PEPP 1 Aeroshell REDUX

I took out all of the falcon tanks to make sure I had them all and to check for any damage that might have occurred during the hiatus. They all seemed fine.

That being the case, I began to mount the balsa coupler halves in the bottom ends making sure that the end of the coupler was flush with the end of the tube. Since the couplers sometimes had some variation, I laid a flat edge across the bottoms to make sure. The gluing was done with yellow glue.

While the glue on the balsa set up, I glued the body tube to the motor mount. I again used yellow glue. There were a few holes around the periphery left over from the drilling process and I plugged those with some glue soaked tissue to prevent ejection gasses from escaping.

Still waiting for glue to dry, I turned my attention back to the aft shroud and began the process of cutting it out. I quickly found that scissors did not give me enough control so I took out the razor knife. Through trial and error, I adopted a strategy of trying to cut close to the decal without actually getting to it and took it in small steps removing a small piece at a time. The result was rough at the margins but I knew I still had some work to do.

Cutting away the material for the aft shroud was a long and tedious process so when the rough cut was done, the glue was dry enough for me to proceed with the motor mount and tanks. Using a thick yellow glue, I smeared some on the exposed face of the balsa coupler, the end of the coupler and along the side of the tank tube and pressed it into place. All alignment was done with my eyeballs.

Each tank was allowed to stiffen for a bit and then the process was repeated with the next one.

Finally, the motor mount and body were done.

Turning back to the aft shroud, I installed a new blade in the X-acto and began to shave the outer margins back to the decal. The process was long but worthwhile. Fresh blades helped and the final touchup to the edge will be done with a black magic marker.

John,

Looking GREAT, one more suggestion on how to get that to stick to the "rough" surface.

Try a hair dryer. get the decal nice and warm then press down with a clean slightly damp cloth (SLIGHTLY) this may get the results you are looking for.

I put some vinyl for you to test with in the mail today. hope it helps.

ohhhh it is starting to look like something!!! very cool, I was excited when I saw that you got back to this!

mjennings said:

ohhhh it is starting to look like something!!! very cool, I was excited when I saw that you got back to this!

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More to come today, weather and wife permitting.

The falcon tank tubes were not cut perfectly so there were some gaps between the bottom of the tubes and the aft bulkhead. I filled these gaps by applying Titebond Trim and Molding glue as a fillet.

I have been following this with interest but this is starting to look seriously cool.

When the glue fillets had dried, I sprayed the entire motor mount with white primer. I knew that it would need further painting but, as things get more complex, I wanted to minimize spaces where paint did not reach.

After a day, I gave it a coat of the metallic silver that had been used on the engine nozzles.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this one. It's almost been as long since I have worked on it but I guess I should be getting things up to date.

I had long since applied the sticker for the aft bulkhead and cut it out around the outside. Cutting the inner circle was a bit more ticklish. I removed most of the material but stayed away from the edge. I figured I would take my time bringing it into round. That's the weaselly way of saying that cutting it is tiresome.

I sent Don Magness of Squirrel Works some CAD drawing of the truss elements and he agreed to fabricate them with his equipment. They came in and were perfect, each element type being individually packaged.

I printed up enough full scale truss plans for each truss and then pinned one copy to a piece of foam board to hold it in place.

I started off with the longest member, the lower chord. I set it in place over its drawing and then pushed a series of pins in to the foam to hold it in place.

The other 2 outer members were then glued into place and held still with pins.

When the outer members had dried for a while, I glued the inner members in place in the same manner.

When the whole thing had an opportunity to dry some, I removed it and had my first truss.

WOW I wondered what happened to this build, good to see it going again!

stickershock23 said:

WOW I wondered what happened to this build, good to see it going again!

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I'm going to finish this one even if it kills me but there have been some "technical difficulties". In layman's terms, I messed up.

Stand by for updates.

JAL3 said:

I'm going to finish this one even if it kills me but there have been some "technical difficulties". In layman's terms, I messed up.

Stand by for updates.

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ARRRGGGH I hate when that happens.. hope it's fixable.

stickershock23 said:

ARRRGGGH I hate when that happens.. hope it's fixable.

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It is but its going to take some reworking of the trusses.

After I got all the trusses built, I realized that the profile of the "body" hidden within all those "Falcon" motors was not a cylinder as in the prototype. There was a lip all the way around that I had cut the fuel tanks on the Falcons to fit. This meant that the trusses, as built, could not fit right up against the central tube. If the inner wall was flush against the tube, the truss would not fit on the base. If the truss was flush against the base, it would not go all the way in.

It looks like I am going to be commisioning some more work from Squirrel Works.

I can't believe its been so long!

When last this project was worked on, I realized that I had blundered with the truss design. This was completely MY fault.

Now, the truss has been re-designed to account for the actual profile and to use deeper members. I printed up a dozen sheets of the truss full scale to use in putting the trusses together.

I set the basswood stock over the drawing and used a mechanical pencil to mark the cuts. The members on the drawing were labeled as were the members as they were actually cut with a razor saw.

When all of the members of a truss were cut, the truss was assembled on the drawing and glued together with Titebond II. The member were glued to each other and a small amount of glue was used to glue them to the paper itself, effectively "laminating" one side. This was done not for finishing reasons but so that the members would stay rigidly aligned. I will trim the paper later.