Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 9, Body Skin Alignment

I used one side of my architectural ruler to "set" the emboss line and make a sharper crease. 

Set the line you have already embossed over the edge of the ruler and run a smooth burnisher down the crease. 

Here's one side of the skin after "setting" the fold.

Do a few dry fits before using glue to get used to how the skin will set over the structure.

There will be an overhang on all sides.

I decided to set the skin with less overhang on the front. I knew the tighter fit on the smaller front end would be harder to trim.

Looking inside the housing, this is still a dry fit - 

The angled sides of the interior bulwarks are curved. The skins "float" over these curves. On the next post - Do not apply glue on the curved sides. Glue is only applied to the edges of the Y, Z and AA side pieces.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 8, Body Skin Embossing

The Estes instructions say to use a ball point pen and ruler to make three firm passes over each fold line.

I didn't want all that ink on the cardstock. In older instructions I remember a recommendation using a ball point pen that has run out of ink.

The illustration shows a shorter wooden or plastic ruler being used to emboss the folds. I'd recommend using a metal ruler.

Instead of a pen, I used a butter knife with a rounded tip. There are some serrations on the knife, but not at the tip. Use just the tip of the knife to emboss the fold lines.

This technique goes back to the original Estes Saturn 1B kit. You can read it on Page 8, Step 23A of the instructions at Jim Z's: CLICK HERE 

After the fold lines are embossed,

Cut out the fin slots first -

Then cut the outside border line of the skins.

Estes Little Joe 1, #7255, Build Part 4, Creasing The Leading Edge Skin

You shouldn't fold the fin cover skin without pre-embossing the center line.
I wouldn't recommend creasing the line on corrugated cardboard, the interior wavy layer runs one direction. Unless the scribe line is lined up with the interior cardboard layer you'll crease dips in the skin.

TIP: Practice some crease lines outside the printed skin borders to get a feel for how the card stock embosses.

I use the tip of a butter knife to score the embossed line. Find a knife with no serrations near the tip. This is how the old Estes Saturn 1B fins were embossed to be folded.

Do a soft fold down the middle line of the fin skin. To get a clean final sharp fold you should make the crease in short steps. Don't try to make an immediate sharp fold.

Continue working the fold.
Here I'm increasing the angle over the top edge of my triangular engineer's ruler.


When the sides are getting close, do the final sharp fold using a burnisher like the barrel of a Sharpie pen.

Semroc Saturn 1B, Build, OOP #KS-1, Part 25, Built-Up Fins

The center crease is done gradually.
I can pinch the fold over the top of the architect ruler.







The final sharp fold is burnished with the back end of a Sharpie barrel.
Be careful not to burnish over the trailing edge crease, it is subtle but should still be easily seen.







Here's all the fin skins with the two extras.

Notice the trailing edge line on the lower left.

Build time this post: 0 hour, 20 minutes
Total build time so far: 26 hours, 25 minutes

Odd'l Rockets Cutaway Engine Build, Part 2, Pre-Fold Embossing

Cut the 6 1/2" long BT-60 tube in half, lengthwise.

Smooth the cut edges with a sanding block with 220 grit.

The dashed lines are embossed with a dull butter knife and straight edge. Pick a butter knife without serrations on the tip.

Here the knife tip is drawn down the straightedge on the fold line.
TIP: Under the print is some corrugated cardboard. Be sure the corrugations are running the same direction as the embossed line you are making.

The small fold under triangles on the end caps are traced with the knife tip. These small folds are actually small arcs, trace in a smooth half circle.

Estes Little Joe II (Small) Build, Part 8, Corrugation Try!

As I occasionally do, I was building two rockets.
The partial kit from Ebay had just the printed upper wrap, corrugated wrap, decals and instructions.
I had a single corrugated wrap and thought I'd make another one for the second build.




I drew up the lower wrap, the one that will get the corrugations.

I couldn't find corrugated sheets anywhere! But, I did find this embossing board at Hobby Lobby. Retail was $19.99, but I had a 40% off coupon.
A bit expensive for a "one-off" but I could also use it on the embossed wraps in the Semroc Saturn 1B I recently bought. One of the wraps wasn't well defined.

I lightly taped the printed sheet in place. The ridges are spaced at 1/8" intervals, too wide for this size model.
A "bone" folder embossing tool is drawn down the long lines.

After the first set of 1/8" lines were finished, the sheet was slid over 1/16" centered between the ridges I just made.

The second set of embossed lines gave me ridges spaced at 1/16".

To see what it would look like, the embossed sheet was sprayed with silver paint and rolled around the body tube.

I didn't like the results so the idea was scrapped! The ridge depths weren't consistent. Oh well, you never know until you try!

The second Little Joe II will just have a smooth silver surface.