Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 9, Lower Fin Gluing

The low end fins are glued on, the motor pods haven't been glued on yet.

Note the tall fin is set 1/4" up from the end of the tube.

The tabbed fin (notched for the large disk) is even with the tube end.

I did a test fit of the disk. 

It wasn't as tight as I would like.

Look at the round index stock (overlay) and how it ended up when glued over the balsa notches - 

It wasn't a perfect fit.

A little bit of the disk and notch were trimmed until the fit was closer.

The fit is much better now.

I wanted a tight joint for an easier fillet later on.

Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 8, Prepping The Round Index Dish

On the overlay disk cardstock - 

The hold down tics should be cut, then sanded smooth with 400 grit.

With sandpaper rolled over your finger, 

sand around the burnt edge to remove the brown soot.

I used a glue stick to adhere the cardstock disk to the balsa. Glue sticks allow you to apply an even coat. You do have to work quickly as the glue dries fairly fast.

One of the three kits I was building had some shipping dents in the cardstock.

Earlier, I turned them over and tried to raise and smooth them with a burnisher. 

This helped but I was concerned the slight dents would show up on the finished model.

Some CWF was applied using a single edge razor blade to fill the dents and remove the excess. 

Some smooth sanding followed.

Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 7, Forward Centering Rings

Sand off and sand flat the lowest facing 50/55 centering ring. A smooth, flat face will give you a better fit of the 12 small vanes against the ring.

After sanding, seal the smooth face with a light coat of wood glue and final smooth sanding.

The lower tube is marked for the fins,

the upper tube is marked for the 12 vanes.

Here's where the lower ring (smooth face is to the rear) will sit. Note the pencil lines for the vanes.

The gluing lines had any remaining filler/primer scraped off for a stronger glue bond.

Notice the extended pencil lines over and onto the green centering ring. With the vanes in place you'll be covering up the pencil lines. The extension of the lines gives you a straight line reference beyond the top of the vanes.

The upper ring is glued on even with the top of the BT-50 tube.

I use the flat surface of my sanding block to even up the two edges.

Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 6, Engine Pod Reinforcement

The yellow rings (Part M) are glued in even with the back of the engine pod tube.

Here I'm using the flat surface of the sanding block to press the ends even.

I used a little bit of CWF applied with my knife blade to fill the seam inside the reinforcement ring and around the seam. 

After it was sanded to surface,

I applied some medium CA glue over the outside of the ring edge to seal the surface. Sanding followed. 

Here I'm sanding the CWF filled inside ring seam (Yes, I fill the inside seam if it can be seen on the finished model) before the CA glue was applied and sanded. Some 400 grit was wrapped around a dowel.

Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 5, Nose Cone Prep

My builds were pre-production - no mention was made of cleaning up the nose cone tie loop.

This tie point loop is thin and a bit weak.

To remove the center, I started with a new blade and punched some small holes around the perimeter of the loop. 

Go light! You don't want to cut through the sides of the loop.

This allowed me to punch out the center.

The inside edges were lightly filed with a small rat tail file.

The nose cone was pretty clean, just a slight molding line near the tip.

A small bead a medium CA glue was set into the seam line and allowed to dry.

The dried bead of glue was scraped to surface using the backside of a #11 blade. Use the back edge of the blade like a cabinet scraper.

Follow with 400 grit to take the CA down to surface.

Estes BOSS Kit #7316, Build, Part 4, Engine Pod Intake Disks

The laser cut disks are blackened and a bit rough on the sides.

Lightly sand the sides smooth with 400 grit.

If there is any browning on the face, it can be cleaned up a bit with a white eraser. Getting the face lighter will require fewer coats of white  for an even color. 

It helps to seal the exposed edges with a bead of wood glue. The glue seals the edges and will give a smoother painted finish.

On the left is the applied glue bead,.

On the right, the bead has been smoothed out by wiping with the side of a finger.

After the glue dries, smooth the edges with some 400 grit.

 

The largest ring is glued onto the top edge of the BT-50 engine tubes

.

Some CWF filler was brushed around the seam edge and sanded smooth.

New Estes Catalog Sanding Block

On page 82 of the new 2023 Estes catalog - 

THE ULTIMATE SANDING BAR - $14.99

This is very similar to my favorite OOP Great Planes Easy Touch sanding block. It's the same price as the comparable Du-Bro Kwik Sand Block. Sure the price seems high, but these are the BEST sanding blocks. 

The Estes Sanding Bar comes with some 120 grit sandpaper. That's pretty rough for sanding balsa. I have two Great Planes blocks. One has 220 grit for shaping, the other has 400 grit for smoothing.

The great thing about these blocks are the raised hand grip running down the back. The self adhesive sandpaper holds strong to the flat bottom face. You can concentrate on shaping a fin without having to grip the sandpaper at the same time.  

For more information and TIPS for this style sanding block: 

CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE