F-302 Project Update

The F-302 is nearing completion.

I have spent some additional effort dressing up my kit’s cockpit, mostly because it looks so bare straight out of the box.  It’s not overly accurate or detailed – but to be fair, at the time this kit was commissioned, there were not a lot of references available.  The pattern maker provided a couple of instrument panels and two seats; these look to have been sourced from plastic kits.  The layout of the panels is wrong, but a thick coat of paint (I used Intermediate Grey, but it’s not dark enough) and the provided screen decals can take care of that.  I did a half-assed job of adding the various lighted buttons you can see in the studio set using different colors of paint applied with a pin.  I would have been better off to slice up tiny chips of .010” styrene strip to give the panels and side walls some sorely-needed relief detail.

All the kit pieces needed judicious sanding and shaping to get them to fit without interfering with the resin canopy.  That’s pretty much par for the course with resin kits – or any limited run cottage industry kit, really.

I found a couple 1/72 scale helicopter pilots that I thought I could squeeze in, though they would need surgery.  Pretty extensive surgery, it turns out  - I probably should have used a couple Hasegawa Valkyrie pilots and reshaped their helmets.  As it was, I had to chop off most of their legs and sand down both their backsides and the seats in order to get everything to fit.

Fixing the  kit canopy was my next chore.  Out of the box it looks  … frosted ….  not because of bubbles or casting defects, but because the master was not polished. Both sides of the thing (in and out) were covered with a rough grey primer, and the resin faithfully picked that up. Plus a fingerprint! (might have even been mine)

I used 600, 800 and 2000 grit sandpaper to get it as smooth as possible. But doing so left very fine scratches in the resin, so it now looked “fogged”. If it were plastic I would have used Novus on it. I remembered an old tip about polishing out scratches with toothpaste - but you have to use the regular kind, not the gels. And all we have are gels in the house.

And then I remembered what my dentist uses on my teeth: baking soda.

I poured a small amount of baking soda on the canopy, then grabbed a toothbrush - I have one of those battery-powered ones that I use for scrubbing kits before I start building. It took a while, and maybe a tablespoon of baking soda in total, but the results were phenomenal. After the required dip in Future, the thing is crystal clear.

It fits in place well enough, after the usual test fitting, and sanding both the top of the pilot’s instrument panel and the sides of the canopy.  EXCEPT on the starboard side.  There’s a 1.5 mm gap towards the front, which tapers down to 0 as you go aft.  I thought the canopy piece itself was warped, but it’s not.  The Fuselage there is just cut down more than on the port side.  To fix this, I superglued a strip of styrene to the fuselage and carefully sanded it backuntil the canopy fits without a gap.  I lost some surface detail on the side of the fuselage in the process, but it was pretty soft to begin with.  I replaced it with panels cut to shape from sign vinyl (thanks Erin!)

Tonight I’ll mask the canopy and add the tail fins, so tomorrow I should be able to start the final painting.

Save US, Dave Petraeus

Thank you very much, Jon Stewart, for getting that song stuck in my head.

Yeah, I know, his was “Iraq Me Dave Petraeus”. But listening to the radio this week makes my version sound more …. I dunno …  Appropriate.

Listening to the radio and the White House sponsored General Petraeus’ media concert, you’d think he’s either Captain America ™ or an imp sent from Satan to destroy the Chosen. You’d be wrong, either way … but that’s politics in America.

General Petraeus is one unlucky bastard. Rising star in the Army. Successfull tours in command right up to a division in an invasion. Turns out to be a thinker, not just a fighter, and succeeds in Occupation duties. In a pretty tricky environment (Mosul). Unfortunately for him, he’s the exception.   The Army keeps throwing him assignments that reek of  ” you’re so smart, do THIS”.   Remember that Newseek cover in 2005? That’s where his reputation as a miracle worker was cemented.

So the war is going south and in an effort to lipstick the pig, General Petraeus gets offered the “opportunity” to make the surge work. It’s not his plan. And let’s face it - the guy can’t be so stupid to believe that democracy can flourish in a land that has never had any experience with the system, where the last three generations of people have lived under the most brutal of dictators, and oh by they way, they’re being occupied by a foreign invader.   And it’s absolutely farcical to think that 700 years of internecine conflict and generations of scores to settle can be “reconciled” – or the process even started – after just 6 months.

