New Estes Black Brant II, Changes Part 4, Decals

On this build I set the launch lug behind the name decals so you would see the C.A.R.D.E. names when the rocket is on the launcher. The problem was - on the other side you end up with a launch lug in the middle of the vertical bar!
One decal was cut with an "I" shape to hopefully let the lug slip through and lay around the base at the glue fillet. It worked okay, but I didn't like the white launch lug.

Those slit marks (I cut them a little too long) were covered with sprayed black decals shown in the next step.

TIP: On the left is a white decal sheet spray painted orange on one side for a different project. The right side was spray painted gloss black for the Black Brant II.

This spray painted decal sheet acts like a water slide decal. Cut to size, soak and apply. No extra clear coat is needed, just the color coat. The right side of the picture shows the black decal covering the launch lug.

TIP: There was a sliver of white paint showing at the root edge of the decal surrounded fin.
This was simply hit with a Sharpie. You can get away with this on this tight inside angle. After a clear coat it won't be visible.

New Estes Black Brant II, Changes Part 3, Decals

From a previous Black Brant II build from last March -

I drew the roll pattern out "flat" to show how the vertical bars would sit. This seemed to be easier to follow than the 1/4 turn pictures in the instructions.

The black vertical bars go from four on the bottom, two in the middle and one at the top. The four bars at the bottom have to be spaced (somehow) around three fins!

This drawing is a reference, it is not meant to be printed as a decal. You can enlarge this and print it out.

The Black Brant decals are tricky. Add to that, one of the vertical bars goes right down the middle of a fin!

These fins were shaped with a diamond taper so I had to cut out a long triangle shape to go over the fin. At the upper tip of the triangle is a slit cut extending about 1/8".
TIP: The slim triangle cut was made a bit smaller than the thickness of the root edge. I was hoping the decal would roll over onto the fin covering up any white at the fillet mask area.
NOTE: These decals are thin so they should conform but can easily tear now that it is cut.

New Estes Black Brant II, Changes Part 2, Antennas

In the previous version of the kit, you surface or end glue toothpicks to the outside of the upper body tube. It's recommended that this antenna assembly be used for display, you were given another length of BT-55 without antennas for flight.
These 1" long toothpick antennas could break off very easily.

Be careful if you drill the antenna holes with an X-Acto knife tip. The diameter of the hole can easily end up too large. Spin drill a little, check the fit then repeat. You want the tube hole to fit fairly tight around the antennas.

In the new kit you are provided with plastic tapered toothpicks. In the instructions, the end is cut off leaving a 2" length. The second picture shows the ends being glued to the tapered base shoulder of the nose cone.
(Don't the antennas cut to length yet - Read the next paragraph)

GOTCHA: The 2" long plastic toothpick antennas don’t touch the bottom of the nose cone shoulder as shown in the instruction drawing. The nose cone shoulder doesn’t go down far enough to contact the toothpick base ends. 

Left Picture: With the toothpicks extending 1" outside of the body tube section (using the 1" measurement from the previous BBII kit instructions) the toothpicks cross and hit each other inside the tube. With the ends inside ends crossed up it effects the angle of all three antennas.

Right Picture: If the toothpicks are cut to 1 11/16" the ends will touch and give you a triangle center gluing point. Place a drop of plastic cement where the three ends meet. When glued at the center you should end up with the proper downward angle and exposed length outside the body tube.

Here's the finished antenna/body tube segment. 

At the 1 11/16" length, the toothpicks will extend 1" outside the tube.

New Estes Black Brant II, Changes Part 1, Fins & Tail Cone

Here's the instructions from the older Black Brant II kit.
On the tail cone there is a recessed ring. This leaves a gap at the root edge of the fin. You were told to make a triangle shaped piece of balsa, insert the piece and glue. Trim off the excess and apply a glue fillet along the root edge.

These are the fins from the new kit. With laser cut fins, I wondered why this filler wedge piece wasn't added to the root edge.
I mentioned this to Estes. Maybe it'll be incorporated in a future run of kits.

The scale fin tapers can be done with patience and a good sanding block.

This shows the fins and gap at the tail cone.

Sanding the suggested scale diamond taper looks okay but with the 3/32" thick fins the effect is subtle. If the fins were thicker the taper lines would be sharper.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Finished

I've always liked the looks of this one.
With Estes reissuing the kit, I hope there are water slide decals. The later version of the kit had stickers. I don't see antennas in the new 2019 catalog picture.
Two feet tall, strong BT-55 air frame and D engine power - a good combination.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 16, Decal Fix

In the last post I mentioned these decals were old and brittle.

