New Way Blade Runner, Part 9, White Undercoats & Parachute Assembly

The main body was sprayed with gloss white.

A little more sanding will follow and then a final coat of white.

The 12" New Way parachutes are  interesting.

The reinforcing rings are jewelry ring price tags made from no-tear Tyvek.

The adhesive is only on the round ends allowing an easy tie of the shroud lines in the middle fold.

The shroud line holder is meant to be easily unfurled.

See the hole on the left side of the black spool?

Hold the "spool" with just your thumb and index fingertips over that hole. This allows the spool to rock back and forth as you pull the string free. No tangles!

Here's how the shroud lines tie into the reinforcements.

As always, I recommend tying the lines on using long tweezers.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 8, Gluing On The Fins

Five fins!

The marking guide fit very well. Pencil marks were made and extended the full length of the tube.

On the right -

I used the marking guide as a height guide at the 1 1/4" mark.

The long strakes glue down the fin lines, butted up against the  top of the fins. 

For a better alignment, I used the reversed clothespins. Be careful not to glue the clamps to the fins.

To see the original post and make your own flat clamps: CLICK HERE

After the glue dried on the forward strakes,

I tried the fit of the ring tube. A perfect slip fit!

The ring tube will be glued on after the fins and strakes are painted. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to get good paint coverage with the ring glued in place.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 7, Gluing In The Engine Mount

The Kevlar and shrink wrap are run down thru the mount so they won't get in the way.

The instructions have you apply glue 1 3/4" from the bottom of the main airframe tube.

I use a dowel to roll a line of glue inside the tube. Setting the dowel beside the engine mount shows me the glue line would be better at 1 7/8" to apply the glue just below the upper centering ring.

Notice the two depth pencil lines on the dowel. The lower pencil line is the 1 7/8" mark.

A ring of glue is set around the top edge of the dowel.

Set the dowel in the tube up to the 1 7/8" pencil mark and roll the glue into a ring line inside the tube. You will have to apply more glue on the dowel to get a ring all the way around inside the tube.

Slide the engine mount in, turning the mount when in contact with the glue to even out and make a smooth interior fillet.

With the mount glue dried, 

TIP: Note the straightened coat hanger hook in the right side picture. The hook will help get the shock cord back through the top of the tube.

 

There isn't much room to get a fillet at the lower centering ring/body tube joint. 

I applied a small glue drop to one side of my long tweezers. Set the drop in on the joint to smooth as best your can. Keep some Q-tips handy to pick up any glue boogers.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 6, Tying Elastic Shock Cord To The Kevlar

As I normally do, some steps are out of order from the instructions.

I like to mark the body tube seams with a fine point pencil for visibility when filling.

The tip of my knife blade is dipped in thinned CWF. Wipe off the back of the blade leaving the filler on the top side of the knife. Set the knife in the recess seam and with a back and forth motion of the knife, leave filler in the seam.

You should be able to leave filler for a length of about 1 1/2". If not, your filler needs more thinning with water.

The instructions spell out how to tie the elastic shock cord to the Kevlar before gluing the engine mount in. You don't want the Kevlar line to extend beyond the top end of the body tube. This can lead to a "zipper" at an early or too late ejection, the Kevlar tearing through the body tube. 

Set the mount along the side of the body tube with the 1/4" pencil mark on the mount even with the end of the tube.

Straighten the Kevlar line out down the tube to the top. Mark the Kevlar 2" down from the top of the tube.

At the 2" mark, tie the Kevlar to the elastic shock cord using a simple, overhand knot.

The short, larger diameter heat shrink tube is slid over the knot. 

Hit with a heat gun or hair dryer at the low setting. On the left is the before, on the right is after using heat.

You can cut off the excess.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 5, Fin Prep & Grain Fill

Like all laser cut fins,

these aren't cut straight down but in a narrow wedge.

It'd be like cutting out fins with a straightedge and the knife blade at a very slight angle.

Just be aware of which edges are a glue joint, like the root edge. A root edge cut at an angle could glue onto the body tube at an angle.

The flat blades are glued onto an outside edge. I used a flat diamond file to easily square up the sides and inside corners. 

There are 20 pieces of balsa to fill!

When brushing on the thinned CWF filler, be sure to keep the tab slots clear and open. 

Here I'm using the backside of my knife to clear the slots.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 4, Freeing The Fins

Here's a closeup of the laser cut fins. There are hold down ticks - 

and the corners need to be free.

Use the tip of your knife blade.

I tried a dry fit of the flat "blades" in the fin tabs.

These tabs were purposely cut a bit high so they extend above the fin face. Too many kits have short tabs requiring extra filling. These tabs can be sanded to surface after the glue dries!

New Way Blade Runner, Part 3, Engine Mount

The rings are glued in place on their 1/2" marks made earlier.

Tie the Kevlar with a small square knot. Cut the loose tail off at about 1/2" long.

Press the Kevlar loop, knot and tail into the glue fillet.

Slide the heat shrink tube down the Kevlar line until the end rests on the upper centering ring. 

While holding the heat shrink tube against the upper ring - 

Apply heat using a hair dryer or heat gun on the low setting. It should shrink around and tighten over the Kevlar.

When tying the Kevlar knot, make it small and tight against the motor mount tube. There isn't much space between the BT-20 and BT-50 tubing.

