Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Finished

This one came out very well. The fluorescent paint almost glows inside the engine pods.

The flat finish coat works great and seals the decals.

I remember building this one the first time around. This model will be sent out to a client who also wants the Nova Scout Ship built. That build will be on the blog soon.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 26, Matte Finish TIPS

On Jim Z's website the old instructions say to paint the model with a flat black paint. TIP: Water slide decals won't stick well to a flat finish paint. Paint with gloss, apply the decals then follow up with a flat clear coat. TIP: One great thing about flat paint - it covers a lot of small imperfections, especially over gloss black.

Before spraying on a dull coat, wipe off any water spots with a damp paper towel.






After that, dust off the model. Any spec of dust will be locked in under a clear coat.





The only Krylon paint I use is their clear acrylic coats. Krylon hasn't changed their acrylic clear coat formulas.

TIP: I only have a few spray cans of flat paint. If I need a flat finish I'll spray a gloss coat then hit it with a matte finish clear.

Using a clear flat overcoat you don't need a heavy coat. You can do a light dusting spray. Just that will dull the finish.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 25, Nose Cone Tie

UPGRADE: I showed this earlier, the tie down loop at the nose cone shoulder had a mold bubble in it. The plastic tie loop isn't very strong to begin with. I cut it off and made a stronger attachment.







A hole was drilled using a diamond file.
In the end I made it larger than what is pictured here. I had trouble feeding the shock cord through.

To make it easier to reach the shock cord a bend was put in the elastic.
It was fed through the hole and picked up with some narrow tweezers. It took a few tries to grab it.






A Duncan Uni-Knot was tied in the shock cord.

UPGRADE: A long elastic shock cord was used in place of the short rubber shock cord provided in the kit.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 24, Decals

The rear windows on the nose cone didn't fit into the molded borders.




I had to cut them apart and position them closer together.

The cockpit window decals were a little too wide to fit into the molded lines. I place it as well as I could, there was some overhang.



After the decals dried I was able to trim up the overhang.
There was a overhang tick where the corners of the orange decals met up. Look to the middle left of the orange band.


Here's the decals after trimming.

The front engine pod decal went beyond the root edge and onto the wing.


A very light cut was made with a new razor blade just cutting through the decal, not into the paint.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 23, Decals

I could finally pull the tape covering the engine pods.
The extra work was worth it, the fluorescent orange showed up well inside the engine.









I wish Estes could print decals on the light blue backed paper so you could see the white pieces easier. The dashed lines were very close to the hard to see white ink.



You'll have to cut many of the decals close to the edge.
The face card art shows the engine pod decal right on the edge of the lip. I ended up setting this decal a hair back from the front edge.


The decal clear coat is thin.
TIP: Round off any inside corner cuts to reduce the chance of tearing.

I ended up setting the engine pod decal slightly back from the edge.
The decal was a bit too long at the bottom.





TIP: On the wing decal, slide the backing off so just the inside edge is off by about 3/16". You'll need the support of the backing paper to position it far enough into the root edge.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 22, Watching Paint Dry

I've mentioned it too many times before - The Summer humidity is really slowing up the drying time.
I thought I was ready for the final "wet" coat of black but I went light. Probably a good thing, there is still some rough spots that will require light sanding.

On the good side, the lower intake and engine pods came out very well. The fillets and joints are smooth.

More light sanding with 400 grit then the final wet coat of black.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 21, Black Paint TIP

The model is an overall black, you really don't need a white undercoat.
I did do a first black coat then went over the model and sanded a few rough fillets and took down the glue boogers.

This model should be easy enough to paint, it's just BLACK!
(The inside of the engine pods are already fluorescent orange.)

TIP: On this design there are some tight inside angles. You think you have it covered, but later you notice inside areas with missed spots.
Rather than spray on too much paint trying to get the inside areas covered, I used a permanent marker to color them in.

Look inside the engine pod corner (above) and you can see some white. The inset picture shows the marker touch-up.

Under the wing root edge and at the back end of the intake is another tight inside joint. The permanent marker is soft and was able to reach into the fillet area.

