Super Neon Mosquito Bash

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les

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So from the last Estes sale, I have a Super Neon XL plus a Mega Mosquito

Time to start bashing these two....

Start with the traditional shot of the parts from both kits

parts orig.jpg

and some added parts

parts added.jpg

For the build I used F&F on the tubes and some additional nose cones

fill tube.jpg fill cones.jpg
 
For part of my bash I needed to square off the ends of the fin. I used the cutting mat to line up the edge

fin trim.jpg

And the full set

fin trim set.jpg

Glued the fin skins on and presently drying - no real pix of the fins under weight drying
 
Huh, interesting pair of kits to knock together. No idea what to do with my own 'neon. So i am very curious to see what you come up with
 
Looks to me as if you have at least three kits.

I don’t remember my Mega-Mosquito or Super Neon XL having all those pointy nose cones or the ones that look like a Gemini capsule.
 
Will there be some sort of fin-mounted pod silliness? Please tell me there will be...

Pods!!!

Why this hang-up with Pods??

Have none of you ever seen “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”?

I have; it has “Pods” and it doesn’t end well.
 
Pods!!!

Why this hang-up with Pods??

Have none of you ever seen “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”?

I have; it has “Pods” and it doesn’t end well.

So, you got something against pods?

invasBodySnatchersDVDcap4.jpg
 
Looks to me as if you have at least three kits.

I don’t remember my Mega-Mosquito or Super Neon XL having all those pointy nose cones or the ones that look like a Gemini capsule.

Correct - the second picture is added parts beyond the kit parts for the bash
 
Pods!!!

Why this hang-up with Pods??

Have none of you ever seen “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”?

I have; it has “Pods” and it doesn’t end well.

Well - sorry to say this will have pods - hence trimming the end of the fins. Needed something square there to mount to
But hopefully this will end up better and no bodies will be invaded... :eyepop:
 
Fins are dry. Rounded the leading edge and then papered the fins - they are drying now.

Started work on the motor mount. Typical of the mega mosquito, the fin tabs don't reach the motor tube. Rather than trim the fins I decided to build up the motor mount tube.

I also cut some strips from card stock

strips mount1.jpg

The strips got a coating of glue and installed into 3 of the tube fins from the Super Neon. I inserted some ping pong balls to get the strips into the correct depth. I removed them to allow the glue to dry. The picture shows the them installed after the glue was somewhat dry. These will require epoxy later on

strips tube.jpg pod ball.jpg

And I want to be able to use larger motors so I modified the Mega Mosquito mount. This should allow me to use a 6 grain CTI case

mount.jpg
 
Now I REALLY want to watch this closer, and see how your extended mount works out.
 
What do I have against Pods?

First it’s Pods and then it is Triffids and then there goes the neighborhood.

I almost spit out my coffee at this one... well played, gentlemen.

But I am still at a loss as to why you would WANT to screw around with your Mega Mosquito kit. I LOVE mine....
And by coincidence, I also scored one AND a Neon at the last Estes sale. it still sits in the build pile...so I too am waiting to see where this is heading...
 
Now I REALLY want to watch this closer, and see how your extended mount works out.
Give you a hint - not all that special.....

But meanwhile, the fins are papered and trimmed

fins papered.jpg

Worked on the PODS - watching them grow........

I'm adding a BT50 tube inside and cut a slot so I'll have TTW mount. The "Gemini" style cones will be on the pods

pod pieces.jpg

Here I used epoxy to glue the balls in, and dipped the BT50 tube in the epoxy and installed the tube. The top centering ring has not been glued in yet.
Here they are drying in my paint area

pod glue.jpg
 
Give you a hint - not all that special.....

But meanwhile, the fins are papered and trimmed

View attachment 187461

Worked on the PODS - watching them grow........
I'm adding a BT50 tube inside and cut a slot so I'll have TTW mount. The "Gemini" style cones will be on the pods

View attachment 187462

Here I used epoxy to glue the balls in, and dipped the BT50 tube in the epoxy and installed the tube. The top centering ring has not been glued in yet.
Here they are drying in my paint area

View attachment 187463

And then I added a porch light and a small potted plant. . .Yee Gods!! Is there no end to this man’s madness??!!

