Dr. Zooch Saturn V

[MarkII]

Great! I just screwed up wrap "A" and ruined it. No seconds of that wrap on the sheet in the kit, so this project is now suspended indefinitely.

I normally scratch-build, and haven't been building that many kits in recent years. In fact, it has been almost a year since I built my last rocket from a kit. I have also been in a bit of a building slump too, since my brother (and rocket buddy) died, but getting this kit and starting to build it had really been helping me to snap out of that. Until now. I really thought that I knew how to do something that was as basic as this.

:bang: :bang: :bang:

MarkII

 

[Dr.Zooch]

You messed up the wrap... on the Saturn V? PM me you mailing address and I'll just send you another one- I'm running them off the printer right now. No need to worry- you bought a Dr. Zooch kit... I've got yer' back covered.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Great! I just screwed up wrap "A" and ruined it. No seconds of that wrap on the sheet in the kit, so this project is now suspended indefinitely.

I normally scratch-build, and haven't been building that many kits in recent years. In fact, it has been almost a year since I built my last rocket from a kit. I have also been in a bit of a building slump too, since my brother (and rocket buddy) died, but getting this kit and starting to build it had really been helping me to snap out of that. Until now. I really thought that I knew how to do something that was as basic as this.

:bang: :bang: :bang:

MarkII

Sorry to hear about your brother, Mark... that's a tough one. My brother is into RC monster trucks, not really interested in rockets much, but he does come down to the field to the launches once in awhile and covers for me when the club comes out to fly when I'm gone. That's pretty cool of him.

Wes is really cool and will send you a new wrap free of charge, usually. I got a few minor creases in my Agena wrap, my fault for trying to roll it on something too small to get it curled "perfectly" (sometime us perfectionists can be our own worst enemy) but it laid down pretty smooth when I glued it on, so I'm not gonna lose too much sleep over it, though I wish it were just a touch smoother...

Oh well, that's how it goes... live and learn. Good luck with your build and post pics! OL JR

PS... I see Wes beat me to the punch...

 

[MarkII]

Well, here's what happened with the wrap. I was concerned that I would get glue on my fingers and transfer it to the pattern while I was laying the wrap down and rolling it around the tube. You see, I have done a bit of cardmodeling in the past, and I have learned to take all kinds of care to avoid getting the glue onto the printed parts of my work.

For the wraps on my Saturn V, I decided to try something new. (Famous last words...) I took a strip from a roll of Duck Brand Gentle Release masking tape that I had; you know, the purple stuff, the tape that practically comes off all on its own if you just give it a hard stare, and I laid that over the outer printed side of the wrap. This would protect the printing and prevent any glue from getting onto it while I positioned the wrap on the tube. Then I went ahead and spread a thin layer of white glue on the wrap and manhandled it into place. When I had that done, it was time to peel off the tape.

Remember, this is the purple tape, the Purple Duck, the stuff that will completely release if it even just sees its own reflection in a mirror. I have used it for years and I have never ever had even a hint of a problem with having it release.

But the Purple Duck must have thought that Dr. Z's paper pattern was its one true soulmate. It clung to the wrap so tenaciously that, no matter how slowly and carefully I tried to remove it, the Duck simply would not go without taking substantial pieces of the wrap's printing with it. Bad. Bad, bad, bad. I was in a Purple Rage.

I have since removed what remained of the wrap (the part that the Purple Duck left behind), and now I have a clean, painted tube again, all ready for Wrap A, The Sequel -The Thrilla In My Woodland Villa- (and applied the right way this time) when I get my replacement from Dr. Z. Who ever said that in life, there are no second chances?

MarkII

 

[NJRick]

Here's a few more... Enjoy! OL JR

Luke,
I hope its OK to open up a build thread you did several years ago...I am working on my Dr. Zooch Saturn v.....and I have a question about masking the black stripes on the S1C stage...down by the fins....can I use tape over the paper wraps? I saw that another modeller had problems with that....any suggestions? I do have some Tamiya low tack masking/painting tape...its for modelling and seems to be kinda low tack....but I am afraid to mask over the paper wraps if that will end up tearing them up....how did you do it on your build?
I appreciate your help!

Rick

 

[luke strawwalker]

Luke,
I hope its OK to open up a build thread you did several years ago...I am working on my Dr. Zooch Saturn v.....and I have a question about masking the black stripes on the S1C stage...down by the fins....can I use tape over the paper wraps? I saw that another modeller had problems with that....any suggestions? I do have some Tamiya low tack masking/painting tape...its for modelling and seems to be kinda low tack....but I am afraid to mask over the paper wraps if that will end up tearing them up....how did you do it on your build?
I appreciate your help!

