Capn, wow about the temps and how long. Brutal. I have been thinking about my looming retirement and where I wanna live. I love the southwest, drier heat, but this years heat has me second guessing myself. I have a friend living in phoenix and as much as he likes it there, this years heat has him going crazy. Simply, too hot to do anything even at night.

That really sucks about the hit and run. I suppose you were unable to capture the tag number. Or were you? And yes... thank goodness you don't have to car shop. New and used car prices are insane!

Hang in there, my friend.

My wife and I relocated to Goodyear, AZ last year - just southwest of Phoenix and I can verify that the summers are pretty toasty.  The rest of the year makes up for it though - beautiful.  This is my second summer here - we broke a record with 31 consecutive days at 110 or higher .  

keavdog

My wife and I relocated to Goodyear, AZ last year - just southwest of Phoenix and I can verify that the summers are pretty toasty.  The rest of the year makes up for it though - beautiful.  This is my second summer here - we broke a record with 31 consecutive days at 110 or higher .  

 

Hey John, thanks for saying. Yeah. I am tired of the long winters, gloomy skies, wet springs, and very short summers. Maybe I would not mind it so much when retired and when I can actually do some fun stuff, verses not having the time to take off. Work has me tied up so bad that its hard to even take a half day. I have three weeks vacation to use up between now and December, and I don't know how I will make that happen. I have not had an actual vacation since 2007. Ok i am whining again. Sorry about that.

I am also considering Nevada somewhere. 

Hey John, quick question. Are you living in an HOA type deal? I see many places like that and wondering if you are, and how you like that.

Bakster

I suppose you were unable to capture the tag number.

Down to insurance and the PD, who have a vested interest in that.

The Texas heat is a thing, but you skip having depressing winters entire.  No slat o nthe roads for 80-90 days, either.

Now, a person moves to the Hill Country, the elevation helps.  Kerrville (1367') is popular for this, as the heat is not quite so oppressive.  Fredriksburg (1693') is similarly popular.  Both of those have been running 10-15° cooler than the rest of the state.  Get out to Alpine (4475') and they have not broken 90° the whole year. 

Now, Alpine is a two hour drive form nearly everywhere, which is a bit of a downside.  Fort Stockton (2972') can be something of a compromise.  Decent size city, right on I-10. 

There are options galore. TankerBuilder's quaint digs over in New Braunfels is only 635' (basically the same as DFW) have much to recommend them.  On a river fed by glacial-melt springs, plenty of hills and scenery.  Near the San Antonio-Austin corridor, yet smaller-town all around.  NB is right at 100k population, so, not too big. 

Now, you would not want to drive a Chariot around most of those places, not without the surtains pulled

Hey Capn, good points. I am keeping faith that when the time comes the right door will open. 

Gonna try to get some benchtime in today.

Well, it has been a spell since my last update. With the exception of the curtains mentioned earlier in this thread, they are done. The others, I will save to the very end. 

These were certainly frustrating to make. The biggest issue was that the foil lacked sufficient adhesive for my purpose. The foil may work fine applying directly to a model, but applying them to tracing paper was a no joy. My workaround was to apply a thin layer of glue to the paper and then apply the foil. Without doing that, forget it. The foil separates. But, having said that, the foil was perfect for the job. The scale is good and it's extreme malleability was perfect for the job.

Overall, I am happy with the outcome.

That is all fine and dandy but the next great test will be gluing them in place. Not only by trying to avoid a sloppy mess that can be seen through the canopy but, these have tight tolerances. All of the pieces I made thus far will butt against each other. The frames must be built just right and then there is the issue of adding foil and glue that affects the tolerances. Too far out of tolerance the panels will not fit right. I tried to factor that all in but ... the proof is in the pudding. I expect there will be some issues but I am hoping I can balance them as a whole. So, that remains to be seen.

For fun, here is my refuse pile. And this does not include maybe another third from my initial testing. The fallout rate in building these was fairly high. As time progressed things got better as I figured things out but I'd say 1/3 of them had to be redone at least once, some three times. The big issue here was in trying to unfold the pleats that I made. They'd often get so mangled that they lost integrity. 

So, the panels will get stowed and it's time for the next step. And that is... to paint the floorpan/body. Below is what I settled on for paint. It is hard to get a good read studying the 1:1. All the images have color balance issues, and that shifts the shade. 

I like the orange I picked because it has a hint of red. I really don't want pure orange. And actually, the 1:1 appears as more of a red orange. Again, it could be a color balance issue but it seemed consistent through the various images I studied. And if that is not enough, I just like it better.

As for the gray, I think I will go with this. I need to spray it first to see. Maybe I will adjust it some.

That is all for now.

