Monday, August 21, 2017

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 19, Masking TIP and Gluing the Engines

This is one of those masking things that took a day to figure out. How do you mask for the interior of the engines?
I've already blackened the ends and under the fairing lip.

TIP: I didn't want the tape to fully adhere and risk pulling anything up.
I did my old trick of sticking the tape to my pant leg and lifting it a few times. This leaves jean fibers on the tape making it less sticky.


Three pieces of masking tape were set over both ends of the engines.
The overhanging tape was cut off with a new X-Acto blade. Use a "saw" cut, back and forth over the tape. Be careful not to cut into the end cap or tube.


On the left is the back end.
On the right is the front. Notice the tape is now lifted along the gluing edge. This way any glue won't stick to the tape when gluing the engine to the body.
The engines are glued on awaiting fillets.
The fillets down the top and bottom will be like fillets on a launch lug. They are deep and in a tight angle.

The fillets will be applied and left to dry. Then the tape will be pressed back down for the overall spraying of black.

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried removable labels as masking material?
    https://www.amazon.com/Avery-Self-Adhesive-Removable-Labels-Inches/dp/B00007M5KZ
    Have had some success with this stuff -- as a precaution I typically spray a light coat of clear or base color over the mask edge to help seal the edge -- any bleeding under the edge is same color as the base color.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Naoto,
      I haven't used removable labels for masking. I've tried everything else, some of the best results came from using Rubylithe masking film from the print shop. It was like thin vinyl.
      Right now I get great results using Scotch tape. In the above post I wanted a mask that would be easy to pull off, I didn't need a real tight paint line.

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