Dr. Zooch Return To Flight Space Shuttle build thread- #2

[luke strawwalker]

Since the crash of TRF wiped out all the great info on the Zooch Shuttle build, and since I bought one of these kits last October, and since I figured I could use some more 'conventional' glider experience before diving into my Zooch Lifting Body rocket, and since it's great fun to do build threads, I offer the Zooch Space Shuttle build thread #2...

I wanted to start this last week but was 'unavoidably detained' by work and home issues which lasted on into this week, including missing work yesterday morning to take my sister to the ER after she passed out in her bathroom from dehydration brought on by stomach flu. 3 IV bags later she was much better and sent home just in time for me to make my afternoon bus route.

Anyway, I'm starting from scratch and there's a lot going on around here still, and this is a lot longer build than I've undertaken lately, so the build part of this thread is going to be an ongoing effort for awhile. I hope you guys will pitch in with your experiences, tips, and ideas as we go along, and maybe we can reformulate a lot of the good information that was in the original thread, now lost.

First off, I've been reading the instructions and checking over the parts list. Everything looks to be there and in good order. The instructions seem to be fairly involved but this is a fairly complicated kit, so that's to be expected. The parts and stuff look to be the usual high quality yet no frills Zooch stuff I've come to expect.

One thing I've had to learn is, to just trust Wes's instructions and go about building the kit pretty much as he describes, though sometimes I DO switch the order around a bit, working on something three steps ahead while waiting on the glue or paint to dry on something else, just to shorten build time. Sorta 'parallel development' in ant scale... The reason I mention this 'trusting the instructions' is that I've gotten rather used to having to 'second guess' the instructions that come with a lot of rockets made by the largest model rocket manufacturer who shall remain nameless... I've found that some of the materials they use and procedures they recommend are 'less than ideal' or rather shaky, and leave some DEFINITE room for improvement. I've even learned not to trust all their motor recommendations, through bitter experience of late. Having developed this 'healthy skepticism' of the kit instructions, transferring that over to Zooch kits became habit, but I've learned that, "Hey, whaddya know, Wes really DID do his homework and wrote instructions that work, what a refreshing idea"... I hear Master Yoda's voice behind me telling me, "You must UNLEARN, what you have LEARNED". While I have a few tricks that make things easier, I haven't found any obvious "gotcha's" in the Zooch kits or instructions, unlike some of my recent experiences with the big "E".

So, let me return to my reading and get organized and we'll get started. More later! OL JR

[Saluki]

Looking forward to this build thread. I have read your others and I am sure I will pick up some tips.

Thanks.

[luke strawwalker]

I'm hoping that Dr. Zooch will chime in here and repost the formulas and methods for doing the 'Zooch treatment' for painting the ET... Of course with old Krylon now joining the dodos and dinosaurs, we'll probably have to come up with something new for those unable to locate the Old Formula Krylon colors required...

The reason I mention this now is, I'd like to do a paint test to see if I can make it work, and familiarize myself with the technique.

Here's a tip I've found so far... Look for Krylon Farm and Implement paint... It still seems to be the old formulation so far... After scrounging through all the local hardware stores and auto parts and farm stores, I came up with:

1. one can of Krylon Rust Tough Ruddy Brown Primer, #9204
2. one can of Krylon Farm and Implement Old Equipment Yellow, #1819
3. one can of Krylon Farm and Implement Allis Chalmers Orange, #1820

Now, there's a small problem here from the original "Zooch method": The recommended Orange was "Pumpkin Orange". I checked at Grainger's and from what they could find out, Pumpkin Orange is no longer available in the lacquers-- it's not in their catalog, in searching their system and vendor info they couldn't find any current mention of it, and I've only found it in the new Krylon formulation, which would be of dubious use applying it with the lacquers, even as a 'mist treatment'. Maybe it would work, maybe not, but I'd do a paint test first on a spare tube. I did some comparison shopping and it appears that the Allis Chalmers Orange is just a little darker than the pumpkin orange, but I bet it ends up virtually identical, since I've painted stuff AC Orange before and it's pretty darn bright! Certainly not dayglo but it's a pretty vibrant orange! Old Equipment Yellow is pretty hard to find too; from my comparison shopping, the New Caterpillar Yellow appears just a shade darker than the OEY. Perhaps going with something like John Deere Yellow, which is just a shade brighter, coupled with the shade darker AC Orange would offset, but I don't know for sure... test, test, test...

If the Doc will repost his 'Zooch method' and some pics, and if I can duplicate it decently on a test tube, I'll spring for a few cans of more readily available competitive products and see if I can't get a good match.

Someone else (sorry escapes me at the moment who) suggested "Totally Tangerine" in New Krylon as a good match for the ET, so if yall have pics to demonstrate, I'd love to see em!

More later! OL JR

[foose4string]

JR, I wouldn't be overly concerned with the colors. You don't want a dayglo orange, but anything in the Pumpkin ballpark should work. The OT is always in some flux between yellow and a brownish orange, so anything in between should do ok. One color that comes real close to the actual OT is Krylon Farm and Implement #1809- School Bus Yellow. It's more of an Orange if you ask me. Seems like it's the old stuff, but I can't swear to it. Same cap as the old. I have yet to use it on a Zooch OT but I have sprayed it on my Semroc Hawk and it seems like a great color for this. Sounds like your implement paints ought to do the trick.

As long as you have a good base with the Ruddy Brown primer, your yellows and and oranges are going to darken over the dark base coat. Those colors are always a bit transparent anyway and take multiple coats to get the intended color. That's why we generally like white base coats for yellows, oranges, reds, etc...so they show up with more vibrancy. Obviously, we don't want that here and are only doing very light misting coats over the dark primer until we get the desired color.

Mine were built before all of this Krylon old formula/new formula nonsense. I used Ruddy Brown, Pumpkin Orange, and Sun Yellow(barely).

[mjennings]

I shot mine with an airbrush and used Testors Model maters paint, Chrome yellow, Afrka Braun, insignia red and rust. I can't recall the ratios off the top of my head, I'll look tonight (probably something like 102:1). The ET was a near exact color match to the shuttle on my mission patch poster.

[Fred22]

Instead of cutting all those strips of paper for the segments in the srb's I used dental floss. Looked great and not nearly as much work
Cheers
fred