Lest you think I've become so wrapped up in the Saturn rebuild, I've forgotten about the R-7, here's where we are:

The core is complete and ready for primer on the lower half (huh? trust me you'll see why later this week) The picture shows the conduit and the standoff/launch lug. The blue stripes are masking tape over the areas where the strap-ons will be glued. The strap-ons also have a similar blue stripe. The sticks on the bottom are a bad representation of the strap-on tie-downs. On the second prototype, I'll do a better, cleaner job out of 1/12 dowels.

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__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Comrades,

Real progress! I primed the strap-ons and the lower section of the central core with Duplicolor. As I was test fitting the strap-ons, I realized that there was going to be no way to paint the lower ends of the core after the strap-ons were glued on. So I sprayed silver below the strap-on tiedowns and some Testors Euro 1 for a few inches above that. I also sprayed around the launch lug stand-off. The tiedowns were slightly over-length. I sanded an angle into the ends of the tiedowns until the mounting strips on the strap-ons were flush with the core.

Then the moment of truth, gluing on the strap-ons. I used Golfsmith long-set black epoxy on the mounting strips and on the ends of the tiedowns. I glued them on in two sessions gluing opposite sides on and rubber-banding them in place. Recall that the nose cones are not yet glued in and I removed them and pined the ends of the strap-ons in place.

After the epoxy set, I removed the pins and the rubber bands. Yahoo! I have an R-7!

Which is not to say mistakes were not made. I had not glued in the small fins anticipating that there might be a problem when the final gluing came and sure enough, one of the fins needed repositioning. I've now glued on the fins. The epoxy was probably a mistake as well, as this thing is starting to get heavy. Bill suggested a ping-pong ball for the Vostok capsule; I'm thinking I may need a golf ball for ballast. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably spray everything the final color coat on all pieces before final assembly. I'd also leave off the core vernier covers to save a little weight. But hey, that's what the build thread is for -- you get to learn from my mistakes.

What's left? I'm going to add some cardstock details to the attachment areas of the strap-on nose cones and some small conduits. I still need to add a motor mount. Last will be to spray the whole thing Euro 1.

Finally, when this is done I'm going to write an assembly sequence and the definitive parts list. There are some little tricks I've noticed along the way that would make assembly easier. I am going to build a second R-7 using some of these tricks.

But first, I'll do a build thread for Vostok and Soyuz capsules with their all-important lattice bases. I'm shooting to have your April 12th rocket ready by New Year's.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Finally, a nice day for painting . . . .

Picture 1 shows the now completely assembled (and glued) R-7 on the paint stick outside getting primed. In case you missed it, the S-IVB is from a Centuri Saturn 1B I'm rebuilding in another thread.

Picture 2 shows a close up of some of my cardstock details. I can't thank Sandman enough for introducing me to this technique. It never ceases to amaze me how cool these paper details look under a coat of paint. The "butterfly" strap-on hold downs and the conduit above them are cardstock. The clamps are little pieces of 1/16 square sanded and sealed. The conduits are a little too wide. I'll narrow them on the next one. . . .

The next post should be the last of the R-7 build thread. I hope to have a comprehensive parts list and an assembly sequence. I'm going to do a separate thread for building Vostok and Soyuz capsules, including the open framework interstage. I already have all of the parts except to the dowels.

Only 127 days 'till the 50th Anniversary.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Comrades:

We're down to 105 days until April 12th!

Picture 1 shows the now complete R-7 8K72 Vostok s/n 10316 with the balsa nose cone base in place.

Picture 2, which I'm also going to post in the capsule build, shows the various lattice rings and the core shroud adapter ring and the strap-on "butterfly" holddown pattern.

I have revised the parts list in the first post of the thread so you can refer to that for your parts. I'm going to cover a few little time and effort saving pointers regarding build sequence:

1) Round-up, cut out and prepare all of the parts prior to beginning;

2) mark two lines 180 degrees apart on the BT-60 portion of the strap-on boosters - one is for the fin, the other is for the center of the mounting strip. This will keep you from messing up the way I did.

3) In marking the core, in addition to the four lines for the strap-ons, you'll need two more lines: one for the distinctive long conduit that runs the length of the core and the other for the launch lug; I placed these two lines opposite each other. The core shroud joint lines were lined up with the conduit mark and covered by the balsa conduit;

4) Omit the vernier covers at the bottom of the core section unless you're super detailing; this thing's very tail heavy as built. The final balance point is just below the tips of the strap-on nose cones.

5) completely paint everything before final assembly - there's just no way to paint everything once its assembled.

6) In lieu of the vernier covers mentioned above, cut a 1.125" strip of the Chrome Trim MonoKote and wrap it around the very bottom of your core tube after you paint it. unless you install engine mounts for cluster power, you should also cover the bottom of the strap-ons with this material -- I'll provide a template for cutting the heatshield for the strap-ons; all R-7s after Sputnik had these shiny heatshields.

7) If you are building an early '60s rocket, I couldn't find evidence that the lower 2/3s portions of the strap-ons were painted Russian Marker Red (sorta like International Orange) as they are on modern Soyuz launches.

8) My personal opinion is that the European Grey is a little on the dark side, I might go with Gunship Grey on the Soyuz I'm building. And if you wanted to paint it overall O.D. or Testors Russian Green, I think that'd be OK too.

Finally, while this is a sport scaler, it absolutely nails the look of the original from a foot or two away. I hope at least some of you build one before April. I'll be glad to answer questions, provide measurements, templates or advice any time. In all the time I've been building rockets, I have never felt the sense of accomplishment I did when I took the tape and rubber bands off the final assembly.

Now all we need is a capsule . . . .

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Hmm...looks almost olive drabbish in that picture. No wonder there is so much confusion on what the actual color is.


Bill