Trying to fit this lower vertical strip over the root edge didn't go well.

I printed up some home decals with many extra vertical strips. These would give me plenty of practice with new, more flexible decals.

I followed the same hole-punch (smaller hole and narrower slot this time) and the cuts down the sides. Punching the hole a bit smaller and narrower long slot gave a slight decal edge I could roll up onto the fin, over the fillet area. You do have to make sure and cover the white body tube at the mask line.
There was a glitch though, black home print decals aren't totally opaque. Set them down on white paint and they end up a dark gray!

I had to apply a double layer of the replacement decals to get a full, opaque black. You just have to be careful lining up both layers.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 15, Decals

Here's the first vertical bar placement, centered between two fins.

If you were to turn the rocket to the left and the next two facing fins, the next vertical bar is placed just to the right of the fin root edge on the left. Check the roll pattern drawing in the previous post.

I set the vertical black bar down first, then set the horizontal silver bar on top of that. The instructions say to cut the long silver into thirds, but that 1/3 length decal is a bit longer than the space between the two fins.

There is only one fin band that needs to be cut to fit over the root edge.
This is one way to do it, punch a hole and extend the side cut to the bottom. Mine didn't turn out well, The hole I punched was too wide. It would be better to cut the slot smaller than the 3/32" thick fin root edge and have a bit more decal to roll up and onto the fin. The old decals were brittle and it broke up while I was trying to place it. I'll have to print some new decals and try again.

The square goose is set on after the largest wrap decal has dried. There is a little white border around it.

Note the position - the goose is (flying) facing up to the nose cone. On the other side it is flipped but still facing up.

This is the upper section.
According to the older kit decal placement, the the black C.A.R.D.E. decal pictured in the 2019 Estes catalog is incorrect. The black print C.A.R.D.E. decal is set on the other side of the upper launch lug (over the top) and reads down.
This picture was taken before I peeled off the black CARDE decal and placed it correctly.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 14, Decal Placement

The Estes instructions show the decal placement using three pictures of the finished model. Each picture is rotated 120 degrees to the left.

I found the pictures confusing, almost as tough as the Mercury Redstone fin painting drawings. One problem - there are three fins on the rocket and four equally spaced vertical bars that have to be placed over and around the fins.
The instructions imply that two different tall bars are to be cut to fit over the root edges of the fins. Only one decal needs to be cut to fit, centered down and over the root edge.

The decals I used were from an old kit and brittle. I did my best to follow the illustrations and still got it wrong! Well, it is close anyway. I'll have to go back and correct some mistakes later.

I should have done a drawing before placing the decals.

With Estes reissuing the Black Brant II kit, this drawing might come in handy. The new instructions might be better.

EDIT: After I finished my drawing I did a search and found a placement pattern had already been drawn by K'Tesh (Jim). There was a thread on TRF about the Black Brant II in 2016. I wish I would have found this before I spent an hour figuring it all out!

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 13, Paint Masking

Regular brown masking tape is used between the fins making sure to cover any open areas on the body tube.



The rest of the body tube was covered with a square of plastic cut from a grocery bag.

Before spraying with gloss black, all the mask lines were burnished with a Q-tip. A soft Q-tip won't scratch or mar the mask line like a fingernail could.

TIP: To keep the body tube clean, I'll sometimes hold onto the main body with a wrapped paper towel.
This is especially handy after spray painting if your hand got hit with some black over spray.

Here's some of the mask reveal.
I've said this before - You'll never get a clean mask line if your glue fillets and mask surfaces aren't clean and smooth.

Here's how it came out - pretty good overall.
The payload section and nose cone are also painted gloss black.

Now comes a confusing decal placement -

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 12, Paint Masking

This is one of the few scale models that uses gloss paint.

On the left, look close near the root edge of the fin. After filling and priming, there is still some balsa grain showing through.
I rubbed some Carpenter's Wood Filler (CWF) into the fin. I don't use much (if CWF is reapplied) so there is less to sand to surface.

The model got an overall spraying of gloss white.

The fins and tail cone assembly are gloss black, below the plastic ring with the recess slot.

It's always interesting to mask an inside angle. My Scotch tape mask corners are cut at a 45 degree angle before setting down the tape.

