Semroc Saturn 1B

Fred22 said:

Dave how many engines were on the real one and do you think it could be done? Your build by the way it's usual museum quality standard
Cheers
fred

Click to expand...

Fred, are you talking about an 8 engine cluster?! Probably on my next 1/70
Saturn 1-B build (SEMROC), I'll work out a way to do that, now that we have
the new Q2G2 igniters to "assist" in the ignition. The four inboards can use
the standard C6's, and the four outboards the A10-PT's.

Thanks for the compliments, but if you'd saw my model up close (and in person), the build is really just about "average," not really a museum quality
type. If you were to see the finished product of someone like John Pursley's 1/12 scale Mercury Redstone, THAT is a superb museum quality build! Those who are members of this forum that have seen his model know
what I'm talking about......

Wow, been a while. As an update, I have all the tank tubes filled, primed, and painted. The fins are built, and primed but still need alot of work. The fins slowed me down because I really don't like the way they're built. They seem weak, and they're very hard to keep straight, but I'll get them looking good.

I called Apogee to see about buying a set of his cast resin fins that he sells with his kit, but he doesn't sell them separate. Makes no sense to me considering the Semroc kit and the Apogee kit are priced in such different catagories, but what can you do.

I'll post some pictures later tonight.

I built mine to take the 24mm. motor to make it easier to fly it.
I still had butterflies that felt like hummingbirds when I flew it last year.
An E18-4 was perfect. The rocket flew straight and true, turned over at apogee, pointed it's nose down and ejected the laundry. I shot video of the flight which turned out crummy because I was watching rather than filming but the audio is worth it.
Here's a picture of it on the pad.
SG

Boosterdude said:

Wow, been a while. As an update, I have all the tank tubes filled, primed, and painted. The fins are built, and primed but still need alot of work. The fins slowed me down because I really don't like the way they're built. They seem weak, and they're very hard to keep straight, but I'll get them looking good.

I called Apogee to see about buying a set of his cast resin fins that he sells with his kit, but he doesn't sell them separate. Makes no sense to me considering the Semroc kit and the Apogee kit are priced in such different catagories, but what can you do.

I'll post some pictures later tonight.

Click to expand...

I was concerned about fin strength as well. I strengthened the fins at 8:23 on this video:
[youtube]ZOq3hQrqwH0[/youtube]
With my modded fins glued onto the airframe they feel very sturdy. Launched twice on 4xE9 cluster. One launch the rocket descended too quickly and broke three fins off from the airframe, but the fins themselves did not break.

Good to know the fins hold up well. Here is a pic of the built and primed fins. Still some final filling and sanding, but they're getting there.


Not a great pic, but here are the completed tanks that are painted....all eight of them!

Well I'm finally making some progress on the 1B, to many projects going on simultaneously. At this point all of the wraps, and transitions have been installed. The wraps were actually very easy using 30min epoxy spread on thin. A few pieces of tape were used to pull and align the wraps. After the tape I used #64 rubber bands to hold them tight.

The lower fairing shroud was tough. It's hard to get it to look right, or should I say to blend it with the tanks. It might be easy if this piece was made from a thin plastic sheet instead of paper.

So at this point I'm doing some final filling, sanding, and need to make some small fillets around the fins to close the gaps. After that it will be ready to paint the white base coat. I'm also building all of the scale details which is something I really enjoy. This is a really cool build, and I must say an excellent value from Semroc.

Can't wait to see it finished, and fly it! With scale r/c airplanes we have a saying a scale model is never really done, you just stop working on it. I think the same applies here.

Boosterdude said:

I called Apogee to see about buying a set of his cast resin fins that he sells with his kit, but he doesn't sell them separate. Makes no sense to me considering the Semroc kit and the Apogee kit are priced in such different catagories, but what can you do.

Click to expand...

I talked to Tim about this last fall when we were doing a bunch of these for the Apollo 7 celebration. His reason is pretty simple--he makes pretty good profit selling the Saturn kits, and he can get those prices because he's the only game in town for several critical parts. If he started selling the parts on their own, he'd lose a bunch of kit business to folks who wanted to Apogee-ize a competitors kit. He also invested a big chunk of money into tooling for those parts, and it's a whole lot easier to pay that off by selling kits with $100+ of profit than by selling off parts at $5-10 profit, even. He'd have to charge some pretty insulting piece prices to make up for the net profit difference.

The capsule/tower and the vacu-form wraps are about the only individual parts you can get.

