Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 12, Ends & Edges, Decals

While waiting two days for the white undercoats to dry.

I doubt I'll get to the orange paint today, it's Father's Day. I'll be spending the afternoon with my daughters. 

My eighth grade woodshop teacher told me: "Anybody can get a table top smooth. A craftsman will focus on the ends and edges."

That statement stayed with me.

One thing I usually do is round out the cut ends of the launch lug. Rotate a sharpened dowel in the lug ends without flaring out the diameter.
 

I re-drew the kit decals. They'll be available soon to Patreon subscribers.

At the bottom are outline templates for cutting out white decals that go underneath the stars and bars. 

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 11, Screw Eye & Nose Cone Pattern

I picked the nose cone shoulder with the screw eye attachment.

The hole did need enlargement using a small file.

Before I can release the decals and templates, I have to print and test the size and fit.

I printed and cut out the nose cone decor pattern over the nose cone and winglets. The black paint line is at the bottom edge of the pattern. 

The one I drew up was a little too long. The lower edge should be just above the halfway point of the finlets root edge.

I made adjustments to the template page.

Here's the templates, as close as I could get them.

These and the decals will be available to Patreon subscribers after I place the decals on the painted model.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 10, Sanding The White Undercoats

After the first white undercoat,

fine sanding with 400 grit showed there was still some uneven fillets.

The inside fillets are a little hard to reach.

This one showed a bubble after sanding. More glue - 

This had to be the best fitting shroud I've ever done!

It was surprising, I didn't have a shroud tool, the one at payloadbay.com wasn't available. Those tools are now at jonrocket.com.

Smooth, with very little filling.

The 3D printed nose cone turned out very smooth!

Initially, there were very subtle ridges, but those sanded out. One shot of filler/primer and sanding got it ready for color.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 9, Fillets Down The Long Launch Lug

Sometimes I don't bother with launch lug fillets, it's a pain dealing with the air bubbles when the glue dries.

To the left is the first glue fillet still wet, just smoothed with a finger. Let the glue totally dry.

Here's the same fillet, dried with air pockets. Another glue fillet will fill some of the open holes.

It'll take three or four fillets to fill and smooth the glue line.

After three fillets the inside fill is looks smooth. 

You can lightly sand the fillet to further smooth before paint.

This launch lug/tunnel reminds me of the old Estes Wac Corporal kit. The long lug on the Wac Corporal is concealed with balsa strip sides.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 8, Gluing The Lug Shroud

The sides of the lug shroud spread out when the glue on the bottom dried. The sides needed to attach to the launch lug.

A line of glue was spread down the edge of a razor blade.

This was transferred and spread down the inside edge of the shroud.

A dowel was pressed against the side to form the shroud flat against the lug.

Hold the dowl in place until the glue starts to set up. Repeat on the other side.

Here's the finished shroud, straight and tight.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 7, Gluing The Lug Shroud

The launch lug shroud is glued on, centered between the two wing fins.

The bottom end is even with the motor mount tube.

The fins are glued on, centered and perpendicular to the wings.

The glue on the shroud bottom shrank a bit and turned the sides out.

It'll take some patient pressure to get the sides adhered to the launch lug.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 6, The Long Launch Lug

The launch lug is 9 1/2" long.

I slid it over a straightened coat hanger for support when I sanded down the CWF filler.

In the instructions is a full size drawing for the angle cut of the top of the lug.

The low end of the launch lug hangs over the tail cone. To connect the sides, a folded "shroud" glues to the tail cone and the sides of the launch lug.

Pre-fold the lines before cutting out the shroud. I'm using the tip of a non-serrated butter knife to emboss a fold line.

After embossing the fold lines, cut out the shroud.

Coax the lines gradually working up to sharp folds.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 5, Filling The Balsa & 3D Nose Cone

After brushing on CWF and sanding smooth, 

thin strips of masking tape were set on all the edges that were to get glue.

The fins and "wings" were taped down to scrap cardboard for a filler/primer spray.

After drying, the filler/primer was sanded to surface filling any remaining grain line.

Here's the tail cone - 

The tube seams and tube/tail cone joint got a line of CWF and sanding.

Filler/primer spray followed.

Here's the tail cone and low end of the body tube.

That black line at the joint isn't a gap, it's the printed cut line of the shroud border.

The plastic ridges on the 3d nose cone were initially sanded with 320, then 400 grit. This removed most of the print ridges. 

This shows the nose cone after the filler/primer was sanded. There are still some shallow ridges. It'll take another shot of filler/primer and more sanding to get it smooth.   

I have a GOOOOOOD Dog!

One thing I did think about before getting a dog was kit production. I knew I'd have to be extra careful not to drop small parts on the floor. 

I never give Dakota paper towel or toilet paper tubes to chew on. I wouldn't want to "train" her it's okay to gnaw on a body tube.

I just finished some big vendor orders. There were plenty of bagged kits on the living room floor. Dakota didn't go near them.

A few days back I was checking emails on my desktop computer. Dakota walked up and nudged my leg. In her mouth was a short length of body tube. She dropped it on the floor - no bends, no teeth marks!

