Estes Leo Space Train #7285, Finished

Lots of pictures of this one! A lot of details to cover.
The tough part of this kit are forming and filling the small actuators. To match the face card color scheme, I do recommend painting the colors separately before the glued assembly.
This is an impressive model, the new C5-3 motor should fit it well. 

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 13, Assembly & Scraping

The big nozzle was glued on the motor tube using Beacon Fabri-Tac.
The screw on retainer hub followed.

The auxiliary small rocket "runners" were set in place and the line marked with pencil.
The lines were carefully scraped to open up a glue area.


To smooth it out and widen the line a bit, some 220 grit was tightly wrapped around a Q-tip. This was sanded back and forth down the line. Keep the glue line narrower than the runner width.

This was a tricky scrape!

Carefully mark the intersections with pencil, scrape the lines with a knife blade.



The upper engine is glued on with the tube back ends even.

Right down the center -
A heavy glue bead was applied to the wing.

The large body tube assembly was set into the glue. Carefully check alignment as the glue is drying.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 12, Another Mask & Gluing It Together

The black on the underside is extended back, down the tube from the lines already masked on the nose cone.



This was my first build, the second and third builds had the black extended all the way to the back of the main body tube.

The gray support assembly, parts H, I, J and K were glued onto the top of the wing center.

TIP: Here I used a paper towel to make for a soft clamp that won't scar the balsa wood.

This is the back end clamp.

The upper engine had the black nozzle assembly glued in.


The nose cone fit was loose and needed a wrap or two of masking tape for a good fit.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 11, Details & Decals

The actuators (Parts P) were glued onto the wings and stabilizer sides. Paint was carefully scraped away for gluing.
The locations are laser cut into the wings.





I'm jumping ahead here -

The small dot recesses were blacked using a fine point Sharpie marker.







The kit I received was pre-production, the decals I used were printed at Estes.

The rectangles were supposed to be filled with white ink, but this was a ink jet printed decal with no white ink.

TIP: To get white decals -
I soaked the black outline rectangles and slid them onto a blank white decal sheet. After it dried, I cut out the double layers right around the outside black border line.




These were soaked and both decal layers were slid together (stacked) on the underside of the wing.
This was a "get-by" that really added some high contrast. The production kits (now on sale) have these decals in white.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 10, Masking Black Wing Leading Edges

To match the face card and catalog pictures, this will be an involved mask.

The underside is all black.

The wing was already painted gloss white.
The lug was painted gloss black. No real reason for pre-painting the lug it would have been black in the end.
The lug gluing area was scraped for a good glue bond.







The leading edge is painted gloss black. The picture shows the mask. Scotch tape is along the color separation line, masking tape covers most all the other open areas.

Here's the top edges mask.

Note in the last picture the center are is masked for the I, J and K pieces. Those are painted gray, separately before gluing onto the wing top.








The black edges are painted and tape pulled.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 9, Masking The Wings

I can get pretty good results using Scotch tape for masking. But - your surfaces have to be smooth, fillets and balsa grain filled to get a clean separations using any masking tape.

The outside M & L vertical stabilizers are half white, half gray. The color separation runs right down the laser cut line.

I probably should have glued on the Part N wing joint piece after masking the wing. In the face card pictures the N piece is white.
After gluing and filleting I had to mask it right down the middle.

Here's the complete mask for the light gray.

On the lower right, the "H" piece is also open to be painted gray.

After the tape was pulled -

I lucked out on this one, I was expecting problems but the lines came out clean.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 8, Small Top Engine Supports & Nose Cone Paint

From the earlier post: The two Part "R" supports were glued together. The outside visible sides got a bead of wood glue to round and hide the joint. The glue bead was sanded after it dried.

In the lower right - Even after spraying the first gloss white coat, the sides were still rough. Some light sanding and another spray of white followed.

The black area on the front of the nose cone is angled. Add to that, the NC shape is asymmetrical.
You can't mask for the black area with a wide, straight piece of masking tape.
I cut a smooth curve in my Scotch tape mask freehand on a piece of glass. The black is from a wide point Sharpie so I can see the clear tape.

The nose cone was already sprayed a light gray.
Here's how the tape line was set for the black. Try to get the line smooth and consistent on both sides.


Here's the mask after the tape was pulled. The line is clean, one small area needed a touch up.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 7, Upper Engine

The new design nose cone was pretty clean, the seams didn't require any filling, just sanding until smooth.

The right side shows the engine mount in the BT-60 main tube. The end got a shot of filler/primer to fill any remaining tube seam.

The two part "S" rings were cleaned up, but not too much sanding. You don't want to decrease the diameter and fit in the upper BT-20 Part "V" tube.






The rings center the plastic nozzle in the rear of the tube.
I had to scrape off some of the paint on the small end for a better glue bond.

Here's the dry fit of the upper engine.
TIP: Don't glue in the nozzle assembly yet, it's easier to spray paint it black separately and glue it in afterwards.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 6, Gluing Up The Wings

The three wing pieces were glued together after initial filling. (The pictures 1 & 2 shows a test fit before the CWF was applied.)

Do a test fit of the "I" and "J" pieces to check the width when set over the wing center.

GOTCHA: Look close - I had to add a shim to get the "J" piece to the correct width so the sides of the "I" pieces would match the right width.

The DADO joint didn't seem like it was cut deep enough for a good match and fill.



I used a file to deepen the notches slightly, square up the laser cuts and remove any CWF (filler) that might effect the fit.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 5, Top Engine Pod Supports

The Upper Engine Pod Supports are two pieces of laminated card stock.
Glue three sets of two pieces.
Before the glue sets up, Check the alignment of the pieces against the body tube. I'm not gluing the pieces onto the tube, just pressing down making sure both pieces are in line.





The visible sides (not the curved top and bottom that will be glued to the body tubes) got a wipe of CA glue, applied with a Q-tip.

After it dried, the sides were smoothed with 400 grit.





TIP: To cover the side seam and rough edge, a bead of wood glue was set evenly over the edges and allowed to dry. Round it out with a fingertip, pulling the glue to the edges.

Lightly sand after the glue dries.
This will give a smooth, round visible edge on the finished model.

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 4, Strips & Small Actuators

Square up and smooth the hardwood strips, Parts O.
The pre-production kit I received had balsa strips. The kits now have basswood strips.







1. Round the sides of the strips.
2. Taper the ends profile with the sanding block.
3. Round the top sides. Check from the flat back side to make sure the round top shape is consistent.









After using the block, round it all off with some 400 grit held with your fingers.

Here's one of the six actuator pieces (Parts P) as shown in the instructions.
The small coffin shaped pieces take careful shaping. The instructions show a sanding block, but the block might be too large to get much control.

Basically, all the top sides are rounded off. On the left is the before and next to it shows the piece after shaping.

On the far right picture, the actuators and the "K" support pieces got a brushed coat of CWF filler.

Check out the grid lines on the cutting board. The actuator detail pieces are only 3/4" long!

Estes Leo Space Train #7285 Build, Part 3, Wing Joint Supports

Look to the inside corner of the wing and stabilizer joint to see Part N, the wing reinforcement piece.







You'll need to shape these two pieces.

Here's a closeup of the inside wing joint part right off the laser cut balsa sheet.

The sides are sanded down at a 45 degree angle on both sides.
On the right the piece is upside down. The upper corner will tuck and glue into the inside wing/stabilizer joint.

Here's the same piece turned over.

The top ends are then tapered. Check the face card picture for clarification.