Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 6, A Third Vent Tube!

This instruction drawing better shows the assembly.

The ejection charge goes up, makes left turn then goes up again. Remeber, there's a bulkhead in the larger tube that directs the ejection charge up. 

That Centuri rear eject would have been easier.

Here's the final vertical tube, a BT-50.

This one also gets a reinforcement coupler and another cut hole.

I'm marking the dowel to apply glue inside the tube. The tubes above give me a height reference.

The yellow tube pushes in the coupler.

The yellow tube also sets the cardstock bulkhead. 

The final circle cut!

Tape and mark with the guide wrap. Pencil trace and another new #11 blade!

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 5, Gluing Vent Tubes & Interior Supports

With the engine mount tube straight in the vent tube - 

I traced around the joint for glue placement.

A line of glue was placed around the pencil line and the two tubes joined.

After that dried,

Both of the cardstock central plates is set next to the engine tube. (See next picture.)

Mark both sides for the the retainer ring (or tape).

Cut a slight notch in both of the central plates.

Couldn't this have been included in the die-cuts?

This is in the instructions, to cut out an area to allow for the retainer ring.

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 4, Cutting The Vent Holes

Hoo Boy! This is a tough cut to make. I wouldn't usually put in a new #11 blade, but for this cut it is needed. 

The guide is wrapped and taped so it can't move.

Score the oval cut then remove the guide.

Cut, cut and cut some more. Going through the old style fish paper coupler takes many passes.

 

On the left side picture you can see the two layers of tube and coupler. That tube cut reminds me of Pac Man.

My scanned cutting guide must have been small. The engine mount tube wouldn't slide in.

I wrapped some 220 grit around an used engine casing and rotated it in the side vent hole.

Right side picture:

Looking up the engine mount from the rear.

I've marked with a pencil where the fit was tight and needed a bit more sanding for a friction fit without any tube distortion.

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 3, Engine Mount & Ejection Venting

The vertical engine mount tube:

The lower central tube is the engine mount.

I had to make a marking guide as my scanned copy didn't match up.

There wasn't a Mylar engine hook retaining ring in the kit bag so I did my standard electrical tape wrap.

For a while, some Estes kits didn't include an engine block. I incorrectly used the only engine block in the kit when it should have gone into another tube vent. It's okay, I have plenty of extra engine blocks. 

EDIT: Good thing I used the engine block here - The end of the BT-20 tube takes a beating when getting a good fit in the cut circle on the side tube.

 

Moving to the horizontal vent tube:

A shorter vent tube goes to the left off the engine mount.

A reinforcement ring (gray fish paper coupler) goes 5/16" into the vent tube. 

You will be cutting a circular vent hole through the BT-20 tube and this interior reinforcement coupler - a thick, difficult circle to cut out.  

A white cardstock bulkhead is pressed down onto the edge of the reinforcement coupler.

I peeled the inside layers out of a thicker engine block. This glues in resting on top of the bulkhead.

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 2, Parts Prep

This is the kit that had the out of round tubes I fixed in earlier blog posts.

With the out-of-round tubes, this kit required more parts prepping than usual.

There are three sheets of die cut cardstock.

Two heavy sheets and one thin sheet.

Don't punch out the pieces!

For now I'm just removing the squared central body plates shown near the knife blade.

These die-cut parts were very clean. 

Sand off the tics and smooth out the sides. Sometimes with die-cut parts  the sides aren't perfectly flat. 

Check the sides for any crush burrs. You can compress and flatten the raised edges with the side of a burnisher.

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Part 1, Parts

The kit came in a big bag because of the larger die-cut cardstock sheets.

At one time, the back of the bags were printed and you couldn't see the kit parts. This may have been done to stop the temptation to squeeze and crimp the tubes.

All the parts:

Notice the all white decal sheet.

Missing from the bag was a Mylar engine hook retaining ring and a 1/12" diameter dowel.

The parachute shroud line retention disks aren't sticky anymore.

Parts of interest:

Two white plastic nose cones. The shoulder base reminds me of the Starlight, now Apogee plastic nose cones.

A black parachute to match the overall black of the model.

The thinner third die-cut cardstock sheet. The canopy is on this sheet. The die-cuts were very clean with very little raised burrs on the edges.

Estes Blackhawk #2053 Build, Background

Centuri released the Buck Rogers series of kits in the 1979 catalog. These kits were based on the NBC Buck Rogers TV show that ran from 1979 through 1981.

The product line included the Laser Lance, a Laser Lance Starter Outfit, the Draconian Marauder and Earth Forces Starfighter.

These "profile" models used cardstock for the fins. Thicker cardstock was used for the fins, thinner stock was for the detail pieces like the canopies. 

To see the Centuri Earth Forces Starfighter #5335 Instructions: CLICK HERE

After Centuri was absorbed by Estes, the white Starfighter was re-released a few years later as the Estes Blackhawk.

I don't know all the back story, but I assume they changed enough of the design to bypass the license fees.

There are some differences in the two kits. The Centuri Starfighter had a rear eject parachute. The packed chute was simply pushed into the recess in the back of the model. The ejection charge popped  out the engine mount pulling out the parachute. 

The Estes Blackhawk used vent tubes glued together at right angles to eject a black parachute out one of the nose cones. This newer front eject is difficult to construct.

There were slight differences in the canopies. The Centuri version had some added clay weight in the nose cones. Decals in the Estes Blackhawk were all white.

To see and compare the Estes Blackhawk #2053 instructions: CLICK HERE

I have built the Centuri Draconian Marauder previously on the blog. 

To see that build: CLICK HERE