My Son's Scratch Centuri Orion

[tbzep]

Ok, Carl...you can release the Orion kit now. Every time my son or I clone a really cool kit, you release it as a SEMROC kit. When Kody started making parts for his Orion we found out you were planning to kit it. It's now done, so you've got to put it out now.

I ordered up some cones and Little Joe II wraps from Semroc which my son cut to size for the Orion. He then used my Saturn 1B's wraps for a pattern and made all the little bits and pieces for his wraps. Throw in some plans from JimZ, lots of poking around for pictures of other Orions on the net and he had all he needed to build what he considers the third coolest Centuri kit ever, after the two Saturns. We printed and coated the decals for it and several other projects and he applied them and the silver trim strips last night. The only thing left to do is apply a coat of future.

[UfO]

Great looking clone. Every time I see this one cloned I'm more and more tempted to try it myself!

[Pem Tech]

Very, very nice work....

[foose4string]

That turned out great! Lots of nekkid rockets there.

Carl and Bruce have mentioned in the past that the wraps are what have caused the delay in getting the Orion released, but I think they could improvise the wraps, same way your son did. Vacuum wraps would be cool and a definite time saver for the builder, but honestly, I think building them out of paper and balsa would be the way to go for Semroc. Those detail bits could be already sized and cut with the laser and all the builder would have to do is some sanding and then minor assembly of the wraps. Markings etched on the corrugated paper to indicate proper placement. Very doable. The wraps on the Saturn 1B are already done in a similar manor.

Your track record with Semroc releasing your clones has been very good, Tim. Keep up the good work.... and I can think of several more clones for you to do should you run out of ideas.

[Intruder]

That turned out great! Lots of nekkid rockets there.

Carl and Bruce have mentioned in the past that the wraps are what have caused the delay in getting the Orion released, but I think they could improvise the wraps, same way your son did. Vacuum wraps would be cool and a definite time saver for the builder, but honestly, I think building them out of paper and balsa would be the way to go for Semroc. Those detail bits could be already sized and cut with the laser and all the builder would have to do is some sanding and then minor assembly of the wraps. Markings etched on the corrugated paper to indicate proper placement. Very doable. The wraps on the Saturn 1B are already done in a similar manor.

Your track record with Semroc releasing your clones has been very good, Tim. Keep up the good work.... and I can think of several more clones for you to do should you run out of ideas.

Yeah. The problem with doing it all from scratch is that there are 12 itty bitty pieces that require a LOT of sanding. Also, it's really easy to prime the corrugations away. If your careful though, the end result is complete AWESOMENESS!

One thing I would suggest to SEMROC to change about the kit, is to change the grain direction of the pod standoffs. They will break way too easily in the original orientation.

Edit: SEMROC is usually pretty quick with their post-clone releases. It's been a while since I finished this one. I wonder what part of the wraps is giving them
so much trouble.

[Micromeister]

Very nicely done Tim;
hope you and our son have as much fun with yours as I have with mine and the micro down scaled little brother. Making all those little details was a trip.

[chuckpo]

Great job! Looks awesome

[Intruder]

Thanks Micro and Chuck.

Very nicely done Tim;
hope you and our son have as much fun with yours as I have with mine and the micro down scaled little brother. Making all those little details was a trip.

The details for the normal sized one was a huge pain. I couldn't imagine building a micro maxx one.

[JAL3]

It looks great!

I've always been a Centuri fan but this one never did much for me until now. Now I want one...

Great job!

[rocketguy101]

weren't the original Centuri wraps from their 1/100th Saturn 1B? Paul Graf said if there was interest, he might make more (see my YORF Sat 1B build thread ) You can PM him I believe he is grafgulch here and on YORF

Edit: BTW beautiful work on this bird!! I thought about making scratch wraps and started drawing the "naughty bits" and was mericfully spared that task when Paul contacted me! Your son's craftsmanship is outstanding!

[tbzep]

Thanks Micro and Chuck.



The details for the normal sized one was a huge pain. I couldn't imagine building a micro maxx one.

It would only be a small pain.

[tbzep]

weren't the original Centuri wraps from their 1/100th Saturn 1B? Paul Graf said if there was interest, he might make more (see my YORF Sat 1B build thread ) You can PM him I believe he is grafgulch here and on YORF

Edit: BTW beautiful work on this bird!! I thought about making scratch wraps and started drawing the "naughty bits" and was mericfully spared that task when Paul contacted me! Your son's craftsmanship is outstanding!

Yes, they originally came from Saturn wraps along with the Enerjet Athena, which I built using some reproduction wraps I got from Neubauer Rocketry. Kody's (Intruder's) wraps actually look better because the styrene repro's are a little bumpy due to the vacuum holes up and down the corrugations. I don't remember if I ever posted a pic of the Athena, so I'll stick it on here.

[tbzep]

It looks great!

I've always been a Centuri fan but this one never did much for me until now. Now I want one...

Great job!

John, the Orion looks even better in person. Use some of that bright red paint we talked about on your Custom Rockets Engage to paint the nozzle and the nose. We made our own decals and got the red lines pretty close.

I've got a Neubauer Orion kit based on a BT-80, but Kody's clone isn't much smaller. Once he got his clone built I decided not to build the Neubauer kit. I'm thinking about selling it and doing a scratch build based on some BT-101 tubes I've got laying around. The only problem is that I've got a pile of kits and a long list of other clones and upscales to do too. Oh yeah, one more thing....Turning six identical nosecones for the pods would be more of a pain for me than making all the little doo-dads (technical term) for the wraps.