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

TheChronicOne · January 03, 2020, 04:45:29 PM

RIP, PSA. We knew you well!

Everything was cool until I noticed the cheatlines were about 5mm too long. I tried to get things to work but the longer I went, the more the decals set and they started to fold over and attach to themselves on corners and stuff... I did what I could but just couldn't untangle the mess that was developing. I was using Microset here and there and it started to work so some of the decals wouldn't MOVE any more and instead stretched like taffy and the ink started to come off and all sorts of other disasters. It's normal for these to have a bit of extra material for overlap or whatever but it was never mentioned in the directions so even though I did dry fitting and made templates that looked fine, it's not like using the actual stuff so I didn't see this coming. Here I am trying to get all this stuff to work but there's a mile of cheatline and I couldn't fix one portion without the rest of it setting and ..... etc.

To hell with it. I'm going to start having two sheets of transfers for every airliner I build. One to sacrifice and throw away when it goes bad, then the REAL one to apply afterward.

SO, just like with so many airliner builds before... the original plan is in the garbage and now & I'll just turn it into a what-if. I can't afford to get more PSA decals so I'm forced to deal with what I have in the stash. Well... I have a 1/72 set of Pan American Airways stuff that I think I can make work. Nice and big so it should be a good deal for the large Tristar.

These will have to be measured and tested to see if they fit properly then I'll have to copy and cut out the space for the windscreen, etc, from the remaining PSA decals. IF this works, it will make a glorious Tristar. If it doesn't work, well, I'll have to come up with another livery.

PR19_Kit · January 04, 2020, 12:26:35 AM

That'll make a good Retro-Jet as Pan Am flew Tri-Stars but only in the later schemes with 'Pan Am' writ large on the fuselage.

TheChronicOne · January 04, 2020, 11:30:13 AM

It'll be awesome!!! I'm going to see if it all fits today when I get done with chores.

I can't believe how stupid I was to mess up my PSA decals!!! Next time I will be more diligent in my testing and dry fitting. I just plain simple screwed up and I have no one to blame but myself.

Here's the sweet part, though, I have enough cheatline/windows material left to make a PSA whif.... it'll be a much SHORTER airplane but I can make..... like...... uhhhh..... Well, I dunno.... a PSA something because aside from the cheatlines I screwed up yesterday I still have an entire length of it along with all the names and stuff.

TheChronicOne · January 04, 2020, 12:43:04 PM

UGGgGGGHGHHHHH. I'm such a sucker.

These PAGA decals would likely work just fine but as I was looking at them all I could think about was PSA so I went and had a look around the internet and turns out those sheets are rather sparse at the moment but I did fine 5 of them in Korea so I bought one.

In order to justify this, however, I will need to go and cash in a large part of my aluminum can collection within the coming week to replace the money I spent.

But uhhh... what relief!!! I don't want to abandon PSA. I feel better now. I won't be so careless with my measuring next time!

zenrat · January 04, 2020, 05:44:02 PM

Decal solutions can be both a blessing and a curse.
I have to remember not ti use the red one (micro sol is it?) on my home made clear decals as it is too strong and can eat them.
You have the patience of a saint with this one Brad C.

Hows the dog? You mentioned taking him to the vet. All OK?

TheChronicOne · January 04, 2020, 07:20:25 PM

Red is a beast. I only use that one at the end well after the decals have been placed and have sat for a few hours. I use micro set just to help them slide around but this time I kept having to use it while trying to get "too much stuff" to fit into "too little space". Overkill; it turned my stuff gummy and made portions not want to move.

Next time I have decals sitting on for a long time while I arrange them I'll just stick with water. ALL THIS could have been avoided if I had double checked my dry fitting. I got lazy and it cost me.

It's funny though..... because... for how thin they are the 26 decals material is STRONG. I mean... I had that stuff on and off the model, pulling and tugging it, rolling over the edges, etc. It just held together like it was made of mylar or something. Alas, my constant tampering and abundant micro set finally did them in but damn I'm impressed!

Buddy went to the Vet. Costly at $130 and they double charged it. Created a huge mess I had to work out and my money was held hostage but anyway..... I had them express his anal glands and they told me that yeah, he needed it, and they might be infected and same deal with a bleeding hard to heal wound on his tail that came from a stupid bot fly so he has a ton of antibotics and they fixed up his B-hole and he seems quite a bit better already.

