SecondRow
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Ok, background: This kit had been sitting in @jd2cylman's closet for about 20 years. I bought it from him a little under two years ago. Not having much experience in high power at the time, I put it at the bottom of the build pile. Since then, I've gained some more experience building high power rockets and worked on my modeling skills with some level 4 and 5-type low power kits. Now, this beast is getting a bump up to the top of the list.
The Sirius Saturn V has a 6" main tube, stands a little over 5.5' and the only recommended motor is an I-284. Here is everything that came in the box:
A couple things: First, the parts were in remarkably good shape for being in a closet for 20 years. There was only one small broken detail piece and the detail wraps have a twist to them from being curled up in the big tube all this time (you can see that in the picture). Second: holy moly, that's a lot of parts. You get your money's worth with this kit. 11 different rings, 5 different tubes. Almost all the detail parts are resin, including the wraps and S-II/S-IVB interstage shroud. There are fins for flight and more accurate ones for static display. I'll post some close up pictures of some of the parts in a later post. There is some really great detail in this kit.
I noticed on some other build threads that there have been some updates to the kit since it was made. In this kit, the styrene wrap for the LM shroud is blank, and you have to add the details to the sheet yourself. On the newer kits, the wrap has all the detail in place. The detail instruction sheet that indicates where to put each part is at the top left of the picture. I took a flyer and emailed David Miller of Sirius to see if he'd be willing to upgrade the parts in my kit. He was more than happy to help. He also pointed out that he had upgraded the F-1 engines since then, too and would send me the new engines along with updated instructions. I also found out the kit was probably one of the first 12 he ever produced. Really cool! He sent me the new LM shroud, F-1 engines and the detail piece that was broken. He also sent me the new version of the wraps which are now vacuform instead of resin. I think I'll stick with the resin wraps, but now I've got an extra set in case something goes horribly wrong.
Plans for the build and this thread: This will definitely be a slow process. I'm going to take my time with this build. Our club only has 1 or 2 high power launches a year and the next one is in a few weeks. The rocket won't be ready for that, so it won't fly until next year. There's really no deadline, and I'm not in a hurry. I'm going to mostly follow the instructions. I don't plan on making any upgrades. I'm sure the stability on this rocket is close to marginal as is. I still haven't finished my OR simulation and I want to finish it before construction begins. All the paper/wood joints are going to get wood glue. I don't really like working with epoxy for a couple different reasons, so I avoid it when I can. Any other joints will get epoxy, though.
I'll get some close ups of some of the parts in the next couple posts and try to get them up tonight after dinner.
The Sirius Saturn V has a 6" main tube, stands a little over 5.5' and the only recommended motor is an I-284. Here is everything that came in the box:
A couple things: First, the parts were in remarkably good shape for being in a closet for 20 years. There was only one small broken detail piece and the detail wraps have a twist to them from being curled up in the big tube all this time (you can see that in the picture). Second: holy moly, that's a lot of parts. You get your money's worth with this kit. 11 different rings, 5 different tubes. Almost all the detail parts are resin, including the wraps and S-II/S-IVB interstage shroud. There are fins for flight and more accurate ones for static display. I'll post some close up pictures of some of the parts in a later post. There is some really great detail in this kit.
I noticed on some other build threads that there have been some updates to the kit since it was made. In this kit, the styrene wrap for the LM shroud is blank, and you have to add the details to the sheet yourself. On the newer kits, the wrap has all the detail in place. The detail instruction sheet that indicates where to put each part is at the top left of the picture. I took a flyer and emailed David Miller of Sirius to see if he'd be willing to upgrade the parts in my kit. He was more than happy to help. He also pointed out that he had upgraded the F-1 engines since then, too and would send me the new engines along with updated instructions. I also found out the kit was probably one of the first 12 he ever produced. Really cool! He sent me the new LM shroud, F-1 engines and the detail piece that was broken. He also sent me the new version of the wraps which are now vacuform instead of resin. I think I'll stick with the resin wraps, but now I've got an extra set in case something goes horribly wrong.
Plans for the build and this thread: This will definitely be a slow process. I'm going to take my time with this build. Our club only has 1 or 2 high power launches a year and the next one is in a few weeks. The rocket won't be ready for that, so it won't fly until next year. There's really no deadline, and I'm not in a hurry. I'm going to mostly follow the instructions. I don't plan on making any upgrades. I'm sure the stability on this rocket is close to marginal as is. I still haven't finished my OR simulation and I want to finish it before construction begins. All the paper/wood joints are going to get wood glue. I don't really like working with epoxy for a couple different reasons, so I avoid it when I can. Any other joints will get epoxy, though.
I'll get some close ups of some of the parts in the next couple posts and try to get them up tonight after dinner.