My first boost glider

[Scotty Dog]

Started the SEMROC "SWIFT" Boost Glider. I got the parts sanded and the wing foiled. Ready to glue wing together. Thats it for tonight. Couple pics also. Scotty Dog

[blackshire]

Started the SEMROC "SWIFT" Boost Glider. I got the parts sanded and the wing foiled. Ready to glue wing together. Thats it for tonight. Couple pics also. Scotty DogThat's excellent sanding work! Are you planning to leave it "bare balsa," paint it, or color it with felt-tipped marker pens (contest fliers often use them for ultra-lightweight glider finishes)?

In its heyday, the SWIFT was an excellent contest glider and it is still an outstanding B/G for sport flying. It is rather similar to the Jetco Thermic "B" HLG (Hand-Launched Glider, see: http://www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com/rubber/Jetco/thermicbglider.htm ). In fact, the Thermic "B" and the "Orthodox" glider from the Jetco Thermic Trio kit (see: http://www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com/rubber/Jetco/jtmthermictrio.htm ) could be converted into front-motor pop pod boost-gliders by gluing their vertical stabilizers to the undersides of their fuselage booms.

[Scotty Dog]

Very light coat. I know if I want the best performance, leave it naked. I have some "Pumpkin Orange" paint I got at Wally World. Ill use a paint stick/marker for the blue stripe on the wings. When I was younger and saw my first RC Boosted Glider,it was like "MAN I gots to get one of those."Well here it is yrs later and Ive made it this far. Pretty "SWIFT" ahhhhhhh :chuckle: Scotty Dog PS Thanks for the links

[blackshire]

Very light coat. I know if I want the best performance, leave it naked. I have some "Pumpkin Orange" paint I got at Wally World. Ill use a paint stick/marker for the blue stripe on the wings. When I was younger and saw my first RC Boosted Glider,it was like "MAN I gots to get one of those."Well here it is yrs later and Ive made it this far. Pretty "SWIFT" ahhhhhhh :chuckle: Scotty Dog PS Thanks for the linksYou're welcome. Another possibility (which I haven't tried myself) that G. Harry Stine mentioned in his Handbook of Model Rocketry is "glider dope," a mixture of 50% model airplane dope and 50% dope thinner, applied in several coats and sanded with No. 400 sandpaper between coats until the finish is very smooth. The SWIFT was one of those boost-gliders we never had when I was very young. My father didn't like having to chase after two separate pieces, so he built an Estes Falcon boost-glider instead. :-)

[blackshire]

A very thin coat of your orange paint should work fine. My father sprayed his Estes Falcon B/G with just enough orange lacquer paint to color the glider, and the paint didn't seem to hurt its performance at all--it made huge ~1/8 mile circles and often took several minutes to come down. Since the SWIFT reduces its drag and weight by jettisoning its motor pod (whereas the Falcon just ejected its motor and retained its "draggy" motor tube up front), it should perform even better than the Falcon.

[Scotty Dog]

I glued the parts together.Got ready to prime and found I had glued one wing tip on backwards. OHH well, cut it off and re did it. Heres where its at now. Ill paint it in pieces and then put it together. Scotty Dog

[blackshire]

I glued the parts together.Got ready to prime and found I had glued one wing tip on backwards. OHH well, cut it off and re did it. Heres where its at now. Ill paint it in pieces and then put it together. Scotty DogAs the late Freddie Prinz would say, "Loooking Goood!" Although it wouldn't match the old Centuri catalog illustrations, your SWIFT would probably glide just as well with the outer wing panels glued on backwards (as long as they hadn't already been airfoiled). Many similar Hand-Launched Glider kits have their wings oriented in both directions--some are "curved edge forward" while others are "curved edge backward."

[Scotty Dog]

As the late Freddie Prinz would say, "Loooking Goood!" Although it wouldn't match the old Centuri catalog illustrations, your SWIFT would probably glide just as well with the outer wing panels glued on backwards (as long as they hadn't already been airfoiled). Many similar Hand-Launched Glider kits have their wings oriented in both directions--some are "curved edge forward" while others are "curved edge backward." I did a image search on the Centuri "Swift" after reading your post. I found one that was all red and one that was yellow,black & white. I kinda like the yellow,black & white one. Can a person get Centuri decals theses days? Not that Im trying to take any props away from Semroc, just be cool to make it look like a Centuri. Its still in white primer. I havent been in the rocket mood last few weeks . I did get one of my scratch builts painted.Its been WICKED humid here all summer .Not good painting weather. Anywhoo- Have a good day! Scotty Dog

