Estes Mini Shuttle Finished

Another good use for a Baby Bertha kit!
The build was easy enough but the masking wasn't.
This is one of those rockets where the decals really make the model.
The white, black and gray trim colors always work well together.
Certainly not scale, more of a Gooney version of the Space Shuttle.

Hey look close - my I.D. is right through the finished picture at the top. Sorry, had to do it.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 11, Decals

As it turns out, I got the black mask wrong at the front of the body where it meets the black under the nose cone. The black line should go straight and not be stepped.
The mask ridge was lightly sanded down and more masking and a spray of black followed.

After all the masking, the model is ready for the decals.
I had already re-drawn the decals from the JimZ site. I wish the decals had a ruler set next to them or just a 1" measure on the scan.
As it turns out, I drew the decal a hair too large.
Not worth re-sizing, no one will know the difference.

TIP: There was three decals that overlap the black paint. When set down on the black the gray printed areas turned transparent!
A while back I sprayed gloss white on decal sheet. I've used this for a undercoat before.

The decals were water transferred right on to a corner of the sprayed white decal sheet.
After it dried, the decal was simply cut out right on the gray border through both decal layers and the white sheet backing.

Soak the double layered decal. The gray decals stayed on the white decal sheet through the soaking and transfer.

On the left is the first try over the black nose. You can see where the gray ink decal disappears over the black paint.
On the right is the nose decal with the white under layer.
It's a big difference and worth the extra effort.

Some decals go right up to the surface edges. I'll use a little Future acrylic to "glue" down any raising corners.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 10, Nose Mask Reveal and Cleanup

After the tape was pulled up, here's the result.
There was some minor bleeding at the corners, that was cleaned up pushing it back with the knife blade tip.

There was one spot where the black spray got under the masking tape.

TIP: I've mentioned these before, Scotch Brite cleaning pads. Mister Clean makes similar cleaning sponges.
Run some water on the sponge, squeeze out the excess.
Wipe it over the excess over spray and it comes off easily.

Next up - touch-up and decals.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 9, Nose Cone Mask

The Nose Cone Decor Pattern is cut out and set on the nose cone for
pencil guidelines.

The sides of the nose cone get straight pieces of tape.
The front of the nose cone will get an arc cut of Scotch tape cut on my patio window.
Cut the arc as smooth and round as you can. It might take a few tries to get it right. To flex over the nose cone it needs to be about 1/8" wide.

The curved piece is at the upper right.
To the right and below the tape lines will be spray painted black.
The instructions say to brush paint it but I'll get better lines by masking and spraying.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 8, Mask Reveal and Fix

The masking tape on the rear edge didn't give a clean line at all!

Before the paint had completely set up I was able to lightly scrape the paint back with the tip of a hobby knife.
The top is the before, the inset picture is after careful scraping.
I'll still have to go back and touch up the white in a few spots.

Look close in the corners of the mask. The black paint seeped in between the pieced tape corners.

You can push the seeped paint back into the black areas with the tip of your knife. Take it slow and only push only the black paint, not the white.

Before any white touch-ups here's the finished body mask.

The tip of the wings and forward body tube doesn't look quite right.
I'll go online and look at shuttle pictures to see if the black paint "steps" like this.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 7, Masking

I used Scotch tape for the mask. The edges were blacked with a permanent marker so you can see it against the white background.

The Scotch tape was set down first, it took a few pieces to fit around the angled line.
In the picture the rudder has masking tape covering the back.

The wings and the rest of the body have been covered with masking tape.

This is the underside, it will be painted black overall.

Under the trailing edge you can see the masking tape overhanging the edge. I should have probably used the Scotch tape and got a better seal.

Check out tomorrows post # 8 for results.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 6, Masking Prep

The original kit had streamer recovery. With the trailing fins on this model I'll switch out for a 12" parachute.
The Bertha style nose cone has a LONG shoulder. Wadding and a parachute were loaded into the short body tube. About 3/8" was cut off the shoulder for a bit more room.
Even with the shortened nose cone shoulder, space will be tight. I'll pack the parachute in the tube and the shock cord into the larger, opened nose cone shoulder.

