New Way Mars Snooper II, Comparing Snoopers

Here's my two builds. The red Snooper II is a little taller at 22.3".

The original Snooper catalog picture shows the entire engine assembly black. I liked the look of the Semroc repro kit face card that showed white vanes. The higher contrast makes them easier to see.

The upper section blue and white tall point is a difficult mask - and you've got to mask three sides! 

I never cared for the older yellow Snooper name decal, but it's nostalgic. The fin numbers on the catalog model were probably borrowed from the Constellation decal sheet.

The biggest differences are the engine assemblies lowered upper fins and the landing gear dowels.

For comparison, here's a closeup of the shrouds and vanes. On the left, three shrouds and eight 1/16" thick balsa vanes. On the right, two shrouds and thick card stock vanes.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build Finished

The Mars Snooper II was a simplified version of the original Estes kit. The redesign had a more modern look.

One less shroud and the long launch lug didn't have to be fitted through three shrouds.

In the original Snooper design, The engine vanes were balsa. I had to fill those before gluing up the three shroud shroud engine assembly.

The Snooper II has heavy cardstock vanes. Thinner but easier to assemble.

You could probably add springs to the landing leg pod tubes. The older QModeling upscale kit had spring loaded landing gear. Spring loaded legs might prevent a dowel break on a hard landing.

The mid section decal. 

There is another name decal on the opposite side.

The upper section is clear, except for a roll pattern decal above the adapter.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 17, Decals

These decals are different - all white ink.

The MARS SNOOPER name decal is shown in the pictures reading "down". I prefer name decals to be reading up.

The diagonal lines are tricky to center.

For consistency from fin to fin, I made a tracing template and drew a center line. Holes were punched at the ends to see the line decals underneath.

While I did use my eyes for alignment, I could double check the lines with the punched template.

Look down the centerline of the fins to be sure the lines are straight.

Smaller lines go up on the outside fins.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 16, Red Paint and Landing Gear Gluing

Don't glue in the nacelle nose cones yet!

Check out the third picture below

I usually pull the nose cones and adapters out of the tubes about 1/16". This allows paint to get into the shoulder a bit and insures coverage if the nose cone isn't slid all the way in.

This is a tough model to spray evenly. Notice the right side of the pod root edge. Spray the inside recessed areas first then shoot the model overall. 

A piece of paper towel was rolled up and slipped into the open end of the pod. 

This kept paint out for a better glue joint of the landing gear centering rings.

No need to glue the pod nose cone in place yet.

The picture on the left shows the model turned upside down. 

With the landing gear centering ring spaced 1/8" from the bottom of the tube, the top ring (right picture) ends up close enough to the top for an easy glue fillet using a Q-tip.

A glue fillet is applied with a Q-tip around the lower ring joint.

After the inside top ring gets a glue fillet, the nose cone is glued in using Beacon Fabri-Tac.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 15, White Undercoats, Prepping For Red

After all the filling and prep -

The assembled model is ready for the gloss white undercoats.

The instructions have you glue in the landing legs before the red is shot. The legs are gloss white, the rest of the model is gloss red.

I chose to leave the white legs off and glue them in after the red was sprayed. The instructions show how to do an after assembly mask. But, gluing the legs in after painting will make an easier and cleaner build.

After the white was sprayed, I still found some glue blobs and a rough area around the lower launch lug.

The first white coats show all the areas that need some light sanding.

Look close directly under the root edge of the fin. You can almost make out the fin alignment line under the paint. Here it isn't that noticeable under the shadow of the fin.

I don't care for printing on the outside surface of shrouds.

The original kit shrouds had fin location lines and wordage that was wider than the root edge thickness of the fins! If the final color of the model were a light color, you might see the inked words at the root edge.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 14, Fin Tip Gluing and Launch Lugs Alignment

The tip fins are glued onto the BT-5 pods.

These are a little tricky to lie up.

Sight down the fins from the rear.

Notice the leading edges of the two fins are even with the top edge of the pod tubes.

The two short launch lugs are glued off the body tube, spaced away to clear the lower shrouds.

