Needless to say, the 2024 flight season has been a disappointment so far. I managed one B6-4 Field launch back in early February, but my gear punked out after only six launches. Undaunted, I came home to do a blog entry, only to find that my method of extracting photos from my phone videos no longer worked.
One day a few weeks later, I woke to a bright, sunny, warm day. (Obviously not a weekend.) I enjoyed the late morning by sitting on the side porch sanding the TLP Exocet MM.40 that I hope to have painted by the time the next beanfield launch gets rained out. Mmmmm. Sanding. Said no one. EVER!
I've been working on it whenever I have time and the weather is decent enough not to leave me feeling older and creakier than I am. I can now rob a bank without leaving prints. They're gone. Sanded away. The good news is that the sanding is done and I've moved onto the painting stage. Wow, this thing is taking a ton of paint, and the sheer size makes it tons of fun to maneuver on the paint deck. Still, it will be nice to fly it in finished form.
During the winter build season I spent a lot of time sick. Yep. Goony Fever. This was the rarer Groony Fever, which is just as catching, but slightly bigger. It all started with the Semroc Snake Jumper that I started back in the fall. A dreaded laser error kept me from finishing it before the new year, but it was one of the six flights made during my abbreviated February launch.
This was the status when I took pics, but I've since progressed to the point that I'm ready to apply the decals. All that I'm waiting on is for the clear coat to dry.
Since I was Groony-ing, I decided on making a couple of the original Goons in Groon size. At the start, I had a vague idea of recreating something on par with the original Goony scans that were posted on YORF, but I haven't been able to find them. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and went with an old favorite, the Star Snoop. I have this in original and family size, but I like the idea of one that won't overfly B6-4 Field on a B6-4. The paint turned out quite nice on this. It was an old can of metallic black lacquer. The nose cone is currently sitting in front of me with the initial eyeball mask in place.
Back in the pre-pandemic days, Lee Reep visited eRockets on a Tuesday build night, so I skipped golf to hang out with him. He brought me an MPC Asp-1, which I immediately opened and began building. It's finally in the flyable stage, and I got the retina-boiling orange paint applied the other day. That paint is going to be necessary. I would imagine this thing will scream if I try a cornfield launch. I'm currently figuring out the masking.
Speaking of puzzling out, this R2D2 was one of the 1978 versions that I bought on eBay around 20 years ago. Even in 1978 when it came out, I thought this would be iffy for flight, even on the mighty C6 motor. That in mind, I opened this one and started building it as a 24mm bird soon after we moved into the new house in 2005. It's been a star-crossed project, but I've somehow managed to keep all the pieces localized, and I recently saw a post on Facebox about another one built with 24mm power, which got me fired up. It may not look it, but I'm actually pretty close to having this flightworthy. Well, from a theoretical standpoint. I flew one of the plastic ones in the corn several years back and it did some skywriting before pounding into the corn on the other side of the creek. I'm hoping for the added nose weight and the surprise factor making a difference with this one. The question is, when?
This isn't the sum-total of all I've been up to, but it is all that was in camera range. There is a launch tomorrow that I'm considering attending, so with someone else to push the button, I'll be able to test out the burst mode of my new camera. Fingers crossed. Social anxiety being beaten back for now.
