Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 12, Gluing The Support Ring

The contact cement capsules have dried out and aren't useable. I bought some new contact cement at Home Depot.

If you've never used contact cement before - 

You apply the glue to both parts and let it dry. When the dried glue touches the other glued part, it grabs and holds strong.

There is a good reason why it is called "contact" cement.

The support ring is centered in the bottom hull half and the perimeter is traced with pencil. Center and trace the ring on the upper and lower hull halves.

A ring of contact cement is brushed on the pencil line.

Contact cement is applied to the edge of the support ring and allowed to dry.

Center the ring inside the pencil line and press into the hull.

Here the lower edge of the support ring is set and glued in place.

Apply contact cement to the upper edge of the support ring and inside the pencil line in the upper half.

Fit, press and join the two hull halves together adhering the support ring in place. 

Held up to a light you can see the ring inside the round hull.

Run liquid plastic cement inside the overlapping joint.

Dip and push the brush into the seam as best as you can.

An Earlier Vostok Build Part 2 -

 
This is the "Build To Fly, Build To Display" MPC Vostok.

To see the bog build: CLICK HERE

The finished model weight with no engine is 4.27 oz.! 4 oz. is the maximum weight for a C6 engine. I should have waited for the C5-3 with an 8 oz. max. weight. 

The box advertised a C9-3 engine, I don't think MPC ever produced it. The picture to the left shows what happened!

(Picture by Roger Smith.)

An Earlier Soyuz Build Part 1 -

With the debut of the new Estes Soyuz kit - 

I remembered an earlier Dr. Zooch Soyuz build. There was no plastic parts, just balsa, body tubes and rolled cardstock. The cardstock "witches hats" at the top of the strap on boosters took a few tries to get right. You even had to build the interstage trusses with dowels! 

The model is BT-50 based and uses 18mm motors.

 

Before I started this build blog, I posted builds on The Rocketry Forum.

This one goes back to 2009. 

Dr. Zooch Soyuz

CLICK HERE

http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=5213

New Estes Kit -

https://estesrockets.com/pages/soyuz

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 11, Pylon Brace Fit

The pylon brace fit was very loose. 

No amount of glue fillets will fix this.

On the left: A strip of 110 lb. cardstock was slipped into the slot, folded over and glued to the face of the brace. 

On the right: Look close to see the white cardstock shims in place. The fit is much tighter. 

Another dry fit of the pylons. 

The braces are inside locking the pylons in position.

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 10, Pylon Supports & Dowels

Set the pylon in the cardstock base (the fit is too loose) and mark the tube height for a filler/primer mask.

Set the notched end in the bulkhead and mark for a mask on the other side.

The pylon ends were masked for a shot of filler/primer.

After the filler/primer dried, sand to surface with 400 grit.

Here's the outline for the pylon cut.

The straight sides and bottom were cut using my aluminum angle and a sharp knife.

The rounded back was made using a small rat tail diamond file.

I got a good fit of the pylon.

I'll usually cut a fin slot a bit narrow and widen it to fit. 

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 9, Pylon Supports & Dowels

I fitted the pylon into the pylon brace, then set it next to the body tube. The pencil line is the masking area to keep the filler/primer off the gluing areas. 

On the right - the notched end of the pylon is dry fitted in the bulkhead and marked, again for a mask. 

Here's the pylon masked for a shot of filler/primer.

After the filler primer was sanded -

The cut out is revised to fit the pylon, rounded dowel on the back side.