Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 11, More Decals

The landing gear doors are set on the bottom.

Notice the light pencil center line. This gives you a visual center spacing for the right and left decals.

The nose cone decals (shown below) are the reason I drew up new water-slide decals. A thick sticker won't lay flat or conform to the curvature of the nose cone. Ask anyone who has ever used the stickers on the nose cone of this model. 

I should have set the right and left side of the stars decals closer together on the bottom of the nose cone. (See last decal at the bottom of the post.)

Looking on from the bottom - 

Set the right side of the stars first, 

After that, place the center landing gear decal. 

TIP: Set the landing gear decal farther back than I did so the two sides of the stars decals could be closer to the center.

Then set the left side of the stars decal.

The stars "arc" decal goes over the top front, almost joining into the blue stars on the right and left side decals.

I didn't use all the "sponsors" art, like the M&Ms and 7up decals.

Three reasons - 

1. The model décor is busy enough already.

2. I couldn't find the correct current art online.

3. I don't have permission to use the logos.

I did my best to set all the round "window" decals but didn't have enough room for one window on each side.

Mentioned above - The right and left star decals (Pictures 2 & 3 above) should have been set farther down and closer together. That would have gave me enough room.

No one will know the difference.

If you are a Patreon supporter, I can send you the PDF to home print your own decals.

Email me at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and ask for the Estes Space Ship One decal PDF.

Notice: The black decals don't appear as a full opaque black. 

This is most apparent when setting a black ink home print decal over white paint. 

You could use two layers of the same decal to get a full black color.

This isn't as noticeable with other ink colors set over white.

Didn't Win - EBAY - Centuri Skylab

Well, I tried!

I'm not a regular Ebay bidder, I won't pay what some sellers think their old kits are worth.

This would have been a GREAT blog build. Open bag, tubes out of round.

Certainly not a collector's kit. I can get new tubes.

I had plans!

I would have liked to duplicate the vacu-form parts and make them available to those wanting to make an accurate clone kit. It's one kit I've wanted since seeing it in the early 1970s Centuri catalogs.

Outbid. Dang!

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 10, Decals

I didn't want to mask and spray the red strips over the leading edges of the wings and fins. I decided to print decals - long, thin red rectangles.

TIP: Cut the end rounded before soaking and transfer to better fit the leading edge joint.

The decals were cut a little long. The outside edge is cut off with a razor blade after the decals dry.

These rolled over the leading edge decals aren't easy to apply. I spent some time positioning them and a little of the red ink cracked off.

Notice the leading edge red stripes are wider on the larger forward wings and thinner stripes are on the smaller rear fins.

The kit stickers did include the black elevator lines on the wings. Mine are simply thin black water slide decal lines.

There is a red tip area just forward of the two American flags shown in the nest picture. I didn't add this red trim.  

As a kid, I didn't understand why the American Flags sometimes looks reversed. The flag does flip on either side with the blue star field towards the front.

Some of the rivets were misplaced when I was sizing and moving around the decals in the software. They will be correct on the available decal sheet.

Here's the decals on the back.

Note the black elevator line wrapping around the outside edge of the fin.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 9, Lug Gluing & More Grain Filling

I had to glue on the launch lug under the wing root edge. Problem was, I had already got paint in the glue area.

I set the lug in place. I let out the pencil lead for easier tracing along the lug. With the top of the lug even with the leading edge of the wing, the back of the lug overhangs the body tube, tail cone joint.

I was left with a pencil line at the top and bottom.

I scraped away some of the paint below and inside the lines.

Here's the lug in place after more gloss white was shot.

Look close at the bright reflection area and you can still see balsa grain! I rubbed in a thin coat of CWF with a fingertip and sanded smooth after it dried.

More white paint, sanding and more white paint to come.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 8, More Filling & Water Slide Decals

Mentioned in the last post - 

More filling is required on the two front fin tabs.

I had already filled the two back tabs.

The upper picture shows the CWF directed right on top of the tabs. I'm not trying to fill the entire fin side surface, just the tabs.

