Estes Super Orbital Transport Build, Kit #7314, Part 11, Glider Nozzle Shroud Forming

The flat outside face of this 20/50 nozzle support ring will visible on the finished model, even with the end of the BT-50 Orbiter body.

Sand the outside face smooth with 400 grit on a block.

TIP: You can "seal" the ring face with a light coat of wood glue and lightly sand again when dry. Sealing a rough surface like this gives you a more even paint coverage. The paint won't soak in if the surface is sealed.

TIP: As I always recommend, scan and make a few practice copies of the shroud. Form a few and pick the best one for the build.

Cut the flat sides with a straightedge and knife. Cut the rounded sides with scissors for a smoother arc.

TIP: Run a fingertip over the curved sides and you'll probably reel some high and low spots. Run some 400 grit over the sides to smooth them out.

Pre-form the shroud in the heel of your hand with a clean dowel.

Press into the shroud with the dowel in an "arc" shape shown by the arrows.

You might need a little more pressure forming at the ends to get a complete full circle shape.

Quest Planet Probe #Q1022, Part 3, More Cardstock Prep

The top edge of the fins will glue to the sides of the motor mount tube.

The die-cut edge isn't perfectly flat.

I flattened the root edge with 220 grit on a block for a better glue bond.

The top corner edge of the fins glue to the bottom of the centering ring.

This should be a 90 degree angle. 

I checked with my engineers square. Two of the fin tops needed sanding to square them up.

The centering ring was a good friction around the motor mount tube.

In the right side picture - 

Notice the die-cut ring is slightly rounded on one side. The rounded side was hit by the blade first.

TIP: Glue the ring to the tube with the rounded side facing up. This will give you a better fit in the angled sides of the shroud.

Engine Block Gluing TIP

Here's how we used to do it - Gluing the engine block in the old Wac Corporal kit.
I like how the instructions tell you: "Put a large dab of glue near the end of your little finger (or use a brush.)" It better be your little finger, I doubt other fingers would fit into a minimum diameter BT-20 body tube.
The problem is - glue is smeared all through the tube leading up to the desired final engine block position. After a launch, a hot engine could melt that leftover glue, gluing the engine in place!

The old Wac Corporal kit was a single, minimum diameter tube model. You would have to carefully (and quickly) position and glue the engine block in from the back end.

Take a look at the new Sasha instructions at the right.
You are still directed to glue in the engine block from the rear smearing glue around the interior. How you gonna' get that glue bottle way up thar?

TIP: This is a shorter engine tube, why not glue it in from the top?

1. Mark the yellow spacer tube at 1/4" (or whatever the kit calls for)
2. Slide the yellow spacer tube in from the rear and tape to hold it in place at the 1/4" pencil line.
3. Slide the engine block (dry no glue yet) in from the top end of the tube and on to  the top of the spacer tube.
4. Apply the glue fillet from the top - DONE!

Using this method there is no extra glue inside the tube and next to a hot engine. The tube interior is clean. Between that upper engine block glue fillet and the engine hook, the engine will stay in place during boost and ejection.

Estes Sasha Build #7271, Part 6, Booster Engine Mount Gluing

Test the fit of the nozzle and coupler in the body tubes.

TIP: I usually sand an angle on the lip for easier insertion. With this small taper the inside of the body tube won't turn under.

The shoulder of the nozzle sets the depth of the lower centering ring.
In the picture on the right the tube is upside down, the fin slots should be at the bottom!

Slide in the engine mount and press in place against the nozzle shoulder. No glue now, this is a dry fit. From the top, mark the inside of the tube where the centering ring touches the body tube.

Use the marking guide, center the engine hook line between two fins.

Mark a dowel using the pencil mark on the inside of the tube.
Apply a line of glue around the dowel end an apply a bead of glue around the pencil line inside.

Slide the engine mount in, press the nozzle in the rear until the shoulder lip butts up against the tube end.

Turn the mount so the engine hook is centered between two fins

Semroc USS Andromeda KV-97, Part 11, Dots TIP and Launch Lugs

There are two small "dots" glued onto the body tube forward of the dowels.
These are cut from thick card stock. They won't fit the curvature of the body tube as they are now.

