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#21
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Of course, me being a bit of an experimenter, decided to go ahead and do the full 'Zooch method' with the New Krylon just to see how it turned out. First, another coat of Bauhaus Gold since it was still kinda translucent after only a couple coats...
My daylight was fading, so I took two pics, the first without a flash, and the second one with. I kept the CFL porch light on while I was working and taking pics. Here's the pics... OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#22
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Next was a mist coat of Pumpkin Orange. "Mist coats" are kind of a misnomer with the New Krylon, as the nozzle tends to cropdust the paint on, so you have to 'whip' the can past the model as you paint; move MUCH faster than you are used to moving the can when using 'regular' (IE GOOD) spray paint...
Here's the pics... first with no flash, then with the flash. OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#23
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Then we put on a mist coat of Ruddy Brown Primer in the NEW Krylon...
Remember to paint like Speedy Gonzales!!! Pic one no flash, pic two flash on. OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#24
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Finally, I went over it again with a light mist coat of Bauhaus Gold again, just to lighten the whole thing up. It takes on the Orange and Brown though, to give it a little 'character'. We'll see how it looks tomorrow in daylight.
I forgot to mention... I also masked the orbiter mounting dowels as the instructions suggest, to prevent paint from causing the orbiter to 'bind up' at deployment. First the no flash pic then the flash pic. OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#25
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Ok, finally got back to work on the shuttle and finished her up! Lemme see where did I leave off... I think I was painting the ET.
It ended up looking a little 'muddy' in daylight, as the orange and brown just seemed to 'wash out' the yellow and just didn't look right to me, so I just went over it again with another couple light coats of "Bauhaus Gold" in New Krylon-- I'll let yall judge how it looks for yourselves... I cut 3/16 inch strips of masking tape and actually masked over the SRB lines before I painted the tank, so that I could preserve the lines and keep the paint out of the way for better glue adhesion. After giving the tank about a day to dry after it's minor recoats, I removed all the masking, including off the orbiter mounting dowels. I dry fitted the SRB's to the ET to get the alignment right, and then sanded the glassine off the tube where the SRB's would go, and gave them and the ET a light coat of glue for double-glue joints. After the first coats pretty well dried, but still SLIGHTLY tacky, I put down another coat of glue and popped them together. I was having a bit of trouble aligning the SRB's to the tank, since the lines are hidden once you get the SRB in place, and so I just laid it flat on my work mat and rolled it over until the ET and SRB both touched the work mat, held it abit, and then picked it up and 'rolled' the SRB a bit to make sure it's seam was centered against the tank. I then secured it and let it dry overnight. The next day I did the other SRB the same way. I finished up the orbiter with it's engine bells and painted the top of the wing white testor's enamel, and after that dried, hand painted the leading edge RCC panels in gunmetal gray. After those dried, I then painted the wing roots at the front black to match the tiles, and the black lines across the rear of the wings at the elevon attach point. I also ran off a copy of Foose's shuttle wraps for Columbia on printer paper, and carefully cut out the NASA meatball and the flag and "COLUMBIA" name and daubed a bit of white glue on the back and glued them on the wings... One thing I noticed is, on the right side of the orbiter, the flag is backwards That's actually kind of funny to me, anyway... I also painted the rear elevator to look a bit more 'realistic' with the black dividing lines between the inner elevons and outer elevons. Once the orbiter was done, I went ahead and cut the dowels for the 'SRB struts' which the real shuttle doesn't have (on the front anyway) but which help prevent the SRB's from ripping off on the model on landing. I found it MUCH easier to just use the razor saw to gently cut the dowels off at an angle, give it a half rotation, and cut it again at an angle 1/4 inch long, rather than trying to sand in the angles. They turned out pretty well, though I did install them at a slight 'outward' angle for perhaps a bit more strength than simply being 'flat' like Titan 3 struts. I filleted the SRB's with white glue on both sides, and then glued the struts in place with white glue. I assembled the trash bag parachute while watching TV the other night, so we'll call her complete. Here's some pics... OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#26
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All I really have left to do is trim the glide on the orbiter... but the cows have clipped everything down about an inch tall, so I have no 'recovery area' to speak of to do the trim tests... have to take it someplace nearby with grass...
I weighed the stack and the orbiter... the shuttle in ready to fly configuration, without engine, weighs in at 100 grams. The Orbiter weighs in at 16 grams. The orbiter balance point is 3 5/8 inch from the nose tip, about where the wings start to widen out, about 1/8 inch behind the first RCC panel. The entire stack CG without engine is about 4 1/2 inches from the ET nosecone tip. That moves it back 1/4 inch from the balance point of the ET/SRB's without the orbiter attached. These points are balanced WITH the parachute in the front of the ET, but without wadding and engine installed. None of these balance points are mentioned in the instructions-- I just give them here for convenience, and perhaps maybe some input from Dr. Zooch if he would like to comment Perhaps Foose would check back in and give me a rough number of turns on the glide trim screw for a good 'starting point' for trimming the glider-- I noticed in his pics he posted of his gliders that the trim screw was run down pretty far-- not a whole lot of deflection was necessary. Here's the money shots... This has been a fun build, and I've stretched my meager skills quite a bit. I've made a few mistakes, but I've learned from them, and I think I could do a MUCH better job if I were to do it again. I just might try it sometime, and I DEFINITELY learned a few things I can apply to other builds. If you have one of these, just GO FOR IT! If I can do it, anybody can if they take their time and try. If you don't have one of these, you owe it to yourself to get one. It'll teach you a lot and you'll have fun at the same time. Enjoy! OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#27
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Very nice! I have one of those in my build pile! Will get to 'one of these days'
That ET turned out looking great! Nice job!
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Jon SAM #0396 BAR 02/07 NAR 86940 KF4GUL Aim high, fly straight! |
#28
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Thanks... now I gotta see how she FLIES... OL JR
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#29
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I'm looking forward to the pictures, if you take some. It looks great on the ground. Thank you for taking the time to document your build process. |
#30
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Oh, no prob... I really love the doc's kits... they're like the ones I WANTED to buy years ago but couldn't afford to and found to be sadly missing when I got back into rocketry. When I found the doc's stuff and checked it out, I was hooked. I'll be sure and post it here, on TRF, and RP as I have with the rest of the build thread when I get her in the air. I like crossposting because I get a wider variety of responses, as some folks favor certain boards and dislike or don't participate in others for whatever reason... Thanks for looking! OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
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