Friday, January 4, 2019

Estes Orbital Transport, Kit #K-42, Part 15, Ventral Fins & Glider Support



Mentioned earlier, my eight fin evenly spaced marking guide doesn't work for the ventral and glider support fins.

On the left you can see how those marks line up with the original kit marking guide. Good thing I double checked before gluing!

I use very little glue to place fins on a body tube.
Above is the initial glue bead, below is how much glue is left after wiping off the excess. Less glue will actually tack the fin on quicker. You can always add glue fillets afterwards.

I ended up moving the glider support pieces more towards the upper center. This is shown two pictures below.

After the (barely glued) fin was removed I lightly sanded the tube smooth.
Instead of spraying the entire model, I sprayed some filler/primer in a baggy stuffed into a small plastic cup.




A Q-tip was dipped into the filler/primer and rolled over the rough area.
After it dried it was sanded with 400 grit.

Here's why the pieces were moved a bit closer to the center. In the top picture the glider bottom doesn't even touch the support pieces. The glider would flop around in the wind.

Here's the glider fit after moving the support pieces closer together. I have to wonder if the support pieces were always a bit off.



From the side, there is almost an even spacing between the booster and glider bottom. Much better!

2 comments:

  1. If I'm not mistaken, the glider rests on the booster at a slight incline - at least that's what I would presume by what is depicted in the painting/decal reference sideview. That's how mine ended up -- with the tail of the glider very close (but not touching) the booster body.

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    1. Hi Naoto,
      The instruction drawing does show more of an angle! My angle was steeper with the glider wing bottom touching the booster body tube and one standoff. Spacing the standoffs a hair wider evened things out for me.

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