So. Quick recap here:

-no history of democracy. It’s all authoritarian of one flavor or another. Since the beginning of time.-bloody sectarian divide 700 years old-three generations (at least) under a dictator with scores to settle.Gonna need a lot of lipstick for *that* pig.  And General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker get to hold the lipstick. Through the whole circus, two people are conspicuously absent; both are his bosses.  General Petraeus doesn’t report to President Bush; he reports to CENTCOM, who is ADM Fallon (and noted skeptic of the utility of the Surge(tm)).  President Bush is ADM Fallon’s boss.  They give General Petraeus his marching orders, and yet General Petraeus is the guy who gets either praise or condemnation - depending on whether you are insane  or everyone else.  The Surge ™  is ALL the President’s doing - you can’t attribute this to anyone but  “The Decider”  did it.  Yet he and his marketeers have successfully pinned the whole thing on someone else: Petraeus.  And so the so-called liberal media - not just the crazies — go barking after Petraeus. Briliant is the diversion: once again, the president and his party get someone else to be accountable for their failings …. and it sticks.

Sneak Peeks

A couple of new things are on their way.  Here are some sneak peaks. 

The Flying Wing master is done and should be in the post to me this week.  It’s a thing of beauty – over a foot wide in wingspan, even at 1/72 scale.  It will include a pilot as well as resin plugs to help trim the vacuformed canopies.

A new ‘Escort Fighter’ kit showed up on our doorstep this week.  It’s 1/72 scale as well, and looks an awful lot like an E-Wing (but of course it isn’t….).  Detail is very nice, and includes a well done (for the scale) cockpit.  I’m having trouble contacting the manufacturer, though, so no idea if or when it will go on sale, or if I’ll ever have more of these than the ten I received.

Bandits of the Misplaced Extra-Terrestrial Shark

More pictures have arrived of the 1/72 scale master of a batwinged airplane strikingly reminiscent of something seen in a movie a few years ago.  The overall shape is looking good.  Canopies (pilot’s, nose glazing, turret, etc) will be provided in vacuformed plastic, and I think for the first time a resin plug will be included in the kit to help cut them out.  A pilot dressed in suitable ‘30’s-style flight gear will also be included, as will (of course) full landing gear.

I’ve been  informed that there’s not a lot left to do on the master, just some detailing here and there.

Frustration

The StarshipModeler.net forum move is not going smoothly.  I’ve finally managed to get the software  installed, and after several false starts the backup of data has been restored … and… the login part is not working.

And I can’t figure out why.

I’ve been at this forever now (ok, since 9am yesterday, but still) and it’s making me crazy.

Edit:  10 hours later ….

I finally got it working.  Yay.  Then I came home, made dinner, and stripped off the paint I sprayed on that Reaper mini, and another small figure.  Important safety tip:  don’t apply that Hasegawa latex masking medium over a flat coat of paint.

Unless you like standing over the sink scrubbing it off with an old toothbrush.

Putzin’

This was meant to be published on Thursday, when  I spent most of the day at home with The Child and so did not make a lot of linear progress. 

I did get stuff done though.

While she was lining up every car, small plastic toy and happy meal plunder along the edge of the rug in the living room – for the Mother of All Parades, mind you – I managed to rescribe the panel lines on the upper half of the F-302.  

While she was painting her Mommy a picture at her easel in the basement, I was sponging on rust.

And while she was in the tub, I managed to spray a bit of paint on this Reaper mini  (the orange is Hasegawa’s liquid paint mask.  I’m not sure I like it – it’s not coming up easily and it stained the underlying paint.  But that was a half-assed primer of Humbrol flat white enamel I had left over from something else….)

Back Inaction

We took a few days off last week to go to the beach (in St Joseph, MI,  just about 80 miles due east of here) with my brother’s and sister’s family.  We had perfect weather for staying in the water, too.  But four days gone means four days of orders and emails piling up …..

Today I received the first pull of the 1/72 Colonial Viper (original series) that Stargazer mastered.  There are some problems, most notably some overlap on the bottom part of the main fuselage piece that results in a ‘step’ all the way around.  Should take only a few moments with a sanding stick to take care of, but the caster is re-doing the mold anyway to fix the issue.  The other bits turned out great — no pits, bubbles or voids and only a slight amount of flash between the wheels of the landing gear.