Again, this really only works with black paint and a black marker. Don't use this with a lighter color markers. They won't match up with your sprayed color paint. Black works, black is black.
You might be able to see this touch-up if you look very close under direct sunlight, it could look like a dark blue. If you do the touch-up now (before the final black coats) it will end up like a very thin layer of paint. You should lightly sand down the edges. It should blend in and not be noticeable.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 20, Fillets, Launch Lug and Wing Tips

The tape mask was lifted but left on the outside edge of the engine pod.
Fillets were applied with Titebond No Run, No Drip glue. (Molding and Trim glue)
After the fillets dry the tape can be rolled down to cover the interior paint in the engine pods.





You will have to use the "Double Glue" method to glue on the wing tips. They are heavy and tend to fall over before the glue sets.
The guide piece comes in handy to get the correct angle and support the tip.

The long launch lug is trimmed to the same length as the lower intake tube. I cut the ends to the slight angle of the fairing wrap.

The paint on the glue line was sanded to get a better bond.

After the glue dried on the wing tips I sanded off the slight balsa overhang on the outside edge.

CWF was added to fill any remaining seam.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 19, Masking TIP and Gluing the Engines

This is one of those masking things that took a day to figure out. How do you mask for the interior of the engines?
I've already blackened the ends and under the fairing lip.

TIP: I didn't want the tape to fully adhere and risk pulling anything up.
I did my old trick of sticking the tape to my pant leg and lifting it a few times. This leaves jean fibers on the tape making it less sticky.

Three pieces of masking tape were set over both ends of the engines.
The overhanging tape was cut off with a new X-Acto blade. Use a "saw" cut, back and forth over the tape. Be careful not to cut into the end cap or tube.

On the left is the back end.
On the right is the front. Notice the tape is now lifted along the gluing edge. This way any glue won't stick to the tape when gluing the engine to the body.

The engines are glued on awaiting fillets.
The fillets down the top and bottom will be like fillets on a launch lug. They are deep and in a tight angle.

The fillets will be applied and left to dry. Then the tape will be pressed back down for the overall spraying of black.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 18, Fluorescent Paint TIP

The new, wider fairing was glued onto the split engine tube.

CA glue was applied with a Q-tip. After drying the fairing was lightly sanded smooth with 400 grit.






The exposed end surfaces were blackened with a Sharpie.

These inside areas would be very hard to get to with a spray can after gluing onto the rocket body.







The housing are set in place and a light pencil line was traced around the housing. Go light with the pencil, you don't want to scar the balsa.

Masking tape was set down a little inside the pencil line.

It took quite a few coats of hand painted fluorescent paint to get a good coverage.
TIP: Only use fluorescent paint over an opaque white surface!

Here's the inside of the engine surface after about four coats of fluorescent orange. Paint, lightly sand the high spots and paint again.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 17, Engine Housing Fittling

The split housings were marked for the 3/8" overlap of the card stock fairings.

The engine housing sides were sanded to fit after setting the split tube on the wing and rudder.







Here's a good fit against the wing.









I cut out the curved housing fairing.
When it was formed and curved that crease (already in the kit supplied card stock) really shows.

GOTCHA: A test fit showed it was too short, just like the intake fairings.

Two more will be traced on 110 lb. stock a little longer than the kit supplied fairings.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 16, Fin Gluing and TIP

Glue on the rudder directly opposite the engine hook.

The "Q" piece works well to align the rudder on the body tube.





The instructions have you bevel the outside edge of the wing pieces after they are glued onto the boy tube.

TIP: You'll find it much easier to sand in the flat bevel into the wing edge before gluing it onto the body tube.

On the left is the 3/32" wide bevel.

On the right shows the approximate bevel angle of the fin against the sanding block.





Here's how the mode looks up to this point with the wings glued on.

The wing tips still have to be added.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 15, Wing, Rudder Dowels and TIP

TIP: Recently I've been cutting off the corner tips on the parachutes. This allows the shroud line knot to be a little closer to the tape disk hole.

Three dowel lengths are cut - Two at 3" long and one at 4 1/2" long.

One end of each dowel is rounded.




TIP: You could simply glue the dowels on the outside edges of the rudder and wing extension piece. Sometimes I'll sanded a slight curve into the outside edges with some 220 grit wrapped around the dowel.

On the right is the is the sanded inside curve. It makes a better fit and a stronger glue joint.

Estes Starship Nova #1371 Build, Part 14, Engine Housing Caps

The inside of the end caps were "painted" with orange fluorescent acrylic paint. It took a few coats to get full coverage.






The outside was blackened using a permanent marker. The inside edges were also blackened.






The end caps are glued on, flush with the ends of the body tube halves.