Launch! Schoolyard Soccer Field, Nov. 29, 2020

I know! I'll get back to the Estes Saturn 1B build tomorrow -

This morning was overcast and almost cool! Even though I couldn't see any blue sky, these schoolyard launches would still be below the cloud cover.

I usually start the morning with something easy to check the controller batteries and launch rod angle.

Today's first up was a favorite, the Estes CURVILINEAR with an A8-3.

Textbook launch to about 225'. The parachute should have been aired out before launch. It finally opened about 20 feet above the ground.

The Estes SAROS clone went unstable once with a C6-5 at a club launch. A lighter engine seems to be to be the way to go. Today stability was good with the A8-3 engine. 

Altitude was guessed at 225'. Full chute and no damage on recovery.

Here we go - 

First launch of the proposed Odd'l Rockets A-18 HORNET.

Start small with an A8-3 - Stable! Estimated altitude was 225'. No damage under 12" chute recovery.

Upcoming - more test flights with B6-4 and C6-5 engines.

My only Q-Jet launch of the morning - 

An original MPC NIKE PATRIOT with the Q-Jet B4-4.

WOW! This B engine seemed to perform more like a C. I would guess the altitude to be around 400'.

Recovery under the original MPC chute which looks to be closer to 15" diameter.

The Semroc Micro-Maxx MARS LANDER wasn't very stable at the last L.A.S.E.R. launch. 

Today things were much better! That MMX engine got it to about 50'. Streamer eject at apogee and no damage at pick up.

I don't usually launch C motors at the schoolyard - it just isn't a very big field. I can launch Cs in saucers or other draggy models like this - 

The smaller, later version of the Estes R2-D2, this morning with a C6-3. Estimated altitude was about 300'.

Packing the parachute around the central rear-eject engine mount is a pain. Ejection today made a very loud "pop". 

The engine mount ejected and got tied up in the parachute shroud lines.

When it was picked up I noticed a chunk of the clear plastic legs had broken off. I could probably patch this with a piece of a CD case. No other damage. 

Last up - 

One of my oldest models, the Estes RED MAX clone.

A B6-4 raised it to 325' with an old Centuri parachute bringing it safely home. 

A low wind was picking up throughout my half hour at the field. This was evident when I walked the field to pick up the wadding. I don't want the school to find charred pieces of scattered crepe paper everywhere.

Seven launches - all recovered with the only damage to the plastic clear fins on the R2-D2. A good start to the day.

Estes Saturn 1B, #7251 Build, Part 3, Tube Seam Fill

I'd recommend filling the tube seams before assembly. It is difficult to fill the seams after they are glued in place. The eight booster tubes end up too close together to reach the seams. With the vacu-form wraps attached it would be difficult to fill and sand the BT seams close to the wrap.

Always check the tube ends to see if the cuts are clean.

One side of the large tube was rough. It took a just a few passes with a sanding block to square up the end.

To fill the seams, the seams were marked with a thin mechanical pencil to see them easily.

I did my first fill pass using thinned CWF.

The tip of a dull blade was dipped about halfway in the thinned CWF. Wipe the backside of the blade off the rim of the container, the filler left on the back of the blade is probably more than you'll need.

The blade is dragged back and forth down the seam guiding the filler into the groove. Each dip of filler fills about 1" length of tube seam.

Here's the first three steps of seam filling - 

Left: The bare tube right out of the bag.

Middle: Tube seams marked with a fine mechanical pencil to see them easier.

Right: Thinned CWF filler applied into just the seams using the dull blade tip.

The inset picture shows the escape motor tube. It's a smaller tube, a little larger diameter than a launch lug. On a small tube like this, it's easier to brush on a coat of CWF then sand after it dries.

Build time:

Tube seam fills - 1 hour

Sand seam fills - 1 hour

Total build time so far: 2 hours, 30 minutes

My Rocket Buy Of The Year!

Once in a while - a deal comes along that seems too good to be true.

My friend Lonnie often scores older engines and re-hab rockets on Craig's List. I've kept an eye out for deals, but never seem to find anything close to Orlando.

On a whim I checked the Facebook Marketplace page and did a search for "Model Rockets."

Three Bulk Packs of B6-4 engines came up for $25.00 each. I contacted the seller and found he lives just a few miles from me. I arranged to meet Bob at his house. On the way over I stopped at the bank and withdrew $75.00 cash for the engines.

He asked if I launched rockets. In the back of my car I had a bunch of kits. I was dropping off an order to JonRocket later in the day. I showed him a few of the designs. He told me some of his model rocket history. 

In the past, Bob had a Model Rocket Birthday Party service. For each kid at the party there was a $10.00 charge. Everyone got an Alpha III and an engine to launch it with. He would carry a multi launcher and controller and oversee the launches. I thought it was a pretty good idea.

After we talked for a few minutes he went inside to get the engines. I asked how they were stored. He said: "Always inside the house." He knew about temperature cycling.

