Semroc Micro Mars Lander, KMX-02, Part 12, Fix, Break, Fix!

On the left is the gloss white sprayed main body. It's humid and the gloss paint dried flat!
TIP: Sometimes you can shine up a flat finish by polishing. I used a clean shoe shine brush to buff out the surface. This brush had not been used, there was no shoe polish residue on the brush. If there were any polish in the brush it could transfer onto the model. Be careful brushing over raised corner surfaces - you can rub off the paint!
The picture on the right side shows the shinier surface.

A dry fit of the strut detail pieces shows the position of the orange piece. When the holes are lined up the piece sits too high on the leg! You can see the position on the right side.

The strut pieces were stuck down on masking tape and sprayed with spray adhesive.



Here's the strut piece pressed in place, lined up with the top and bottom. Note the holes don't line up. It doesn't really matter.

I tried a dry fit of the leg in the support assembly. When positioning the leg I pressed down on the upper arm and it broke off! Be careful, this is the most delicate part on the model.

It wasn't difficult to glue back - but I glued it without checking the other legs - It's flipped over! The "piston" sits higher than on the other three legs. Heck, I'm leaving it as is.

Semroc Micro Mars Lander, KMX-02, Part 11, Cleaning Up & Spray Painting

On the Strut Support Detail Pieces -
The small hold-down tics are sanded off with 400 grit on a block. It doesn't take much to remove them.






There are also small tics inside the three little holes at the top of the strut supports. A toothpick was sanded smooth and the tapered tip rolled in the three holes. This will compress the tic down.



I only sprayed gloss orange on one side of the strut support pieces. Notice they are "mirrored", flipped for each side.

The legs were taped down to a scrap piece of cardboard for spraying with gloss red.
At the root edge, a triangular piece of masking tape masks off the gluing area that will go inside the support housings on the lower body. Set the leg inside the housing and trace around the housing lip to see what should be masked. Notice the outside tip is masked off where the landing pads will be glued.

I got a decent gloss on the red legs. With the humid conditions, the gloss white came out a bit flat! A fix is upcoming . . . 

Launch! Shoolyard Soccer Field, Sept. 6, 2020

I was overdue for a LPR escape.

The Semroc MMX MARS LANDER (now being built on the blog) went up first after some cleaning of the launch rod. Fit was tight around the little diameter launch rod.
Well, it actually looked better than some full-size Landers I've seen using a C6-3. Very stable and vertical to about 40 feet! The streamer ejected and it landed easy on the mowed grass.

At the last launch, the launch lug popped off the New Way MMX C-THRU. I added a plastic launch lug, the 3D printed lug was too small for my MMX launch rod. Today it was launched and got a respectable 65' altitude. Full streamer eject and no damage.

I'm still making adjustments to the CORKSCREW before making it an Odd'l Rockets kit. This was a Bruce Levison design, originally BT-5 based. I'm now using a Odd'l heavy wall BT-20 and 3" offset ring.
The body was shortened by about 1 1/2" to tune-in the corkscrew effect.
With the Chinese made Quest A6-4 and shorter body there was a more pronounced corkscrew during boost. After hitting 275', the tie-dye streamer ejected and brought it home.

Here's the second launch of the 3/4 size Centuri FLYING SAUCER. I used a C6-3 this time - I know, I should be using booster engines. At the end of boost, it turned to the North before the ejection charge fired. Estimated altitude, 120'.
This smaller saucer works as advertised - flipping over, floating down to an antenna wire landing.

I can endorse the Estes TAZZ as a perfect small field rocket.
Today it had a small spiral during boost using an Estes A8-3. Altitude would be a guess at 250'.
The helicopter recovery has a good spin but descent is pretty quick, landing with an audible: "Bonk!" There was some small sand dents in the replacement balsa nose cone. No other damage. The streamer recovered engine mount landed close.





This is probably my favorite Excelsior Goony, the HONEST GOON.
It's got a BT-60 body and BT-70 nose warhead section.
You won't get very high with the Estes B6-4, maybe 300'. This was it's tenth launch in ten years.





Touch Down - almost!
Six up, six recovered with no damage.
Next stop: Enter the launches to "My Flights" at rocketreviews.com

TIP: Keep track of your launches and flight stats. Add pictures or video.
Go to rocketreviews.com and setup your account!

Semroc Micro Mars Lander, KMX-02, Part 10, Detail Pieces

The small rectangle detail piece is glued on the upper band wrap.






The foot pads are small. I sanded the edges smooth by holding them with long tweezers.
These were stuck on a piece of masking tape for a shot of filler/primer.

On the left are the foot pad centers, the larger circle pieces are the antenna dishes. Four antenna dishes are included in the kit, you only need two.

On the right - the centers are glued onto the foot pads covering the slot.






The strut support details are laser cut on card stock.
Note the support pieces aren't "mirrored" - See next picture.





The back side has some laser smoke discoloration. Because four of these aren't a mirror image, half could be glued with this smoky side facing out.

TIP: You can remove some of the ash with careful use of a pencil eraser. The right side picture shows the smoky side after using the eraser.

Semroc Micro Mars Lander, KMX-02, Part 9, Details & Launch Lug

This shows a decent end-joint of the upper detail ring pieces. A little bit of smoothed over glue on the joint and it shouldn't be noticeable.




The bottom trim ring pieces but up against the support housings. They were a bit wide and required trimming.

The launch lug was glued in place with medium super glue. A drop of CA glue was set on scrap cardboard. A toothpick was dipped in the drop of glue then the glue transferred into the root edge of a support housing.

The launch lug is small. You might find it easier to place by using tweezers to hold it while setting into the root edge glue.

New Estes Rocket

Here's one that just popped up - 

The Estes STAR HOPPER 
was just released as part of the Labor Day Sale announcement.
This is a beginner model - No-glue, no-paint!
New nose cone and fins.


Some specs:
7" tall, BT-20 based, Mini Engine powered, Streamer Recovery
To see more and read the Sci-Fi back story: CLICK HERE

Semroc Micro Mars Lander, KMX-02, Part 8, Leg Support Gluing

I used the alignment tool to mark the fin locations.

The support housings were glued on using the alignment tool to check the spacing.

On most models I plan ahead for masking and painting. The main body and these support housings are gloss white. The legs are orange or red. Spray them separately and glue the legs in after spray painting. No masking needed!

The engine mount is glued in using the spacing tool to set the upper centering ring depth. The bottom ring also got a glue fillet.





The body wrap pieces were cut off the card stock print piece.

TIP: Use the square corner of a single edge razor blade to press and cut the inside corners sharp and square.

I did a slight pre-curving of the body wrap pieces before the glue was added.

The pieces are a little wide, these were trimmed off down the center line of the support housing.