Sheri's Saturn V.

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We've been having contractors over giving us estimates for roofing and kitchen remodeling and it's been making me (for whatever reasons) want to start on the Saturn V. I still have yet to finish the Mercury Redstone but that just burned me out. It was mostly the damage I incurred removing the masking tape that threw me a curve ball and I fell into a funk since. I need to use a high quality, low tack tape which was where I failed. The stuff I had just pulled up too much of the finish.
The build itself on the Saturn V is quite straight forward and simple. The challenge for these models always comes from the paint job with a lot of masking. This thing will take a fair amount of primer and paint requiring a ton of filling and sanding. It seems like a fresh start approach by getting this going rather than dorking around with the Mercury Redstone. Well, the roofing contractor is here and I need to get going.
 
Yes finish it! Been following since the start . Wounds are liked clean , get back on the wagon - this will be a masterpiece when you are done!
 
We've been having contractors over giving us estimates for roofing and kitchen remodeling and it's been making me (for whatever reasons) want to start on the Saturn V. I still have yet to finish the Mercury Redstone but that just burned me out. It was mostly the damage I incurred removing the masking tape that threw me a curve ball and I fell into a funk since. I need to use a high quality, low tack tape which was where I failed. The stuff I had just pulled up too much of the finish.
The build itself on the Saturn V is quite straight forward and simple. The challenge for these models always comes from the paint job with a lot of masking. This thing will take a fair amount of primer and paint requiring a ton of filling and sanding. It seems like a fresh start approach by getting this going rather than dorking around with the Mercury Redstone. Well, the roofing contractor is here and I need to get going.

Well you are too far into it NOT to finish it.
If you can't, well, just ship it all to me and I'll take over. :wink:

BTW: Love your signature line there........

at the 2:21:05 mark here:
[video=youtube;AxJNxrZCboY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJNxrZCboY[/video]


My favorite part of the movie:
[video=youtube;8iQW_FQpdvc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQW_FQpdvc[/video]
 
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IMG_0026.jpg The fins have already been assembled from Red Arrow Hobbies so no work there. However, plenty of filling and sanding will need to be done.
 
Well you are too far into it NOT to finish it.
If you can't, well, just ship it all to me and I'll take over. :wink:

BTW: Love your signature line there........

at the 2:21:05 mark here:
[video=youtube;AxJNxrZCboY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJNxrZCboY[/video]


My favorite part of the movie:
[video=youtube;8iQW_FQpdvc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQW_FQpdvc[/video]

Someone's on top of things here. I figured it would be a far reach for most anyone. It's the very last lines spoken in this excellent movie. The engine turning over scene is one of my all time favorites!
 
IMG_0031.jpgIMG_0032.jpgIMG_0033.jpgIMG_0034.jpgIMG_0035.jpg These are the fin shrouds as I got them from Red Arrow Hobbies. I'm not very impressed with the way that three of them warped like you see so I may very well either wrap them around a 3 1/4" tube and use a heat gun on them or chuck them and build them from scratch using the patterns that came with the kit. Good thing they kept the patterns on the plans as it would simply be more work to make my own.
The original kit gave you a length of 3 1/4" tube to cut the shrouds from using the supplied patterns. In this version you get 1/8" thick styrene pieces with the ribs molded in. All in all, not very happy with these botched up pieces.
 
I have to ask... Hasn't the poor mold/parts quality been an ongoing issue from day one with these kits? I thought this was one of the reasons the designs never transitioned when Red Arrow bought the business. I would have thought warping problems like the above would be expected as part of the building "challenge"?
 
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I have to ask... Hasn't the poor mold/parts quality been an ongoing issue from day one with these kits? I thought this was one of the reasons the designs never transitioned when Red Arrow bought the business. I would have thought warping problems like the above would be expected as part of the building "challenge"?

