Hi everyone! A few Qs from an old rocketeer back from the rim.

Born Again Rocketeer

It's the common term for those of us who were active in the hobby many years ago, put it down for a number of years, and have recently come back to it. You are a BAR, too!
-Ed

BrainlordMesomorph said:

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and forgive my ignorance: "BAR"??

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What you become after returning to the hobby from an absence.

milehigh said:

Born Again Rocketeer

It's the common term for those of us who were active in the hobby many years ago, put it down for a number of years, and have recently come back to it. You are a BAR, too!
-Ed

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Well then, hallelujah!

/I really just preferred to think of myself as back from the Rim.

Laaaaaag

For what its worth, I like my rockets to look nice, but I don't have the time or the inclination to make them look "perfect." There is a point for each of us that is "good enough." For some people, bare naked rockets are fine. Others want a quick coat of paint and spirals or seams don't much matter. Still others want to make some attempt to fill the spirals and seams but perfection isn't required, and of course, there are those perfectionists who want everything to be "just so." While it's nice to look at (and drool over) those perfect models, not all of us are built that way. For me, if I paper fins, I do it for strength and not so much to fill the grain. For that reason, when I paper fins, I don't worry about taking the paper all the way to the edges or trying to wrap around the edges. I do the best i can, feather the edges nicely, prime, paint, etc. As for launch lugs, I really don't care what the launch lug looks like at all as long as it stays attached. While it will get primed and painted along with everything else (as long as i don't forget it during the build), I'm certainly not going to spend any time sanding and filling spirals on the launch lug. Other builders would be appalled at my lack of concern in this regard. To each his/her own. You be you. Do what works for you to get a look that you are happy with. Do what makes the hobby fun... for you.

Peartree said:

'm certainly not going to spend any time sanding and filling spirals on the launch lug.

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I’m pretty anal about most of my finishing (despite not often achieving results equal to my ambition) but I too have abandoned filling spirals on my lugs. Just can’t muster up energy to care.*

Peartree’s overall message is important: find the level of finishing that is most comfortable and satisfying for you. There is no right or wrong here.






*on the other hand, papering launch lugs? How did I never think of that before??? Must try...

Peartree said:

For what its worth, I like my rockets to look nice, but I don't have the time or the inclination to make them look "perfect." ...

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My brother has a similar opinion, and he's getting back into this b/c of his kids, which is why I'm doing it. He'll launch unpainted rockets.

But my story is that even before rocketry, I was always an "art-eest'," I was frustrated when, as a kid, I couldn't make the rockets look like they did in the catalog. (although by the time I left high school I was building plastic model kits that looked *better* than they did on the box).

And then while I wasn't in rockets, I did go on to a career as a graphic artist, so 20 years after rockets, i'm making a living of sorts, using an xacto knife and glue eight hours a day, different glue. I know how to use an airbrush. (a career in computer programming is a lot more lucrative) and still today I paint and I sculpt, when I have time. So when its time to paint something around the house, well I do know how to apply a coating to a surface.

I'm not an impatient child anymore, and I have a lifetime of experience with a knife, a brush, a spray-can, and a computer printer. So yes, I have very very high hopes for the quality of my rockets.

The scaled models will have highly detailed paint jobs and decals (i'm SO excited about printing my own decals!) and the sport rockets will finally look like the well waxed flying surfboards I always saw in my head.

BTW: in paint (like a lot of things) most of the work is in the masking, the setup, and the cleanup, not the painting itself. So throwing on an extra coat or three isn't really any work at all for a muuch better result.