The lower picture is after the CWF was sanded to surface. Note the masking tape. I had to reshoot filler/primer on the outside surfaces by the tabs.

The idea of stickers was a disappointment. I'm spending too much time on the assembly to use thick stickers on the finished surfaces.

Notice the die-cuts around the circle nose stickers. There is no way these would lay down and conform to the curves of the nose cone. The art on the stickers is good, but not a good finish for this model.

I re-drew the stickers and will print new water decals.

If you are a Patreon supporter, I can send you the PDF to home print your own decals.

Email me at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and ask for the Estes Space Ship One decal PDF.

This is not an exact copy of the original kit sticker sheet. Some of the older style sponsor logos were not available online. Those 7-up and M&Ms logos shown here have been omitted.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 7, The Long Outside Fins

It's a little tricky to glue on the outside fins.

Check out the shape towards the rear, left side. The side fins are not symmetrical, the top half has more fin area than the bottom.

The front end taper also droops down a little bit from the top.

The instructions state: "Pay attention to the TOP and BOTTOM of fin." The accompanying drawing doesn't show the difference very well. 

Oh boy!

More filling of the front through the wall tabs!

I didn't see any way to fill it all at once - both sides of the four fin tabs.

This is one of those builds I stopped and restarted when I wondered if it would be worth all the work in the end.

EDIT: After finishing the model, I can see where the outside long fins could easily break off on a hard landing. If I were to build another (I hope not!) I'd reinforce the underside with some sort of basswood strut.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 6, Gluing On The Wings

The root edge of the wings are sanded at a 60 degree angle.

I set my block and fins over the instruction drawing for an angle reference.

Sand a bit and check, sand and check.

You can almost see the fin assembly jig under the body tube.

The wing sits on the two vertical arms of the jig.

The wing is glued with a 1" mark from the rear of the wing. The mark lines up with the tail cone / body tube joint.

Here you can see the 1" pencil mark at the joint.

The rear of the wing overhangs the tail cone and "floats". The instructions say not to apply a glue fillet on the extension.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 5, Squaring Up The Balsa

All of the laser cuts should be squared up.

In the end, the trailing outside fins will have to be perpendicular to the flat main wing.

Where my block wouldn't fit - 

The inside notches were squared up with a flat diamond file.

This flat edge is important so the long fin will glue on 90 degrees to the surface of the main wing.

The outside of the wing trailing edge curves out.

Wrap some sandpaper around a dowel to smooth the round inside arc.

Second Camping Trip

Two nights, second leetle camper trip to far away Kissimmee, FL! 

I'm staying close to home while I figure out what I need and don't need.

My Svengoolie bobble head navigates from the dashboard - Eyes on the road!

Bought a pool noodle to prevent a trip. My cable TV line and electrical run through the knife split noodle. Hobby skills used here!

I was once the closing act at the Fort Liberty Dinner Show on Highway 192 .

I took a drive to see the old haunts. Nothing remains of the old Fort.

Down the road are the Old Town souvenir stores. This was one of the weird offerings. Gamma Fish that "gently" chew off your callouses. Those aren't my feet - Photo taken with permission.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 4, Engine Mount Gluing & Jig

I did add a Kevlar Shock Cord tied under the upper centering ring.

I glued the mount into the tail cone using Fabri-Tac glue.

From the top - 

A Fabri-Tac glue fillet was applied and smoothed out using a Q-tip.

Here's the assembled wing jig.

You will need it in the next step to glue the wings onto the body tube.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 3, Engine Mount Fitting

GOTCHA: Notice the engine mount tube was white and in this post is now brown. I ruined the kit supplied brown tube after gluing the centering rings in the "compromised" position before rounding out the tail cone hole so the ends could be even.

The rings were removed from the white tube. A new brown BT-20 tube was cut.

   

I had to round out the oblong hole using a half round diamond file.

When the hole was wide enough, some 220 grit sandpaper was wrapped around a used engine casing until a scrap BT-20 finally fit.

This took too much time to fix. I wonder how many of these kits were tossed in frustration or incorrectly assembled with the engine mount in the wrong position. 