And while you're at it, keep a close eye on those “Growing Pods”; you don’t want to fall asleep anywhere near them.
 
Here is the internal view of the pod and how it will tie to the fin

pod internal.jpg

I applied tape to the center rings to keep things centered while I glued them onto fins

center ring.jpg

Then glued the pods to the fins - this should help keep them from spreading :wink:
Used a bookcase to keep them up while the glue dried

pod fin.jpg
 
I wanted to beef up the pod with 2 part foam. I used the tape tabs to remove the center ring so I could apply the foam.
And then I ran into issues :facepalm:

One pod the foam set up unevenly and pushed the center tube off center
Also the first pod/fin I felt I did not use enough foam, the second I used too much
And even though the top of the pod was open, I got some bulging at the pod/fin interface

pod oops 2.jpg pod oops 1.jpg pod oops 3.jpg

While not happy, they don't really look too bad so I will live with them


After some cleanup I tried a dry fit of the fins to the body tube. The extended motor mount can be seen through the Mosquito nose cone

dry fit 1.jpg
 
Sorry for the delay. I went out of town to visit my sister

Not much done except actually gluing the motor mount in and fins on using a template from Payload

fin glue 1.jpg fin glue 2.jpg

Hopefully more to be done on Sunday....
 
well, not as much as I hoped...

Wanted to add scoops at the fin/body juncture cutting them from more of the Super Neon tube fins

First set below, but they didn't turn out like I wanted - too scoopy

scoop 1.jpg

So I changed the amount of scoop. Still wasn't exactly what I wanted but not bad. To get what I really wanted would have required cutting from my own BT60 - but this is a BASH!
Trying to use as much of the original kits as I can.

So I cut out the new scoops and taped them on to see how they look.
Also decided to come clean with the motor tube extension.... Plus needed to use the body tubes from the Super Neon, so the motor tube extended into the Super Neon body....
It also shows my concept for the added BT5 tubes (and some of them pointy nose cones)

dry fit 2.jpg dry fit 3.jpg

I will say cutting the BT5 to match the Mega Mosquito nose cone has been a challenge.
My original plan was for 6 - I may give up after the 3 I need to align with the fins.

And since I am finally letting the cat out of the bag, here is my original Rocksim layout. I do need to update it for some of my changes (such as the scoop layout), but it shows what I am looking for...

Super_Neon_Mosquito.jpg
 
Sorry for the long delay - various life things, work, and yes - just motivation. Plus a little bit of rocket block - not everything is coming together quite the way I had hoped and trying to figure out my go forward (or should that be a go upward) plan.

I have spent some time cutting the BT5 tubes, and cutting, and cutting, and trying again
Definitely going to do only 3

Here they are attached

base with tubes.jpg

They are not perfect and I'll need to use some putty to fill the gaps

gaps.jpg

Having some second thoughts on how to handle the top.

But I am saving my water bottle caps.....
why?
a little sanding and they'll become portholes (I hope)

bottle caps.jpg
 
Building some trusses using BBQ skewers.
I am building 2 versions and plan to alternate them.

truss.jpg

One of these days maybe I'll try an escape tower for a Sat V.....

But what a pain in the @55....
These are taking a while
 
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These trusses are taking forever!

I have about half done but I'm averaging less than 1 per day :(

Just held on with tape and alignment guide but this is what I'm trying to do

spike1.jpg spike2.jpg
 
Okay, now you’re just yanking our chain.

Chain? What chain? I know not of this chain that thou speaketh of.

Instead - let me rejoice with the completion of the last truss (I hope)

spike3.jpg

I still need to reinforce the joints with epoxy. I've had a few break off pieces that I've had to reattach (part of why things have gone so slow)

I plan to add bands to the trusses like this

band example.jpg
 
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