Sometimes, "success" is best measured in the refuse pile.

Probably a little lucky that, in the day, the "space color" was silver. 

Had the curtains been, say day-glo orange or yellow, or some other thing that would have been a right nightmare to model.

Had this notion the other day, for no good reason, that, if the Chariot were imagined with current tech, the glazing might be elctro-photo-chromic, where the glass would be an opaque mirror fro mthe outside and a half-silvered, see-through from the inside. 

I do not want to think what that would be like to model, not in the slightest. :)

"Sometimes, "success" is best measured in the refuse pile.".   

So good. I love it.

"Probably a little lucky that, in the day, the "space color" was silver. "

Probably so.

"Had this notion the other day, for no good reason, that, if the Chariot were imagined with current tech, the glazing might be elctro-photo-chromic, where the glass would be an opaque mirror fro mthe outside and a half-silvered, see-through from the inside."

Interesting thought, Capn. I am glad that is not the case.

Good to see you back to work on this! The panels and frames look like a bear! My hat's off to you for sticking with this. 

Finally got to season three of the series. And so Doctor Smith is an Environmental Psychologist!?!?! Not an M.D. I guess that explains why don't see him doing any patching up the Robinsons and West after their latest adventures. But what exactly does an Environmental Psychologist do? I'd assume they study human reactions in extreme environments? 

But Smith as a psychologist!??!! He needs a shrink himself! I am reminded of the A-Team episode where a lady seeing Murdock with a bunch of psychology textbooks asks 'Mr. Murdock are you psychologist?' And he responds 'No ma'am I'm insane...' 

Good to see you back to work on this! The panels and frames look like a bear! My hat's off to you for sticking with this.

They WERE a bear. That is why I am saving the last 4 until the end. Those will probably be worse and no sence killing myself now should some other disaster befall me killing the project. THAT, and working on what I did was all I could stomach. I am looking forward to starting paint!

"But Smith as a psychologist!??!! He needs a shrink himself!"

I did not know that. That is a hoot! Can you imagine? You'd be telling him your woes and he'd be either sleeping or saying, "Oh the pain. The pain!"

Gamera

But Smith as a psychologist!??!! He needs a shrink himself!

All too many "therapists" out there who actually need more threapy than they give . . . :)

So very true Captain! 

BTW: Did you get your truck repaired yet? So sorry to hear about the accident. 

I can imagine taking a few hours to describe my mental issues to Smith till I hear him snoring and realize that he just slept though the whole thing. But he's sure to tell me to pay the receptionist at the door on the way out. 

Don't look now... but here comes Smiths next patient.

Gamera

BTW: Did you get your truck repaired yet?

Nope.  Only got the Formal Estimate (what Insurance will pay) on Thursday.

Drove 200 miles to a funeral Friday morning, got back at 0120 Sunday, been too crazy to go bother Body Shops so far.  And this week is near spent, and it's off to the airport Monday afternoon to Boston, so, maybe, Thursday next week . . .

Repairs will be 5 days, too--have to sort out a rental for that time.  Sigh.

Back on topic, back in the day, I always wondered why they did not go with the Chariot also being a hovercraft, to really "all terrain" the thing.

Mind, that would be one more headache four our dear Bakster, modeling an extensible hovercraft skirt :)

"Back on topic, back in the day, I always wondered why they did not go with the Chariot also being a hovercraft, to really "all terrain" the thing."

That would have been interesting for sure. 

As I sit here pondering on what I feel like doing... I navigate over some chariot (model) images. Interestingly, some modelers paint the lower body silver.  I have to say... I REALLY like that look. Intrigued, I did more research. 

The 1:1 replica has it painted gray and the builder says, they went to great lengths to replicate their build to as exact as possible. But what can I find on my own? Searching through the color film segment that I posted waaaaaay in the beginning... here is what I found.

Kind of looks silver but wait...

Oh boy. It looks gray but... lighting/color issue?

Ah... but wait.

That settles it.

Notice too the color of the handrails and such. They look much more red than orange. Bad color temperature and over saturation? Who knows. I see that the dish antenna is silver. The model instructions have it black. The 1:1 has it silver.

Lest I deviate... I am probably sticking with the colors I chose.

Before I paint... I better do this step next step. This is easy to miss if you don't read carefully, like I tend to do.

Done. 

At the risk of sounding ridiculously obvious... the drill should be directed to angle in as shown. This will allow the locators to go in straight. I watched another builders video and he mentioned the same. And yes, it seemed somewhat obvious to me too but... it stuck in my head so I didn't forget. Maybe it will help someone else too.

Thus, the piece is square. This will be true for all the pieces installed as such.