Rick

SURE!!! I'd love to see pics of your build as well... Before the great TRF crash of 08 (or whenever it was) there was a terrific dozen or more page thread about the Zooch shuttle... one stop shopping as it were of everything you wanted to know about the Zooch shuttle, everyone just adding their tips/tricks and pitfalls or questions on that one thread, adding pics of their builds or flights, talking about tweaks and stuff... it's still in the archives but it's display only now... Wes and I tried to resurrect it with my shuttle build thread over here in the "new" TRF post-crash, but nobody seems to have wanted to pick up the thread and run with it anymore like the old one... Heck I've even hoped that the beta-build threads I do with Wes's permission as I complete a beta build of a new kit for him will turn into a 'clearinghouse' for most info/questions about the kit in that particular thread, though it hasn't seemed to happen yet... So yeah, I'm glad that you're posting questions here... and I know Wes follows things on the forums as he has the time, and it's easier for him I'm sure to have all the questions being asked in one thread instead of a half dozen different ones...

Ok, when I painted the roll pattern stripes on the RP-1 tank on the S-IC, I pretty much did it per the instructions... the overall rocket tubes get painted (flat) white, and then put the wraps on as indicated, and then I just used regular blue masking tape to mask off the edges of the stripes on the smooth part of the RP-1 tank wall (between the bottom wrap and the intertank wrap above the RP-1 tank). I painted the stripes with regular Testor's flat black paint (the tiny jars for plastic cars) with a camel-hair brush. (or whatever it is they use on the "20 brushes for $5" packs at Hobby Lobby...) I then peeled off the masking tape to leave smooth lines connecting the printed part of the wraps on the lower section (the thrust structure below the RP-1 tank, adjacent and between the engine/fin fairings). I didn't paint the wraps, so there's a slight texture change (and the color is a bit darker on the Testors paint than the ink in the printed wraps, but it looks okay to me... certainly unnoticeable from 10 feet away!)

I don't think putting masking tape on the wraps is a good idea... the wraps are cardstock, and it's quite possible for the paper to delaminate from itself (layers to peel off the lower layers) or to peel the ink off the paper or something bad.

If you have Tamiya masking tape, I'd just use that to lay out the stripe edges on the RP-1 tank between the thrust structure wrap and the intertank wrap, and paint up to the edges of both wraps with flat black Testor's paint and a brush. I certainly wouldn't mess with trying to mask EVERYTHING off and spray paint it... not at this scale!

Good luck and post pics and any other questions you might have! I'd love to see your work! The more the merrier!

OL JR

 

[NJRick]

SURE!!! I'd love to see pics of your build as well... Before the great TRF crash of 08 (or whenever it was) there was a terrific dozen or more page thread about the Zooch shuttle... one stop shopping as it were of everything you wanted to know about the Zooch shuttle, everyone just adding their tips/tricks and pitfalls or questions on that one thread, adding pics of their builds or flights, talking about tweaks and stuff... it's still in the archives but it's display only now... Wes and I tried to resurrect it with my shuttle build thread over here in the "new" TRF post-crash, but nobody seems to have wanted to pick up the thread and run with it anymore like the old one... Heck I've even hoped that the beta-build threads I do with Wes's permission as I complete a beta build of a new kit for him will turn into a 'clearinghouse' for most info/questions about the kit in that particular thread, though it hasn't seemed to happen yet... So yeah, I'm glad that you're posting questions here... and I know Wes follows things on the forums as he has the time, and it's easier for him I'm sure to have all the questions being asked in one thread instead of a half dozen different ones...

Ok, when I painted the roll pattern stripes on the RP-1 tank on the S-IC, I pretty much did it per the instructions... the overall rocket tubes get painted (flat) white, and then put the wraps on as indicated, and then I just used regular blue masking tape to mask off the edges of the stripes on the smooth part of the RP-1 tank wall (between the bottom wrap and the intertank wrap above the RP-1 tank). I painted the stripes with regular Testor's flat black paint (the tiny jars for plastic cars) with a camel-hair brush. (or whatever it is they use on the "20 brushes for $5" packs at Hobby Lobby...) I then peeled off the masking tape to leave smooth lines connecting the printed part of the wraps on the lower section (the thrust structure below the RP-1 tank, adjacent and between the engine/fin fairings). I didn't paint the wraps, so there's a slight texture change (and the color is a bit darker on the Testors paint than the ink in the printed wraps, but it looks okay to me... certainly unnoticeable from 10 feet away!)

I don't think putting masking tape on the wraps is a good idea... the wraps are cardstock, and it's quite possible for the paper to delaminate from itself (layers to peel off the lower layers) or to peel the ink off the paper or something bad.

If you have Tamiya masking tape, I'd just use that to lay out the stripe edges on the RP-1 tank between the thrust structure wrap and the intertank wrap, and paint up to the edges of both wraps with flat black Testor's paint and a brush. I certainly wouldn't mess with trying to mask EVERYTHING off and spray paint it... not at this scale!

Good luck and post pics and any other questions you might have! I'd love to see your work! The more the merrier!

