Remember what I said earlier about having to "jump around" a bit... well, here we go... time to start on the TOWER!!!
Now, realize the capsule fits on a BT-50 tube... so this thing is SMALL... but it CAN be done, and if *I* can do it with my farmer's smashed-up, cut-up "twinky fingered" meathooks, then others can probably do a LOT better... BUT it does require you to screw up your patience level a bit (yeah I suffer from an appalling lack of patience as well...) and just bear down and git'er dun...
Dr. Zooch realizes in his infinite ant-wisdom (his ant-munificence is boundless so I'm told... er, wait, maybe that's the megalomaniacal space ant-villian Small O. Drax... can't recall
) that not EVERYBODY wants to practice hemorroid surgery on gnats to prepare for doing this tower, so he includes a cheap-n-dirty "squirming hatch blower" method using a printed paper wrap tower that can be glued on top of the rocket... if you want to take the easy way out...
For the rest of us "steely-eyed missile men" we get to go blind putting hair thin wires on matchsticks...
Seriously, I've done one of these before, on the BT-50 "Freedom 7" Mercury Redstone, so it's not THAT big a deal...
SO, first grab the tower kitbag out of the box... it's a tiny dime bag ziplock with some "matchsticks", a bit of wood dowel, half a toothpick, and some hair-thin steel wires in it... Grab the matchsticks and dowel bit and keep 'em where you can find 'em... leave the rest in the bag back in the box.
The "matchsticks" start off square... now the Mercury escape tower didn't have square tubing legs, so you gotta start by rounding them off. Easiest way I've found is to hold one end, grab a bit of 220 grit (if you have one of those "sanding bows" that hold a strip of sandpaper between the ends sorta spring loaded like a miniature hacksaw blade, that's ideal-- I don't have this toy, so I simply hold a piece of 220 pinched between my fingers in such a way as to emulate this handy tool... which allows the sandpaper to "curl" over the stick while I sand it, emulating the 'spring loaded' sanding bow tool). Sand over each corner about half the length of the stick rounding the corners off, turning the stick between your fingers to the next corner once you've rounded off the last one. Once one half of the stick is round, flip it end for end and do the other half... GO EASY, LET THE PAPER DO THE WORK, and TAKE YOUR TIME... it won't take but about 5 minutes per stick to do and they'll come out virtually cylindrical when you're done. Once they're rounded over, you can lay the sandpaper down flat on the workbench and, putting a finger on either end of the stick, sand it in a rolling motion at an angle to the paper, to get them even rounder... they don't have to be TOTALLY round or PERFECTLY round-- don't try that or you'll make them TOO THIN and weak... just get rid of those gnarly corners so it looks right!!
After you've got your tower legs-to-be rounded off nicely, set them aside and grab the bit-o-dowel... it'll probably be cut off at a bit of an angle and not perfectly square on one or both ends... inspect it and then holding it upright on end, sand it in circular motions against the 220 grit your holding down on the workbench... flip and repeat as needed. Don't worry about getting it 100% spot on square-- "close enough" is close enough-- just make sure you sand it FLAT and don't round the thing over... I found that doing a little sanding around the circumference of the cylinder sides all the way around, and dressing the ends slightly, really improved the appearance...
Next, grab the wrap sheet and your steel ruler, and measure out a strip 3/32 inch wide by 6 inches long. Use your sharp hobby knife to cut this strip off the edge of the wrap sheet... it's not marked, you just cut a nice, straight, perfectly even (well, as perfect as you can get it) strip off the side of the cardstock. Cut the strip into (2) two inch long strips, and (2) one inch long strips. Apply a thin layer of white glue to the backs of these strips, one at a time, and roll them around the dowel. The two inch strips go on each end, one flush with the end (the upper one) and the other recessed about 1/16 inch from the end of the dowel on the bottom end. The 2 inch strips will overlap themselves and make a double-thick ring-- this is correct. The one inch strips get wrapped around the dowel about 1/3 of the way between the top and bottom ones, evenly spaced. The 1 inch ones do not overlap themselves, but the ends basically butt together. These are the thinner mid-rings on the launch escape rocket motor. Here's what the finished product should look like, standing upright.
Next, you'll see a TINY triangle printed on the wrap sheet... CAREFULLY cut it out and glue it to some of the balsa strip you've been cutting parts out of... This will be the "former" for the tower in later steps.
Later! OL JR