3rd Painting for 2012!

Yikes, I am nuts...this is my 3rd painting I want to count for 2012, and it is still 2011.  Oh well, this is my 3rd consecutive day of painting and I am just having too much fun to lay the brush down!  Jeremy wanted a seascape similar to my others, but with Diamond Head in the background, so I found an image online, and traced it on paper over my monitor.  So high tech!  NOT!  Then I cut the profile of DH out, and traced it onto my canvas in pencil and painted it in at the appropriate step in the process.  Did the same thing today with a larger image.  Yesterday's was on the 18x24 canvas; today's was on the 16x20 in case one of our visitors at the end of January would like to take it home in their carry-on suitcase.   Here they are:

18x24 for Jeremy and Rachel

16x20

Sister Sue, after seeing the painting for Jeremy, e-mailed that she wants a painting of Diamond Head too, so I can always take the 16x20 to her in HI on my next visit.  Today, I used the small stiff fan brush for the froth of the waves, and it worked well.  On all prior seascapes, I used the filbert and floral round brushes for this purpose.  I think all work ok, but I can obtain a little more delicate touch and effects with the fan.

First Painting for 2012!

Yeah, I am cheating but I had a nice round 30 paintings done for 2011, and I want to get a headstart on 2012 plus I had the time alone at home today, so I did a painting that counts for 2012, lol.  I call it Misty Wintry Hills.  All aspects just flowed today on this project.  I was really pleased with the gradations for lavendar for the hills, and the foreground evergreens were the most effortless ones I have done.  Using the large fan brush, the foreground evergreens came out "feathery" with delicate tips and more background showing through parts of the trees.  The same brush was used for the bushes under the evergreens, except pushing upwards.  The effect is great.  Then I used a fan brush with white to drag the dark from the underbrush, out to create shadows and texture in the snow, creating the "lay of the land" per Bob Ross.  Totally magical, this method of oil painting.

Go Trojan!

It was the day before Christmas, and all through the day, not a breeze was blowing, not even a whisper.  Great day for flying if one did not have fam obligations!  It was over 40F when I went to the field, and it might have hit 50F when I was out there a few hours.  I flew my T-28 Trojan 3 or 4 times.  I lost count as usual and due to one flight being constant TO and landings in both directions.  I would takeoff, turn a 180, touch and go, turn 180, touch and go, etc, back and forth with full flaps down.  There was no wind to consider in either direction, nor crosswind.  I was not the only diehard.  Mike, Doug, and Dave came out too, but that was all.  Doug had fam obligations, so he brought the whole fam out to watch him fly!  Maybe 6 adults, and a couple toddlers watched him fly his Nexstar equipped with snow skis on the trike gear.  It worked like a charm, including still effective ground steering.  It was an odd but cool sight to see the ski equipped plane fly off our slick grass, lol.  The T-28 flew like a champ and just needs some covering repaired on the wing where it got loose from exhausts, so I ripped a couple square inches off so that it would not flap and worsen in the air.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

#30/#50...aka Winter Solace

Mission accomplished...I completed painting #30 for 2011, and #50 overall since starting the Bob Ross painting method in January 2010.  I sure didn't expect to do 30 this year, but it was just so much fun and I got hooked on doing seascapes halfway through the year.  Maybe I can do 40 next year, haha.  I doubt it, but maybe 30 again? This painting is from memory after watching Bob Ross on OPB on Monday.  I call it Winter Solace.  Very quick to do because there are no clouds and snow-capped mountains to get just right.

I actually learned some new things on this painting, such as the bushes with a fan brush, and pulling the paint from the bushes to make shadows while also creating the shape of the snowy hills.

Sbach 342 Joins My Air Force!

Tad and Becky gifted me the  Pilot 73" Sbach 342 for my 60th birthday back in May, at which time I installed the LG and stab.  I then laid it down for the flying season till just two weeks ago.  With our rainy or cold weather setting in for the Winter, I picked it back up again, and assembled it.  Twas FUN and the high quality of the Pilot ARF made it fall together rather effortlessly. 

Yesterday I attached the wheel pants and painted the all-white helmet head to match the color scheme.  I pretty much completed the plane today by printing and attaching an instrument panel, affixing the pilot, and redoing the servo arms to the shafts with blue threadlocker.  It's a real beauty of a plane, yet I can remember thinking that when I first selected it, the color combo of orange and purple is GAUDY!   Not so in person.  I think the expanses of white help tone it down some.  The scheme is definitely not conservative, but now I like how it pops enough and says "Look at ME!"  Haha, I kinda like that.

