The largest lower four fins are glued on.
The smaller eight upper fins are glued onto the segment of the BT-50 tube.
The wraps of tape let me line up the leading front edge tip of a four fins evenly, all the way around.
Here with the fins tacked on you can see how the tape line is used to set the fins on evenly.
The tape alignment wrap comes in handy when you have fins that aren't glued on even with the rear edge of the body tube.
The upper and lower segments are not glued together yet.
The lower BT-5 section will be painted black, separately. The upper BT-50 section will be painted red separately. This makes a clean color separation with no tricky mask.
The nose cone isn't tied in yet, it'll be painted white off the model. Again, no masking!
The tricky mask is the white engine block. I can't wait to see how you handle that.
ReplyDeleteHi Metal,
DeleteI didn't have to mask it. There is a white band on the decal sheet. It won't look like the face card, that was "masked" on the computer.
Wonder why the 4 sloping dowels don’t tuck under the body tube, out of the airstream?
ReplyDeleteHi John,
DeleteI would think it's just a design feature. On a model like this, I doubt the designers were concerned about drag and a smooth airflow.
If I'm not mistaken this model is loosely based on a two-stage missile that features a solid rocket booster. The sloping dowel section would be a representation of the structural support structure between the booster and the main missile part. I do remember seeing images of missiles that look like this (the booster section being of smaller diameter), but can't remember the name or designations.
DeleteHi Naoto,
DeleteYou are probably right, I'm sure it's based on a real missile. Many times I've ran across and old picture and thought: "That's what Estes (or Centuri) based that kit on!"
Hrm.. just noticed something -- the old instructions I find on the JimZ site mention gluing pieces of dowel between the lower fins and the thick centering ring (at step 11 on the old instructions). Does the new version of instructions not have this detail?
ReplyDeleteHi Naoto,
ReplyDeleteThe new instructions do have that step - I left it out. Not on purpose, I just wasn't paying attention!