A little while ago, I had my one year anniversary of returning to the hobby. I took a picture of all my builds over a one year period;

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/atta...tachmentid=2370

In that group shot, a few folks asked about the one in the middle row far right.

Well, it's taken my quite a while to get around to finishing anything, as I got myself a new toy this summer;

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=887

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Anyways, in the past few weeks, I've actually settled down and gotten some rocket-type stuff done.

The first out of the queue is what I call the "U.S.S. Speherion"



It's obviously heavily influenced by Shrox. I love the ping-pong ball trick, and I've used it on several models. However, this time, I decided to
try and use the balls somewhere besides the body. Getting them lined up on the wings was a bit difficult, but nothing a little CA couldn't
handle.



For my first few custom builds, I'd draw decals in PowerPoint and print them out on standard label stock. A year's time has shown that the
inks eventually wear off, even with a little clear coat, so I needed to try something different.

I recently happened across the Sirius Rocketry site, and remembered how nice the decals were on the Atlantis and Interrogator I saw at
NARCON. Clicking through the supplies section, I found that they sell really nice decal stock that's designed to go through a color LaserJet
printer, so I bought a couple of packs. This model is my first full set...



I'm really pleased with how the decals look, except I'm learning the constraints of a non-ALPS printer. When on the decal stock, the front
canopy looks to be the same yellow as in the top star, but when put on the blue-painted cone, it looks like this;



Believe me, the flash bightens it up quite a bit. In actuality, the canopy looks pretty green. I think I might try and hand paint some
brighter yellow over the decal, and while I'm at it, I might turn those ping-pong balls yellow too.

Watcha think?

Later,
EV

Saw this gem the other weekend at ECOF...sans decals at the time, I believe...they really dress it up. It was a nice flyer, too, as I recall.

Wicked awesome!

__________________
Dean Fox
NAR #53946SR

---- "Wherever you go, there you are"

Awesome looking bird !

( and I recall that shot from before, of the fleet, saved it as inspiration .

Plans ? ( including the decal artwork ? )

~ AL

.. have had issues with light colored decals over dark myself, nothing at all like 'factory' ( or ALPS with white underneath ).

you might try doubling up on the canopy decal ?

or - a trick I used on my Rogue clone - was to print a second (partial ) set of decals on white paper.
specifically, that worked for the 'estes' logo for one fin, and the '33' for other fin - estes one worked fine, just trim and apply.

the '33' , I applied the clear backed decal first - which was 90% translucent over the red.
then I meticulously cut out the individual '3's with a new exacto, and applied them over the other decal ( using the one-piece decal for placement reference ),
came out ok, except the 3's are very delicate once cute around the border, and they did not sit down perfect, so it looks ok in pic, but so-so in person ( but no terrible , I;m happy, but not so thrilled I won;t be building another with Phred's decals :-)

Very cool looking, Eric. But the one flag is on backwards.

__________________
Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

Now, I was going to complement him on his knowledge that a US flag is ALWAYS represented on a flying vehicle with the stripes towards the opposite direction the wind is supposed to be coming from...so it always "streams" away from the wind.

Given that this is a deep space design, however, I think an argument could be made that "there's no wind in space, so that rule doesn't apply" (so you'd be right after all!)

Edit: Just did a quick Google and found a pic of the JSF --- note the US flag at the front of the intake: http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/...px?ItemID=13455

__________________
Dean Fox
NAR #53946SR

---- "Wherever you go, there you are"

Heh, I didn't know that! That's probably why he has it facing that way then.

__________________
Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

That's exactly the reason I have the flag backwards.

I did think about the "deep space" argument, but then again, this is a model rocket that gets launched through air, so I decided to follow the precedent.

OK, here's an image of the Space Shuttle with the backwards flag on the right side..



Oh, BTW, her maiden flight a week ago was quite nice on a B6-4. A little low, so next up is a C.

Later,
EV

Say, Eric, what's the font name on that? I notice it's the NASA "Worm" font, but I don't know the name of the font you used...might be handy for a future project!

__________________
Dean Fox
NAR #53946SR

---- "Wherever you go, there you are"

Dean,

the font is called "Nasalization". You can find it here;

http://www.1001freefonts.com/fonts/nfonts.htm

or here;

http://fonts.lordkyl.net

Later,
EV