Sunday, July 19, 2015

Estes Mercury Redstone #1921 B Build Part 15, Tower / Capsule Assembly Part D


Here's a dry fit of the antenna cap Vs into the small dimples inside the three tower legs.

The inset picture shows how the cap is turned very slightly. This is the only way I could get everything to fit and the tower legs into the dimples in the lower antenna hosing cap.

Go ahead and glue the separation motor into the bottom of the escape motor housing.

DO NOT glue the spike into the top. Trust me, it will break off and be lost on the first hard landing. I follow the Centuri recommendation, leave in in place for display, remove it for flight.




Scrape the black paint out of the dimples before gluing on the tower.
The glue will not stick well to painted surfaces.
(That white decal band was later replaced with aluminum Monokote Trim.)

2 comments:

  1. As an experiment on our Little Joe capsule we placed a drop or two of white glue from a toothpick into the "dimples" prior to painting. After the glue dried and the piece was painted we used the hobby knife blade to pop out the glue and had a clean surface for glue. I didn't have any aluminum Monokote trim but used painters sprayed with Rustoleum Aluminum to make the 3/16" strip of aluminum. It is a bit thicker but looks fine for the sport model we we built.

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    Replies
    1. Hi LDJBaxter -
      Great tip! It'll be featured in an upcoming blog post. You'll certainly get name credit for this one!

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