Fliskits Decim8 build

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Madison Alum

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Its time to start on my Fliskits Decim8, another great kit from Fliskits and sure to be a challenging build! Thanks again Secret Santa, although I still have no guess who you are. A picture of the package unopened and a picture of parts. Body tubes galore! (plus 4 different thicknesses/types of fin material and a ping pong ball) Beaucoup paiges of instructions! All the parts arrived in great shape and now, a little time to review the instructions before starting.

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Well, after looking over the instructions and a couple of build threads and reviews, I most likely will just get some of the tubes and fins cut out until I figure out a paint shceme and get some time to paint.
 
I love FlisKits, great rockets ,great quality and fun to build !

I need to get myself one of those for the collection.I`ve built Jim`s Night Whisper ,2 of the TRESs (18 and 24mm versions) and his scale Journeyman rocket.....all beauties !

Next I have the Adfecta on the table next to me.

I look forward to this build ,should be great fun !


Paul T
 
Got the holes in the ping pong ball cut out. Started with the BT20 hole, but had a hard time getting the launch lug marking guide lined up correctly to have the BT20 hole and BT50 hole across from each other. So, I sacrificed the antenna and cut 2 BT20 holes in the ball, using the method from the Alien8 build. Then inserted the BT20 in the BT50 with a couple of centering rings to keep it centered, slipped the pingpong ball on the BT20 , slid it up to the BT50 and outlined the BT50 tube circumference. Have another BT50 pingpong ball cutout left from a previous build, proving that packratting stuff actually does work out sometimes. Launch lug cutouts did line up pretty good. Dry fit the ping pong ball, tubes and launch lug together and although it didnt come out perfect, some final sanding at the end should make everything line up great.

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I have one of these in my build pile...on the very bottom :( I just feel it requires a maximum effort, so much so that I will most likely never fly it when built. I been watching the builds whenever they come up, I'm thinking this one will be a good one :)
 
That kit looks awesome and scary to build at the same time.
 
Thanks. Haven't done much in the last week. just trying to get to work and get home without freezing and having the car puke. Plan on getting some more done this weekend, although, I still dont know when i will get to paint, so this may be limited to cutting out parts for now.
 
The Decim8 was a hard one to DESIGN, let me tell you! LOL. Imagine building this thing without instructions.... That's what Proto typing is like :)

Great kit though!
 
It certainly is a great kit, the product of a great imagination and talent! Made a little more progress, marking the BT20 tube, installing the engine block, engine hook and centering rings. Also made the first of about 10 curved cuts, this one to the aft end of the forward body tube. Fitted one of the body tubes into the slots and they seem to be OK. Next installing the engine tube into the aft body tube and starting on cutting out the clamshells.

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OK. Got the engine mount glued into the aft body tube and the parts for one of the pods cut out. The launch lug needs to be straightened up a bit and the cut edges on the pod halves need a little cleaning up, but things are progressing. Only 6 more curved body tube cuts to make (miscounted last time) and then several curved fins. One thing I did to make laying down the pattern for the pod halves easier was to draw a line down the length of the tube to be cut, draw a circle around the tube, then line the tip of the pattern up with the circle, one of the edges along the line, then wrap the rest around the tube, meeting up with the line and making sure the other half of the tip was even with the circle. A cool kit, but certainly living up to its level 4 rating (at least for me).

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After watching a disappointing Saints performance and a great Pats performance, it's back to tube cutting. Got the lower main tube marked and cut. The two halves slide together pretty good, which is a relief. We'll see how it all fits together with the alignment rings in place.

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Today's football games look like a bust, but did make some more progress on the Decim8. Cut out the other set of pod halves and glued the centering/alignment rings on the main body tubes. Will be starting on cutting the balsa pretty soon and then it will be time to decide on the painting scheme.

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Body tubes joined, tube plates attached, ping pong ball attached, launch lugs attached. First decision made on painting: Attach main wings and cooling fins to main body tube, paint body tube and hand paint the ping pong ball and cooling fins. But painting will have to wait for some painting weather.