I have a GOOOOOOD Dog!

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 4, Cutting Out The Fins

These kids have it too easy! 

In 1970, we had to hand cut 36 pieces of balsa to assemble an Orbital Transport!

If you ever have to cut balsa from a cardstock template, be sure your (sharp) blade is at a 90 degree angle to the balsa sheet. The illustration is from the yellow pages in the 1971 Estes catalog.

 

Here's the four smaller fins being gang sanded using 220 grit on a block.

After gang sanding - 

Check the corners being sure everything is even and square.

The root edges of the wings were glued together on a sheet of glass.

Weights were set on the top while the glue dried.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 3, Tail Cone

Payloadbay.com is down right now, that's usually my source for cardstock reducers and tail cones.

I did my best to size the kit pattern sheet (CLICK HERE) but there was no 1" reference in the image.

Crossing my fingers, I test fitted the shroud dry and marked the overlap line. In the picture, I'm burnishing down the glue tab. 

I'm using a heavy wall BT-50 and a standard BT-20 engine mount tube.

This will require some fitting, the heavy wall BT-50 has a slightly larger diameter over a standard BT-50.

The engine mount was glued in place with the lower centering ring extended out the back, about 1/16". This picture shows the assembly upside down.

To fit the imperfect shroud, I had to use some paper wraps. Two 20 lb. copy paper strips gave a good friction fit.

Light glue was applied and the shroud slipped in place.

Before the glue sets up, you can do some "molding" of the still wet shroud edges. I'm using the smooth barrel of a Sharpie pen to press the shroud edge against the body tubes.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 2, Engine Mount

The instructions have you set a line of glue 2" up inside the 3 1/2" long BT-20 tube. Then push the engine block up from the bottom.

The engine mount tube is only 3 1/2" long, I can add a glue fillet from the top.

Tape and engine casing with 1/4" extending out the bottom. Slide the engine block in from the top dry, no glue yet. 

Slide the block down until it stops against the top of the engine casing.

Add glue using a Q-tip making a fillet around the joint.

After it is dry, remove the engine casing.

The upper 2050 centering ring gets a notch for the Kevlar shock cord.

There is very little room between the tubes for a knot, I did a wrap.

Tighten the Kevlar, set it into the glue fillet.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit # 1389, Part 1, Parts

The Estes Sandpiper kit was produced from 1983 - 1984.

Vashon (Freon, "cold power") previously produced a Sandpiper about the same size. The Vashon version was hardly scale, there was no tapering tail cone.

With the release of the new, large Estes Jayhawk, I thought it would be interesting to build this variant.

This is almost a spare parts build, the 3D printed nose cone was explained in the previous post.

I redrew the decals, fin patterns and shroud. The shroud (as it is right now) may not fit the BT-20 and BT-50 tubes. I'll make adjustments before the PDF is available to Patreon subscribers. 

The original instructions and parts list: CLICK HERE 

The BT-50 tube is 7 3/4" long, the engine mount tube is 3 1/2" long.

The tail cone length is approximately 1 11/16" tall. The nose cone is 4 3/8" tall, exposed.

The launch lug is an LL-2E at 9 1/2" long. 12" long launch lugs can be ordered from jonrocket.com and cut to size.

Clay weight square (not shown) is 1/2 oz.

The payloadbay.com website is down right now, 

I had to find another shroud generator, this one is from:

https://www.delorie.com/rockets/transitions.html

Before I had the 3D nosecone, I had ordered a SEM-BNC-50YP balsa nose cone from Erockets.biz. 

If I couldn't get a plastic PNC-50S, I was going to add the upper vanes like in the old Vashon kit. The vane template is directly below the balsa cone.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit # 1389, Nose Cone Backstory

Blog readers might remember a post about a badly produced 3D nose cone:

CLICK HERE

That smaller nose cone is pictured on the left. It wasn't sized to a BT-50 and had a rough ridged surface.

On the right is the correct size 3D nose cone sent to me by James G. (Augendoc on the forums)

This is a well produced nose cone! Smooth (fine ridges, easily smoothed) with a perfect fit in a BT-50.

The rocketry community can be very helpful. Thanks James!

The nose tip did need minor shaping, easily cleaned up with a sanding block.

Here's the two different shoulder bases.

One has a hole for a screw eye, the other a horizontal bar to tie off a shock cord.

I'll be using the base with the screw eye, it seems stronger.

Meanwhile - at Odd'l Rockets . . .

Here's the floor of my living room after completing three of my largest orders to date! That black box in the back holds an Accordion. This might be why I'm single.

The brown bags contain the smaller items like Raise Springs, Birdies and Adeptors.

40 Raise springs, 20 Adeptors and 162 kits  - Whew!

New Way Lunar Jumper Build, Finished

Another great design from New Way.

This model captures the spirit of the sci-fi films from the 1950s.

I should get a lighter red paint for the nose cone to match the tape trim.

The addition of the red trim tape reminds me of some Centuri kits. Centuri included red trim tape in their Skylab. Other kits included chrome trim.

Lots of detail in the multi piece fins. I like the curved trailing edges.