OL JR

OK Luke...thank you...I think that is good advice...masking the whole thing off would have been more work than it was worth! I have the paint so I will try to get the wraps on tonight and paint the roll bands on the weekend....if I can figure out how to post some pics here..I will give it a try! I am having a lot of fun on this build! Wes's kits are just fun.....don't know how else to say it.

 

[luke strawwalker]

OK Luke...thank you...I think that is good advice...masking the whole thing off would have been more work than it was worth! I have the paint so I will try to get the wraps on tonight and paint the roll bands on the weekend....if I can figure out how to post some pics here..I will give it a try! I am having a lot of fun on this build! Wes's kits are just fun.....don't know how else to say it.

You're welcome...

Posting pics is pretty easy. There are two ways of doing it. The simplest and best (IMHO) is to take your digital pics, download them to your computer hard drive (usually as .jpg format) and then, depending on the size, you'll need to resize them. I have my cam set at 5 megapixels even though it's a 10 mp camera, just to keep the file size reasonable-- don't need that high a res anyway since I'm not blowing the pics up to poster size... Anyway, the filesize at 5 mp for a .jpg from my camera is usually about 1 megabyte. Open the picture in windows viewer and click "open with" and then click "Paint" in the drop down menu, and the pic will re-open in the Paint program on the computer. Click the "file" tab at the top, which will drop down a menu, select "save as" and a window will pop up with the filename highlighted in the filename box and some destination folder stuff. I usually add an "a" to the filename to differentiate it from the original file, that way I have the full res pic and also the downsized pic for uploading to TRF, YORF, and/or RP. Click the filename box to get rid of the highlighting, and then type "a" to add it to the end of the filename, then click "save". The filename at the top of the screen should change to reflect the new name with the added "a". Now whatever you do to this pic will be TOTALLY separate from the original. Now go over to the "Image" tab and click it... a menu will drop down, the second choice "resize/skew" is what you want-- click it. A window will pop up with two sets of boxes on it. The upper ones are for resizing, the lower for skewing. Type "75" in BOTH upper boxes to resize the pic in both horizontal and vertical, then click "okay" and the pic will snap to the smaller size. Then, go back to the "file" tab, click it, and go down to "save" (just above "save as" which we just used) and click it, then exit from paint. Do all the pics you want to upload this way. Downsizing a 5 mp image with a file size of around a megabyte or so this way will compress the file down to about 275-300 kilobytes, which is just the right size for uploading.

Now, do your post, with whatever text you want. Go down below the type-in box and you'll see "manage attachments". Click that. A window will pop up with "browse and some other stuff in it, click "browse" and go to the file on your hard drive where the pics are kept (usually "pictures" or whatever subfile you set up on your computer) and then scroll through the pics til you find the one you want, click the pic and the filename will appear in the box beside the "browse" button. Now click the "upload" button to send the pic to the server. The pic will upload and then the window will auto-update to show the pic's filename down in the "uploaded files" list at the bottom of the box. Do the other four (if you're uploading the max of five) the same way. Once you've got them all uploaded, click "close this window" and go back up to the text box... the list of files will appear under the "manage attachments" box below the text box. Now, if you want to insert the pics into your post, place the cursor where in the text you want the pic to appear... I usually hit "return" a couple times to open a 'slot' for it. Now click the little paperclip icon on the first line, or the down arrow beside it, and a list of the pics you uploaded will appear. Choose the one you want (or "insert all" if you just want them all to pop up at once together) and click the filename, and it will appear in the post with some bracketed commands at either end of the filename. You can then move the cursor down to the next area where you want to put a pic and do it again, with the next pic. Once you've put all the pics the way you want them, then just "submit message" like normal and you're done... if there's anything you want to change, click "Edit- Go advanced" and it'll take you back to basically the "post message" screen where you can change whatever you want. Once you've uploaded your downsized pics, you can either save the downsize ones or delete them; heck for build pics I usually delete the full-res ones since they aren't really needed, and the resized ones save space on the hard drive. For flight pics I usually keep the high-res ones... I keep the photos of each build in their own folder inside a rocket build folder on my hard drive...

The second method may be simpler, but you have to have an online photo storage site like Picasa or whatever... upload your photos to there, and then sift through them to find the particular pic you want to link to (you're not actually uploading the pic to TRF, you're actually just linking to it from your post, and when the post appears onscreen it goes and grabs the pic and displays it in the post... so long as the URL doesn't change, which if it does, you'll see an "X" or broken link icon in it's place, especially in older posts this seems pretty common. Click the "mountain photo" icon on the second line just to the right and below the paperclip icon at the top of the message text box, and then cut-n-paste the pic's URL address into the box that pops up, and insert it into the post... I don't use this method but you can tell folks who do because the pics are usually MUCH larger in appearance. I might be missing some steps so if you want to do it that way, you'd probably be better off asking someone who does it that way.

Later! OL JR