Probably so, but if you are paying that kind of money for a kit you shouldn't have these challenges. It's a challenge just putting the thing together without warped parts to deal with. Just my :2:
 
Probably so, but if you are paying that kind of money for a kit you shouldn't have these challenges. It's a challenge just putting the thing together without warped parts to deal with. Just my :2:

No arguing that, but still, a well-known issue/risk.
 
View attachment 293528
These are the fin shrouds as I got them from Red Arrow Hobbies. I'm not very impressed with the way that three of them warped like you see so I may very well either wrap them around a 3 1/4" tube and use a heat gun on them or chuck them and build them from scratch using the patterns that came with the kit. Good thing they kept the patterns on the plans as it would simply be more work to make my own.
The original kit gave you a length of 3 1/4" tube to cut the shrouds from using the supplied patterns. In this version you get 1/8" thick styrene pieces with the ribs molded in. All in all, not very happy with these botched up pieces.

I wouldn't be happy with these fairing shrouds either! But I would imagine they would be very hard to mold.
The fairings pictured on the website look round-
https://www.redarrowhobbies.com/SATV.html

Sat V Fairings.jpg

Maybe that's why Sheri was pictured holding the rockets to distract you from the details.
 
I have to ask... Hasn't the poor mold/parts quality been an ongoing issue from day one with these kits? I thought this was one of the reasons the designs never transitioned when Red Arrow bought the business. I would have thought warping problems like the above would be expected as part of the building "challenge"?

To be honest I never knew of such issues. But as AfterBurners stated, in paying this kind of money I would damn well expect better quality. I had no such issues with the Mercury Redstone so no suspicions were raised in ordering this back in 2013.
 
I've been looking into Shapeways again to find anything that might help me here and did find some fin shrouds along with the fins themselves molded in to acquire. This is yet another possibility. What I have done is order a LOC BT from Apogee with some of their orange tracking powder and also try building them from scratch. I will still need 1 mm x 1 mm strips for the stringers in addition. Might as well stock up on some CA glue while I'm at it.:wink:
 
I've been wondering what to use as an ejection system, do I use the charge from the motor or go electronic deployment or both? I figure a J275 on a cert. 2 attempt. Also is there a way to deploy the chutes without getting tangled with each other as there will be three of these total. I'm using Rocket Man 5 ft. standard chutes which only have four lines to reduce tangles, (nice idea if you ask me).
 
I've just applied heat from my heat gun to the fin shrouds to get them into some kind of decent shape and it looks like I've made some headway. It appears that in the cooling process, things change a bit so I'll have to Mickey Mouse things around to get the final shape. I may just as well keep them as they initially turned out as they are still better off now then they were when I first received them.
 
IMG_0001.jpgIMG_0002.jpgIMG_0003.jpgIMG_0004.jpg This is the end result of my applying heat to them and bending them around a 3 1/8" tube as a mandrel of sorts.
 
Mabey you could cut a ring with the shape of the fairings in it for the aft end to help straighten them out.
 
Mabey you could cut a ring with the shape of the fairings in it for the aft end to help straighten them out.

These are still somewhat pliable and I'll use some internal bracing at the aft end as the instructions show. After installation, the bottom of the fairing will be covered by .030 sheet styrene.
 
I'm curious did you use a heat gun? Nice to know if I ever run into the same type of problem on future builds

Yup, the same gun I've been using on my RC aircraft coverings to heat shrink them. I laid the shroud on a 3 1/8" tube (same dia. tube used for cutting out the shrouds on the older version) applied heat, worked the shroud around the tube and repeated till I got the results you see. I could use more but I'll see after I glue the internal bracing in place.
 
IMG_0002.jpg I now have a shroud with a 3/8" x 1/4" balsa brace CA'd in place. I'll see how this fits on the main tube, sand, heat, file to fit and then use 5 min. epoxy to glue brace in. I'll start off using CA to glue the shrouds on the main tube then 5 min. epoxy to add strength. You can see the shape is MUCH better than before with no additional heating required.
 
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