Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Honest John K-27 Decals

I was thinking about building a clone of the Estes Honest John, K-27.
Years back it was a challenge to build with the nose cone shroud,
diamond tapered fins and spin nacelles.

I found a scanned decal sheet online but there wasn't any reference inch measure to check the size accuracy of the PDF.

I'll use the BT-50 tube diameter for a base size. The BT-50 is .976" diameter.
Looking at the decal sheet the three bands at the upper right go over some card stock joint bands around  the circumference of the BT-50 tube.

For the first check, multiply the BT-50 .976" by Pi (3.14) to get the circumference of 3.064"
The length of the band on the PDF is 3.172" wide.
Is the extra .10" inch the allowance for a slight overlap of the band? 

It would seem so. The .10" overlap is equivalent to about 3/32". That's consistent with other decal bands applied around finished (painted) body tubes. These decals go over the 110 lb. cardstock bands already on the body tube so the circumference is a little wider.
Will the middle wrap with the circular bolts be evenly spaced when the ends meet up?
No way to know until the decals are applied.
First I've got to order the parts from Semroc!

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