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Finished attaching the cooling fins and the tail ring. Main fins are cut out. Next up attach main fins, cut out 7 more fins, glue together as much as I can and wait for painting season. This has cetainly been a challenging build, at least for me. The front edge of the pingpong ball needs to be really clean to be able to attach the cooling fins correctly. I sanded the surface of the tube and ball to get rid of a ridge of glue, but could have done a better job.

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Finished cutting out the fins (11 total, all but 2 with at least one curved edge) and cutting the tubes (11 angled cuts) and glueing the pieces together as much as possible prior to painting.
Have the main body and the port and starboard pod sections and port and starboard wing tip sections. Now for some painting weather to see if I can do some justice to this superb model.
Designing this and getting all the pieces to come together from scratch was indeed a work of art on the part on Mr Flis!

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Nice job so far!!! KUTGW! :clap:

Thanks. Other than some fillets, there is not much left to do until spring and then the painting fun begins. I see some hand painting on this kit, as I can't even begin to imagine how you could mask off some of the parts.
 
Hand painting and an air brush are your best friends with a kit like this. It was the Decim8 that got me to get my air brush out of moth balls LOL

Build is looking good!
 
Well, I finally got back to this really cool kit! Hand painting is not one of my strong points, but it was really the only way to go, without an air brush. Rocket is assembled and just needs some touch up on the spots I left bare for glueing, decals and clear coat. Hopefully it survives more than one launch up at Muncie. Landing on the tar is not going to be good for this rocket.

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PlumPurple Pigment?

What I can see of it in the pic (dark) looks cool.
I have one in the bag. Saving it for retirement..... :wink:
 
Thank you all. I'd like to say the darkness of the picture is to try to make it look more mean and mysterious, but mostly it is just poor picture taking. A good picture would show that this is indeed one those rockets where the paint job looks much better at 15 feet than 2 feet. And the purple is plum, except where I tried to do some touch up on the end of the lower tube and didnt even come close on a color match. Looking forward to flying this in April, hopefully.
 
I would be interested to know what the average build time is for this bird.
I pigmented a Fliskit "RockStar" with PlumPurples.
Good choice.
What are the other shades of pigment.
 
I've dragged this build out for so long, total time invested so far would be a guess. I would guess maybe 9 or 10 hours, but I am a slow builder. As to paint, I used plum purple krylon overall and sprayed the front body tube gloss black. Tried to spray the wing tip black, but that turned into a mess. The rest is Model Masters gloss black, blue pearl,aircraft gray,bright red pearl, chrome silver and napoleonic violet (looked close to plum purple in the picture and the jar but didnt turn out very close upon application). If I did it again, I think I would not have sprayed anything after the ping pong ball or the wings or pods. The red and blue did not lay down over the plum purple at all. Surprisingly, the gray covered everything it went on, as did the napoleonic violet. Still need to apply the decals and clear coat.
 
Finally finished build. This is such a cool looking kit, but right on the edge of my skill level, espcially in the paint department. Plan on giving it it's inagural flight next Saturday at ROCI's CIRFF at the AMA in Muncie. Got a bunch more Fliskits to tackle, including the K'Tanga and the Tesla.

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Okay, fine. If I have to beg for Detail Shots, I will. I'm really curious about the built-up cardstock bits around the engine and all the other bits of this model. Looks Awesome, BTW.
 
Thanks for the kind words. There are some pictures further up the thread that show some of the details. There were 10 fins to cut out, three sets of tubes that slip together to cut out, numerous smaller parts and one ping pong ball. The coolant fins around the engine came with the kit, laser cut out of basswood, I believe. Definately need to take heed of the numerous "warnings" throughout the instructions to prepait the sections prior to final assembly. Getting too close will only show that fact that there are numerous glitches in my painting and construction. Fine motor skills and patience are not my strengths. But I am glad it is done, because the real reason building this was to fly it and hopefully recover it to fly again!
 
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