The SkyFlash part 3

Getting back to the Skyflash after being a bit ill for a few days, I started by painting the vac form cockpit. Once painted, and glued on, I noticed that I could have sanded the front a little more. It looked cocked backward a bit to me. Oh well, theoretically my next one will be a little better.

Next on the list was to apply the decals. Odd for Anigrand, the decals were a bit thick, and took several applications of Micro Sol onto them to get them to conform to the curved shape of the fuselage.  even after 3 or 4 applications of Micro Sol I still needed to cut the decal where it rode over a panel line. Luckily for me there was just one panel line in the way on each side - 

Having a relapse I left it for a few days, and when I got back to it I wanted to apply a gloss coat over the decals to seal it in before continuing on.
Here's where disaster struck! I sprayed on the gloss and all around the cockpit the paint alligatored!!! WTF! I was so PO'd I just walked away. I really wanted to fling it off the wall. Check back to see if I did fling it, or tried to fix the paint.

Edgar Allen Poe Finale

Since I was so close to finishing last time, this session went pretty quickly. 
I brightened up the scarf, and I also highlighted  the jacket by adding German Gray to the Black Gray base coat. I also brightened up the ivory shirt with a little off white.  I then gave the bust a flat coat.
Turning to the base, I tried my best to highlight Edgar's signature. But being the base was so busy, I don't think I pulled that off too well.
To finish it up I added gloss to the eyes, and called this one done. Thanks for looking. 

Edgar Allen Poe

I have a shelf over my worktable where I store kits in small boxes or kits that have no box. Well poor ol' Edgar Allen has been up there for more than a year staring down at me with those sad unpainted eyes. So today I figured I needed to remedy that. 

The kit is just one piece and sculpted by Brian McGuire. The resin in odorless and I only found a few small bubbles in some of the tips of the hair strands.

Here he is with the skin tone done and the eyes, mustache, and eyebrows base coated - 

Looking online I found out that his eye color has been described as gray, violet, hazel, green and even blue. Finding out that hazel is a combo of brown and green, I decided to go that way.  I also fixed up his hair and scarf. Then base coated his jacket - 

Thanks for looking. More later -

Douglas Skyflash (part 2)

Well, I didn't get it finished, but I am still progressing forward.  
I added the landing gear and then realized the wheels were a little wonky. They had to be broken off and realigned to the jet. 

While the wheels were drying, I turned my attention to masking off the canopy. It was then I noticed I never even touched it. So I dipped the canopy in Future. While *that* was drying I went back and had a look at the wheels. Looked good.  Then it suddenly struck me that I never put any weighs in the nose. Oh boy, I hope it's not a tail sitter. Turning it over while half wincing, I gave it a try. Whew, it rested on its wheels - 

Now I turned back to the canopy. Now in the past 3 planes I did, the vac form canopies gave me fits. So I started my cutting, sanding and fitting with some trepidation. After about a half hour, I gave it it's 3rd fitting and Holy Moley, it looks good!

I was very happy and with that fit and decided to not press my luck and call it a session (BTW that piece of dust is not in the paint and easily wiped off). 
Check back for the finale. Thanks for looking.

The Douglas Skyflash (part 1)

This kit has been on my desk since the before the IPMS Nationals. I started out to be the easiest short run resin kit I ever worked on. Then when I started messing with seams to get them perfect it became a monster. I should have remembered what I was told years ago "Don't ruin a good (fill in the blank), by trying to make it great..."

But first here's a little history: 

In  the early 1950's, high-speed flight research was being done by different agencies, the NACA's hypersonic research, the Air Force's Project 1226, and the Navy's D-558 program. In 1954, a Langley team from NACA gathered those similar researches from military services and aerospace industries, combined with the Air Force and Navy to launch the new "Project 1226" competition. As the Navy liked to keep in the 'space race' and Douglas was interested in building future manned spaceplanes, the D-558-3 Skyflash (Model 684) design was sponsored by Navy to enter the competition. The D-558-3 was designed to be able to  install whatever rocket engine was selected by NACA, and to be air-launch from a Boeing B-50. In 1955, while the Navy decided to save the development cost and no longer participate,  NACA and the Air Force chose the North American proposal as the winner of the competition. This aircraft became the famed X-15 while the D.558-3 disappeared into the dust of the past. 

