{"id":3428,"date":"2014-12-18T01:58:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T01:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3428"},"modified":"2014-12-18T01:58:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T01:58:21","slug":"anything-but-a-twenty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3428","title":{"rendered":"Anything But a Twenty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The "Anything But a Twenty"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greg Priebe, one of the guys in our gaming group, sent me a note about a toy available at Target stores from the Disney movie, Planes. \u00a0It is a good size for 28mm figures and looks like a C-119 cargo plane. \u00a0I’ve always liked the look of the C-119. \u00a0Before I could take action on his suggestion, I saw this blog posting: \u00a0http:\/\/www.inlgames.com\/c119.htm.<\/p>\n

My pulp games involve Duke Morrison and his buddies, “Wrench” Web and “Boats” Morgan along with his love interest, Gianna Nannini, daughter of the great scientist Serafini Nannini. \u00a0Duke Morrison NEEDED<\/strong> a plane. \u00a0So within a few days, I had ordered one for me and one for Greg from Target.com.<\/p>\n

\"Cabbie<\/a>
Cabbie the cargo plane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My son took up the challenge of removing all the red stickers while we watched television one evening. \u00a0After a lot of elbow grease and a fair amount of Goo Gone, the plane was ready to paint.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The airplane after the decals had been removed and the plane sprayed silver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I first sprayed the plane black and then with a silver paint. \u00a0This silver color was brighter than I wanted, so I gave it a third coat of paint, this time an aluminum color. \u00a0I then mixed silver and brown paint to make a metallic rust color, which I applied liberally with a wide brush.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A darker, less shiny paint job with rust added<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the picture (above), you can see the difference between the un-weathered engine cowlings compared to the rusty finish on the rest of the plane.<\/p>\n

\"First<\/a>
First coat of blue paint on the tail, engine cowlings, and nose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"After<\/a>
After the second coat of blue with the propellers painted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I decided to keep the centers of the propellors silver, but painted the tips of the propellers white. \u00a0I like that look.<\/p>\n

Then came the challenge of coming up with a name for the plane and appropriate nose art. \u00a0After I had considered several names, including Duke’s Duchess and the Granville Gal, Chris suggested Anything But a Twenty<\/em>. \u00a0 Granville is the town in which most of my pulp games take place. \u00a0“Anything but a twenty” is a reference to the fact that in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.<\/em>, rolls of twenty often cause bad — and usually dramatic — things to occur.<\/p>\n

Below are candidate nose art I built from some Varga pin-up pictures I found on line, some image editing capabilities on my Mac, and a few other elements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Duke's Duchess didn't remain in the running too long, but I like this image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
I really liked the original artwork with the girl in the soldier outfit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
I liked this artwork, but I was beginning to settle on Anything But a Twenty as the name of the plane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The final nose art and final airplane name<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below is a closeup of the nose of the airplane with our heroes posing in front of it. \u00a0I printed the nose art on clear, matte address labels. \u00a0The artwork didn’t have the vibrance of glossy paper. \u00a0At first I was a bit disappointed, but in retrospect, I like the washed-out look. \u00a0It seems closer to photos I’ve seen after the plane has had a lot of hard miles. \u00a0The faded look seems to fit better with the rusty appearance of the plane.<\/p>\n

\""Wrench"<\/a>
"Wrench" Webb, Duke Morrison, Gianna Nannini, and "Boats" Morgan in front of Anything But a Twenty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I chose a tail number of NC-61326. \u00a0Since “Granville Gal” lost out, I chose to use the zip code of the real Granville, IL, which is the town on which I loosely based my town for pulp games.<\/p>\n

\""Wrench"<\/a>
"Wrench" Webb inspects bullet holes in the starboard wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here is one last look at the plane from a slightly more distant viewpoint than the previous close up. \u00a0The border around the nose art didn’t quite disappear, but it’s not too obvious either.<\/p>\n

\""Wrench"<\/a>
"Wrench" Webb, Duke Morrison, Gianna Nannini, and "Boats" Morgan in front of Anything But a Twenty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a fun project. \u00a0I rarely build or paint airplane models, as I don’t have much luck with them. \u00a0In this case, I think the end result was quite good.<\/p>\n

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