reason as more people do more walking, they would want to leash their kids.   

Or maybe I'm over analysing things. Oh well, interesting to ponder none the less. 


In other news! I've sanded the Caravelle down to a state where it can receive more coats of black gloss paint. I'll cross that bridge another day. I also grabbed the Tristar engines and did the first round of sanding smooth the sever crazing. Some of it was mighty proud so it will take another couple of passes before I feel confident in attempting paint again.

I called it off at that point. Going to ease back into these builds. I'm worn out big time from work today. Up at 3:15 then didn't make it home until 11:30 and finally ate something at 12:30. I don't feel like going up and down the stairs repeatedly to spray paint right now so rather than half-arse it, I'll choose my battles. 

Next up... I've cracked open my stupid little home made model kit. I'm gluing the wings together so I can saw away the middle piece so I can in turn mock the wings up so I can in turn figure out where to place the cockpit. I need to make it look right and have it .... be.. balanced or whatever.... COG and stuff....  anyway... the wings need cut down so I can slide them up and down the fuselage so I can in turn figure out where things go.  If all that makes sense....     After I ascertain where the cockpit goes, I'll tape the fuselage together, mark around the canopy then cut about .5 mm inside of that and start building the cockpit tub.

[TheChronicOne]

OH! Now, here's one......      how many times have you seen someone walking a cat? 

How to walk a cat

See now, that's the ticket!!! If more people knew this was possible, we'd have less lost babies. But like the deal said, some go ape and act like "GET THIS OFF ME RIGHT @@#%@% NOW!"     I can count on one hand how many times I see people walking cats. I think most are scared to even attempt it. 

[Old Wombat]

Seen any children on leads? I've seen it if a few times and I always snicker and kind of shake my head. 

Yeah, me.................! 

My Mum used to have me hooked up with a harness thing until I was maybe 4 yrs old, just in case I stepped off the pavement (sidewalk...) under a bus or tram.

Same here.

The thing actually saved my life once, back before seat-belts became popular & baby capsules were invented. My parents had this crappy old car (no. I don't know what make or model) &, as my father drove around a corner one day (possibly at speed), the passenger's door swung open & yours-truly slid out the door. So, there's my old man with his only child (at the time) & son flapping about at the end of a leash outside the car; if he slows down, I'm going to bounce on the road & he can't reach me. So, there he is driving along, hauling on the leash to pull me back into the car.

Apparently he succeeded without dribbling me on the bitumen & without too much psychological trauma ( I still thing jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane with a silk hanky over your head is a stupid thing to do, though).

[PR19_Kit]

I avoided any such shame myself back in the early 80's when I was that age. (cue the "pup" jokes and blah blah blah  )  But I think the reason why leashing kids was out of style up until relatively recently here is that the U.S. is largely a motor nation and not a pedestrian one. Thinking back, when I was a toddler, there was nothing even remotely near us that we could walk to (suitable for dragging a small child along anyway) so all the travelling was done in the relative safety of vehicles. Could have something to do with it, perhaps? Mass transit and city areas designed with foot traffic in mind are a somewhat new development in many areas. Stands to reason as more people do more walking, they would want to leash their kids.   

The first time I went to Minneapolis, in 1979, I was picked up by the Police because I was WALKING along the highway (there wasn't a sidewalk) to the nearest shopping mall to my hotel! It was Sunday and there was almost no traffic and the mall was all of half a mile away, but the cops said '.....it's inadvisable to be walking here sir and you should use your car..........'

They also used the most common phrase I heard over there 'You're not from around here!' 

Same here.

The thing actually saved my life once, back before seat-belts became popular & baby capsules were invented. My parents had this crappy old car (no. I don't know what make or model) &, as my father drove around a corner one day (possibly at speed), the passenger's door swung open & yours-truly slid out the door. So, there's my old man with his only child (at the time) & son flapping about at the end of a leash outside the car; if he slows down, I'm going to bounce on the road & he can't reach me. So, there he is driving along, hauling on the leash to pull me back into the car.

Apparently he succeeded without dribbling me on the bitumen & without too much psychological trauma ( I still thing jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane with a silk hanky over your head is a stupid thing to do, though).

Jeepers, you really ARE lucky to be alive! Good thing the leash was strong enough too! 

[zenrat]

My sister-in-law had 3 boys close together so she made use of leashes.
The story of how the middle child once got down on all fours in the supermarket and started barking is often re-told.

[NARSES2]

My sister-in-law had 3 boys close together so she made use of leashes.
The story of how the middle child once got down on all fours in the supermarket and started barking is often re-told.

Now I wonder which branch of the family he takes after ? 

