FlisKits Triple Threat Build FINISHED!

Here's two of the Fliskit Triple Threat Saucers.
Above is the Persephone, the three finned round saucer.
Below is the Athena, the five finned pentagon saucer.
In the lower right picture, the launch lug was glued a little away from the body tube to clear the "flair".
Should be fun now that A10-0 engines are available again!

Sorry - no posts tomorrow! I'm in transit going back to Orlando for two weeks before the next cruise job.
I'll get back to the AVI Nike Tomahawk and Dr. Zooch Saturn V!

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 10 Athena Shroud

Here's the five-sided Athena Saucer, The shroud is ready to be glued on the motor mount assembly.

I didn't use a fin alignment guide on this five fin model. The fins were easily glued on fin lines printed on the motor wrap.

The shroud aligned easily when glued on the leading edges of the fins.

This saucer design is my favorite of the two I put together.
At the top of the shroud are five "flairs". These are card stock extensions that curve up and glue to the motor mount tube.

In the picture, a small drop of glue is set below the printed "flair" connection point on the motor mount wrap.




When the glue drop starts to set up, the shroud flair extension is rolled into the glue. The lines on the shroud flair and the print lines on the motor mount wrap should match up. Hold in place until it sets in the correct position.





The "flairs" when dry.
The flairs add a nice curve and flow to the design.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 9 Wire Antennas

Bending the antenna wires are probably why this kit is a Skill Level 3!
This is by far the most difficult and time consuming part of the build.
For all three saucers, you would make 11 antennas.

All use the same pattern, by the time you've made two of three you'll figure out how to do it right. Luckily I had extra wire.

The trick is to use needle nosed pliers. the pliers shown in the instruction drawings have a flat, wider tip. It'd be hard to form the small bends with wide pliers. Start bending from the upper right side where the the wire it bent back against itself, not from the lower fin "hook" side. Trust me, it's easier.

Before you make any new bends, look down the wire locked in the pliers. Be sure you are bending everything in line with your previous bends.

The hook at the bottom left locks around the base of the 1/16" thick fins.
The reverse "C" bend 1/3 the way up keeps the antenna flat against the fin. It needs that "C" bend to stop the antenna from rotating when gluing.

This is the rear view with the antennas and launch lug in place.
At the left rear fin you can see the antenna "hook" locked under the fin.
When gluing the lug, be sure it is straight. A bit of the hook might get in the way of the seat against the root edge.
At the fin on the right you can see the reverse "C" bend laying flat against the fin surface.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 8 Persephone Upper Shroud

This is a dry fit of the smaller, upper shroud on the Persephone Saucer.
This shroud tapers in. It's formed "inside out" with the printing on the inside.
The only glue is on the root edges of the fins so there were narrow open gaps between the three fin glue contact points.





I cut small glue tabs from 65 lb. card stock.
These were scored at the mid-point "hinge" bends before they were cut out.

The tabs were glued and set in place with tweezers.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 7 Persephone Lower Shroud

The larger shroud of the round Persephone Saucer was easily cut out with scissors.

TIP: You might find it easier to cut round circles and arcs with scissors. Cut the straight lines with a straightedge and hobby knife.





The fin alignment lines are printed on the larger shrouds.
A line of glue is set on the leading edges of the fins and the shrouds are set on top.
All the shrouds lined up will small adjustments to the fin angles off the motor mount tube.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 6 Fin Prep and Glue

I was careful to align the fin plates but there was a little bit of overhang to clean up.
A sanding block evened up the sides.







Some of the paper fin plates won't sand off. The edges will roll around and onto the balsa sides.
Look close and you'll see the white edges of the plates.
Trim them off with a blade.





I didn't find the kit's fin alignment guide so I used my printed standby guide.
This works well for the three-finned Persephone saucer but not for the five-finned Athena model.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 5 Engine Tube Wrap

The BT-5 motor tube also gets a skin wrap.
The self adhesive back was sanded off so it had to be glued in place.

A line is drawn down the tube for aligning the wrap edge.
When using a thin coat of white glue you are working against the clock so I thought it would be better to do this in two steps - the edge, then the rest of the wrapping.
This two stage application will work on this smaller BT-5 tube, on a larger tube it might not work as well.

