Steps 19-27, adding wraps to the capsule, attaching a recovery string (thin kevlar, as I don't have the original shroud line from the kit), gluing on the tower base, painting the tower, and gluing it on the base. A little "adjustment" was needed to the V-Struts and tower was needed for alignment, nothing a little glue couldn't fix. I'm using Sig-Bond wood glue for all wood-wood joints. The paint still needs touch-up, just using a small brush and testers enamel.

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

The next few steps involve building the escape motor. First, a 1/8" dowel is sanded & carved to create the separation motor. Next, the tip of an aerodynamic spike is created from the tip of a sanded 1/8" dowel piece, lastly the spike is sanded down from one of the thin mahogany "dowels".

I'm not crazy about the spike, the mahogany piece is pretty soft, and splits easily along the not-quite-longitudinal grain. I'm thinking of instead using a piece of 1/12" hardwood dowel from the LL standoff, and using something else for the standoff. I'd like to launch this thing at least once without pieces breaking off.

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

It's refreshing to see that someone still has the eyes and hands to do that little MR escape tower and motor assembly. Even the plastic one in the current MR kit is tedious for me!

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Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Thanks! Eyes are poor (11 diopter eyeglasses), aided by a high magnification Opti-Visor, and arthritis in the hands allows for only short sanding periods. It's surprisingly enjoyable, as long as I do just a little at a time. Goal is to have it ready by the 60th anniversary of the Mercury-Redstone 3 flight.

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

I wonder why my nose cone looks different than yours?

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If it flies, I can crash it!

I got mine for a 16th birthday present. I spent a solid week building it and was shocked when it came out looking fairly close to the face card. I'm enjoying this thread. I have a vintage capsule that I plan to use for an old-school build as soon as I can make myself start gathering parts.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

That's what my previous build looked like after one launch. Lost it on the 2nd launch, which helped motivate me to build this one. Let's hope my tower lasts more than one launch!

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

Thanks! That's my goal too. It won't win any scale contests, but still want it to look reasonably good.

__________________
Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

Steps 30 & 31 completed this week. For the aerodynamic spike, I started with some 1/12" dowel from my recent eRockets order, and sanded down to 1/16". Probabably not perfect scale, but the goal here is faithful build of the kit, not scale accuracy. It's much stronger than using the mahogany pieces. Figure 31 says to take a 1/64" strip of decorator tape & wrap around the jettison rocket. I just cut a strip from some masking tape, probably more like 1/32", and even that was hard to deal with.

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__________________
Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

Step 29 starts the escape motor nozzles. The base is cut from 1/8" dowel stock, into roughly 1/8" long pieces shaping a step on one end for the paper nozzles. My first attempt was horrible (the leftmost one), just trying to use a stiff sanding stick as shown in the instructions. I found that scoring with a #11 blade, and chiseling off tiny bits made a much better piece. I made 4, figuring I'll probably lose one, they're so tiny. I cut the pieces off after making the step.

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__________________
Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org