Thursday, July 6, 2017

Estes Apollo Little Joe II Build, Part 31, Escape Tower Nozzles

This picture is after I tried to glue in the escape tower nozzles using the Plastruct glue. The paint was scraped out of the inside before the glue was applied.

There wasn't any real contact between the nozzle top and the cap! The nozzles wouldn't stay in. All that happened was some paint got transferred between the pieces.


I decided to go with some 15 minute epoxy.
Some A and B were mixed and picked up with a Q-tip. The drop of epoxy made a small pool inside the recess.




The four nozzles were pressed into the cap and centered.

Look close and you can see the light reflecting off the wet epoxy.
After it dried the nozzles were locked in for good!


4 comments:

  1. This was my biggest fail on this model. I can't remember how I ended up gluing the nozzles, but they separated from the tower upon landing, never to be an again, thanks to the nice guy who picked up the capsule for me. Grrrrr, now I know one reason why you don't want people touching your models.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Metal,
      Yep, after most everything else having pretty good glue joints I was surprised by this one. There is a inside hole in the cap piece but no alignment pin on top of the nozzles to fit in it.
      In the past I've had people pick up a model where something broke off and was left in the field. If a youngster picks up a model they either crush the tube or tangle the parachute lines when they run back with the model. i realize they are just excited and wanting to help out. Once a kid stepped on and broke up a rocket as he yelled: "I'll get it!" I prefer to walk out and get my own, besides that I need the exercise!

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    2. Tangled parachutes I can live with. I have plenty, but damage is what I worry about anytime someone else picks up one of my rockets, and of course it does prevent a post mortem on a flight gone wrong.

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  2. There is so much you can learn from just taken a long hard look at a rocket after it has landed before you pick it up.

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