Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 16, Overlay Decals

Sorry I missed a day, I was camping with no internet!

The Air Force logo is centered on top of the white decal set down earlier.

Before doing an overlay decal like this, be sure the white underlay is completely dry.

The USAF letters are centered onto the white rudder stripe.

The ATD 0416 decal was white in the Estes kit, I printed it in blue. 

Set onto the red paint it almost looks black.

To get a good center position of the three white side decals, center and mark the paper template.

At the top of the tube you can see a small piece of masking tape with a center mark. 

Set down the background white underlay decal first,

Let dry and follow with the Air Force decal.

Look close and you can see the white decal underneath. But, it's close enough for me.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 15, Intake & Decal Fixes

The white intake decals ended up being too long, they overhang the wing fillet joint.  

I redrew the decals to a closer fit.

If you build this model, your decals may be too long depending on how your cardstock intake fits.

After the decal dries, it's easy to cut and lift off the excess.

The black intake decals were also too wide and wouldn't fit inside the mouth of the intake.

These were trimmed to fit.

I don't usually use clear coats,

but on these white paint decals I rolled some Future acrylic on the edges with a Q-tip. This is just extra insurance that they won't peel up along the edges.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 9, Gluing The Intakes

The outside edges of the intake shroud have been glued to the top rudder and underside ventral fin.

Notice how the slot edges over the long wings bow out. An arc has formed along the slot sides.

Use the flat edge of a ruler to press in and straighten out the slight arc.

Apply a slight amount of glue to start, not a full fillet.

Press the arc straight with the straightedge and remove. Check to see if the glue hasn't spread outside a fillet area. Remove any errant glue with a Q-tip. 

Here's a straighter slot edge with the first glue dried. Follow with a full glue fillet.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 8, Lug Position & Shroud Fit

The instructions show the the front of the launch lug even with the leading edge of the wing fin. This would put the lug beyond the back edge of the intake.

I decided to glue the lug a bit forward so it would be hidden under the intake shroud. 

A dry fit shows the lug better hidden under the intake.

You'll have more control if you glue one side of the intake at a time.

Look at the top inside edge of the intake and you can see the pencil marks I drew to show where the glue will go.

It doesn't take much glue to set the intake edges. Draw a bead of glue, smooth and remove excess with a fingertip.

TIP: Notice in the above picture, the printing is on the inside. When you can, keep the printing out of sight. Some printing can show through color coats.

Here's a good fit of the intake against the root edge of the top rudder fin. 

I haven't glued the slot joint yet.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 7, Fixing The Intake Slot

On a new print of the intake shrouds, 

I punched a round hole at the front of the intake slot to match the rounded leading edge of the wing fins.

I used the rotary punch.

The folds are indicated by a dashed line.

I used the round tip of a butter knife to emboss the line and start the fold.

The very tip of the knife should be smooth with no serrations.

TIP: Make the embossed lines before cutting the outside lines of the intake. It's easier to do the embossing now.

Here you can see the embossed lines.

Pre-embossing gives you a sharp, clean fold.

My Sharpie barrel was used to make a sharp crease.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 6, Fin Gluing & Intake Fit

 

There are four fins, the two longest are the "wings".

The large rudder fin is glued on the top,

The smaller ventral fin to the bottom. 

Note the fin line was sanded for better adhesion. The pencil line was redrawn after sanding down the filler/primer.

The wing fins followed. 

The trailing edge is 5/8" from the rear of the tube.

All four fins are glued on at 90 degrees, or standard four fin spacing.

I tried a test fit of the intake shroud.

Look close at the squared front edge. The wing fins have a rounded leading edge, the intake shroud slot is square!

I'll fix that in the next print.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 2, Redrawing The Cardstock Intake

 

Here's the scan of the intakes from the Jim Z's website:

CLICK HERE

I appreciate the patterns, but sometimes the scans are a bit rough.

Good thing the ruler is on the scan!

I dropped the art into Corel Draw and drew a 1" square box.

The art was sized so the 1" square box matched the 1" measure on the ruler.

Notice how the intake pattern and the ruler aren't on the same baseline.

Drop down a horizontal alignment line. Double click the intake scan and you can rotate it.

Start drawing the outside cut lines and the inside fold lines.

To be sure the long top and bottom trapezoid shapes are the same size, I drew a box that aligned with the top half.

Copy and slide down the copied box to check the lower half height. 

The slot was drawn with a thin solid line,

The folds got a dashed line.

Great thing about computer graphics,

Copy the original, paste and drop down an exact copy.

Lawn Dart Rocketry SLAT/S Build, Part 8, Parts Fitting

The fin fairing pieces had the balsa grain filled with CWF and sanded smooth.
I wanted to shoot the pieces with filler/primer before gluing the fins in the slots.

A strip of masking tape was cut a little wider than the slot widths. This was pressed into place, the overhand kept the filler/primer off the sides of the slot.

