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  #1  
Old 06-04-2010, 12:28 PM
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Cohetero-negro Cohetero-negro is offline
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Default Sheri's Hot Rockets, LJII QTV

Group,

I understand that there is a discussion about this kit, but no build pictures?! I am in the process of buiding one and I will post pictures later this evening.

I only have 3 of her kits (SHR), and the LJII is taxing all of my building abilities to get right.

Unfortunately, I have had to almost throw out the included instructions and make my own set, and replace/enhance many of the kit components. I don't know if others have had this same experience, but from what I have read, its a common experience with other builders.

All I can say is, 'Thank God we have styrene sheets to work with!'


The nose cone, I would have paid an extra $40 - $60 to have either a solid wood, or blow molded plastic example.

The fins made of styrene, while quick to build, are very unscale, and fragile.

The main body tube ... that had to go as well; actually I found a way to work around it.

The dummy LES ... I kept the tower assembly and part of the main LES tube (DOWEL) structure.

The kit is GREAT if you want just a sport scale to fly for fun, still a pain to build. I have her Sat 1b that I don't think I will ever build, but use it as a 1/48 reference model to scratch build a near-scale 1b. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the Lox and Fuel tanks not being individual tubes but an accordion arragement that approximated the look of 8 seperate tubes. Nice in size, but once you get within 1 yard of it, you start to see issues ... not goot at all!

I will get some pics up later tonight ... in the meantime, please enjoy this first picture of the main body and nose cone that I finished; not per the instructions in the kit:



Jonathan

P.s. I hope this helps ease some of the tensions caused by my political postings. After all, I do build fly and rockets RIGHT along side my left-winged brothers.
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  #2  
Old 06-04-2010, 12:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cohetero-negro
Group, <snipped some good build info>

P.s. I hope this helps ease some of the tensions caused by my political postings. After all, I do build fly and rockets RIGHT along side my left-winged brothers.


HA!! Good one, Jonathon!

S.
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  #3  
Old 06-04-2010, 01:11 PM
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The more I hear and see of her kits the more I think they are hideous piles of canine fecal matter that are not a good value at even HALF the asking price !
I SURE am glad I was never lured into purchasing one of the heaps.
That 1/48th Saturn 1B may be the worst joke of them all but is the ONLY 1/48th scale S1B supposed kit I know of.
Several (Sirius, Apogee, Polecat) Saturn V's are larger than the typical 1/100 kit, but there are no DECENT Saturn 1B kits larger than the 1/70th offerings by Apogee and Semroc.

ANY Saturn 1B kit that does NOT have individual full-round booster tanks is a HASHI-MOTO MESS in my book !
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Old 06-04-2010, 02:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
The more I hear and see of her kits the more I think they are hideous piles of canine fecal matter that are not a good value at even HALF the asking price !
I SURE am glad I was never lured into purchasing one of the heaps.
That 1/48th Saturn 1B may be the worst joke of them all but is the ONLY 1/48th scale S1B supposed kit I know of.
Several (Sirius, Apogee, Polecat) Saturn V's are larger than the typical 1/100 kit, but there are no DECENT Saturn 1B kits larger than the 1/70th offerings by Apogee and Semroc.

ANY Saturn 1B kit that does NOT have individual full-round booster tanks is a HASHI-MOTO MESS in my book !



Rocketman,

There is noting wrong with her kits if you are just building and flying for fun. They are a great low-cost way to start building/flying medium power kits. I am just being hyper-critical as I am build for scale.

If I wanted a fun rocket, and I wanted a Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan or Space Shuttle, I would buy, build and fly her kits.

Nothing wrong with what Chris and Sheri produced. And frankly, we need more garage manufactures, IMHO!

Take that Delta IV Heavy Lift model. There are short comings with that kit also... but again I am looking for scale. Great kits all around. Are they for the beginner? No no and NO! Are they for the first time Medium power flier ... no no and NO! Are they for people who have experience building high power, with a little R/C plane and plastic kit experience ... yes yes and YES! The Delta IV will be built for Next season. Not sure if I will enter it in internats or just use it for NAR competition. Love that slow roll program in the video ... EXTREMELY realistic!

