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Old 12-14-2015, 07:48 PM
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MarkB. MarkB. is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: El Paso
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OK, Comrades, prepare to be blown away!

In the picture below you see my K41 Capsule which has sat patiently (more or less constantly since 1976) while I have tried to build escape towers having long since lost the pressed wood that came with the kit. I have tried dowels, toothpicks and carbon fibre. And while carbon fibre showed great promise for a traditional build, I struggled mightily with adhesives. The project has basically just sat still since the early part of the year.

As I mentioned in another post recently, I have seen the future and it is 3d printing and sure enough, today in the mail I received: a K-41 escape tower 3d printed in white plastic. I worked with Michael Key at Shapeways to modify (via scaling) an escape tower he already produced for a plastic kit. Unfortunately, it was not perfect in that the top of the rocket motor and the aerospike did not make it. That is being checked on right now.

Over the next few days I'm going to work on fitting it to the balsa cone. The tower includes the cone-shaped antenna section cover so that will have to be sanded off the capsule. Also, I will learn and share finishing methods for the tower as it does have the characteristic 3d-printed rough surface. I'll tweek it and give feedback to the designer. I'm also going to check it against my Weeks drawings. I used scale of the kit as 70" Redstone/ 1.637 BT-60 = 1/42.76 scale.

This should fit the BT-60 Dr. Zooch Mercury capsule as well.


I also ordered an 1/100 Apollo tower to replace the missing one on my Centuri Saturn 1b. Its molded in translucent plastic and is not as rough as the white plastic. I'll mess with it after I get the Mercury sorted out.
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Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
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