Apparition - Build Thread

LW Bercini, beautiful and inspiring rocket. Might have to get me some pong balls

Here is the completed airframe. I have masked the faces and the tips of the fin spars since they will be glue surfaces once all the components are painted. Next was the usual fun and games of sanding, filling, patching and priming. I will spare you any dialogue on that not-so-fun step...




The tail ring was cut from a 6" diameter coffee can (this particular one was from Wallyworld). Using the same technique as was used to cut the shoulder off the boattail, a band of masking tape serves as a cutting guide. The first cut takes off the metal ring at the top of the can. Measuring for a 1.5" wide ring, another masking table band aids in freeing the wring.




The coffee can is made from cardboard. To keep from the edges from swelling and/or fraying, they should be sealed immediately prior to any further handling. Carefully soak both the top and bottom edge of the ring with thin CA/ Since both the interior and exterior of the ring is covered with a plastic coating which will be removed, drips are no concern





The plastic coating peeled off the interior easily. Unfortunately, the exterior coating was uncooperative. It had to be sanded off. Prior to any filling, the interior glue areas need to be marked and masked. Slide the ring over the spars to mark positions. The ring is wider than the spars, therefore, there will be 1/4" of ring above and below each spar. The mark is masked with a narrow strip of tape. Now the interior and exterior of the ring can be filled and sanded.

The fins were made from 1/16" balsa. Below you see the four pieces of a fin set. There is a right half and a left half, and each half is made from 2 pieces




Take a look at the way the grain runs across those little "tabs" on each part. Until the 2 pieces of each fin half are glued together, the little tabs would be way to easy to break off - likely happening during the process of cutting out the fins. To protect them until they have been glued together, I applied cellophane tape over the tabs. I could cut out the pieces without fear of snapping off the tabs. Once the pieces are glued together, remove the tape.



Once all the parts are glued together, lay out 3 of them to be left sides and 3 of them to right sides. Mask off the central 1" wide central area - this is where they will be glued to the spars later. This also reinforces the glue joint until they can be papered.



Now that all of the fin halves are made, time to sand them to final shape. Stack them all together and use straight pins to hold them together. Using a sanding block, sand all the edges square until the entire stack is one uniform shape. The pin holes will be covered by the paper covering later.

Looking Good!

papering the fins




Preparing for painting




Masking the lug




masking the white sections

more please?!?!?