Masking this one is a bear! I don't think this one was popular with builders for that reason.

The instructions have you trace around card stock patterns for the black leading edge trim.
You can't use a pencil on gloss paint so I lightly roughed up the paint with 400 grit so a pencil will transfer on the dulled leading edge.
The roughed up edge is subtle, you can almost see it in the picture. Just don't sand through the white coat and into the primer or raw wood.



Here's the kit paint templates for the wings and rudder.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 5, Fins and Decals

The body tube and fins were shot separately with primer.

Body tube was marked for three fins.
The primer was sanded off the pencil lines and the lines re-drawn.
Primer was sanded off the fins where the fillets will be.

The decal art was copied from the JimZ site and cleaned up using Corel Draw.

Everything was printed on Bel decal paper.
After drying it was hit with three coats of Krylon gloss clear.
The only time I use a Krylon product is to clear coat decals.

The fins are glued on like any standard three fin model, evenly spaced at 120 degrees.

Two fillet passes with Titebond M&TG followed.

Masking this one will be a chore. 

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 4, Whoops and Fills

WHOOPS!
I glued the small rear wing piece on wrong.
It was cut off, the edge sanded and glued on again.

The re-drawn arrow shows the correct balsa grain direction.

This 5" length of BT-60 wasn't very good.
The glasseine seams were there as always but there were seam recesses between those.
I ran some CWF filler down every seam.

The lug was glued on before the fins.
The lug got a fillet of Titebond M&TG.

The fillet at the ends of the lug are always hard to smooth out.
I rolled the cotton ends of a Q-tip between my fingers to make the tip a bit smaller. This allowed me to roll around the ends of the glue fillets.

Even with the extra effort smoothing down the lug ends some roughness showed up when the primer was shot.
Not much of a problem though, the M&TG can be sanded fairly easily.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 3, Nose Weight Clay

The Estes instructions specify the clay weight is 1/2" square.
I cut the square of clay to 1/2" and it weighed at .20 oz.

I'll add a bit more to reach .25 oz. This is just a guess, I would think the kit contained a quarter ounce of clay.

Here's a tip I picked up when building the Rocketarium kit:

TIP:  Instead of making clay worms, roll small balls from the clay.
Drop in two or three and press them in the nose cone tip with the end of a square dowel. (Rinse, lather repeat.)

It's easier to press small balls of clay in place instead of chasing a clay worm around the inside of the nose cone.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 2, Wing Gluing

The engine mount was already assembled from another build that didn't get finished.
The assembled mount is nothing out of the ordinary and should work fine in this model.

I wanted the root edges of the wings to be square.
My straightedge was taped down and one wing was glued up on each side.

Enlarge the picture and you can see the front fairings don't quite match up to the larger wing piece.

After sanding for a better fit of the fairing the pieces were pinned down.

Pinning from the outside edges puts pressure towards the center pushing the joints together. Don't press the pins against the balsa too hard, they can leave small notches in the edges. Pin with just enough pressure to keep the joints tight while the glue dries.

You can't use a book on top of the pins so two glue bottles were set down on the glue joints.

Estes Mini Shuttle Build. Part 1 Parts

Here's another one that can be made from parts from the Baby Bertha kit.
This was the Estes kit #1391.

Check out the instructions at the JimZ plan site HERE

This will be a spare parts box build.
The red nose cone did come from a Baby Bertha kit. It was painted red when it temporarily sat on my Ranger. A shot of primer and some white and it'll work on the Shuttle.
All the patterns were copied and printed from Ninfinger's.

The instructions say the clay is 1/2" square. I'll have to check the weight.

The wings and rudder were cut from 3/32" scrap balsa.
The wings are made from three pieces of balsa.

The decal sheet will be drawn up on Corel.