The root edges were rounded so I'll have to do a multiple piece tape mask. This involves many small pieces of tape to get a round half circle.
Start with the top piece, set perpendicular to the side pieces already in place.


Set smaller pieces at a slight angle. Set down the left side and then the right keeping the angles a mirror image of each other.

More pieces are added. Try to get a smooth round arc.



Here's the entire rounded leading edge mask. There is still more large area masking in the next post.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 11, Fin Gluing

TIP: Keep small parts in bags until they are ready for gluing on the model.
Anything that can fall on the floor or roll off your work table.
In this bag are four antennas (one extra) and the short 1/2" long launch lugs.






Just to check it, I wrapped the fin marking guide around the BT-55 main body tube. It was off by about 1/16".
Even without the nearly sanded off primer/filler, the fins would be a bit off  using this guide .
I ended up using another marking guide.





That small filler piece was formed even more. The sides were rounded to fit the curve of the slot running around the tail cone.





Some of the wood glue fillet ran into the slot.
Wood glue fillets (followed by Titebond No Run - No Drip) were used above the white tail cone.







Beacon Fabri-Tac was used on the rear of the fin where it contacts the tail cone. Fabri-Tac fillets followed.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 10, Antennas

Here's one of the antennas in place.

The picture at the right shows the coupler inside the tube holding the upper bend of the antenna in place.

The plan is to set the couplers in the holes then glue the coupler in place with wood glue. Before the glue sets up the antennas can be adjusted so they stick out straight from the body tube.

After the wood glue dries, a bead of epoxy will be set over the inside upper bend of the antenna wire.

Here's a dry fit of the nose cone and antenna assembly.

Earlier I had to go back and shorten the inside upper bend of the antenna so the nose cone could fit all the way in.











To the upper right of the Full Size Antenna Pattern is a full size wire cutting pattern. Enlarge your picture to the 1" reference and the antenna pattern wil be the right size.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 9, Antennas

It looks like the Black Brant II will be returning as a kit. It is listed in the new 2019 Estes catalog. The catalog picture doesn't show the antennas, they may not be in the new version of the kit.

The antennas were disappointing. You are supplied with three wood toothpicks. These aren't recessed into the body tube, they are simply glued on the body tube. Only the wider end of the toothpick makes contact with the body.

I know why this was done, a sharp wire wouldn't be safe. That end glued toothpick wouldn't stay on the model for long.
TRIVIA: The original Estes Sandhawk gave you a choice of plastic or wire antennas.

I decided to make soft soft wire antennas from paper clips.

First, the three antenna locations are marked 1/4" from the bottom of the antenna body tube section. (This body tube segment is upside down.)

I don't like using a #11 blade to drill a small hole but it's sometimes the easiest way to go.



I used the full size drawing on the instructions to get the length and angle.


Use flat pliers to straighten out the round bend of the paper clip. The hardest part is getting the wire straight.




The coupler will help hold the antennas in the body tube segment.

TIP: Before sliding in the red coupler, sand and roll over the edge on both sides. This helps prevent any roll and lifting of the inside BT-55 tube seams.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 8, Tail Cone Recess Fin Fit

Small triangular pieces were cut with a single edge razor blade.
These were cut oversize so some would stick out on either side of the fin face.






The fin was set against the body tube and tail cone and the recess area marked.

The wedge piece was glued onto the root edge at the pencil mark. While the glue was still wet, the fin was set back against the tail cone and body tube. The wet glue allows the fill piece to shift position in the tail cone slot if needed.





After the glue dried the small overhang of the filler piece was sanded flat against the fin face.

Here's the final fin fit with the filler piece fitting into the recess.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 7, Tail Cone Recess Fin Fit

After the fins are glued on the instructions have you carve and glue small wood triangles into the tail cone recess ring.

I didn't like the step: "When glue is dry cut away the excess balsa." I would be very hard to smooth the tight wood fill area.

Here's how the fins fit against the recessed tail cone ring. Notice the "V" shaped notch that needs to be filled.
To make the fit even harder, the sides of the "V" are rounded.

I cut two 3/32" square strips from the leftover balsa fin stock.

With the sticks turned on their side, the top was carved away leaving the "V" shaped piece.






These strips were cut longer than needed for easier handling.


Here the fin is set against the tail cone and body tube. The V shaped piece is slid in to show the fill.