Semroc Little Joe II Part 4 Fins

In step 9 you cease the fin cover down it's center line.

Some vendors will direct you to cut halfway through the stock with a sharp knife. I've never found that necessary and you run the risk of cutting all the way through the card stock.

Here I've used the backside of a single edged razor blade. The rounded metal fold over the back of the blade works very well to set the crease. You can also use the tip of a butter knife, just the tip above and serrations.

You should practice a few creases outside the printed cover areas. Draw a pencil line, line up your straight edge and run the blade back over your practice lines. When you feel comfortable with it, then move over to the real fin covers. When setting down the straightedge, you do have to allow for the thickness of the back of the razor blade.

After the creases are made, I used the back of a Sharpie barrel as a burnisher to "set" and sharpen the crease.

Semroc Little Joe II Build Part 3 Fins

Sorry, I wasn't able to get online yesterday to do blog entries.

Once again, AT&T Internet was down. Last month it was down for a day.

Two strikes for AT&T, one more and they are OUT!

Back to the Little Joe:

The yellow clay will roll up and go into the BT-3 escape tower tube above the tower.

Above that is the fin pieces still on the balsa sheet.

The sheet was sanded using a block and 400 grit sandpaper.

I've grouped the pieces together, there are five balsa pieces sandwiched inside the fin cover overlay.

I did take some extra time to sand the sides of the fins square and remove some of the black from the laser cutting.

TIP: Next time you open a kit with laser cut fins, take a good look at both sides of the balsa before removing the fins from the sheet. You'll see that the laser line is thicker and more black on on the top side than on the back side. (This is easiest to see on thicker balsa sheet.) The darker side was the "face up" side of the balsa when it was cut.

A laser will cut the face up side a little wider (picture a wedge of light stuck in the surface) than the side that is down and away from the light.

I usually sand the edges square to remove a bit of the higher edge (the down side during the burn) from the laser cutting. This guarantees the root edge will stick straight out from the body tube when gluing on the fins.

On a model like the Little Joe, you'll want the fin pieces gluing straight up from the fin cover card stock.

Semroc Little Joe II Build Part 2 Engine Mount

Nothing out of the ordinary here. A standard engine mount, the centering rings fit perfectly.

I use black electrical tape instead of masking tape to hold the engine hook in place. If you've ever opened up an old rocket, you would see how masking tape can deteriorate over time.

This takes us up to Step 7 with one picture.

Semroc Little Joe II Build Part 1 Parts

On to the next rocket in the build pile -

The Semroc LITTLE JOE II

I built and flew the Estes kit in the early 1970s, this version seems very close, except for all the laser cut balsa and thick card stock parts.

We'll make the booster first, then tackle the (nose cone) capsule and tower.

The 1/70 scale capsule kit is included in the bag. If you haven't built one before, it's the same one included in the Saturn 1B kit.

For now, here's everything below the capsule and tower.

Model Profile - The POINT!

Build it, watch it fly - and wonder why?

That was the phrase Centuri used in their catalogs to describe the POINT! The catalog page is HERE

The Point is a personal favorite with a little history. I bought a mine through mail order in the early 1970s.
It was built and readied for launch with a Estes B4-2 engine on an Estes Tilt-A-Pad launcher.

When I pressed the button there was smoke, but the Point didn't go anywhere. It caught fire! All that was left was the upper body and nose cone.
I sent the charred remains off to Centuri. They sent back a new kit and engine.

I thought it was the Krushnic Effect.
As I learned later, it was the Bernoulli Lock explained HERE. This seemed to make sense.
I guess that's why Centuri always said: "Be sure to launch only with Centuri motors and launch equipment."


This is the reproduction Point kit from Semroc.

I have flown this one with success, following the launching instructions more closely. You should raise the Point a few inches above a flat, round blast deflector.

On the cone body, near one of the printed hatches, it says in small print: "NO HANDBALL PLAYING".
Anybody have an explanation?

MPC Martian Patrol Part 15 FINISHED!

In keeping with the Martian theme, I left off any NASA or USA decals.

The model had already been flown twice last Saturday at the NEFAR launch in Bunnell, FL.

You can see the launch post HERE

If you ever fly one of these, just keep telling yourself:

"C6-3s, C6-3s, C6-3s!"

Anyone else hungry for eggs?

MPC Martian Patrol Part 14 Decals

Here's the assembled model just prior to the decals.

About those decals - I didn't get the same ones illustrated on the box, not a big deal.

MPC actually had a good idea back then. They supplied generic decals without any direction as to where they should be placed except for the box illustration. The builder could be a little creative.

You would think the roll patterns would fit the body tubes in the same kit they came with. The roll decals didn't match up when wrapped around the body. I thought it was strange that a "Martian" rocket would have USA, NASA and USAF decals, oh well!

The lower wrap was close when rolled around the lower 30mm body tube.

The upper wrap was another story. The four inverted "Y" shaped pieces were the same width as the 30mm roll pattern. I'd have to cut and adjust three of the "Y"s to make an even fit around the 25mm tube.

A simple "3 fin" marking guide was made out of paper and taped to the upper tube. Above the pencil marks, the three separate "Y" pieces were slid in place with the edge of the paper wrap used as a height guide.

The white area on the decal wasn't opaque, some of the red showed through giving it a pink tint.