Fliskits MACME Shrew Build, Part 6, Tube Marking and Cutting

On the first try, I didn't mark the long internal engine mount tube with red and black lines. (Parts 4 & 5)
Heck, I'm stuck in Mexico and don't know where to find the fine tip pens.
I used the instruction drawing and place the centering rings by eye.

Trust me - Mark the tubes with the red and black reference lines!
The tube segments and their placement will be easier with the lines.

These are the pens to use - Ultra Fine Line, Paper Mate Flair style pens.

The Black an Red lines are drawn on opposite sides down the length of the BT-5 tube.
To the left of the black line is a pencil line for the launch lug location.

Note: This is a white BT-5. The kit came with a brown tube. I ruined the brown tube cutting out the segments incorrectly the first time.

Wrap and tape the cutting guide tightly around the tube.
When cutting you don't want the guide to slip.

Be sure the black and red lines are lined up with the designated lines on the wrap around guide.

Start at the top end and work down to the bottom.

TIP: When cutting a small tube like this, it's easier to keep the blade still and rotate the tube under the blade.
Cut about 1/8" at a time, adjust and cut 1/8" more.
As always, never try to cut a tube with one pass. Multiple light cuts are better.

Fliskits MACME Shrew Build, Part 2, Engine Mount and Marking

The internal BT-2.5 (motor mount) tube is cut to 3 5/8" long.
A piece of paper was wrapped and taped for a marking guide.

This tubing is small and strong. It cut very easily.  

The instructions say to install the engine block using a MicroMaxx engine casing. I didn't pack one with me.
I did have some coffee stirring sticks that were just under 1/4" wide.
These were marked at 1" (MMX engine length) and 7/8" so the engine would stick out 1/8" with the block glued in place.

A ring of glue was placed inside the tube with a Q-tip marked at 3/4".
The glue ring was set slightly lower than the final location for the engine block. This insures the block will slide into the glue ring and hopefully make a small fillet above the engine block.

The instructions have you draw a black line down one side of the engine mount tube and a red line directly opposite it.
I don't have colored pens so I'll just have to be careful not to get the sides mixed up.
(Later I got the colored pens and did it right!)

This tube is too small a diameter to fit into an aluminum angle or door frame.
I used my fingers as a depth gauge and did the best I could.

Quest Stiletto Build Part 8, Marking for the Intake Tube

You'll be able to see some of the inside edges of the intake tube when it is glued to the main body tube.
CWF was brushed on the inside of both ends.
After sanding smooth some CA was applied with a Q-tip.


The inset shows Step 10 of the instruction.
There is a "Instruction Revision" sheet with a new, larger tube marking guide and the correction for Step 10.
The instruction illustration shows the tube flipped with the shock cord to the left. You have to make the 4" and 13" marks from the engine mount side.

As it turns out, the intake tube is 1/2" longer than the 9" span between the two marks.
I ended up just gluing the end at the 4" mark and letting the front end go the 1/2" beyond the 13" mark.

The tube marking guide in the instructions is too small.
There is a larger marking guide on the revision sheet.
As it turned out, the revised marking guide was a hair too long.

Mars Snooper Build Part 21 Early Primer

The nozzle vanes were taped to a sheet of cardboard for spraying.
The outside edge of the fins are facing up, the root edge is stuck to the sticky side of the tape facing up.
Off the top of the vanes is a thin strip of tape covering the small edge that'll glue under Shroud #1.

After a shot of primer, the forward lug opening looks pretty good.
After sanding the seam should be gone.

The original kit used a 5" long lug. I made mine with a 3" long lug. The 3" lug is a workable length, but there isn't much left to trim off the top and bottom.

Quest AS-1 Escort Build Part 5 Tube Marking

Step 6
Don’t mark the center tube (20 mm engine mount tube) for the fin lines yet!!!
Wait until after the motor mount is glued in place. This way you won’t have to worry about lining the engine nook up with a drawn pencil line. It seems you never have enough time to get a mount in place while the glue is setting up!

These two steps (6 and 8) should have been reversed. Glue the mount into the center tube up to the pencil line, then mark the tube using the engine clip to line up the center tube marking guide.


You can cut out the tube marking guides and mark the other tubes now.

I would recommend marking the names of the center line and fin locations on the tube with pencil for identification later on.

The wing and fin layout on this model is different. You'll find it easier to pre-mark all the locations for later gluing.

Semroc IRIS Build Part 16 Color Separations

You can see how the wrap strip overlapped itself and left a ridge.
It'll take some careful sanding and a little filling to make it less noticeable.

Now, on to the black / white body paint pattern.

This was first explained in post #6.
Instead of a difficult mask, I wanted to try something a little different.
The main body will be painted white, black, white, black all the way down it's length.
At the midway point, the tube will be cut in half.
Using the coupler made earlier, the upper and lower halves are joined.
The upper section will be turned 90 degrees.

If the masking was correct, you should have the desired paint pattern with very sharp color separations.
If this doesn't make sense yet, hang in there. It should be clear soon.

The body tube is divided into four EVEN sections. I used a four fin marking guide and extended the lines all the way up the body.
The guide was rotated 90 degrees and checked. The checked again and again!

To paint the color separations this way, the 1/4 divisions must be correct.

Estes Saturn V Build Part 4 Tube Marking and Engine Mount

You are directed to draw a line down the entire length of the BT-101 tube.
The instructions show a line drawn using a door frame.

This tube is wide! I found it hard to fit the tube into a door frame.
This wouldn't be any problem with a 1" diameter tube, but this thing is 4" in diameter!
I had better luck using my handy aluminum angle.

In the picture you can see two lines. the pencil line closest to the angle was drawn using that angle. The line to the right side was drawn in a door frame.

Enlarge the picture and you can see the difference between the two. The door frame line wavers a bit and isn't straight from end to end.

There's really nothing very special about the engine mount stuffer tube. I won't be covering much of it's construction here.
Simply slit the tube then insert the forward end of the engine hook in the slit.

To the left side of the picture is the brown retaining tube. It's very thick and holds the hook very well.

The centering rings are another story.
The fit around the internal BT-50 motor mount tube was perfect.
The outside edge of the large centering rings was pretty loose in the BT-101 main tube.
Around the outside edges I build up the diameter slightly with two applications of a white glue bead.
This was just enough to give me a better slip fit of the centering rings.

Time spent on build: 1:45 making engine mount and marking tubes
Total time on build so far: 3:15