That said, I have bought a fair number of parts, including the cast resin fins, for his Saturns but basically just as replacement parts for flight damage, and I've had to do that contacting them directly. I suspect my account is flagged there as a significant/repeat customer .

Might be the longest build thread ever, sorry about that. Here's an update of my Saturn 1B build. Getting much closer now, I have a few more details to add to the upper part of the booster. Then of course painting the fuel tanks and fin can. I'm using the Apogee capsule so thats easy. Great looking rocket to model. This is a really fun project, nothing really tough to build it just takes some time.

Well I saw Inflight's build thread and decided it's time to get mine finished. Getting ridiculous and embarrassing, :confused2:.

So today I finished sanding the fin can and got it painted white, that only took 4 months! Time to paint the black markings on the fin can and it's almost done. This is one of the Skylab missions so the tanks stay white.

So thanks to Ray for giving me a kick in the butt.

Hey, looking great, John!

.

Here's today's update, I completed the fin can painting and applied some more decals.

Boosterdude said:

Here's today's update, I completed the fin can painting and applied some more decals.

Click to expand...

CSM metal finish is amazing What about the tower? Are you going to be a real man and fly it with the tower on lol
Cheers
fred

Heck yes, the only way this one flies is with the tower. Just doesn't look right without it.

Well I knew I would finish it one day, only took a year. It's done ready to fly next month at the club fly hopefully.

Overall the kit is fantastic and I enjoyed building it. Scale models are always the most enjoyable projects. I built this one with one 24mm mount to use reloads, most likely an E18-4 for the first flight. I used the Apogee Capsule which has a ton of detail and is very reasonably priced for what you get. Ready to fly weight is 10.5oz which feels light for the size of the rocket. Semroc produces a lot of kit for the money and I'm sure I'll build more of them. I used one of Sandman's Apollo Service Module Wraps which worked perfectly.

Next up is a Apogee Saturn V!

Great looking rocket and time is irrelevant IMO. Are you gonna het your boy to mash the button on the first launch for it
Cheers
fred

I do like the chrome Service Module wrap!

I wasn't sure it would look right compared to the plain silver but I LIKE IT!!!

sandman said:

I do like the chrome Service Module wrap!

I wasn't sure it would look right compared to the plain silver but I LIKE IT!!!

Click to expand...

Gorgeous...really fine wokmanship.
I have the Semroc kit...sitting in a box.

What other aftermarket add ons are needed to replicate this...?

Thanks MaxQ!

The only aftermarket items used are the following:

1. Apogee Capsule, this kit includes the reaction control thrusters mounted on the service module.

2. Service Module wrap from Sandman.

3. Kevlar Shock cord.

I think I need to order more chrome ink.

Boosterdude said:

Thanks MaxQ!

The only aftermarket items used are the following:

1. Apogee Capsule, this kit includes the reaction control thrusters mounted on the service module.

2. Service Module wrap from Sandman.

3. Kevlar Shock cord.

Click to expand...

Looking at yours I'm inspired to build mine...
The Apollo capsule is very nice...I built a Semroc Apollo Little Joe II which includes the Semroc capsule kit...and I did not think this was the stock capsule...and I haven't seen the Apogeee close up...the blast cover in the picture appears to be more like a vacuform piece or a plastic kit blast cover...adds a real nice touch.

The Apogee capsule is freakin' sweet!

Very very accurate!

You guys have convinced me to buy one on the Semroc Saturn 1B kits on eBay right now for 99 bucks. Great thread folks. I'll put this one on the shelf til I'm ready.

You won't be disappointed. It's a great kit.

I just put in an order as well. Quantity in stock was 1, looks like I got the last. I'm not ready to build it yet, but I'll have it when I feel I can do it justice.

On man. I missed it and don't get one. Enjoy T-Rex. If anyone knows where I can get one please let me know.

MaxQ said:

The Apollo capsule is very nice...I built a Semroc Apollo Little Joe II which includes the Semroc capsule kit...and I did not think this was the stock capsule...and I haven't seen the Apogeee close up...the blast cover in the picture appears to be more like a vacuform piece or a plastic kit blast cover...adds a real nice touch.

Click to expand...

The Apogee CM is a hard plastic molded, not a vacuform.

I was just on the eRockets page. The quantity is back to 1. They may be scrounging pieces to put kits together as needed, but I don't think it will last much longer.

Yes. I was able to get one from eRockets. Thank you all.

Inventory back up to 1 again. I think Randy is playing with us.