Feels good to work on something that is not custom. At least for now, it is back to building out of the box. 

From the photos, it would be easy to justify using Gunship Gray, but many of the available photos seems to be an anodized metallic gray, which likely wants a metalizer paint of some sort.

The grab rails probably were hit with DayGlo Orange, but could be DayGlo Red (which are hugely close together, visually)--either is complicated in that both hue fade in sunlight to an orange sort of tone.

What might be the ticket is an old dodge of priming white, then yellow over that, before putting on the final version of Hi-Viz Red one wants.

Capn, based on the images, it sure does look like dayglo orange.

I just don't know how much stock I want to put in that last image. The colors look wonky. Even Robinsons face has a red splotch to it and the gray undercararige has an odd tinge making it a sort of gray.

Below: I posted these before for different reasons but for this purpose, it shows the 1:1 replica and how its colors play out. Notice the gray body. I can't wrap my head around that color. What kind of gray is that? It's not a pure gray. Or is it.

Below: You can see below how light affects the tone. Look at the seatback compared to canopy frame in the shadows. Same with the above. The more light, the more orange. The darker, the more red.

I'm not gonna go too into the weeds with what color I use, but it sure makes for interesting discussion.

I have many images of this replica and I tell ya, the gray looks different in all of them. Again, I think it speaks to poor color balance of the camera. Now, in this image, to me, the gray looks pure.

And here it almost looks like a metallic silver. I can go on with images, but you get the gist. 

Anyhow, enough with that.

I think about now we need Gamera to provide a LIS episode update. 

I have to wonder... did the chariot get a revamp over the course of the series? 

I found more images from the time. These first two sure look like the body is metalic silver. Also, in both images, the antenna is silver.

The next images appear to have the sort of metalic gray paint, and the antenna is now black.

As Cary Grant would say, Judy...Judy...Judy.

Or its all just a play of light. Its a mystery. 

Color balance in old tv images is tricky stuff at best.

Recall that Leonard Nimoy, as Spock was given a green skin tone (if not the olive green of an Orion)--but note how little of that "shows" in images online today.

The on-set version, I suspect had chrome window framing, and a body of anodized aluminum.

Using this chart:

I suspect the satin silver finish, as in many lighting situations, that can seem dark or glossy.
Now, from this chart:

A person could be excused for picking the Light Blue/Grey finish.

A primer coat in Testor's silver with the thin coat of Gunship Gray shot over that, could be an anwser.

Maybe.

Perhaps.

It's representational, you get to pick, not I.  It's a bit like deciding what color the Santa Maria was finished in--there's not a definitive way to pick one.

Great post, Capn.

I am amazed at how close we are in our thinking. My plan was to have the window framing chrome, the light/blue/gray is very close to what I already purchased. I will play with the color by trying different primer coats. Bottom line is, I expect I will stick with the path already on.

It's representational, you get to pick, not I.  It's a bit like deciding what color the Santa Maria was finished in--there's not a definitive way to pick one.

So very true!

Btw. Did you notice the Jupiter 2 in this image? It looks tan. I am trying to remember if that is how it always looked in the show. I don't think that it did. The image is in stark contrast to the model prop, which is a silver. Another glaring mystery.

Thanks for the feedback, Capn.

Hey Capn, having looked at many chariot images the last day or so, and having just compared gunship gray to dark camo gray that I purchased, I think you nailed it. I think gunship gray is much closer to what I am after. Albeit, maybe too dark, but you made the point to base coat with silver and then add a light coat of gunship gray. In effect, lightening it up some. I am gonna try it.

I ordered a bottle.

Thanks!

Ok, I'm pretty sure I mage a reply yesterday, but it's not here today.  Odd, now I'm wondering what I said.  Sigh.

CapnMac82

Ok, I'm pretty sure I mage a reply yesterday, but it's not here today.  Odd, now I'm wondering what I said.  Sigh.

 

Maybe you said, stop yapping Bakster, and start painting! Lol.

No. I doubt you said that but it sounds like something that I might say. Hehe.

Hey... on a side note. We can't let Gamera have all the fun watching LIS silliness. This YouTube video popped up today under recommended. It is not a must see, but to anyone that likes traveling on fun stuff road, then take a gander.

LIS Mistakes and Oditities Season 2

https://youtu.be/d10yrTePhuI?si=1YrAKbmEctzpwWuC

Have you looked at Testors Gunmetal buffing metalizer? 

It's the darker gray on my u-Boat.

littletimmy

Have you looked at Testors Gunmetal buffing metalizer? 

It's the darker gray on my u-Boat.

 

 

Greetings, Tim. No I hadn't. Another possibility to consider. 

How is life? Still working the long hours?