Estes Phoenix Bird Build Part 8 TIP: Nose Cone Shoulder Filling

TIP: Here's another way to get a cleaner separation line at the nose cone shoulder and body tube joint.

The nose cone from the Phoenix Bird kit was slid into a scrap piece of BT-55 tube up to the shoulder.

The picture shows how FNF was brushed fairly heavily right over the joint.

While the FNF is still wet, turn the nose cone joint against the body tube then pull the nose cone out a bit.
Turning the wet FNF against the tube will force a small bit of filler into the edge and actually mold a stronger, squarer lip on the shoulder.

When the nose cone is pulled out, you can see the slight raised ridge over the shoulder at the joint.

Sanding this raised lip down squares up the shoulder edge.

The launch lugs are short!

The lugs are slid over a dowel for filling.

If I had a four inch launch lug I would use that alone.

The front of the lug would be cut at a 45 degree angle to look more like the old Centuri plastic fin can.