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Old 06-23-2017, 10:40 PM
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Sprint60 Sprint60 is offline
Intermediate Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Greater Kansas City
Posts: 39
Default Build and Review (times four)

This build was intended to be a family exercise; Chris ran a series on his blog while developing the prototype and the idea hit me that it would be fun to fly a “wing” of models at once and from there it was downhill.

There was some anticipation waiting for the kits to become available and some more waiting for them to show and then a weeks long delay due to other higher priority family activities. You know, hurry up and wait.

First impressions are very good. At some point in my career I flew model airplanes so I always look at the wood first. Good reasonably dense A-grain balsa in all four kits. Not contest grade double extra soft (good for gliders but not so much rocket fins) but also not rock-hard heavy as slabs of oak either - nice clear grain with good crisp laser cutting. A nice big plastic cut-to-size ‘chute is included in each kit. The nose cones are the seamless two-part plastic ones - the kind that you glue the shoulder into the nose. Also included are clear vacuum formed canopies, two sheets of neat decals protected by tissue paper and white body tubes with small spirals. I’m impressed with the quality. I could wish for longer Kevlar shock-cord anchors, though. The instructions are excellent; clear and well illustrated. I had no fears that my family could each produce a good model that both looks and flies well.

We finally got started together at the dining room table with a pair of newly purchased building mats (in addition to an old one), some Gorilla-glue wood glue and some sharp X-actos. We’re off! Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the kit parts or a lot of the sub-assemblies. It was a bit of an exercise for me to help three builders and build my own. My daughter has built a few simple rockets over the years as has my wife, but my son has built only one or two school rockets. Ironically his was the first completed.

Naturally the motor mount goes first. It’s a standard mount with a good springy hook and a Kevlar line for the shock-cord anchor. I added a piece of tubing between the centering rings and tied the Kevlar to the bottom of the mount so it can be more easily replaced on all four rockets. The kits come with a chrome self-adhesive strip that is wrapped around the bottom of the motor tube for some bling. We had a little bit of trouble getting them glued in - the rings were a little too tight and mine grabbed before it was in position and I wound up cutting it out and using a section of body tube from my parts box. So I spent some time sanding rings on the others so that the mounts would slide in readily and there were no more troubles with mounts.

While all that was going on balsa parts were being cut from the slabs and the two part wings and rudders were assembled over some wax paper. Then some sanding was done. My wife was reading the instructions and sanded her fins and wings as shown. Zeke wasn’t the least interested in the instructions and sanded nothing. I sanded mine and my daughter’s because she had to work (which I heartily endorse) and I rounded all of the edges except the roots and the tips.

The next step was to mark the body tube and add tank/bomb standoffs to the wings. The wings were then glued to the body tube. We ran ahead a little and cut out the air scoops while we were waiting for glue to dry. We used a length of aluminum angle for a cutting guide and it worked well. I found cutting the second side of the tube out the hardest part of the build. It’s hard to do because the tube wants to flop around. I also cut out Hannah’s for her since she was working or had swim practice or something.

The build preceded over the next few days, though not necessarily together. Zeke got into it and couldn’t wait to do the next step and was ‘way ahead of all of us. My wife and I built ours mostly together but there were times where she had time on her hands (such as at swim meets) and did the drop tank sanding and things like that on her own. Hannah’s just sort of sat there untouched.

The lower fins are added, then the launch lugs and then the scoops were set down over the lugs. When all that’s dry the model is turned over and the top fin goes on.

We were all over the place at this stage, Zeke’s was pretty well done. Hannah hadn’t glued on anything yet. Natalie’s was a little more complete than was mine. Z had managed some how to glue the wings on the wrong-way-round so his drop tanks were on top. (No comment was made.) He did get his wings and fins on straight so good marks for that at least. He realized his mistake and on Friday night was seen cutting the pods off and gluing them to the bottom. You can see the scars in the photos.

I spent an evening or two shaping drop tanks and missiles. I wanted my tanks to look like tanks and the missiles to look like missiles so I fashioned extra parts out of scrap balsa. I cut a drop tank fin that looked about right free-hand; then trimmed it as needed until it looked proper and used it for a pattern to make five more. These are really too small to sand and shape so I glued the six of them on and when dry used a fresh knife blade to trim and shape and then used the sanding block to finish. The missile nose cones are two layers of balsa fin stock scrap, rough cut and whittled to fit into the end of the launch lugs and then whittled and sanded to shape. The missile fins are card stock, cut out whole, slotted together to form a cruciform and then glued into the slotted end of the lug.

As the build drew towards completeness the models really did look impressive. On Friday night before the launch, I glued three of the four nose cone shoulders in (I used slow CA even though the instructions indicate plastic cement). Zeke used wood glue on his (it seems to be holding). I cut out all the ‘chutes and tied on the lines and then tied all knots for the shock cords.

There wasn’t time for me to paint them, so we went to the launch and flew them as they were. It’s normal for me to fly a model a few times before I put on a finish anyway. We did get a lot of attention on the range. We flew all four together twice - though one misfired on the first round (and was flown while the rest of us were retrieving). I want it said: I totally won both drag races! (And don’t listen to any of my trash-talking family members!) These are very fun, stand-way-back scale models and flying them in a group is a blast.

So at home afterward we needed a little fleet maintenance (didn’t I say the wadding goes in FIRST?) And then some filling and sanding. I used Tamiya putty on the scars and Brodak balsa sealer (since I’m out of Aero-gloss which is sadly no longer in production). I’m going to use Duplicolor white sandable primer and Duplicolor White lacquer for a base coat. Then I'll follow that with Testor’s Acrylic from an airbrush for the highlights. Pics of that will follow as it gets done.

Thanks for the kits, Chris! I’d love to see an expanded line of these. I’m not in marketing nor do I play one on TV but I think that you’ve got a hit on your hands here. I’m thinking about getting another four and doing an F9F kit bash. Maybe an F104, too. So many rockets, so little time!
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