Estes Time Warp Build, #7321, Part 13, Fin Masking

Most of the masks turned out well after the tape was lifted. 

There were some scraping back of the black to round the leading edges.

Whoops! I had some black bleed around one fin leading edge.

The black was scraped off for a touchup.

White paint was touched up for a light undercoat. Yellow is a translucent color and needs white underneath.

It took three applications of the white. 

Light sanding between coats filled the depression left from the scraping.

Estes Time Warp Build, #7321, Part 12, Fin Masking

This was a tough mask!

The tip shield fins are yellow on the face and backs. The picture on the left shows the Scotch tape border outlines. The tape strip ends overlap on the outside face.

On the right, the leading edge is accomplished by many pieces of Scotch tape making up the round shape. 

Here's the competed mask ready for the black paint. 

The larger areas are covered with brown masking tape.

This is one of those: "Cross your fingers and hope for the best!"

My Dog Dakota -

My Sheltie Dakota and I dropped off some Odd'l Rockets kits at JonRocket in nearby Oviedo, FL.

After we got home I brushed out Dakota's heavy coat.

Something was stuck to her butt.

When you know, you know. 

New Estes Catalog and Apogee Products

 

The new Estes 2026 catalog is available to view online:

CLICK HERE

Also - 

What's New at Apogee Components - NARCON 2026 Presentation

CLICK HERE

Estes Time Warp Build, #7321, Part 11, Lower Fin Gluing

My plan was to spray the BT-5 cluster tubes - just the tight areas at the center.

Notice the centering rings and upper tubes between the rings has been masked off.

I ended up spraying more of the tube surface and the area where the main fins will be glued.

I sprayed the yellow fin tip (front and back) yellow before gluing the fins onto the model. On the left is the white undercoat, on the right is the yellow. 

Yellow paint was sprayed on the outside face and underneath into the fillet area.  

I tried to concentrate the yellow paint to just the inside areas between the tubes but the spray covered a wider area. 

The glue line (fin root edge contact area) was marked and the paint sanded off down to the tube.

Here's the gluing line sanded down to the white tube.

Keep the sanded area narrow so it will be covered by the width of the root edge.

The fins are a bit difficult to place, they want to fall off when gluing, like on the Gyroc and Orbital Transport. 

On the right, the fins are in place and filleted with white glue. 

Pre-painting will make masking the black easier and gives a consistent  yellow coverage. Those inside areas would be difficult to spray if all were glued together.

Estes Time Warp Build, #7321, Part 10, Upper Fin Gluing

The scratched fin glue line was slightly widened using the side of a diamond file.

Note the masking tape. That's the stop point so the scratch stops before the top of the root edge of the fin. 

The lower tape is the top of the launch lug glue line.

The glue fillets are done with white glue. The white glue dries clear, yellow glue would dry yellow.

The white glue also dries with a flat finish. To gloss it up, I applied some clear acrylic using a Q-tip. No masking here - 

The inside lip of the BT-55 got a wipe of super glue then light sanding with 400 grit.

The brown edge was "painted" gray with a second Q-tip.

Estes Time Warp Build, #7321, Part 9, Upper Fins

The upper fins were filled with CWF and sanded. Then, filler/primer and sanding with 400 grit. Two steps and the balsa grain is filled.

I'll be painting these upper fins off the model. This will save some masking. The upper fins won't break off as the lower fins take the stress on landing.

Estes got it right!

The fin marking guide and alignment drawing are on a separate page of the instructions. There is no printing on the reverse side. You don't have to cut up an instruction page - no build steps on the other side - 

The fin marking guide matched up perfectly.

I wouldn't normally glue fins on this way and wouldn't recommend it for the occasional builder. This will not give you the strongest glue joint. 

The BT-55 mid tube was already seam filled and painted dark gray.

A fin glue line was scraped using an aluminum angle and the tip of a diamond file. Be sure the scraped line is shorter than the top of the root edge length.