**DONE** F-52 Ultra Hornet, United States Space Force (PICS Pg. 4)

[TheChronicOne]

I started out with all this:







Then there were intermediate shenanigans:








Then I primed and painted it and had a compatibility disaster so I've since sanded it:



Going to probably sand it down a little bit more but it's almost ready to be painted again. This time I'll play it safe with good ol' brush painted black acrylic.

[kerick]

Sounds like a good plan. I've had several models where the paint is great on most of the surface and terrible on just a couple of spots. I have no idea what the difference is from one spot to another to make it go bad. I'm not one to throw a model in the trash but I can see how that would happen.

[TheChronicOne]

Had some of that happening on this one. Baffling...  There were four little areas on this one where the paint rippled up and looked overly thick or something.... right next to these spots, nothing of the sort. Everything was treated the same.

I just don't get "binning" a build.  Every time I see someone say they threw their build away it was something relatively easy to fix. Why waste dozens or a hundred hours because ..... sanding is hard???  Or something?? Pffft.     What's 2 hours of PSR opposed to completely starting over? Just makes no sense. I could see.. if... like.. a bookcase fell over and crushed it into pieces or something but all I ever see is some paint job didn't work out quite right or a decal fell apart and people just give up all of a sudden.

[Old Wombat]

Had some of that happening on this one. Baffling...  There were four little areas on this one where the paint rippled up and looked overly thick or something.... right next to these spots, nothing of the sort. Everything was treated the same.

I just don't get "binning" a build.  Every time I see someone say they threw their build away it was something relatively easy to fix. Why waste dozens or a hundred hours because ..... sanding is hard???  Or something?? Pffft.     What's 2 hours of PSR opposed to completely starting over? Just makes no sense. I could see.. if... like.. a bookcase fell over and crushed it into pieces or something but all I ever see is some paint job didn't work out quite right or a decal fell apart and people just give up all of a sudden.

I haven't binned a build, yet, but most of those "minor paint defect" binnings seem to be after a nightmare build of niggle-upon-niggle-upon-niggle & the builder's frustration levels have just built up to the screamin' heebie-jeebies point, where the effort put in to fix all the earlier issues is no longer of any consequence compared to their overall infuriation levels.

As I said, I haven't reached that level, yet, but there are a few builds sitting in the Cupboard of Doom for just that reason.



Of course, there is the odd "Ultra-Perfectionist" for whom the invisible imperfections of a repaired paint job are too much to bear, so in the bin it goes. Given that they must have had to fix issues with the kit & do some PSR during the build, I'm always curious how they get to the paint stage, anyway.

[TheChronicOne]

I can see the logic, good point. 

I just can't grasp the concept when it's something that could easily be fixed. Especially when fixing the problem as it is would be miles and miles less effort than completely starting over. I've definitely been at the point where I've been at my wits end and wanted the smash the hell out of a lil airplane though!!   


I was thinking earlier about this a little bit and can recall a number of builds where I most definitely spent more time messing things up than I did advancing it.     I'm just not a very good modeller yet. But, I'll get there! The thing is, these can sometimes seem like a waste of time but if I dump 100 hours into something, I'd be crazy to up and throw it out just because a couple decals fell apart.

[Old Wombat]

My view is "It's all a learning experience". Sometimes the lessons are easy, sometimes not.


Of course, the "not" can seem like Satan's woken up with a case of crabs, a dose of the clap, an energy magnitude scale (M_e) 9.8 hangover & coming down off the worst trip in history, & decided to pick on you as the brunt of his colossal grump.

[TheChronicOne]

 

That's pretty close to how I feel sometimes after I think I'm about to turn a corner and produce the finest example of craftsmanship but instead I messed it up and it's a sky-turd.   

[kerick]

I can live with something on the completed shelf with a couple imperfections. Others stall and end up in the "I'll get back to it" pile. Usually I can fix something to an acceptable level. I guess "acceptable" is an individual judgement call.

[Tophe]

Interesting, is this science-fiction?

[TheChronicOne]

I suppose it is? Futirism, Near-futurism. It's set in the future and all that so I'd say it qualifies. I can't remember what I settled on, but this is approximately the year 2042 and we have us a fight jet that can operate in atmosphere and in out space and can transitiong back and fourth with ease. Can trap on and launch from carriers, runways, or dock with space spation type thing. Ability to hove in atmosphere with V/TOL type capabilities.

Neat stuff!! Haven't really though about propulsion or fuel types or anything but I imagine it would have some sort of very powerful, very efficient power core or something and possibly also contemporary "fuel" of some sort to operate thrusters or boosters or the engines at various points and configurations.

[chrisonord]

I shall be watching this build with interest, so expect a pm from SHADO, asking about a contract for its next generation of interceptors
Chris

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, mate!!

Back again with an update. I'm having a swell day so I got a ton of model building done and this one got most of the work I think.

Re-painted it. It looks good. Much better than before. A damn sight better than sitting at the bottom of a trash can at any rate.     (ok, ok....   I'll give it a rest  ).



Otherwise, the horizontal and vertical stabs were primed. I would have painted but I'm going to mask the control surfaces so that they stay grey. It'll be that way as a visual aid so the pilot can SEE them out in space to know that they are actually working. If I left 'em black, that'd be more difficult to do. It'll look cool, too. Painted the canards as well.

Also, I've finally finished all the sanding on the ordnance then finished actually building it all as well. Then I glued the pylons on then primed it all. Threw it all into the cupboard to dry:



Good stuff. I'll have to stop and plan out how to do the next phase but most likely will involve painting the engines/exhausts. Those pieces aren't attached yet but when they go on, this thing will be less "stubby" looking. I also need to plan out how to make the rest of the paint job more than just a simple black affair. I have some ideas but I'll need to test them of course and who knows.. I might come up with some more ideas once I get started. Should be fun! Experimenting is easy to do on something like this because it's not just fictional, it's FUTURE fictional so it's uhhh... like.. DOUBLE fake so there's really no wrong way to go about it other than trying to stay within the bounds of reasonable taste.


Approaching the next problem which is transfers... I have done ZERO work on this yet. I'm sure I have things, but will I have enough? It's not quite as easy finding marking to go onto a black aircraft. I'll be needing to find ligther shades of things like low-vis grey markings, reds, yellows, and whites. Toying with the idea, however, of having regular full color US roundels , however. Could be a nice touch or could stick out poorly and look like arse. We'll cross that bridge eventually. 

[Tophe]

It looks good.

Not just good, it looks wonderful!

[TheChronicOne]

Thank you, Tophe!!! The fun is just beginning....   

[strobez]

Been there buddy... in fact I have a chair with my name on it there... but it looks like you've snatched this one out of the jaws of defeat and put it squarely back on track.  It's looking great now!~