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Thursday, June 7, 2018

Estes Dragon Ship 7 #1345, Part 8, Fin Gluing and Canopy

The fins were glued on using my Odd'l Rockets FinTool.
(Yes, I may finally have the FinTool available after NARAM!)

Notice the engine hook through the bottom slot in the FinTool base. On a regular build, the engine mount is already glued in. The FinTool is slid in and the engine hook ends up centered between two fins.
The engine mount hasn't been glued in yet, it was dry slid in to hold the FinTool and position the fins.


I printed up plenty of extra canopies. I'll make a few and pick the best one.

Do all the fold embossing before cutting out the canopy.
I used the tip of a butter knife with no serrations at the tip. All the dashed lines were scored.



TIP: It takes very little glue to put together a card stock canopy or tail cone/adapter. Apply some glue then spread and pick up the excess with a Q-tip.





After forming the canopy I had to go back and sand more of a curve at the front and back to fit the body tube. Adjustments were made on the master pattern sheet.

The sides were traced with pencil and the paint scraped off inside the pencil line.

The canopy is glued on.

TIP: You can use the aluminum angle to line up the sides. It's easy to have the long sides distort and slide out when the glue is wet.

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