The kit supplies spacing templates to help set the position and height of the lugs. 

Here's the rear and forward lugs glued on.

Again sight from the rear. Check the alignment before applying final glue fillets.

TIP: Here I only applied a fillet to the outside edge of the lug. Sometimes it's too tight a space to apply and smooth a fillet on the body tube side.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 13, Pod Gluing & Nacelle Cones

The pod tubes are glued onto the fins with the top of the tube even with the outside of the fin leading edge.

The nacelle was shot with filler/primer and sanded. After sanding the filler/primer you could still see  some 3d print ridges. I applied some CWF, hoping it would stay in the grooves when sanding.

It did! On the left is the CWF applied. On the right is the CWF after sanding ready for the second coat of filler primer. 

I did a tape wrap around the shoulder of the nacelle cones. The overhang was cut with scissors and folded out. 

This was stuck down to scrap cardboard for the filler/primer spraying.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 12, Fin Gluing & Landing Struts

The three principal fins are glued onto the shroud line and up onto the body tube.

The laser cut fit of the root edge was very good.

The three dowels have already been shot with filler/primer and sanded smooth.

The dowels are marked for the small centering rings at 1/8" and 1 1/2" from the low end.

A small ring of glue was set around the dowel at the 1 1/2" mark. A ring was slid down into the glue ring.

I used the end of my straightedge to check the spacing and square up the ring. This straightedge start right at the start of the 1" mark - no extra length on the ends of the ruler.

The second ring was set at the 1/8" mark.

A strip of masking tape, 3/8" wide by 2" long is wrapped around the other end of the dowel.

The instructions say to try the fit of the short launch lug and cut off 1/16" at a time until you get a good fit. I had to cut off almost 1/2" of tape for a friction fit of the lug.

A ring of glue was set onto the masking tape towards the low end. This allows the glue to be spread out when the lug is slid on.

The lug length was a little shorter than the 3/8" wide masking tape strip. The overhanging tape was cut off, even with the end of the lug.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 11, Vane Gluing & A Larger Tri-Fold Mount

The glue tends to bead up when applied to the edge of the vanes.

The picture on the right is after a fingertip was run down the sides of the fins. There is now a smooth, even glue bead.

TIPS: Apply the vanes in this order - 1, 3, 5, 7. Then fill in the spaces with vanes 2, 4, 6, 8.

This allows you to make fine spacing adjustments by centering the even number vanes between the odd number facing vanes.  

Fillets were applied to the root edges of the vanes.

It would be hard to reach under the upper shroud and smooth with sandpaper after the fins were glued on. 

I  gave the lower vanes a shot of gloss white.

Sanding followed with 400 grit.

The tri-fold mount seemed small.

I re-drew a new mount on some 65 lb. scrap card stock.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 10, Positioning The Lower Shroud

The centering ring was a little tight. 

TIP: To get a smoother shroud edge with no bulge, sand a slight angle on the ring edge to fit the angle of the shroud.

On the right, I used my flat sanding block to press the ring into the shroud, no glue yet.

The ring and shroud are slid up over the end of the BT-50 until the small end of the shroud is even with the tube end.

   

Mark the ring position with a pencil.

Remove from the tube and pull out the centering ring.

Slide the ring up to the pencil lines and glue onto the tube.

After the ring glue dries, Apply glue lightly (seen on the right) and slide the shroud up and onto the glue and ring.

TIP: For easier positioning of the vanes,

Extend the alignment lines onto the centering ring. You can also do this on the bottom of the BT-50 tube edge.

Why? When the vanes are glued on, the alignment lines are covered by their root edge. You might end up gluing the vanes at a slight angle.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 9, Doubled Super Shrouds

The kit supplied shrouds were a little big, loose on the BT-50 tube. Kit supplied shrouds don't always fit. There can be slight differences in different production lots of the "same" body tubes.

The supplied shrouds looked to be copies of the original Estes art. There can be changes in sizes when second generation scans or copies are made.