I opened my wallet and handed him the $75.00.

He stopped me and said: No, it's $25.00 for all three boxes."

Once in a while - you find a good deal from a nice person.

I thanked him and drove to drop off the Odd'l Rockets kits with a good story to tell!

A few years back I bought some older engines. We met up in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. If someone eating their breakfast looked out the window, they probably thought it was a drug deal.

Estes Saturn 1B, #7251 Build, Part 2, More Parts

For me, this part is the highlight of the kit.

I've built a few Saturn 1Bs over the years, the scalloped shroud has always been a difficult construction step. In the old Estes 1/70 scale version, it was cut out of cardstock. The original 1/100 Centuri version also had a plastic tank shroud.

The heavy cardstock centering ring and nozzle plate set.

My kits were pre-production, the alignment jig wasn't in the kit while some adjustments were being made before the final kit was produced.

There are a plenty of tubes which means a lot of seam filling!

On the left is the bag of eight Redstone booster tubes.

Build time:

Open box, check parts: 30 minutes

Total build time so far: 30 minutes

Estes Saturn 1B, #7251 Build, Part 1, Parts

The 1/100 scale Saturn 1B has arrived -

A perfect shelf companion to the 1/100 Saturn V.

Here's the front and back of the kit box.

Notice the white Redstone tanks at the bottom, this is the Skylab Saturn 1B. The earlier Saturn 1Bs had the alternating black/white tanks. The paint pattern on the center corrugated wraps are also a bit different. 

All the parts are in the above picture. The capsule and tower are the same parts found in the newest Saturn V kits. The LEM shroud is slightly different.

Far left: Two new vacu-form corrugated wraps 

Center: A new scalloped tank shroud molded in styrene plastic.

Upper right: Tunnels and antennas

Bottom right: Plastic nozzles and fins 

More parts details in the next post -

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Finished

This was a Skill Level 5 adventure!

I've never assembled a built-up model rocket like this before.

On the left is one of the smaller nozzles, the gluing area had the paint scraped off.

I actually went back, masked and re-sprayed the small laminate fin tips a gloss metallic black.

In total there were four different colors used. Light Gray, Dark Gray, Metallic Silver and Metallic Black, and some careful use of dull coat.

The guns were also sprayed with metallic black. The two guns slide into the forward launch lug holes for display. 

I thought about darkening in the "slot" areas on the nose cone, but decided to put a fork in it - DONE!

Next up - The NEW Estes Saturn 1B!

New Odd'l Kit Design?

Last Sunday was a "free" day for me, vendor orders were filled and I had some down time. Most of the day was spent drawing, cutting balsa and body tubes.

I've been looking for a interesting new Fighter Fleet kit design and may have found it.

This is the F-18 Hornet, the same jet the Blue Angels use.

I use original scale drawings to draft the wings and fins. Design adjustments are made with the goal to capture the spirit of the original jet and still be stable. The wings are a bit smaller and set back. 

I'm always surprised how many changes are made from the initial drawings to finished flying model.

 

This F-18 is very different from the two other Odd'l Fighter Fleet kits, the F-104 and the F-16.

You'll rarely see me fly a "naked" rocket, this is a test model for the many test launches using different 18mm engines.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 24, Tricky Silver Detail Pieces

A positioning template is cut from the instruction sheet.

When set in place I traced a pencil line a little inside the template edges.

The paint was carefully scraped away staying inside the pencil lines. It is important that the plastic pieces cover these scraped areas.

I marked the inside edge of the piece to show where the Beacon Fabri-Tac glue should be applied - on the inside edge. You can't use a wide bead of glue, it might squeeze out the side and mar the finish.

This worked out better than I hoped.

All four detail pieces are very well adhered with no glue showing outside the edges.

The gloss silver is a good contrast over the flat gray body.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 23, Decals & Trim Pieces

Large water slide decals are harder to work with. I'd recommend cutting the bigger decals into pieces for easier transfer. It might be a little more work, but it's safer when you don't have back-up decals.

I also cut down the long decals that go on the side "Q" pieces.

Lots of detail in the decals, plus they give you enough for both sides of the model!

TIPS: To be sure the "A" decals were on straight, I set the side of a taped single edge razor blade against the plastic side piece. This gave me a baseline for the decal.

The glossy dark gray side piece isn't glued on yet, just slipped on over the fin tab.

The gloss painted plastic trim pieces aren't glued on until after the dull coat.

I masked off the dark gray "box" on top of the nose cone to keep it glossy.

After the dull coat, 

The gloss trim pieces (wing tips and nozzles) were glued on using beacon Fabri-Tac glue.

There is a good contrast between the dull and glossy areas. I'll have to use this dull/shiny paint decor again.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 22, Final Mask & Shock Cord

I decided to spray the top of the small fin black. ( I ended up spraying them Metallic Black after the model was finished. I wanted a glossier contrast after the final dull coat was sprayed.)

Here's the first Scotch tape edge mask.