Notice the Kevlar relief notch is to the outside edge of the upper ring. This keeps the Kevlar to the outside of the hot ejection charge.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 2, Engine Mount

The 20/50 centering rings are laser cut from plywood.

I like to sand off the charring from the faces using 400 grit on a block. 

It's not necessary to do this, I want cleaner parts - especially when the surfaces can be seen on the finished model.

The motor mount tube is marked 1/2" from both ends for centering ring positions.

Slot the tube for the engine hook at 1/4" from the top and insert the upper bend of the hook.

The retainer ring ends up centered between the centering rings. Slide on, apply a ring of glue and into position. 

The fit of the rings was almost perfect! A hair tight.

For a smooth slide over the ends of the tube, a piece of 400 grit was wrapped around a finger and used to lightly "ream" the center hole.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 1, Parts

What a great new design from New Way! I've never seen anything like it.

18.75 inches tall,

BT-50 based with five multipiece fins. The flat face fins drag stabilize the model, almost like a conical rocket.

Simple colors and an easy mask.

Decals are effective and clean.

All the parts are well produced. A sandpaper and Q-tip package is included.

The parts of interest:

Heat shrink tubing to protect the Kevlar line at the engine mount.

Larger diameter heat shrink tubing to go over the Kevlar/shock cord tie.

Plywood centering rings.

Engine lock retaining ring

Black vinyl stripe to go over white and light gray color separation line.

Wadding Around Parachute? TIP

Looking over the new Estes Vogel instructions:

I was curious about the large booster recovery.

A "hatch" releases the parachute at staging.

Notice there are a couple of pieces of recovery wadding protecting the top of the parachute from the flame of the sustainer motor.

 

In my single stage models, I've been using extra wadding wrapped around the bottom of a parachute for years. This is in addition to the wadding already in the tube.

Pictured at the right is red Quest wadding, crinkled up for easier use.

TIP: As extra insurance to prevent any hot spot melts -
Cut a piece of sheet wadding down to about 3 1/2" square. Set the low end of the packed chute in the center of the square.  Wrap the low end of the parachute with the wadding. Wrap the sides of the wadding up the chute.

It is important to cut the wadding square smaller. You want the wadding sheet to peel away from the parachute at ejection.

New Dog!

Welcome the newest member of the Michielssen family - Dakota the blue merle Sheltie!

Picked her up this afternoon with daughter Whitney's help.

One year old, very chill dog. First walk was easy, the dog already heels.

Two hours later she put her head in my lap!

Hopefully she'll make it out to a launch or two -

 

Dogs growing up - Abe, Beau, Cody, Dudley, Emily, Fern and Gertie.

My Mom named them in alphabetical order.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Finished

This is a big one, just over 36" tall.

Lots of adapters and body tube diameters especially made for this kit. That might be why Estes probably wouldn't re-release it. 

Decals were tricky and subject to cracking, but in the end came out okay.

The horizontal wrap stripes tend to cover any breaks between the body tube sections and adapters.

The conduits (runways) reminded me of the old Mercury Redstone tower pieces. Instead of providing proper dowels, you cut out "rounded" strips from a single strip of wood.

These conduits were machined on a wood strip. Very rough requiring too much forming and filling.
 

The fins seem too small for stability, but the model is tall so it should be okay.

I'll launch it with a C6-5, the only recommended motor.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Part 24, Touching Up The Black

The decals are old and subject to cracking, especially on the open ends where the section are slid together.

The end edges were sealed with clear acrylic applied with a Q-tip. 

The white areas were blackened in with a medium point Sharpie.

Done!

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Part 23, Finishing Up Decals & Fin Gluing

These red copy decals go underneath the black "tooth" ring.

Space them evenly around the body.

Where does this red copy decal go? I can't find it on the decal placement pictures in the instructions.

It's tiny! I left it off the model.

The tabs molded into the root edge of the fins fit very tightly in their slots on the end cap. I had to scrape the black paint overspray off the inside wall of the slot for a friction fit.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Part 22, Mid Section Decals

The vertical ITALIA is set with the lower diagonal stripe set into the conduit glue fillet. The lower horizontal black bar is used for spacing when set against the adapter/tube joint.

The diagonals are tricky. They finish the length of the bars and are a little long for trimming after they dry.

The decal was worked into the conduit fillet recesses with a wet Q-tip.

The upper diagonal strips end up halfway between the conduits at the top and bottom.

Notice the overhangs. Trim after the decals dry.

The great thing about the horizontal decal wraps, they tend to cover the joint gaps between the tube and adapters.

The horizontal strips overlay the diagonal ends.

Trim the lower diagonal short before setting down the lower horizontal bar.

The clear overlay edges are trimmed using a razor blade using a sawing motion.

The tube edge is blacked with a Sharpie for a cleaner color separation 

when the upper section is slid in place.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Part 21, Lower Decals

I checked the original kit decals against the CMR (Tango Papa) decals.

The vertical UNITED STATES decals were wider spaced!

On the Estes kit decals, the UNITED STATES decals were one continuous strip with clear overlay between the two words.

I cut the words apart for easier placement.

The vertical black bars were also cut apart. 

Three are centered between and over the raised conduits. The pieces of masking tape were for the 1/4" from the joint spacing.

Note how close the verticals are at the base if the lower launch lug. Some of the clear border was trimmed right up to the black ink.

Here's the lower STATES decal placed first. It is set directly over the fin slot.

The UNITED decal followed directly above.

Only had one decal break.

I re-wetted and repositioned the tear.