Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 33 Blue Trim Bands

If you've followed the blog, you know I won't mask if I don't have to.

The website illustrations show blue bands at every body joint.

I took a guess as to the width and cut Trim MonoKote Royal Blue strips.
These were simply wrapped around the body where shown in the drawings.




The trim band below the SRBs took a little work to get into position but in the end came out well.

Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 32 Adapter Shroud

The Dr. Zooch shrouds always fit well.

Using my sharpie pen, I extended the printed black area slightly to insure black coverage at the seam.

According to the box illustration and the Vanguard Eagle website, the black and white color separations in the printed shroud line up with the booster fin positions.

After trying a dry fit (no glue) I decided not to glue the shroud tab together off the model. Instead I'll glue and join the shroud on the model.

Normally you would glue the shroud and let it dry, then slide it in place on the body tubes and centering ring. This was just a judgement call made on this individual model.

A thin white glue ring was run around the extended centering ring and top of the body tube.

Here's the shroud after coaxing it in place.

Fuzzy Blog Header

I was trying to load a new header on the blog, something I put together for Valentine's Day.
No matter what I did or what format was loaded, it still came up out of focus.



Here's the statement from Blogger:
"Some users have reported that header images have degraded in quality after uploading. We're investigating this and will report back as soon as we have more information to share."
Thanks for your patience. — latest update on Monday, January 24, 2011

Hopefully in the next day or so you won't be trying to focus on a blurry image.

Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 31 Paint

In Step 7, the instructions have you glue on the launch lugs after painting the two stages white.

I would have rather filled and glued the lugs before the body was painted.

I followed the instructions, in order. I'll have to glued the lugs in place after the body was painted. It'll involve marking and scraping away some paint for a good bond on the body tube.

Here's how the lower SRBs turned out after the white paint was applied.

I was happy with the fit and filling of the joints.

And, the nose cone with the white base coat.

Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 30 Primer and Masking

TIP: Be sure you wash and brush off the nose cone before finishing!

For better paint adhesion, lightly rough up the surface and use a primer before spray painting the final white coat. Otherwise, the paint will not stick well to the aluminite nose cone material.

The stages were joined and sprayed with gray primer.

I tend to spray primer on a little thicker than most. I remove the bulk of the sprayed primer layer with 220 grit and smooth out that surface with 400 grit.

The picture at the right shows how a typical tube might look after sanding and before the white spray.

Look closely and you can see the masking tape in place where the transition shroud will sit. There is a thin line of masking tape over the centering ring that extends over the top of the T-60 lower stage tube.

Another wider line of tape covers about 3/16" below the separation joint between the two stages.

I had to mask the black centering ring and black rear stiffeners in the SRBs to protect from white over spray.

The picture to the left shows my patio door glass. Masking tape was stuck down and circle mask pieces were cut by tracing around BT-60 and BT20 tubes.

Here is the masked centering ring and rear SRBs ready for the white paint.

Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 29 Engine Bells

It was raining too much today to do any painting, so I jumped ahead to the engine bells.

TIP: Make your shrouds with the printing on the inside. Sometimes the printed words "Shroud Adapter" or cut the lines can show through the finished paint.

This is still the best method I've found for forming shrouds and engine bells.

Using a clean sharpened dowel, press the shroud into the soft heel of your hand.

TIP: Press the dowel over the entire width of the shroud giving a little more attention to the sides. Give the sides a little more curl and the glue tab will lay down easier.

After gluing the tab, the engine bell is being held shut with long, smooth jawed tweezers.

TIP: It takes very little glue to make a shroud stay together. I usually lay a bead down then remove the bulk of it leaving a very thin coat on the tab.

After the bell dries, it'll probably be a little "out-of-round".

TIP: Before you think about coating (strengthening) the shroud with CYA:

Reform it to a better circle by rolling the shroud in the heel of your hand with the sharpened dowel.

I blackened the inside of the engine bells with a Sharpie permanent pen before using the CYA.

If I were to use the CYA before coloring the bells, the black Sharpie ink wouldn't have permeated the paper shroud as well. So - blacken, then use CYA to stiffen the bell.

If you were to glue coat the shroud before reshaping it, it'll be to stiff and dried hard in a distorted shape.

Dr. Zooch Vanguard Eagle Build Part 28 SRB Seam

The SRBs were lightly pressed down so the edges made contact with the body tube.

A drop of CYA on a toothpick tip was drawn down the seam maybe an inch at a time closing up any gaps.

I dipped the tip of my hobby knife in thinned CWF (Carpenter's Wood Filler) and dragged it down the seam filling in the edge.

In the picture, the upper SRB is dry and ready for sanding with 400 grit sandpaper. The lower SRB has been sanded.

After the filler was sanded, a light fillet of white glue was run down the seam.

This "locks" the filler in the seam.

Be careful and quick when smoothing out the glue. The CWF is water based and the white glue can break it down and make a mess if you're not careful.

I repeated applying another round of filler, sanding and white glue.

After that last white glue fillet had dried, one more final glue followed.