Hopefully this puppy will be ready for sale next month.

Sound & Fury

Those were some storms that roared through here last night.  We had almost two hours of lightning crashing down all around with spurts of monsoon rain, though luckily we only lost power briefly.  I lay awake for a long time watching the fireworks and waiting to hear the thump of a tree branch crumpling the roof. Alas, the storm front didn’t bring any relief from the choking humidity we’ve endured.  It’s still so sultry you wish for gills when you have to go outside, and paint just won’t dry.

Not that it stopped me from laying down some paint last night, a coat of white enamel to cover the primed figures.  I just didn’t have the energy to work on the F-302 – I hate filling seams and though these aren’t bad, it’s still not a lot of fun.

Good news this morning:  the über secret special projeckt is coming along nicely.

Mixed Messages

I’ve seen this too often now for it to be a fluke.

 There’s a lot of new home construction going on around here - McMansions going up all over the place.  Each of these sites has a big ol’ dumpster sitting out front.  And everywhere I turn, seems these dumpsters have one face painted as the American flag.

Now, I ‘get’ the patriotic spirit.  But painting a flag on your trash can?  Just what message is that sending?  Do these folks stop to think past the rah-rah-go-USA-whoo! of the giant flag to what they’re symbolizing?

I jinxed myself with the F-302 by saying it was going smoothly.  It’s going to require lots more sanding and re-scribing than I anticipated.    Ah, well.  I was able to lay some primer down on other projects though - a couple figures that were not coming along as I wanted.  The great thing about acrylic paints is that some Simple Green and a toothbrush are all you need for a clean slate.

Books & Models

I don’t get a lot done on Fridays, and last night was no exception.  I fell asleep on the couch after dinner, waking just in time for the second showing of Dr Who on Sci-Fi.  I should have just stayed asleep; “Evolution of the Daleks” was an even bigger cliche-fest than “Daleks in Manhattan”, and the dialogue worse.  Not a highpoint for this series….

Having dashed my chances for a good night’s sleep, I picked up – and very nearly finished — “Flora Segunda” by Ysabeau Wilce last night. It’s set in the same nation/state, Califa, as the Hardhands/Tiny Doom short stories that have appeared in Asimov’s and F&SF, though at least a generation later. (It’s a completely standalone work; Hardhands, the pink pig and I think Tiny Doom do make cameos, but unless you have read some of the shorts you wouldn’t catch that).

I don’t know how to describe it. The narrator/protagonist is a 13 year old girl on a quest, and it’s a coming of age story, but it’s not really YA, at least not in the same vein as Harry Potter, though it’s certainly not as “mature” as “The Linaments of Gratified Desire”, which was in F&SF not too long ago.  It’s really … odd.  Military …. but no battles. And baroque. And funny … Ms Wilce has a very distinctive writing style and it’s a treat to read.

I hope she turns this into a series - I’m excited she’s at work on another book in the same setting.

I did manage to get a small amount of work done on the F-302  (1/72 scale, coming soon from Black Sun), gluing on the starboard wing and filling the landing gear bays with Aves so I can pose the thing “in-flight”.  I needed to pin both wings and fill with epoxy putty (KraftMark’s Pro-Create in this case). 

As originally mastered, the kit was to have had a one-piece fuselage and wings.  After discussing it with the first caster, I opted to make the wings separate and thus save on rubber for the molds.  After the patterns were returned, I carefully – and laboriously – sawed the port wing off.  Then my 3-year old knocked it off the counter and snapped the starboard wing clean off – d’oh!  Why didn’t I think of that? The master  was completely rescribed, and Terry helped out by fixing some incorrect detail, especially the dog-tooth leading edge of the wings.

Turns out that separating the wings was good for another reason.  As originally mastered, the downward angle of the outer wings was too shallow – not a lot, but noticeable.  Now it’s a relatively simple matter to get the right anhedral.

If I can maintain focus, it shouldn’t take long to fill the remain gaps, sand everything down and affix the rest of the parts.  Maybe I can even have it in primer by the end of the weekend….