I went to Payloadbay.com and printed off new shrouds. These were loaded into CorelDraw and the vane and fins lines added.

I wrote an article for the Apogee Peak Of Flight Newsletter on SUPER SHROUDS. For a better explanation: CLICK HERE

    

"Super Shrouds" are simply a double "nested" shroud. Two layers of 65lb. cardstock. They are so much stronger than a single layer card stock. When the glue dries, they feel like hard plastic.

TIP: I don't put wet glue on the glue tab. Instead, I rub a glue stick onto the opposite side of the shroud. This gives me more control over where the glue goes and ends up when the shroud is formed.

This is the lower "Vanes" shroud. 

On the left - I don't use much glue, I don't want to oversaturate the card stock. The picture shows the applied glue before it was smoothed out with a fingertip. 

YOU'VE GOT TO WORK FAST - smooth the glue and press the glued shroud into the outside shroud before the glue starts to set up.

There will be some overhang of the inside shroud.

This is cut off AFTER the glue has dried using a single edge razor blade. Cut carefully along the bottom edge of the outside shroud.

Sand and clean up the doubled cut edge with a block.

You don't have to worry about the inside of the narrow end of the shroud. The doubled shroud lip is "stepped" giving you a second edge to better fit around the body tube.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 8, Filler Primer

All the balsa got a coat of CWF and fine sanding.

There are a lot of pieces getting a shot of filler/primer.

All are held down to longer masking tape strips with the sticky side facing up. The short end pieces are sticky side down to hold the long tape strips in place.

TIP: Where I can - Set the root edges end to end to keep he balsa gluing surfaces clear of the filler/primer. 

Spray and let dry.

Flip over the pieces and spray the other side.

Notice the five short launch lugs, cardstock vanes, BT-5 pod tubes and landing gear dowels all get a good single coat of  filler/primer.

TIP: My filling/sealing process is two parts. One application of CWF and sanding. One fairly heavy coat of filler/primer and sanding. That should be all you need to fill and seal the balsa grain.

Here's two of the cardstock vanes.

The top is dried filler/primer.

The lower vane has been sanded with 400 grit.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 7, Vanes & Balsa Adapter

Just like the balsa fins - 

You should clean up the laser cut edges with 320 grit.

Left as is, the cardstock vane edges will soak up paint and end up looking rough.

Run a thin bead of white glue down the edges that will be exposed.

Smooth down the sides with a finger leaving a round bead of glue.

After the glue dries, sand smooth with 400 grit.

You'll end up with a rounded, glossy finish edge after painting. 

The balsa adapter was a bit wider than the outside diameter of the tubes. 

The sides were sanded using my block.

Slowly sand and check, then sand some more.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 6, Fin Shaping

The fins are laser cut, and like all laser cut parts there are charred edges.

I see plenty of builds where the fins are cut free from the sheet and the charred edges are left as is. The glue doesn't stick as well to burnt ash.

The fin on the left is how it looks right off the sheet,

The right side fin has had the edges sanded and cleaned up.

Lots of balsa in this kit.

Not as much as the original Mars Snooper - the engine coolant vanes are now cut from thick cardstock.

On the left are the smaller upper fins,

To the right are the two piece main fins.

The leading and trailing edges of the fins are rounded.

I didn't sand the rounded outside corners. 

Does that make sense? 

 

You can check the roundness of the leading and trailing edges against a dark background.

Ideally, a rounded fin edge should be a half circle.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Build, Part 5, Parachute Assembly

The New Way kit shroud line tie/reinforcements are interesting. They are Tyvek and can't be torn. There is adhesive under the "dots" but not under the narrow folded bridge.

There are holes punched in the white chute plastic.

Center and press the round side directly over the punched hole.

Fold it over and stick the underside centered directly over the the hole.

The folded extension will hang over the edge of the white plastic a little bit. 

When I build a New Way kit, I always try to use the suggested knot. I find it hard to tie so I went with my usual Square Knot.

The shroud lines seemed very long, almost too long. 

I passed the ends through the small loop in the screw eye and tied them off. The excess was cut off.