A slit was cut into a grocery bag and slipped over the fin. The bag was adhered with brown masking tape.

The black was shot and the tape pulled.

The entire model will end up in gray and black contrasts.

The large nozzle was sprayed with metallic silver. 

TIP: Don't spray silver painted areas with a dull coat! The dull coat will turn silver to a non-reflective gray.

Don't glue on the nozzle until after the dull coat is sprayed.

In the left picture, notice the drop of white glue. It's a very tight area, I wanted to add some glue to the back of the engine mount centering ring. 

Squeeze a drop of glue in four places around the edge. Push in the nozzle and turn. That should spread the glue around the rear centering ring/body tube joint. 

This is not to glue in the nozzle, just to spread the wood glue around the inside joint. Remove the nozzle and glue in later after the body gets a dull coat.

1. The Kevlar is fed through the front of the rocket and marked about 1/4" from the top of the body tube.

2. Feed the Kevlar back out the rear end of the model.

3. Tie a loop in the Kevlar with the mark at the top of the loop.

4. Tie the elastic shock cord to the Kevlar loop.

5. Feed both the elastic and Kevlar through to the top.

With the Kevlar end below the top of the body tube there is no chance of an early (or late) ejection zipper.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 21, Recess Area & Additional Mask

Here's the finished recess area mask. 

The paint is gloss - for now. I wasn't happy with some of the finished wood areas so a dull coat will help cover them. 

TIP: Flat finishes don't show the irregular surfaces like gloss paint does. Flat finishes are a great way to visually smooth things out.

On this model there will be some gloss and some flat finish areas. It makes for a very interesting finished model.

I decided to go for broke and do some additional masks. This small rectangle on the top of the nose cone will get gloss dark gray.

I had a small area of overspray showing after the tape was pulled.

TIP: I wetted the corner of a Magic Sponge, then rolled over a Q-tip  transferring some cleaner onto the Q-tip. This removed the overspray with some light rubbing.

Here's the finished nose cone mask.

The model will get an overall dull coat after the decals are applied. The glossy dark gray rectangle will be masked off before the dull coat is sprayed.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 20, Masking The Center Area

The recess below the nose section is painted a darker color than the body. The instructions say Dark Gray, the face card shows Black. I went with the Dark Gray from Ace Harware.

If the surface is clean and smooth, I use Scotch Tape for my masks. To better see the clear tape edge, I hit it with a wide point Sharpie. Wipe off any excess black ink so it won't get on your fingers or transfer to the model.

Thin strips are cut with straight lines through the wide ink line. Shown above, cutting through the middle of the two lines gives you four thin strips of masking tape.

This was a complex mask requiring many small pieces of tape. After the edges were masked with the inked Scotch tape, brown masking tape follows and a plastic bag over the large areas.

Oops!

I didn't cover the areas immediately below the Scotch tape masks. Stupid mistake - I had some darker gray overspray. 

While the paint was still soft, I lightly scraped most of it off with my dull pocket knife. The pocket knife blade is rounded, there's less chance scratching the surface. The remaining paint was cleaned off with careful use of a Mister Clean Magic Sponge. 

Here's that same area after some careful paint removal. 

Look down the right side edge, you can see some of the paint was removed! The Magic Sponge can take off more than you might want, especially over a sharp corner. 

I'll spray some light gray in a cup and roll on some paint on the edges using a Q-tip.

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224, Build, Part 19, Light Gray Paint, Polish, Other Colors

I finally found a light gray paint at Ace Hardware.

This looked to be a good match for the face card picture.

I thought we were through the humidity and dull paint here in Florida. There's a tropical storm blowing by and that helped screw things up. The gloss paint dried flat.

TIP: Polishing compound is your best friend! The right side picture shows a decent semi-gloss after some polishing.

While it isn't a full gloss, it is smooth enough to allow a good decal transfer.

The "guns" will be painted metallic black and not hit with the clear dull coat.

The small nozzles and larger plastic fin tips will be painted gloss dark gray.

Take a close look at the masking. Oy!

The "Q" strips that run down the sides are shown as black. I won't be masking these, it would be very difficult. The long side decals should give the trim piece enough interest.

The instructions say to use light gray and dark gray paint. The face card picture shows black on the body tube areas below the nose cone. This mask will take some time!

Estes Asteroid Hunter #3224 Build, Part 18, More Fills & Launch Lug Alignment

After fitting the Q piece back, the front end needed filling. 

More CWF and sanding!

Here's one of the two front launch lugs.

I traced around them and scraped away the paint before gluing the lugs in place with Fabri-Tac glue.

The rear lugs were also traced and the paint scraped off inside the pencil outline.

These were also glued on with Fabri-Tac.

Notice the tab that overlaps the back. 

Before the glue sets, double check the alignment of the front and rear lugs with a launch rod.

This design has guns that slip into the front lug holes when the model is on display.

Look close at the fillet areas on the sides of the Q pieces.

These took two passes of white spray and sanding after the paint dried.