The current push is to finish up the escape towers in the next couple of weeks. Assembly of the tower lattices and antenna sections was documented in a few previous posts, and now we will paint those bits and assemble them into a complete escape tower. Paint work on the tower lattice is the first step. Take a look at this photo of the Little Joe 1A round, noting the contrasting bands of color on the tower uprights and cross members (you may need to download and zoom in to see the markings):
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We need to make an intelligent guess as to what these marks might be. Duct/duck/gaffer tape was already in wide use at this point (late '50s-early '60s), having been introduced a couple of decades earlier. It strikes me as highly likely that these marks are bits of duct tape attached to various points on the tower, so we're going to reproduce them with grey paint. The first step is to paint the entire lattice a medium-darkish grey. Next, the duct tape locations are masked with narrow bits of Tamiya masking tape.
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With the masking tape in place the tower is airbrushed with black paint.
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Next, the tape is removed to reveal the grey paint under the black, simulating the bits of duct tape.
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Finally, the orange antenna section, the black "coolie hat" blast deflector, the tower base, and the lattice are glued together. A section of BT-5 tuning aligns with holes located in the former rings for the recovery section, coolie hat, and tower base. Two plywood centering rings will allow the completed tower to fit into the core of the boilerplate Mercury capsule.
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More later,
James