My adult BAR phase started in the spring of 2010; I found TRF and YORF shortly after that. And so, it begins.
By that fall of 2010, I had found Excelsior for decals. In an order to Gordy I had him include the decal set for the Starship Vega. He did a beautiful job. Pictures will be forthcoming of the set.
But other things took precedence. The project sat for a while I learned, honed my skills, and plotted.
I gradually began building my own non-kit rockets, and became comfortable with the process. SEMROC became my friend and I found the JimZ plans site.
Though I had planned to "scratch build" (using existing components) this bird, including the fins, the urge to buy the precut fins from SEMROC was too great. I placed an order for the fins and cone early last spring (2011).
In a twist of fate, the SEMROC number for the Starship Vega finset was very similar to one for the Vigilante finset, and SEMROC mis-shipped me the Vigilante fins instead. This lead to a distraction from the Vega project as I researched and built the Vigilante. If you haven't built one, you gotta. It's a classic two-stager. I did it up in yellow and black per the classic style, and it's a favorite of mine, though beat up from some hard landings.
Of course the good folks at SEMROC sent me the correct finset promptly, but my flighty interest had moved on, taking a while to return to the Vega project.
I've gradually collected most of what I need. I think I'm just a few dowels away from having it all, so I'll get started.
Tomorrow, if time allows, I'll spread out the components and begin the build. I'll document the build here. There may be a few changes (upgrades!) but it will be a pretty faithful rendition of the Starship Vega, as my rose colored memories say it must be, complete with fin-cones.
With every build, I set some goals, aside from just having fun. What I want to work on here is getting the fins on nice and straight and at the right angles and such, and properly finishing the fillets and joints between the cones and the fins, better than I usually do. I want this to be a kicking rocket.
I'm not planning on doing anything special paint-wise. I've been learning with acrylics recently, which has been great fun and a good cold-weather inside painting opportunity, but I expect I'll just break out the white lacquer for the Vega. She's monotone white except for the decals.
Wish me luck. I'm really quite excited about this build!
Marc