Those harness things back in the 50's were called reins if I remember correctly ? I was made to wear some until I was 3 or 4 ? Then you had to hold mum or dad's hand for the next few years until you went to school.

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yeah, 'the reins', that's right! I'd forgotten that.

[Old Wombat]

Jeepers, you really ARE lucky to be alive! Good thing the leash was strong enough too! 

Several times over, but that's life playing silly buggers with me, as usual.

I remember it because it hung around for quite a few years. It was pale blue leather with some sort of white felt sewn onto the back. Very strong it was, even ten (?) years later.

[TheChronicOne]

I've done more work to the Caravelle and this time it went quite well! That's not to say I didn't STILL mess it up. I forgot to finish sanding the damn thing before I sprayed it. The paint went down like a million dollars but showed scratches from the rougher sanding I forgot to smooth out.        I'm not complaining, though!! I'm glad the paint worked so I'll just sand it down and do another coat and it should be even better.

Moreover, I finally got over my butthurt about the Tristar and spend a good deal of elbow grease sanding on it. You know.. leaving it alone for two weeks after having slathered Tamiya putty on it has provided very useful data as to how certain things cure/react/whatever. Very interesting stuff... I think I have been sanding on my Tamiya too soon before it has had a chance to properly dry/cure...     That's a silver lining right there.

That's about it!! Until next time.

[TheChronicOne]

Let's see here.... worked more on the Caravelle today. Minor stuff... getting the small parts painted. I'm done with the gear, I just need to finish the gear doors which need to be sanded and repainted on the black side.

I've also done more on my Pluto!     The cockpit tub went in and has allowed to dry. I had to make some supports for it out of sprue but it all worked quite well aside from being a tiny bit off center. It's just enough that it keeps the fuselage halves from going together properly. I can fix this with my wood file. I'm also going to file around the rime of the hole I cut for the interior to smooth it out. Next up I think I'll try to make a bulkhead. This could be the first time using my new circle cutter!  The bulkhead will go behind the pilot. I suppose to be correct I need one up front, as well, but that areas is always hard to see so I may just skip it.

Next up, Tristar news. I did quite a bit of work on it the other day. The sanding of the sides and all that. It's almost done, I still have some pesky areas down in the crease by the wing roots that I need to tackle but it won't be long before I can prime it and see what's left to "fix." Hopefully nothing.

The interesting news on this one, however, is that I've found a "companion" to go with it. Hit rewind to the conversation about possibly making a little pickup truck to go with Mother Grinningbird that came after this picture:



So, I heeded the advice and sure enough, lucked upon a 1/148 scale truck. $10 free shipping!! Nothing else was close...  there were more of these but for far more and from overseas, or other things that weren't what I want or WAY overpriced.  Anyway, here it is! This will be the what-if component of the build because I'm almost positive PSA never put one of these on the line:





All I gotta do is paint it the correct colors although it's a shame because it's quite lovely as is...  Thing is, I'd like to put the "PSA" script on it somewhere but uhhhhhhh..... not sure it's possible. It would be a mighty tiny decal and trying to haind paint it could go easily go wrong. Still.. I think if I could just get the colors and striping on it it would look glorious!!  And what luck?! Hippy stuff? Perfect for SFO. 

Still haven't ruled out making a separate lounge display, either.

[PR19_Kit]

That PSA logo would be a cinch to print on a decal in N scale, which is what that VW is.

Oxford Diecasts do some good stuff, I'm sure you'll be pleased with it.

[zenrat]

Nice detail for something so small.  I've got Hot Wheels size kombis that aren't as good.

[TheChronicOne]

It arrived today. QUITE impressive. I love it.

These are actually sort of close to the size of Micro Machines cars. The MM are bigger. Probably still not 1/144 but about as far away from it as 1/148, just in the other direction. 1/140 perhaps. Either way...  I grabbed a fire truck from my Micro Machines to use as well.

So, we've seen "their" pictures of it; here are mine:






Through the power of forced perspective photography, these both could work quite well. The little Oxford is more well done. I like the clear windows and detailing. The Micro Machine is nice, too, but was made 30 years ago so not shabby in its own right.


In other related news, I actually managed some time on the Tristar this truck goes with today. A rare event, I was able to stamp down the ADD and focused strictly on sanding it for a solid hour or more...   no little breaks here and there and no TV or internet distraction so that was a very valuable chunk of time and I got some quality sanding done. The finish is looking really smooth right now and it's ready for primer again. After that, I'll re-assess and see if it needs more sanding or if I can graduate to the next phase of paint.



So....  scale reference. Let's see what the little Bug Wagon looks like next to Mother Grinningbird. 



They look good together!! The Tristar is a large airplane, and the Wagon is a small automobile....  virtually the same scale, though, so this is a pretty accurate comparison I think.