Bad Paint - AGAIN!

I'm never going to recommend a brand of paint again.

I started having troubles with Rusto 2X Gloss White a while back. Occasionally it would shoot out a rough splatter or what I called "cottage cheese". Luckily it sanded down easily.

I switched over to Rusto High Performance enamel in the silver can. For a while things were going well. The paint went on smooth and dried with a good gloss - until today. It spattered and left a rough coat.
The picture above shows a rough coat on some scrap cardboard. This was after I heard the spray "hiss" change. I tried to clear the bad goop on some scrap cardboard to resume smooth painting. It took over 10 sprays to clear the rough spray.

I'll start looking for another gloss white paint. Maybe Duplicolor?
Duplicolor car paint sprays on smooth but in humid weather it doesn't seem to dry as glossy.

Estes Mars Longship Build #7296, Part 11, More Decals

The low end of the nose cone has 16 decals.

Set the gray centers first, then the upper and lower yellow and black stripes.
After those dry, set down the the vertical blue bands, see below.

Here's how the nose cone section looks with all the decals in place.

That gray decal in the center and to the left of the blue band should have been in line with the ridge running around the front ball.

Before setting the window decal,
Notice the pencil line at the center of the ridge. It's simply easier to center the thin wide decal with the center marked.

There may be some wrinkles along the top of the round arc. The wrinkles can be coaxed down with a wet Q-tip.

Estes Mars Longship Build #7296, Part 10, Decals! Lots of Decals!

The kit has a separate instruction sheet for the decals alone, printed on both sides.









Here's the two decal sheets -

The first is gray, black and yellow.
The second sheet is blue.

I'd recommend starting with the blue decal upper band wraps.

Set these first, towards the outside ends of the body tube.

The reason why - 
With the outside blue bands in place -
Allows you to center the windows decals.

TIP: With the model set horizontally, notice the SPL 91093 on the left. This is in line with the top edge of the "S" plastic piece, to the left or the decal.

Estes Mars Longship Build #7296, Part 9, Lugs, Nozzle & Shock Cord

The 3/16" launch lug is cut in half for two 1" long pieces.

I get the cleanest cuts without crushing the lug using a new razor blade.





The shock cord mount is a standard Estes tri-fold.

TIP: As normal for me, I glue the rubber shock cord at an angle so the finished mount lays flatter against the inside body tube wall.





I set the nozzle in a scrap segment of BT-55 to spray it silver, off the model. Paper was taped around the tube to keep the paint off.

The plastic nozzle is a tight fit in the BT-55 tube.
After spraying silver, the edge was sanded and rounded off for an easier slide in the body tube.

The upper launch lug was glued onto the fin before the fin was glued on the rocket body.

The forward lug is glued parallel to the small root edge, 1/2" in.

Estes Mars Longship Build #7296, Part 8, Details & More Details

The three lower "R" pieces are glued on the body tube, centered between the fins.
TIP: In the left picture you can see the glue placement. I tried to keep it away from the edges so it wouldn't squeeze out (and be seen) when pressed onto the body tube.
The lower plastic pieces are glued 3 1/2" from the bottom of the central tube.
I used my favorite for plastic to tube glueing, Beacon Fabri-Tac.

Here's the back of the upper"S" pieces.
The rear is 7 3/8" from the back edge of the tube.








The "M" trim pieces were stuck down to scrap cardboard for a spraying of Gloss White.






The "M" piece on the left has a pencil mark letting me know that is the backside that will get a shot of spray adhesive later on.

After the white paint dried, the holes were rounded again with a sharpened dowel.

I didn't take a picture of the fin glue and trim position before the decals were positioned, so this one is a little out of order. It does show the "M" pieces in place.

The M pieces were taped on cardboard and the backs hit with spray adhesive. These were then stuck into the root edges of the outside fins. Notice the back end is a little forward of the fin rear edge.

For The Love Of God . . .

I can't take credit for this Meme, Jim Zalewski (Jim Z's Plans) posted this.

Sometimes I cringe when a new "glue thread" is started on the forums. It always starts with the question: "What's the best glue to use on a rocket?"
Responses follow mentioning every glue you could possibly find at Home Depot. Remember when all we needed was a single bottle of Elmer's White Glue?


Before you take advice from one of the many posts -
Check the number of messages under their name and avatar. More messages usually means they've been in the hobby for a few years.
They've used the right glues, the wrong glues and probably know the difference.
Somebody with only 20 messages to their credit is usually enthusiastic about this new hobby, suggesting gluing on fins with super glue.

Estes Mars Longship Build #7296, Part 7, Gluing On Ring Supports

Use the full size marking template to mark the locations of the "H" card stock pieces.
On the right I used my aluminum angle to extend the marks over the height of the ring.

TIP: Double, then triple check these marks against the full size drawing. Placement of the "H" pieces is critical for the fin spacing and the decal placement later.

I used my sanding block as a flat reference to be sure the bottoms of the "H" pieces and the ring were even.






A dry fit (no glue) of the ring on the interior fins was loose. This was a pre-production kit and adjustments are being made before the general kit release.

I added card stock strips to the outside edge of the interior fins for a tighter fit.



I didn't glue the ring on yet. Getting good paint coverage on the inside of the ring would be hard so I'll spray it separately off the model.

This masking tape strips were set over the glue areas. The ring got a shot of gloss white, inside and outside.