On Facebook, I read complaints about how hard it is to assemble the tower on the Estes Mercury Redstone kit.
Originally this was the Centuri Mercury Redstone. The body tube size is the first give-away, a ST-20. CLICK HERE
The tower is a bit fiddly but not impossible. I did a detailed blog build with lots of tips - CLICK HERE
The tower assembly is at Posts 12 - 17. Build it the way Centuri had you build it - from the top down, not the bottom up.
Take a deep breath and have the right glue.
And, by all means - SLOW DOWN!
We had the Estes Mercury Redstone, K-41. It was BT-60 based and smaller. To see it in all it's glory, CLICK HERE
If you think that plastic tower is a "bitch"
We didn't even get dowels in the kit. The "dowels" were cut from some (badly produced) steam pressed hard wood. They were cut from the plank and rounded by hand.
If that wasn't enough, enlarge the picture and check out the SIX PIECE FINS in Step 7. How you gonna fill the grain on those?
In a way I'm glad I grew up in the 1960s and learned patience building kits like this.
The tricky part, for me was mating the three sections of the capsule together. The first capsule I built mated fine, but the second capsule was slightly off on the fit. Still, much easier than building with a balsa nose cone and dowels, like the Dr. Zooch kits. BTW I used one capsule for a Redstone clone and the other capsule for the Enerjet Mercury Little Joe that was in your blog a couple of months ago. Both flew nicely about three weeks ago. BAR geezer.
ReplyDeleteI built the tower top-down, one section (or rung) at a time. I glued the first sections together, then wrapped it with tape until the glue dried.
ReplyDeleteRemove the tape, glue the next rung, wrap with tape and let dry. Rinse and repeat.
A slow go, but worth it when the tower is finished.
Mike Ruf
Hi Mike,
DeleteBuilding the tower is a slow-go. Some are impatient and rush through it. The plastic glue can take some time to dry.