It is remarkable how quickly time has flown. It seems like it was Christmas only yesterday.
Copper is doing well this week. It seems that he has settled back into his meds. He is eating well, and on his own without anyone holding the bowl or spoon feeding him, so that is a great sign. He even got into play with the other dogs in the yard, though he definitely can't keep up anymore.
The neighbourhood bear is back. He seems to make a couple of circuits of the neighbourhood each evening. The first is around 11pm and the second is around 5 am. A neighbour has been sharing security camera footage of the bear walking across their front driveway. If you watch closely in the video below, right above the roof of the white minivan, you will see a couple flashes of light, and a person moving around the car. That is Nicholas, on his way to work at the golf course, getting into the car. He must have still been half asleep, as he didn't notice the bear as he drove by.
The kids are all busy at work. Well, all but Christine. She was in Calgary on May 22 for a playoff hockey game, and came home with Covid. Her isolation is now over and she is back to work today. Somehow Marie and I have avoided catching it so fingers crossed our luck continues to hold. Nicholas has started doing field inspections with AER, and has been to Suncor Base Plant and CNRL Albion in the last week. It has been funny to watch him, as he wants to talk about what he is doing and has learned, then realizes that it is privileged information, and he isn't supposed to share. Daniel was up at Fort Hills this past week for some field inspection of the new printed nozzles and instrument taps he designed. He left site on Thursday, back to Calgary, and then on to Waterloo on Friday for a maglev competition. He is part of a UofA team building a maglev prototype as apart of an international competition. They are displaying their work this weekend, and testing on a track on Sunday. Photo 1 shows the test area and test track. Photo 2 shows the UofA vehicle. That is sure way beyond anything I did back in university.
Not a lot of bench time this week. The weather has been better, so lots of yard work, including weeding and the first lawn mow of the year. I also had the thrill of spending a couple of days cleaning out the garage. Not the most enjoyable job in the world but 20 years of junk adds up. Two giant garbage bags later and the garage shelves are useable again.
Looks like a very fast trip to Calgary coming up next weekend. Nicholas has a doctor appointment in Edmonton on Friday afternoon, then on to Calgary for this year's 100K steps fund raiser. The boys have done this the past two years, and have raised close to $10k for mental health. This year they are going to do it in Calgary, walking from Daniel's place downtown, out to Edworthy Park, back downtown, and then south to Glenmore Athletic Park. They plan to start walking between 2am and 3am Saturday morning. Past events indicate that they should finish somewhere between 7 pm and 9 pm. Then back home Sunday so that Nicholas can go to work Monday. Here's hoping that I can sneak in a trip to a hobby shop!
DC-6
The decals are finished, and now it is on to to resolving decaling problems.
The first issue was around the nose, where the decal cheatline stripe split apart. Getting a new piece of decal to wrap around the nose, line up with the existing decals on either side, and lay flat, was a challenge. A little silver paint was needed to clean up some unevenness.
Next up was the cockpit windows. The decals included a black outline around the cockpit windows. As far as I know, the Heller kit is the only 1/72 DC-6 available, so it was expected that the decals were fit to that kit. Unfortunately, the black outline was too big around the windows, leaving white spaces that needed some black paint touchups.
The final decal issue is the fuselage windows. Hindsight says that the clear window inserts should have been glued in better, and any low windows that weren't proud of the fuselage should have been built up with superglue and then polished. Unfortunately, many of the windows are recessed, and the cheatline stripe decals tend to bridge the window opening rather than settle down. Repeated applications of decals solvent has now got things close.
Next step will be to add the landing gear in preparation for a final gloss coat. Then all the bits, including engines, antenna and such will be added.
Photo 1 - Nose stripe and cockpit window decals on. Not a great fit and will need some touch up. Photo 2 - side view of the nose decals
Photo 3 - repairs complete and the black cockpit windows have been touched up with paint.
Photo 4 - all decals complete
Photo 5 - engines complete and ready to attach.
Bell X-1
The X-1 paint and decals are complete. The kit includes decals for 3 different paint schemes, apparently representing different times in the X-1's life. I chose the version representing the 1947 first flight, with the famous "Glamourous Glennis" lettering on the starboard nose. As I was applying decals, I realized that I would be short of a key decal, indicating the plane was part of the flight test division. Going to the Smithsonian site complicated things, as that plane didn't have these markings at all, but did have markings for Bell Aircraft in a similar spot. I had understood that the Smithsonian's version represented the plane as it was at retirement, but they didn't match the kits's retirement markings. An internet search found multiple photos of the first flight but they showed different markings between the various pictures, including different tail serial numbers! One has to assume they didn't repaint the plane during the test flight, so it is unlikely the plane changed tail numbers, but I was no further along as to what the plane really looked like that day. In the end, I settled on what seemed like plausible markings.
The real plane appears to have been kept very clean, and the panel lines weren't visible in any of the pictures. But the model's orange colour seemed too uniform sitting on the bench. I decided to explore a panel line wash to see if that broke up the uniform appearance. Once applied, the wash looked too stark and unrealistic. After letting it sit overnight, it still looked too stark the next morning. The wash was water based, so was easily removed with a damp Q-Tip. The result didn't quite remove all the wash, and looked much better.
The plane has now received its final gloss coat, and is ready for the final details. This will include the resin wheels, two wing mounted pitots, and a nose mounted pitot.
Photo 1. - Orange paint complete. Canopy framing painted black. Ready for a clear coat.
Photo 2. - Tried a wash in the panel lines to break up the orange. The real plane was very clean and panel lines aren't very visible. Think I need to tone this down a bit.
Photo 3. - Panel line wash after being cut back. I like this much better.
Photo 4. Decals complete on the port side. I can't remember the last time I put stars and bars on an airplane
Photos 5&6. Decals complete.
Photo 7 - gloss coat complete
Enterprise NC-1701 refit This one is Dave's fault for sharing pictures of an original series Enterprise he built and had signed by William Shatner. That was enough incentive to dig out one of my Enterprise kits and get started. This is a 1:1000 kit representing the refit Enterprise used in the first Star Trek movie. Not a particularly great movie, and the Enterprise models were easily the stars of the show.
The kit is snap title, but will be glued. The panel lines on the saucer are very deep, but apparently are less noticeable after the decals are applied. And there are a lot of decals! 122 in total, spread over three sheets. Most of them represent the "aztec" patterns that were introduced in the movie, and are translucent. Kit instructions recommended a white base coat, and suggest a pearlescent finish be applied to represent the characteristic shimmer of the movie models. I bought as silver/purple pearl paint when last in Edmonton, and am dying to try it out as the pearlescent layer prior to applying the decals.
Photo 2 - the saucer section needed some filler for some small gaps.
Photo 3 - base white primer has been applied. Even though the model was wiped down before spraying, the underside looks like it was dragged across a carpet. Some aggressive sanding will be necessary to get rid of the fuzz.
And that's it for another week. Take care and stay safe!
Comments