kidagain
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2012
- Messages
- 143
- Reaction score
- 21
Hi all,
This weekends launch was long in the making. I started on this project in April 2010 when I purchased the raw parts to assemble what you see. It was a start and stop process as I struggled with certain materials I chose and moving three times in the last two years. This was a “scratch build” and I used the original directions from the 1973 Estes “K-21” model. I updated some parts for strength, realism and made it more detailed than the original Estes design. I tried to do it justice to honor the real thing. This is a semi-scale of the Gemini 7 mission with Astronauts Borman and Lovell from late 1965. I picked this mission as it was the longest. 13 days and 18 hours. The serial number on the side gives away this tiny detail. From what I hear the ship was a bit gamey in the last few days, I can only imagine.. whew...
Anyway, It was a beautiful flight right up to the point when the chute came out. From what I recall I was past the Apogee and in a nose down config. The ejection popped and snapped the ¼ inch elastic shock cord. It separated and I lost the nose cone “capsule” and chute to the lake . That was very unfortunate, but luckily I saved all my scale data and supplemental build directions to replace it. You will see the detail I put into it below. I used photo quality paper to print out the panels for the capsule and then added the gold tint windows and gold circular panel on the front. The main body fluttered down, not a scratch. Thanks for retrieving it Matt while I chased the separated chute. The see through “fin can” can slip off for display purposes. That thing was a challenge to make and the glue solvent I think shortened my life I am sure, ha ha. I will remake the capsule soon as I have ordered a new nose cone from SEMROC. I will also change to a longer woven shock cord and shorter delay so I don’t repeat the mishap. Experimentation is one the reasons I like this hobby. Did I make it better than original kit? I ‘d like to think I added a bit of panache that the Estes version lacked. In all it was a good launch from the stand point of stable flight.
Two engines canted and Clustered. I think I will go with C6-3 to have an earlier ejection.
I used the Lower Hudson Valley Wraps https://jleslie48.com/index.html suggested by Jharding on the capsule and upper stage.I ended up rescaling all the wraps to make them work. The Windows and gold colored disk on the nose got a treatment of reflective gold sticky paper. I took the second stage wrap and edited it on Photo Shop. I broke it down into three decal wraps. They added some very cool depth to detail to the models second stage I have not seen anywhere else. They especially look cool with the reflective chrome paper shining underneath on that stage. You can see I used the chrome on both stages. The engine bells got a treatment of epoxy/sand/epoxy to the cardstock I used. The epoxy impregnated and strenghtened the shape. I capped off the engine bell rear (seen in photo) with the "Fix-it" epoxy clay Apogee Components sells. Sanded it smooth to shape. It really made them bullet proof. I wrapped the bells in the reflective chrome sticky backed paper. I then wrapped them in the decals I made in Photo Shop to break up all that chrome. Finally I used pin striping material I bought at the local hobby store to wrap the top and bottom of the bells to give them a finished look. The staging sectoin on the booster is the reflecitve chrome paper sprayed with dull coat. The large black areas were initially decals, but they fell apart in my hands and were too delicate. I bought them online, but had poor results. I ended up painting them on. I guess sometimes old school is best. The interstage rectangle shaped exhaust ports were decals I made in Photo shop. The Round ports were flat black painted decal paper. I punched out the holes using a paper hole-punch. Amazingly they are same size as the decals call for. I used carbon fiber in the engine mount struts just for kicks and strength. The Capsule and White End Shroud are made with Glossy Photo Paper, which took ink much better than any paper I tried and the detail lines absolutely popped out much cleaner than anything else I tried to print on. I will tell you though it was a monster of a challenge getting those wraps onto the rocket without damage. I had to create procedures in handling them. Once in place I shot the whole thing in gloss clear coat to protect it and to keep the chromed parts smudge free!
Thanks for the help with launch prep Dave!
This weekends launch was long in the making. I started on this project in April 2010 when I purchased the raw parts to assemble what you see. It was a start and stop process as I struggled with certain materials I chose and moving three times in the last two years. This was a “scratch build” and I used the original directions from the 1973 Estes “K-21” model. I updated some parts for strength, realism and made it more detailed than the original Estes design. I tried to do it justice to honor the real thing. This is a semi-scale of the Gemini 7 mission with Astronauts Borman and Lovell from late 1965. I picked this mission as it was the longest. 13 days and 18 hours. The serial number on the side gives away this tiny detail. From what I hear the ship was a bit gamey in the last few days, I can only imagine.. whew...
Anyway, It was a beautiful flight right up to the point when the chute came out. From what I recall I was past the Apogee and in a nose down config. The ejection popped and snapped the ¼ inch elastic shock cord. It separated and I lost the nose cone “capsule” and chute to the lake . That was very unfortunate, but luckily I saved all my scale data and supplemental build directions to replace it. You will see the detail I put into it below. I used photo quality paper to print out the panels for the capsule and then added the gold tint windows and gold circular panel on the front. The main body fluttered down, not a scratch. Thanks for retrieving it Matt while I chased the separated chute. The see through “fin can” can slip off for display purposes. That thing was a challenge to make and the glue solvent I think shortened my life I am sure, ha ha. I will remake the capsule soon as I have ordered a new nose cone from SEMROC. I will also change to a longer woven shock cord and shorter delay so I don’t repeat the mishap. Experimentation is one the reasons I like this hobby. Did I make it better than original kit? I ‘d like to think I added a bit of panache that the Estes version lacked. In all it was a good launch from the stand point of stable flight.
Two engines canted and Clustered. I think I will go with C6-3 to have an earlier ejection.
I used the Lower Hudson Valley Wraps https://jleslie48.com/index.html suggested by Jharding on the capsule and upper stage.I ended up rescaling all the wraps to make them work. The Windows and gold colored disk on the nose got a treatment of reflective gold sticky paper. I took the second stage wrap and edited it on Photo Shop. I broke it down into three decal wraps. They added some very cool depth to detail to the models second stage I have not seen anywhere else. They especially look cool with the reflective chrome paper shining underneath on that stage. You can see I used the chrome on both stages. The engine bells got a treatment of epoxy/sand/epoxy to the cardstock I used. The epoxy impregnated and strenghtened the shape. I capped off the engine bell rear (seen in photo) with the "Fix-it" epoxy clay Apogee Components sells. Sanded it smooth to shape. It really made them bullet proof. I wrapped the bells in the reflective chrome sticky backed paper. I then wrapped them in the decals I made in Photo Shop to break up all that chrome. Finally I used pin striping material I bought at the local hobby store to wrap the top and bottom of the bells to give them a finished look. The staging sectoin on the booster is the reflecitve chrome paper sprayed with dull coat. The large black areas were initially decals, but they fell apart in my hands and were too delicate. I bought them online, but had poor results. I ended up painting them on. I guess sometimes old school is best. The interstage rectangle shaped exhaust ports were decals I made in Photo shop. The Round ports were flat black painted decal paper. I punched out the holes using a paper hole-punch. Amazingly they are same size as the decals call for. I used carbon fiber in the engine mount struts just for kicks and strength. The Capsule and White End Shroud are made with Glossy Photo Paper, which took ink much better than any paper I tried and the detail lines absolutely popped out much cleaner than anything else I tried to print on. I will tell you though it was a monster of a challenge getting those wraps onto the rocket without damage. I had to create procedures in handling them. Once in place I shot the whole thing in gloss clear coat to protect it and to keep the chromed parts smudge free!
Thanks for the help with launch prep Dave!
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