[blackshire]

I did a image search on the Centuri "Swift" after reading your post. I found one that was all red and one that was yellow,black & white. I kinda like the yellow,black & white one. Can a person get Centuri decals theses days? Not that Im trying to take any props away from Semroc, just be cool to make it look like a Centuri. Its still in white primer. I havent been in the rocket mood last few weeks . I did get one of my scratch builts painted.Its been WICKED humid here all summer .Not good painting weather. Anywhoo- Have a good day! Scotty DogIs this the yellow, black, and white Swift you found (the kit card image at the bottom here: http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/kbg-3.htm )? The same Swift decor pattern is also depicted in green, black, and white here in the 1969 Centuri catalog ( http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/69cenp35.html ) and in red-and-white (with a white spiral on the pop pod body tube) inside the back cover of the same catalog (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/69cenp97.html ). I think those were all masked-and-painted decor schemes rather than decals, for these reasons:

Centuri kits (such as their Micron, for example) were often depicted in the catalog "group portrait" color photographs with very different paint schemes than the ones shown in the larger "official" kit illustrations that accompanied their catalog listings. Also, a decal sheet wasn't mentioned in the Swift catalog listings until the 1972 Centuri catalog (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/72cen044.html ), and it was for the version that had the overall red paint scheme with black-and-white longitudinal stripe decals and the kit name "Swift" wing decal. Sandman (Excelsior Rocketry www.excelsiorrocketry.com ) may already have this Swift decal sheet in stock (not all of his available decals are listed on his web site), and if not he could make it for you as a custom decal sheet.

[blackshire]

ADDENDUM: Sandman (Excelsior Rocketry www.excelsiorrocketry.com ) should be able to make "triangular shock wave" decals that are the same shape as the masked-and-painted "shock waves" on the Swift's wings and horizontal stabilizer. (Excelsior Rocketry made decals for the Estes Astron Mark that replicated the 'H-shaped' "cradle mark" and the large [four-panel, if memory serves] fin checkerboard markings that the builder had to produce by masking-and-painting in the original Estes Astron Mark kit, which had no decals.) Since the Swift's "triangular shock wave" decor scheme includes no lettering, the decal versions of the "shock waves" shouldn't be hard to create--you'd just need to specify their color(s).

[barone]

I know this post is a little late but you might be able to use the information for your next build.......

For boost or rocket gliders, weight needs to be kept as low as possible to get great flight times. We also like our models to look good. But, paint adds weght. So, usually people will use a marker to color the balsa. Markers add vertually no weight. The problem is that you can't always get the color you want. For instance, yellow markers don't do well on balsa.

When I built my Semroc Night Hawk , someone suggested using dye, like people use for tie-dying. But, instead of mixing with water, mix it with alcohol. The alcohol evaporates out quicker than water and is less likely to warp the balsa. I'm really happy with the yellow that I got from doing this. It just wouldn't have shown up well with markers. And, you can control the shading of the color by adding more or less dye. Or mix dyes to come up with some other unique colors.

[Scotty Dog]

Is this the yellow, black, and white Swift you found (the kit card image at the bottom here: http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/kbg-3.htm YUP! I still havent worked anymore on it. The wife and I had a bad week. Got a call Tuesday morn, my bro had taken a WICKED hit to the head. Rushed to hospital with blood on the brain. Same morn my wife gets a call her good friend passed away that night. So between the hospital visits and such-not a good week. Things are better now. Bro doing OK but still not out of the woods. Anywhoo-Ill get-r-done sometime. Scotty Dog

[foose4string]

I didn't use paint, dye, or marker but instead opted for tissue and dope. This was my first time working with the stuff. It wasn't nearly as difficult to do as I anticipated, but I still need practice and possibly alter my methods slightly to make things come out a little smoother. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results. I came up with my own color scheme and also used strips of aluminum tape to protect the top of the wing and fuselage from scorching.

[foose4string]

Oh, BTW, the 1/2A6-2 that Semroc recommends was not nearly enough. If I said it reached 50 ft above the pad, that would be generous. Pod ejected a few feet off the ground. A8 was about 150-200 ft, which is a good boost height for gliders IMO. Not sure how much weight was added from the tissue, dope , and paint(pod), but I don't believe it was much. IIRC, Carl had commented that an A8-3 was not a good idea for this model, but I found it to be perfect. A slower burn would be ideal but the quick boost of the A8 didn't appear problematic. The glider flew very well. Needs a tiny bit more trim, but for the most part, it flew pretty well without it.