The plane has a DLE-30 with JTec muffler for power.  Tower TS160 servos all around except for a Hobbico CS110 for throttle.  Batteries are a 4.8v NimH for the ignition and 2 LiFe 1100mAh packs for the receiver and servos.  Two heavy duty switches service the LiFe packs while one takes care of the ignition pack.  An RCXEL optokill switch provides positive kill of the engine.  Radio is the Airtronics 10 channel SD-10G with their 8channel 92824 receiver.

It's a BEAUTY and I can hardly wait to maiden it.

 

Holy Toledo!

It is not as pretty as before because of the damage to the cowl in the last outing, but the Toledo Special flew BETTER than ever today.  Pour quoi?  First off, I repaired the cowl to be strong but not beautiful (yet) by using CA on thin FG cloth inside the cowl in the several thrashed locations, caused by the demolition of the spinner and backplate on the plane.  I made the repairs but did not repaint those areas because I don't have matching paint and it will be hard to find.  If I do repaint the areas, it will be with what I can find or have on hand, such as a dark blue Lusterkote spray that I have.  The big reason the TS flies better than ever though is because the last MAS prop was damaged in the spinner explosion, so I replaced it with what I had on hand, an APC in the same diameter and pitch...13x8.  Wow, this makes the plane sing through the air.  I can't believe the difference, the increase in speed and authority while sounding smoother or quieter.  Got in 3 nice flights, and had to rush home to take care of Kimi.  BTW, Jer ordered and gave me the new baby blue spinner from H9 for this plane.  Thanks Jer!

PS...I have many planes with APC props on them, but some just like the MAS better, so I do have both in my air force.

Flight Log: 12/15/2011

I was surprised to see the 3 outside thermometers read >40F at the same time, so I went flying.  Nobody else was there since the sky did look very grey and overcast.  Wind was light, but it made the temp feel colder.  Used a handwarmer and was fine.  Flew the Stinger II for two flights and liked it.

Did not like my new glasses, so I intend to use my old ones with sunglass clip-ons for all flying from now on.  I got the new glasses because the old ones are getting milky white lenses...dunno why and KP did not have any ideas why either.  Well, after about 4 rechecks I gave up on going back to get the new glasses perfect.  For some reason, the right side is great, but the left side is slightly blurry, and when I drive I definitely see double vision red stop lights but not green.  Weird!  Anyway, KP is useless even though they say come back till satisfied.  I just give up.  The old ones are not like that, so I will use them just for flying, and always with the sunglass clip-ons so that the milky white lenses don't bounce all kind of white glare into my eyes.  After the holidays I might use the new prescription at LensCrafters or Binyons to see if they can produce them better.  If  I get the same optical results, then the prescription is bad.  Just maybe they will simply produce them better.  This turned out to be a long post on glasses and not on flying, haha.

It felt good to get out to fly again after not going for 10 days!  Sure showed rust in that short layoff.  My landings were bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!  The YS 63 ran like a thoroughbred.  Really like it.

Flight Log: 12/03/2011

Slightly foggy and cold at the start, the sun burnt the mist off quickly and took the chill out of the air to make flying a pleasant event today.  It was 40F but calm, so there was no wind chill till the end of the day when a little wind came up and the sun was low in the sky.  Had a great time with both Tad and Jer staying the whole time I was there.  Flew my SNAFU all day because my Toledo Special had an wardrobe malfunction.  The spinner broke during the first run up, so I took off the spinner cone.  The rest of the spinner shattered on the next run up, and damaged the cowling.  Had to hangar that plane right then.  Should have retightened the prop when I took the nose cone off.  The whole mess might have been due to a loosening prop.  Came home and last night I used some light FG cloth and thick CA to reset the nose of the cowling.  If I can find a paint to cover the cracks and chips, I will do some repainting.  Otherwise, very little will be seen when I get a new spinner on.  Now am deciding what to do about a replacement spinner.  Anyway, the SNAFU flew fine and I had a good time.  Took at least 5 flights.  Tad had 3 with his AW Extra, and Jer had several with his GP Extra with the new Bisson muffler.  The OS 160FX seems to work with the new muffler and is quieter.  He just needs to ensure the muffler does not loosen during flight.