TheChronicOne · January 04, 2020, 10:15:43 PM

Check this out.... a buddy of mine here in Lawton has somehow found himself in possession of what looks to be around 1,000 model kits. I have first dibs.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this information. I tried to look at the three pictures he provided to see if anything stuck out. Nothing did but I also can't see a good portion of it due to low picture quality. There are mainly aircraft, but a few car kits and armor as well.

I did see a few really old kits...... some stuff looks like it could be valuable or desirable and I imagine ALL of it is desirable but I have to pick and choose these days since I have a considerable space eating stash of my own....

This type of thing always happens when I'm broke.

zenrat · January 05, 2020, 12:10:27 AM

Glad to hear Buddy is on the mend. That part of a dog is important to them. As proved by the amount of time they spend licking it.

NARSES2 · January 05, 2020, 01:36:42 AM

Quote from: zenrat on January 05, 2020, 12:10:27 AM
Glad to hear Buddy is on the mend.

As am I mate

DogfighterZen · January 05, 2020, 05:46:36 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on January 05, 2020, 01:36:42 AM
Quote from: zenrat on January 05, 2020, 12:10:27 AM
Glad to hear Buddy is on the mend.

As am I mate

Makes 3 of us.

Re that friend's stash, i can see a few of interest but i'm also broke at the moment...

PR19_Kit · January 05, 2020, 07:01:39 AM

That stash looks a bit like my Loft.

TheChronicOne · January 05, 2020, 09:34:06 AM

Thanks y'all! I hate when my little friend doesn't feel good.

That stash. Hmmm. Uhhhhhh... Well. I don't know what to think about that.

I'm happy with what I DO have and on that note I'm taking today off from paying and non-paying work alike to get some projects updated. Plans for the Lysander especially since it is time sensitive. Time to check up the XL. At last I decided to move the nuke to center pylon to free up a wee bit of room elsewhere. I either need to add something else or remove something. I might just get funny with it and throw a really old WWII iron bomb on it somewhere but then again I might come to senses later and not bother.

TheChronicOne · January 06, 2020, 04:12:29 PM

No efforts today. I spent all my time outside working because it's relatively nice out so I got my gargantuan can collection together so I can turn it in. I've already turned in half of it. This is ridiculous! So many cans..... sooooo sooooo many cans. Bad thing is that aluminum prices seem to be at the LOWEST I can ever recall. What I took down there last time would have netted $80-100 2 years ago and all I got was a measly $26. I was NOT amused. TONS of work for that tiny $26. Worth it? NO. Factor in all the hours it took to do It was less than minimum wage for certain. SO ANYHOW, I'm doing it again and I might be able to get another $20-30 out of this gigantic pile of cans which will cover my decals and buy me lunch.

But... man.... if I didn't come across so many all the time I'd start just throwing this crap in the trash.

Tomorrow, if the weather is nice again, I probably won't do too much. I need to stay outside working and I'll take the stupid cans to the recycling place. As long as the nice weather holds, I'm going to take advantage. That said, I would like to get started on painting. I can dig out all my paint stuff and have it handy then cycle through all my current builds and paint everything that is ready for it.

I guess I forgot to note it but yesterday I painted the DC-9 wings. The tailplanes kept faling on the floor so I have to do those over

but they'll be done next and I'll start painting them.

NARSES2 · January 07, 2020, 06:41:42 AM

At least your helping the planet with your cans

I didn't realise the price of scrap Aluminium had dropped that much. In the UK you just put your cans in the re-cycling bin and if you are lucky they don't charge you to take it away

Anyway the old tin coated, steel cans were much easier to re-cycle, and no I'm not biased having worked in the industry for so long

scooter · January 07, 2020, 07:20:12 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on January 07, 2020, 06:41:42 AM
At least your helping the planet with your cans

I didn't realise the price of scrap Aluminium had dropped that much. In the UK you just put your cans in the re-cycling bin and if you are lucky they don't charge you to take it away Anyway the old tin coated, steel cans were much easier to re-cycle, and no I'm not biased having worked in the industry for so long

Yeah, scrap metal prices have plummeted. If I have enough, sometimes I'm lucky to get a couple bucks for gas.

NJ's pretty much the same as the UK- put your recycling in the recycling bin, and away it goes, without question or cost. Although, Atlantic County Utilities Authority, who does our recycling in my part of SNJ, has issued guidance that they don't take certain plastics orcardboard (mainly freezer and pizza boxes and clamshell plastics)