Glue was applied to just the inside left edge of the wrap. This was set on the alignment line, burnished and allowed to dry.
Note the printed fin positions on the wrap.




White glue was applied to the inside of the wrap and smoothed out with the back side of a razor blade.
An old credit card could work well, too.







After rolling around the BT-5 a 1/2 dowel was slipped in the tube for support.

The seam was rolled down with a clean smaller dowel.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 4 Fin Plates

I glued the left side of the fin plates on the balsa with a coat of white glue.

After the fins plates had dried the border excess is cut off to the printed lines. This picture shows the fin flipped over ready for gluing the right side plate on.

The right side of the fin plates are cut to shape and glued on the cut balsa side with white glue. The plate edges are lined up with the already cut left side plate and balsa.

After the glued right side plate was in position, a dowel was rolled over the plate to remove any excess glue.

Be careful and check the fin plate alignment. The plate can slide out of alignment when rolling over with the dowel.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 3 Sticky? Uh- Oh!

Before going any further,
The problems I had with the "Crack and Peel" self adhesive print is not directed at FlisKits. Everything I've ever built from FlisKits has been great!

My problem was the adhesive on the peel and stick prints. This kit has probably been stored for a few years. The adhesive was old. I couldn't get the print side to release from the backing! After almost ruining one left side fin plate, I knew there had to be a better way.

I could have simply glued the plates to the balsa sheet.
I was concerned about the end thickness of the fins and the increase in weight.
These saucers fly to 50 - 75 feet. With the extra weight of the backing paper the altitude might only be 40 - 65 feet!

On all the remaining self adhesive parts, I ended up sanding off most of the backing with 220 grit on a sanding block.
This took a while as I didn't want to sand too far or have high and low spots.
I sanded until the printing (on the other side) was just starting to show through from the back.

Note: These pictures go back and forth between two different saucer builds. Most of the construction is the same. The fins shown above were the first fin plates I cut. I made the adjustments for the borders on the second set as explained in the previous post.

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 2 Fins

The fins on this kit are well printed on self adhesive stock.
You cut out the fins, peel off the backing and apply to the balsa.

The instructions tell you to cut out the fins outside the lines (leaving a border) on the left side print. You do cut on the leading edge. (no border here) This leading edge is placed on the edge of the balsa sheet.

The prints were a little confusing, they don't show any border on the root edge. The border line is shown on the leading edge. No big deal, I made the adjustment.

Here is how I cut the fin plates, the leading edge now has no border.

I added a border to the root edge.
 

FlisKits Triple Threat Build Part 1 Parts

Thanks go out to Ross Mozier, a member and flyer in the local R.O.C.K. section. Ross gave me this kit and 12 MicroMaxx engines! I told him I'd put everything to good use.

Ross also gave out kits to kids and spectators at the recent R.O.C.K. launch.

Ross mentioned that all the parts might not be there, he'll take parts from various kits when he scratch builds. I let him know I had plenty of spare parts, I should be able to put it together.

Originally, the Triple Threat kit had three saucers in one kit bag. These are made for 13mm engines. The A10-0t is the only recommended engine.

This kit was discontinued a few years ago, maybe because Estes didn't make the A10-0t for a while. These instructions were dated 2002, it was production kit #56. The face card says" "Altitudes of only 50 - 75 feet!" Hoo-Boy!

I had the printed body pieces for two of the three saucers, the most important for the build.

I bought .025" diameter music wire for the antennas.
A length of 1 3/4" BT-5 was cut.
Two 1" launch lugs were pulled from the spare parts box.

I'll finish them - eventually!

With my work schedule (and some painting problems) I wasn't able to finish up the AVI Nike Tomahawk.

Now the Zooch Saturn V will have to wait until I get home on December 10!
I've gone as far as I could on all the small detail pieces.

Both will be finished when I have the parts all my home tools. (You try flying with break-off blade knife hidden in your checked baggage.)

For right now, I have some builds stored in a draft form.
Tomorrow I'll start the older OOP FlisKits Triple Threat UFOs.

They were actually a fun build, downscales of the larger Flis UFOs.
The photo is copied from the Clive Davis review on www.rocketreviews.com.