The centering ring is glued too far back for the triangle tabs to completely fold over!
Earlier on, the foam centering ring was glued between the printed lines on the interior tube. The printed lines were the same width as the centering ring. I glued it on accurately.
This is where I gave up. This kit had too many strikes against it.
1. The three rear fins were thin and floppy. I had to beef them up with an interior card stock layer.
2. The canopy template didn't fit around the nose section. I caught the error and made the clear wrap larger.
3. The short upper stage foam coupler isn't long enough to keep the on top of the model. My nose section fell off and dented the card stock tip.
4. The markings on the central tube are off, enough that the outside tube won't fit over the centering rings on the inside.
I rarely give up on a build. I did stop work on the Estes Klingon Battle Cruiser model, I will get back on it one of these days. This model however, was thrown in the trash.
Might be why Model Minutes is no longer in business: too frustrating. I'm hoping you have better luck with the XFLR-7. The Adventures of Tintin book series were a childhood favorite of mine, especially the moon rocket. Laters.
ReplyDeleteHi BAR,
DeleteIt'll be a while before I tackle another Model Minutes kit - if ever!
Going through the build posts, you have FAR more patience than I do. I like a challenge, but after about the fourth oops moment (design, not mine), it would have been trashed. Cut the loss(?), and carry on.
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI also like a challenge, but this was a frustrating mess. Carded models (like this one) can be flimsy. I like to strengthen the small carded models I draw up with printed skins over an actual body tube, instead of a body wall being just a sheet of 110 lb. card stock.
When I got to this part in the build I asked myself: "Do I really want to waste an engine on this?"
If it helps any, I’m getting ready to build my Pemberton TRF card stock model - my first carded style model since the Squirrel Works XRV, so all your tips and insights will certainly be a big help. Way, way back in the day I gave up on a scale balsa & tissue model of a SPAD biplane fighter - couldn’t keep things square on that big balsa fuselage!
ReplyDeleteYou held out longer than I would have. Lol
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if some of the fit problems may have occurred partly due to how the parts were being processed for printing. I've noticed with a number of cardmodels I've downloaded, the ones that came as separate document for each page proved to be more of a pain than those that came as a single document. The single-document would at least be more consistent across the different pages. If the document had a reference image (e.g. a square that should print 1"x1"), you could tweak the scaling to get *all* the pages to print correctly. On the other hand, the ones with separate document for each page tended to be more problematic as the scaling wasn't always consistent.
ReplyDeleteAlso documents that are provided in some form of "vector" format (shapes described as set of coordinates and curves) tended to be less problematic than those provided In a raster format (due to variations in pixel densities and aspect ratios of both video and print media).