This aluminum sanding block doesn't have sandpaper wrapped over the edges. You can sand right into some corners, like on the underside of the intakes.
The inside walls on the open front end of the intakes were filled before it was glued together.
Looking inside the left intake you can see two open slots.
I tried to fill the slots with small pieces of balsa. When all is finished I'll know if it was worth the effort.
I added some Titebond M&TG fillets using a Q-tip to spread and smooth them out.
I wonder how/if they could have built such things in the days before laser-cutting. That would be an insane build if all parts were hand-cut.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
DeleteThe old Guillow's style airplane kits had complicated "die-crushed" parts. Laser cutting has certainly changed the hobby industry.
Many of Guillow's kits had die-crunched parts, but sometimes the notches for the stringers and spars weren't (they were indicated on the plan sheet, so you needed to align the parts to the drawings of the parts on the plans and then cut out the notches). Other manufacturers like Comet simply printed the parts onto the wood sheet (and you needed to cut the parts out yourself). And then there's the method used by scratch builders and folks who built from plans -- trace the parts onto the wood, then cut them out. Some older Estes kits were like that (I remember cutting out fins on my first model rocket, which was the Alpha). Some of the recent reissues from Guillow's are featuring laser-cut parts.
DeleteAs for "intake" parts. I do recall the Estes Pegasus from the 1970s (which looked like cruise missile or target drone) had built-up balsawood nacelles, as did the more recent Screaming Eagle (basically a F-15). Some of the Centuri kits had folded cardboard for the "intakes" (e.g. jet fighter series, which included F-15, F-16, F-104, F-4, Dassault Mirage). The Estes Skydart had folded cardboard for the "nacelles".
Of course another route for the intake parts would be vacuformed parts -- though that has its own issues as well (on a number of different boards there seems to be quite a few people who don't like vacuform parts).
DeleteAnother way -- though mostly for scratchbuilder -- would be papier-mâché techniques. It would be similar to the vacu-form method in that you'd first need to make a "buck" or form.
Hi Naoto,
DeleteI'm not a fan of vacuform parts. (Too many Saturn Vs in my past!) On this model vacuform intakes would probably be too weak. When these intakes are glued up they are very strong and a good foundation for the fin attachment. I wouldn't try paper mache on a rocket. Too many botched attempts at Halloween masks when I was a kid!
Hi Naoto,
DeleteI made plenty of the Guillows kits when I was younger. I never tried the Comet kit, probably a good thing. I know Guillows now has laser cut pieces, but you pay extra for them.
After building two of the QCC Explorers (total of eight intakes) I'm not in any hurry to try the Screaming Eagle or the other recent jet design that used these same intakes!
I've been trying to make sense of the structure of these things during this series, but this is a complicated rocket. Does the air actually have an outlet? Do the twist pieces inside do something, or are they there for support?
ReplyDeleteI think the QCC Explorer is a beautiful rocket, but it's too intimidating a build for me at this point!
Hi Daniel,
DeleteThe air doesn't have an outlet. It goes into the front and hits a flat support piece. It is a great design and pretty impressive in person.