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Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Estes Laser Lance #3218, Part 5, More Fin Fitting & White Undercoats

TIP: To better see the contour as you are sanding, darken up the flat base of the fin assembly with pencil.

The lower picture shows the contour after some sanding. There is more sanding needed, the penciled sides are still showing.  





Here's a good fit of the wide root edge over the curvature of the BT-55.
On the forums, David Scigs has mentioned the Krylon Industrial Acryli-Quik spray paint is the old, original formula Krylon. I eventually gave in and ordered four cans from Grainger's. I had to drive across town to pick it up.

David was right - it behaves like the old Krylon. Please note - this is not the Krylon you find at WalMart or Home Depot.

The great thing - it dries fast and you don't have to worry about re-coat times! 
It may not be as opaque as Rusto 2X, but I'm tired of cottage cheese rough finishes. 
Note - this gloss paint still dried flat when sprayed in humid conditions. We did have cooler weather a few days ago and I got a great gloss finish.



One of the early undercoats showed some balsa grain!

More CWF was rubbed in and sanded smooth. Another coat of filler/primer, sanding and another white coat.
 

6 comments:

  1. How to paint the slot just aft of the fins?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In some past builds of this rocket on TRF I asked the same question, and the answer was that no special effort was made. Whatever got in there during normal spraying was it. I was pretty hard to see in there.

      One possibility to improve it slightly (maybe) would be to black-Sharpie the inner surfaces before gluing the fin assemblies together.

      Interested to see how Chris handles it on his build.

      Delete
    2. Hi John,
      Like Neil wrote, I didn't do anything extra. Some paint did get into the open slot, you really can't see that far in. It's a good point, maybe I should have sealed the interior balsa surfaces.

      Delete
  2. I like this rocket a lot, and am enjoying the build. It's really making me feel guilty that I scavenged mine for parts and never built it. All I have left are the transition and the fins. Maybe one day I'll resurrect it.

    So tempted to try the Acryli-Quik but the fact that it is so expensive and also hard to get is discouraging.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Neil,
      This is almost a "resurrected" build. Two were picked up cheap at a Hobby Lobby clearance. I had already opened the kit using parts as an example for an Apogee P.O.F. newsletter article.

      Delete
  3. Chris, Luckily in SoCal I don't really have to worry about the humidity. I know it is a little more expensive, but well worth it. Also I can use the whole can, where the big box store paint I end up throwing away the can before getting halfway through the can.

    ReplyDelete