The Starlight nose cones are now available from Apogee. The shoulder lip is a hair wider than normal, but fits the BT-50H (heavy wall BT-50) tubes perfectly.
Sometimes you find a slight flare at the lip. This was sanded down slightly to fit the body tube diameter even better.

The intake tube was slid over the bottom of the main tube. Lines were drawn along the sides.
The primer was scraped along the line for a better glue bond.

Sandpaper was wrapped around an engine casing and the bottom curve sanded. As I mentioned before, I use a smaller diameter piece to wrap the sandpaper around.





And, here's the fit.
Set against the intake, it didn't go as planned -
More in the next post.

Odd'l Rockets Stealth Build, Part 4, Gluing On The Intakes

I have some 1/16" plywood "stop disks" from the Odd'l Birdie kits. These will make easy covers for the intakes.

Run a small bead of glue inside the tube edge and press the disk in halfway. I used my sanding block to press the flat disk even with the end of the tube.

You could easily make these covers from heavy card stock. They could be cut slightly oversize. Glue over the end and sand the edges even with the outside diameter of the tube.

The intakes were glued onto the BT-50 main airframe tube. The back of the intake is 2 5/8" from the rear of the BT-50.

I used a rubber band to hold them in place while the glue dried. Don't wind the rubber band too tight, you might deform them if there is too much pressure.

These intakes were glued on before the wing fins. It would be difficult to fill and smooth the glue joints on the intake sides if glued on later.

Primer/filler was shot and sanded over the intakes.
Here I'm doing a "soft" sanding with some 400 grit wrapped around the end of a Q-tip. This will sand off any fillet ridges without digging in with a corner of the sandpaper.

Odd'l Rockets Stealth Build, Part 2, Making The Intakes

The intakes are a big design feature on the blow molded body in the original kit.
This is one of those things you just have to fumble with to produce a template. There are some complex formulas you could use to draw the cutting curve but I take the easy way out.
You probably won't be able to use your first attempt.

I set a BT-5 tube along the side of the BT-50H main air frame. When I decided on a good angle, a pencil line was drawn on the side of the BT-5.


A rough cut was made with a single edge razor blade. Try to get it close, matching up both side cuts on the tube.

On the left is one of the first intakes I cut, showing the rough cut edge. It was too short and a bit weak. Leaving the front end closed and round made a stronger intake.

On the right is the second attempt.
Wrap some 220 grit sandpaper around the BT-50H tube and sand up and down, parallel with the length of the BT-50H.

Here's a good fit against the main body tube.

In the next post we'll make a template from this intake.




Here's the underside.
When you sand against the body tube, check the inside edge often. Try to get both sides even like a mirror image.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 8, Intake Gluing

The back of the intakes are to be glued 2 1/2" from the rear of the tube.
Position and hold the intakes as you trace around them with a pencil.

I scraped off the primer inside the pencil line. 






Before gluing the edges of the intake, form them to a rounder shape if needed. They do tend to flatten out a little when sanding to the body tube contour.







A line of glue is place on the inside of the intake edges. Lay down a glue bead more to the inside of the intake, not directly on the edge.






In the upper picture the intake is a little flat and too close to the nose cone half.



Pinch the sides of the intake to even up the spacing around the nose cone half.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 7, Intake Cone Gluing

The rear of the cone half shoulder is set 5 1/4" from the back end of the tube.




Trace around the cone with a sharp pencil.

I scraped away the primer for better glue adhesion.


The cone is glued down the center line of the intakes.
Don't worry about how the back end shoulder looks. That will all be covered by the intakes.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 4, Intake Dressing

There will probably be a bit of the glassine layer that will flop back and forth like a hinge. It's like the thin layer left after you file your fingernails. Knock it off with some 400 grit and light sanding.

Here's the cut and contour sanded intakes.
They are both as consistent as I could make them.
Like most any other building step - Slow down, take an extra few minutes in each step. The time you take will be reflected in the finished model.

Here's the underside of the intakes.
Look at the rear left, the edges ended up wider for a smoother transition against the body tube contour.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 3, Intake Cutting

Cut out the intake pattern included in the kit.
Wrap around the length of BT-20 and lightly tape in place.
Trace around the pattern with a sharp pencil.

Remove the intake template and trace a second intake (under the first) on the opposite side of the tube. Be sure it is centered under the first intake and lined up with the rear edge of the tube.

USE A NEW, SHARP KNIFE BLADE to cut out the intakes. Take your time, don't try to cut through with a single pass. Go light and try for a smooth cut line.

First, sand off any rough edges using 220 grit sandpaper on a block.


Second, wrap 220 grit around the BT-50H main tube and sand a slight curve to the edges of the intake. Go lightly back and forth in a straight line. The cleaner the intake edges, the cleaner the finished look of the model.