Here's the kit box art and parts - 

The cockpit and seat have also been painted

While there is an instrument panel, there is no detail to it. There are no decals for it, so I just added a few dots of white to mimic instruments. It looks like there's not a lot of room in there so this should suffice - 

Not a lot of room seems to have been an understatement  ;)  I also added some Tamiya tape seat belts -

Nose cone added. This is going well - 

The fuselage is mostly complete - Time to fill in the seams.

I applied Tamiya filler for the seams. While I'm waiting I painted the landing gear, wheels, and landing gear doors.

 Added primer to see where I am re: the seam lines. Not bad, but I'll give a few spots a second go round. This is where I took my "Going to the Nationals" break.

Upon my return I looked at it and a few spots still need attention. So I added more filler.  Check back for Part 2. Hopefully seam filling will be done. Thanks for looking.

2017 IPMS: Day Trip 3

Today, we got into the car and headed east to Omaha once again. This time it was the Doorly Zoo.  This zoo is supposedly rated even better than the San Diego Zoo.  I also visited the SD Zoo, and that was a tough act to follow.
Since my son started coming to these Nats trips we always looked for something a small kid would be interested in. Now it's become a tradition to hit the local zoo. 
Getting there was no problem and we were soon standing in front of the price board trying to judge what we wanted to do and see. We opted for the big package except for the IMAX. It was a nice day and no real need to be sitting in a darkened theater again (we did hit the local theater days before to see Dunkirk).

There is a hug dome right inside the front entrance that drew our attention so we headed that way - 

The dome was dedicated to plants and animals of the desert, and then as you went on, into an area where the creatures of the night were exhibited. Walking thru the doors you started in the Namib Desert. Lots of room for a few plants -

The whole place is a series of turns where something new is revealed with each turn. Here is where my problem with the idea started - 

These were the first mammal you see. I was surprised at how little room the animals had. This little dear about about  10'X20'. Somehow with herbivores, you see them standing around eating the grass or hay not really doing much else. But in the very next exhibit was an enclosure (I didn't image it) was an ocelot. Or what was supposed to be an ocelot - I never saw it. It's enclosure was a ledge! That's it. Prolly no more than 5 or 6' wide and about 20' long. Now I'm sure it's range in the wild is a lot more and 6'X20'. And that just continued. In my non zoological view, millions of dollars was spent on how it looks and it appeared that no 10¢ was giving to the animals. 
Then around one turn was a huge enclosure made to look like the opening of a mine, complete with tools and one of those carts that ride on rails. It had to be 20' long, 10' wide, but about 30' tall!  What was in it? Seven rattlesnakes!  So a predatory mammal which prolly has the range of many miles, had a ledge, and 7 rattlesnakes who basically stayed in one spot had this giant enclosure...
It got me mad. Mad to the point where I was ready to leave.In the end I basically just walked the path thru the rest of the desert, and did the same with the Creatures of the Night exhibit. No way was this better than the San Diego Zoo.

Getting out and stopping for a drink calmed me down. Then After my wife and son walked thru the aquarium building - I wasn't interested... my wife wanted to go see the butterfly exhibit. Ok, it can't be any worse than the Desert. It was better. I was there mostly to see the plants and I wasn't disappointed with the plants nor the butterflys - 

Very nice bromeliads

This moth was in the hatching area. Cool.

Reflections were impossible to work around

Beautiful Nepenthes

 Next to get a better view of what to see next, we jumped on the "Skyfari", a skilift type ride that took us to the far side of the zoo. Here were a few images from the ride - 

Senses Garden

A pair of cheetah

Bongo

 They even had a sculpture of a Columbian Mammoth - 

 Walking thru the Africa section, there were proper enclosures for the rest of the visit, and before long  it was the end of the day and time to head back to the hotel.

2017 IPMS: Day Trip #2a

I you read the Ash Fall Beds post, I mentioned that in the Hubbell Rhino Barn where were quite a few posters of the fauna that were found before, during, and after the catastrophe.  Liking them so much I imaged a vast majority of them (apologies for the glare, there was no way to avoid it) -