I think on the 1b, weight would have been the issue that would have moved the rocket from mid-power into high power. High Power is dificult to fly: costs, finding a flying field and possible waivers. Medium power can be done out of a small park and sometimes without any hassle; sometimes. It was likely a financial desicision by SHR to cut corners, keep the weight down, and hopefully sell more rockets due to their, 'usibility'.

E.G., I wanted to build a cosmodrone Soyuez R-7, but it would have been way too heavy and reguired an H ... NAR won't allow it in competition

Now as for Sheri herself, she is HOT and will always be no matter what the status of her relationships with the customer ... kinda like a Black Widow spider and her male consort ... poor guy is going to die, but have fun in the process!!!


Jonathan
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Old 06-04-2010, 03:01 PM
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sandman sandman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cohetero-negro
Rocketman,

There is noting wrong with her kits if you are just building and flying for fun. They are a great low-cost way to start building/flying medium power kits. I am just being hyper-critical as I am build for scale.

If I wanted a fun rocket, and I wanted a Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan or Space Shuttle, I would buy, build and fly her kits.

Nothing wrong with what Chris and Sheri produced. And frankly, we need more garage manufactures, IMHO!

Take that Delta IV Heavy Lift model. There are short comings with that kit also... but again I am looking for scale. Great kits all around. Are they for the beginner? No no and NO! Are they for the first time Medium power flier ... no no and NO! Are they for people who have experience building high power, with a little R/C plane and plastic kit experience ... yes yes and YES! The Delta IV will be built for Next season. Not sure if I will enter it in internats or just use it for NAR competition. Love that slow roll program in the video ... EXTREMELY realistic!

I think on the 1b, weight would have been the issue that would have moved the rocket from mid-power into high power. High Power is dificult to fly: costs, finding a flying field and possible waivers. Medium power can be done out of a small park and sometimes without any hassle; sometimes. It was likely a financial desicision by SHR to cut corners, keep the weight down, and hopefully sell more rockets due to their, 'usibility'.

E.G., I wanted to build a cosmodrone Soyuez R-7, but it would have been way too heavy and reguired an H ... NAR won't allow it in competition

Now as for Sheri herself, she is HOT and will always be no matter what the status of her relationships with the customer ... kinda like a Black Widow spider and her male consort ... poor guy is going to die, but have fun in the process!!!


Jonathan


You do realize that Sheri no longer owns CJS models?

Dave at Red Arrow Hobbies bought it about a month or so ago.

He is changing the kits a bit but that may take a while.
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Old 06-04-2010, 03:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman
You do realize that Sheri no longer owns CJS models?

Dave at Red Arrow Hobbies bought it about a month or so ago.

He is changing the kits a bit but that may take a while.


Yes as I read all the najor forums. She and Chris started SHR ... I was hoping to see their 'NAZI-Saucer' in kit form. I would have just built it for static display.

OH, one thing that comes to mind about the 1b ... the resin LES ... not going to use that either ... instead, I secured a couple of Revell 1/48 Scale Apollo Spacecraft models (partially built/incomplete kits) that will go on top. Just have to fix the blast cover issue ... not an issue at all because we have STYRENE!!!

Jonathan
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Old 06-04-2010, 09:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cohetero-negro
Group,

I understand that there is a discussion about this kit, but no build pictures?!


I posted a few of mine here ...

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showt...&highlight=ljii

Attached are a couple more.

FWIW, the corrugated wrap provided with this kit is about an inch short of true scale ... I had to cut down the upper part of the LJII airframe an inch to keep the proportions correct. Naturally, I didn't figure this out until after I had the wrap installed and stood around thinking "that just doesn't look right." I should have measured it before putting it on, of course -- another lesson learned. But I'm not sure what I would have done about it other than scratch-build the corrugations, and having done the fins, tower, CM, and decals with non-kit parts I'm pretty close to a scratch-build already. Some of that is due to my own changes (as I note in the aforementioned thread I opted to model the A-001 round instead of the QTV) but Jonathan is correct: this is really a semi-scale "fly for fun" kit.