I drew a line down the center of the dot for a reference.
Set this line down the length of an X-Acto knife barrel or stiff dowel.
TIP: Press the sides around the barrel to give it a smooth curve.

Compared to the first picture you can see a difference in the fit.
You could glue these on without shaping them but there would be a gap requiring more fillet work.

My parts were from a pre-production kit and there were some small adjustments made.

The forward launch lug marking guide was high and the two lugs wouldn't be in line. This is an easy fix and corrected for the kit run.

Estes Black Brant II Kit #1958 Build, Part 13, Paint Masking

Regular brown masking tape is used between the fins making sure to cover any open areas on the body tube.



The rest of the body tube was covered with a square of plastic cut from a grocery bag.

Before spraying with gloss black, all the mask lines were burnished with a Q-tip. A soft Q-tip won't scratch or mar the mask line like a fingernail could.

TIP: To keep the body tube clean, I'll sometimes hold onto the main body with a wrapped paper towel.
This is especially handy after spray painting if your hand got hit with some black over spray.

Here's some of the mask reveal.
I've said this before - You'll never get a clean mask line if your glue fillets and mask surfaces aren't clean and smooth.

Here's how it came out - pretty good overall.
The payload section and nose cone are also painted gloss black.

Now comes a confusing decal placement -

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 18, Fluorescent Paint TIP

The new, wider fairing was glued onto the split engine tube.

CA glue was applied with a Q-tip. After drying the fairing was lightly sanded smooth with 400 grit.






The exposed end surfaces were blackened with a Sharpie.

These inside areas would be very hard to get to with a spray can after gluing onto the rocket body.







The housing are set in place and a light pencil line was traced around the housing. Go light with the pencil, you don't want to scar the balsa.

Masking tape was set down a little inside the pencil line.

It took quite a few coats of hand painted fluorescent paint to get a good coverage.
TIP: Only use fluorescent paint over an opaque white surface!

Here's the inside of the engine surface after about four coats of fluorescent orange. Paint, lightly sand the high spots and paint again.

Self Adhesive 400 Grit Sandpaper

I bought some of the self adhesive 400 grit sandpaper from the Klingspor website.
You could spray some adhesive on the the back of some 400 grit but it's easier to use a sticky backed sandpaper on the Great Planes sanding block.

Great Planes sells self adhesive sandpaper rolls. The finest grit they well is 220. I didn't know how well the Klingspor paper would stick.

It sticks almost too well!
When it is removed it leaves paper and adhesive.
It doesn't clean off easily.

To remove the goop, use some Glue Gone on a paper towel. It will take a few applications to clean it all off. I bring this up to save anybody else you some frustration.

EDIT: Daniel (The Rocket N00b) figured out how to remove the overly sticky Klingspor sandpaper. Stop by his blog: CLICK HERE

Dr. Zooch MR Little Joe I Fix

Sometimes repairs sit for a year while I figure out a good way to fix them.
After making trim spray paint decals for the latest MR Little Joe I used the same trim on my older Dr. Zooch Little Joe I.

I built a BT-60 based Dr. Zooch Little Joe I in 2010. Back then I didn't know about spray paint decals. Instead I painted some copy paper orange, cut strips and glued them on the fins. It's the same idea as the sprayed decals but not as thin. The Dr. Zooch models have printed card stock wraps. I looked on the orange fin edges as another piece of painted paper trim. White glue didn't hold and some trim pieces peeled off.
I decided to replace them with some of the leftover orange decal material from the recent Enerjet Little Joe I build.

The remaining old orange trim was peeled off. They came off clean and easily.

New orange decal strips were cut and applied. I had to use some Pledge acrylic under the rear edges again.

The "decal" edges were less noticeable and adhered much better than the first attempt using sprayed copy paper.

TIP: You'll get the best results spraying over the white decal sheets. While you can make spray decals using clear sheets, the white decal sheet will be slightly thicker and easier to transfer onto your model. When you think about it, spray paint on a clear transfer sheet is only as thick as a coat of paint!

Repaired and Done!
This version is smaller than the Enerjet News Little Joe I and the same scale as the Dr. Zooch Mercury Redstone kit. You do build the tower from dowels on this one.