Zenrat's Flying Circus

[zenrat]

New year, new blog.
All I was previously posting in the Aircraft of the PDRV thread in the Current and finished projects - aircraft area ( http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,37999.210.html ) i will instead be posting here.

And I am quite happy for comments to be posted and the thread to be taken off to wherever it wants to go. Hijackers welcome.  This is a conversation not a lecture and I am not a control freak with a stick up my donkey.

[zenrat]

I really must finish off some cars so I have been working on a melding of '60 Ford and '58 Edsel.
It's pretty much there but then I dropped the rear bumper and can I find it?
I have an Edsel one which will fit with a bit of work but it's delayed everything while I strip the chrome, sand off the over-riders and bolt heads and then PSR it.

The desert Fulmar is nearly done.  It's getting weathered.  I find it hard to do subtle and it's ending up looking skanky.  I've got some 60lb rockets to hang off it but i'm stuck for a colour to paint the tubes. Charcoal grey is winning ATM.

I'm also weathering the Henfield.  First stage is small squares of toilet paper glued down with thinned paint.  Sounds odd but it gives the look of patches having been applied to the fabric covering.  Something the Sky Pirates would have to do to keep her flying.

The XFV-1 is awaiting sanding where I had to shim the fuselage to get the cockpit to fit.

I've started a 1/72 Hasegawa He-51 which will be finished in Luftwaffe desert paint with a twist.

Land-Wasser-Flakpanzer is awaiting a few small details and side armour mounts and then it's paint time.

Armoured D9 dozer has reached the point where it's time to make the RW or Whiff decision.  Bit of a no-brainer really.  I'll therefore be looking at how easy it will be to modify it to have non-armoured glass and opening windows and then break out the AARV crane and winch to stick on the back.

I've also been building a powered beaching trolley for the Gully Godwit from bits & pieces, have made progress with a BMW Dixi dragster and a Kustom '53 F100 and have started a Nissan GT-R R35 which will be OOB but will feature a Jim Richards "Pack of Ar5eholes" paint job.

[PR19_Kit]

Not got too much on then Fred?  

[zenrat]

Nah, a light funload*.  Plenty more cars and Gundams started too.  Those are just the ones I can reach out and touch without getting boxes out of cupboards.

*I originally put workload, but it's not work it's my hobby and they're supposed to be fun aren't they?

[zenrat]

So, the knives are out and whiffing has commenced on the Meng 1/35 D9 Armoured Dozer.  So far i've been removing frames from the armoured windows and will be replacing the thick armoured glass with thin normal glass with sliding sections on all windows other than the windscreen.
The cab walls on the chassis have been modified.  The one on the sprue has not.  Operator visibility will be improved and it will weigh less (although when taken as part of the whole I suspect that weight loss would be trivial).  The gunners seat has been lowered to get her/him out of the operators eyeline and as this will be a demilitarised machine s/he'll be a crane operator rather than a gunner.  Cab will need to be dressed with appropriate scale clutter such as fag packets, iced coffee bottles, tools and stick mags.


Desert Fulmar will be finished tomorrow.  Words have been coming out of my fingers.


Possible future camo pattern - PDRV Gumbark?

[DogfighterZen]

Looks like a desert-type camo, 3 tones? Light Grey, Light brown/Sand and Dark brown?
Should look good with that chipped up look. 
 

[Captain Canada]

Busy busy ! The D9 is going to be sweet. I love that kind of stuff. A scratch built tractor type is on my to-do list this year as well.

Looks like a Sycamore tree. Try googling sycamore tree bark....lots of funky shapes and colours !

 

[zenrat]

Got all the D9 windows "de-armoured".


The Henfield is at the stage where I have to stick the wings on.  This means rigging them and it is a bit daunting so i'm procrastinating.

But todays main area of work was re-scribing the panel lines on the fuselage of a Valom Lockheed XFV-1.  Mmmmm, that was fun.  And I choose to do this for pleasure?
After i'd finished making the chicken scratches in the plastic I glued on the new wings which was much more satisfying.

[Flyer]

But todays main area of work was re-scribing the panel lines on the fuselage of a Valom Lockheed XFV-1.  Mmmmm, that was fun.  And I choose to do this for pleasure?
After i'd finished making the chicken scratches in the plastic I glued on the new wings which was much more satisfying.

Ooooh a modified tailsitter . Sounds interesting.

[zenrat]

I was looking for a 1/72 Pogo when I got it but needs must...
I've cut down the raised lip around the cockpit and am using Mig 29 wings.  I'll probably go with the original tails as they fit in well with the wings but i'm thinking of scheming up some sort of retracting undercarriage/fairing system on the tips.
I definitely will not be using the fixed conventional undercarriage.  This baby sits on her arse.
I'm thinking ground attack in a forward support role.  Operating from hidden bases like a Harrier.

However today I did no modelling.  When I got in from work at 10am it too hot and sticky to go and swelter in the shed so I put a fan on and sat at my computer and edited ID3 tags on i-tunes.  I now have Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep correctly listed in chronological order and with cover art showing.
I must say the latest round of i-tunes updates have made it a lot easier to do this.

[Gondor]

However today I did no modelling.  When I got in from work at 10am it too hot and sticky to go and swelter in the shed so I put a fan on and sat at my computer and edited ID3 tags on i-tunes.  I now have Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep correctly listed in chronological order and with cover art showing.
I must say the latest round of i-tunes updates have made it a lot easier to do this.

Thank you for reminding me to burn some audio CD's of APP so I can listen to them in the car.

Gondor

[zenrat]

Of course.  Alan Parsons Project!
I couldn't work out the TLA yesterday but today it came to me as soon as I read it.

Today, as part of the on going procrastination to avoid rigging the Henfield, I sorted my boxes of Matchbox Heyford parts.  Turns out I have enough bits to build a complete OOB Heyford* (bar one propeller spindle - easy to knock up from rod or sprue) with enough parts left over for at least two Handley Page based Whiffs (although I am short of engines and upper wings due to the Henfield being a 5 engined triplane).
So after I put the sorted out "complete parts set" into one box and the rest back into the other two boxes they came from did I get out the Ezi Line?
Of course not.  Instead I started building a pair of extended wings (even from 12,000 miles Kit's malign influence is felt  ) for a Handley Page Hassocks high altitude PR aircraft.  Or maybe a 1930s AEW plane?

Other than that I sanded some filler on the Salmon (needs a PDRV name.  It'll be another Gully-Lomax Design.  Wonder what an aboriginal word for fruit bat is?) and shot some primer over it to see how it looked.

*This is obviously not going to happen.  I have a pair of Resin Double Wasps spare now the tilt fan FW-189 is getting Tin Goose engines so at the very least it'll get an engine upgrade.

[Weaver]

Any part of the world can be reached by longer wings......

[PR19_Kit]

Hehehe, 'Highaspectratioitis' is a world wide pandemic, and very few are immune to it. 

[zenrat]

You are right of course.  I must have missed my jabs.
By my calculations I have added a scale 14'.


I bit the bullet today, girded my loins and carped the diem.  I've attached ezi line to the top and bottom wings and glued the bottom wing on.  When the glues dry tomorrow i'll stretch and glue the lines from the bottom wing to the middle and then glue the top wing on.