Free Applewhite Pinwheel Part 5 Painting the 13mm Pinwheel

Note: This is the top of the 13mm T engine Pinwheel. You'll notice a expended engine nozzle inside the motor mount tube. That's actually a casing stuck on top of a painting wand dowel. When flying the model, the engine nozzle would be down and out the flat bottom side.

I wanted to give the larger 13mm Pinwheel some color and make it look more like the Pinwheels I'd seen as a kid.

The finished model was white card stock. I hit it with a light coat of Rustoleum Key West Lime. It took very little paint to brighten it up.

To add the black the forward triangles they were first outlined with a fine point Sharpie.

A standard Sharpie was used to widen the outlines and draw over the edges.
Set the side of the point on the side at an angle to edge the sides.







Finally, to fill in the large areas use a wide point permanent felt pen.
It might take a few applications to get it up to a dark, opaque black.




Here's the finished Art Applewhite 13mm Pinwheel ready for flight with a A10-3t engine installed. With the black areas colored in it looks more like a toy pinwheel.

The clay ejection cap is at the top, the nozzle is below!
This side faces up for flight.

Free Applewhite Pinwheel Part 4 Engine Mount

The engine mount tube (Part D) is simply one wrap of card stock around a MMX engine.
Wrap the card stock tight and burnish over the glue tab.





The engine mount tube is pressed into the center hole until about 1/8" extends out over the top and bottom.

Leave the casing in the tube to keep it round while it dries.
Fillet the top and bottom where the tube extends beyond the body.

Note: This picture shows the top of the Pinwheel. The nozzle is at the bottom.

Here's how the engine block is made, a masking tape wrap around the bottom of the engine casing.
The simple wrap of tape prevents the engine from moving forward.

Free Applewhite Pinwheel Part 3 Gluing it Together

Fold over all four Tab 2 and glue flat against the "A" base with white glue.







Next fold over the tabs on lines 3 and 4 but don't glue them down.

The centers of the 3 - 4 tabs are glued to the "B" piece lined up inside the dashed lines.

The instructions don't say if the "B" goes on top of the tabs or underneath.
I glued it underneath the tabs, I could see the dashed lines easier.

I used tweezers to hold the tabs in place while the glue set up.

Free Applewhite Pinwheel Part 2 Cutting It Out

Here's the backside of the "A" piece.
You can see the cuts and fold lines.
Note: The dashed lines on the "B" piece don't get creased. Those dashed lines are the glue positions for the folded tips on the "A" part base.

The small center hole is for the MMX launch rod.
It was made using the rotary punch.

The hardest part of the build is cutting out the round engine mount tube hole.

I tried to "round out" the hole using a tapered dowel.

All four pieces are cut out, folded and ready for gluing.
It doesn't look like much now, but it's pretty amazing how it all folds and comes together.

Free Applewhite MMX and 13mm Pinwheel Part 1

Here's the latest free rocket from Art Applewhite - The Pinwheel.

Available in MicroMaxx and 13mm engine versions, it's a free download ready to be printed.

Stop by Art's website at:http://www.artapplewhite.com/free.html

Be sure to read and agree to the liability and copyright statements before you download any of the free models

Art has many Saucer, Spool and Monocopter kits available. All are fun builds and great flyers.

I'll be building the MMX version first. The 13mm Pinwheel is built in the same manner.

The solid lines (numbered 1) are cut straight through. Use a sharp knife and straightedge.

The dashed lines (numbered 2, 3 and 4) are folds.
I use the back of a razor blade and straightedge to make the creases.

The sharp side of the blade (now facing up) has a few wraps of masking tape so it won't cut my fingers.