This might be why so many were unstable before the extra 1/2 oz. of clay weight was added? (Remember, four pats of clay nose weight were included in the revised kits.)

For a better fit of the rings in the sloped tail cone, the edges were slightly angled using a sanding block. Notice I'm sanding both rings at the same time for consistent angles.

TIP: On the right - don't remove the turned over outside edges. This will leave you with a wider gluing edge.

TIP: When gluing in an engine mount you can slide in an expended engine for more support in the thin wall BT-20 tube.

Here's a correct fit of the engine mount, all the way through with the BT-20 engine tube and tail cone ends even. Whew!

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 2, Engine Mount Fit?

There's no reason to place a line of glue inside the tube, then slide the engine block in from the bottom - 

Slide it in from the top and down onto the marked yellow tube held in position. Apply a ring of glue from the top.

The fins were laser cut but the centering rings were die-cut.

There's a few hold down tics that should be smoothed out.

The ring fit was too tight on the BT-20 engine mount tube. I wrapped some 400 grit around a used engine casing to widen the diameter.

I did some dry fits in the tail cone - Uh, oh!

GOTCHA: The pencil marks show where the instructions said the rings should go. I couldn't fit the engine mount in the tail cone unless I moved both rings about 5/8" to the rear. 

Don't glue the rings on yet - 

On the left is the mount fit in the tail cone. The mount slides in from the top. It stopped and wouldn't pass through the nozzle hole! 

Check the instructions. The drawing shows the rear of the engine mount tube even with the rear of the tail nozzle.

Look closely at the hole in the left side picture. It is actually more oblong than round. 

This will take some work . . .

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 1A, More Parts

As mentioned before - 

GOTCHA: Two clay weights are shown in the instruction drawings. 

FOUR are supplied in the kit.

The instructions make no mention of the two additional clay pats. 

Interesting oblong centering rings and the assembly jig.

Two sheets of laser cut balsa

Oh boy - STICKERS!

This kit was sold at WalMart in the "Launchables" packaging. Estes probably figured it would be assembled by a kid, not a 65 year old man.

I doubt the blue stars and black dots will conform to the curves of the nose cone. I'll be redrawing these for home print water slide decals.

Estes Space Ship One, Kit # 2191, Build Part 1, Parts

This is going to be an interesting build! 

The Estes kit version of the 

Ansari X Prize entry from Mojave Aerospace Ventures.

The kit was in production from 2005 - 2008.

+ 1:30 Scale

+ Parachute Recovery

+ Flights to 400 feet

All the parts - Lots to cover here.

Parts of interest:

Four pats (one total ounce) of nose cone weight clay. (Two were shown in the original instructions, more was added later for stability)

New (at the time) nose and tail cone molds

Short body tube, the 2" tube is unusual for Estes.

Use Only Centuri Engines?

Dannymrmissle scored a mint, bagged Centuri BATROCK kit 

and posted this picture on YORF.

Notice the bag topper line: "USE Centuri safety approved rocket engines ONLY with this rocket kit."

Why would it make a difference?

Most never knew that Estes made the engines for Centuri until the early 1970s. Here's an picture from the 1969 Centuri catalog:

Early on, I remember thinking: "These Centuri engines sure look a lot like the engines I get from Estes."

Then, the Centuri Phoenix made engines appeared in the 1970 catalog -

Those new rolled on graphics were slick!

We'd still find the older Penrose made engines with the Centuri name on them for a few years until the older stock was depleted.

Estes Delta Wedge Clone #1931 Build, Finished

When I make a clone, I usually try to match the catalog colors and decals. The original kit had some white decals, I couldn't see how to reproduce those on my ink jet printer. So I compromised and went with silver instead of the recommended dark blue color. Home print decals would not have shown up on that dark color.

The lightning bolt decal on the short fins is a bit corny.

I added leading edge decals to the bottom of the wing. It looked sparse with only the "84" and ring of stars.

Visually, there's not much going on at the nose of the rocket! 

The wing seems wide for a BT-20 sized rocket. 

A very different build and a good exercise in card stock forming.