3602s ... LJII sporting a fresh coat of polished aluminum Alclad
2920s ... The LES attached to the CM
2921s ... Applying the first of the decals
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Old 06-08-2010, 10:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsotr
I posted a few of mine here ...

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showt...&highlight=ljii

Attached are a couple more.

FWIW, the corrugated wrap provided with this kit is about an inch short of true scale ... I had to cut down the upper part of the LJII airframe an inch to keep the proportions correct. Naturally, I didn't figure this out until after I had the wrap installed and stood around thinking "that just doesn't look right." I should have measured it before putting it on, of course -- another lesson learned. But I'm not sure what I would have done about it other than scratch-build the corrugations, and having done the fins, tower, CM, and decals with non-kit parts I'm pretty close to a scratch-build already. Some of that is due to my own changes (as I note in the aforementioned thread I opted to model the A-001 round instead of the QTV) but Jonathan is correct: this is really a semi-scale "fly for fun" kit.

3602s ... LJII sporting a fresh coat of polished aluminum Alclad
2920s ... The LES attached to the CM
2921s ... Applying the first of the decals



Tim,

These are VERY nice and I hope mine will look even close to what you have done. Yes on the dimensions... they are a bit off. I am using Alway's rockets of the World (1st ed.) and Beech-Gassoway drawings. The Corrigation does need cuting and so does the airframe tube, but you have to cut the tube anyway to make the parts needed for the cone.

Did you go solid balsa/wood on the fins or just use the styrene? I am going basswood ... more on that later

Jonathan


P.s. Tim, I learned the hardway to NEVER trust the manufacture's dimensions when building scale! They have to cut corners due to costs and stability.

OH someone asked if my fins on my now crashed Saturn 1b (Cover of Sport Rocketry Nov/Dev 2008) were scale ... YES! Just took a lot of buckshot and clay in the nose cone! There I took a Semroc Sat 1b and cut tubes and engine skirts to match the true scale.

The Apogee is better and right on ... just $200 is steep, but very worth it! I have one and I don't think I will ever build it ... just too valuable a kit. A $50.00 Semroc 'fixer upper' is the way to go!
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Old 06-08-2010, 10:10 AM
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Cohetero-negro Cohetero-negro is offline
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Thread,

Sorry but I have been busy busy busy with rockets, wife, and life.

OK, I think someone had asked how to make your cone perfectly conical; or as near perfect as you can...

Well first the obvious: Follow the SHR instruction sheet and first trace the template out and cut it as perfect as you can. SHR's recommendation to then transfer the template to a stiff card stock is the correct way to go! I just used card board cut from FREE U.S. Postal priority mail boxes. It’s the right thickness and stiffness to be cut can then curled and act as a ‘dummy’ piece to see if the resulting cut part will be close to what I want.

Next, the trick to working with Vinyl, styrene or other plastics is heat! Now you can't place the stuff over an open flame, but you can immerse the plastic into warm to hot water. This makes it more tractable and easier to work with. The thick .030" styrene will crack and buckle (deform) too much if you don't 'loosen' it up a bit first.

So the final nose cone (without stabilizers and LES) looks like this:



Total time spent on the cone assembly so far ... ~5 hours, and I still need to sand it with 600 grit and add stabs ...

OH and by using the SHR directions for drilling holes and mounting the LES system, will only result in errors... bad bad bad ... I will be using a laser and condiment turn table to accurately position and mark holes. More on that later.

Jonathan
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Old 06-08-2010, 09:50 PM
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Thanks for the kind words, all ...

Jammer, mine weighs 2 pounds 10-5/8 ounces without clear coat or a recovery system. I'm going to rig two chutes, one for the airframe and a second with a bridle to bring the tower down horizontally. Another first for me there, and I'm open to suggestions. And I'll echo what others have said about the decals. I made my own using a cleaned up version of the lettering in George Gassaway's drawings for the "United States" on the airframe.

I'm tempted to do another at 1:20 scale, which would put it a little over 7-1/2 inches. If someone wants to do a bulk buy of .060 x .125 Evergreen strip, I'm in.
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