Sirius Rocketry 1:64 Saturn V Build Thread

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The current version of the Sirius kit has more vacuform that mine does. He switched to vacuform wraps sometime after my kit was produced. Although, I’m pretty sure the fairings are still resin
Yes, as of the last production, fairings & fins were resin, though I snap a fin off on nearly every landing, and often a whole fairing, whichever one hits the ground first. The IU wrap is vacuform. Glad to see you back at it.
 
I just attached the IU with 15 minute epoxy. Surprisingly, I didn’t make a huge mess. There’s a little gap between the IU and the LM shroud that I’ll have to fill. I’ll probably have to fill the seam where the ends meet, too. But I’ll wait until tomorrow to see how that ends up. They’re being held down right now.
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Yes, as of the last production, fairings & fins were resin, though I snap a fin off on nearly every landing, and often a whole fairing, whichever one hits the ground first. The IU wrap is vacuform. Glad to see you back at it.
I’m rereading the instructions and I see the fairings are to be attached with thick CA. Is that what you used? I was thinking 15 minute epoxy.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that the inside joint of the fairings are filleted with epoxy after the CA dries.
 
It didn’t turn out too bad after some light sanding. I plan on getting some filler in there today for the gaps. A5D9B9A4-3465-4C7E-B256-791ACC014FB8.jpeg
 
Heyyyyyyy! let’s have an update, okay? It’s only been 3 months since the last one. First, gaps were filled. Then, the LM shroud and instrument unit were painted white. CD2BBE18-233D-474B-83A2-44E048FDFE9A.jpeg
 
And just today I painted the instrument unit black. This was a difficult mask because, unlike some smaller scale models, the ring is not completely black. There are some small raised parts that are kept white. So that means Tamiya tape, because there’s no way I could get painters‘s tape down over those little greebles. Heres what I’ve got so far. I just pulled the tape off and I will need to do some touch ups. I’ve got very fine paint pens for that. 2400F7E5-2635-4EF5-89E9-EA520717A761.jpeg8B29C91C-2569-4029-B8E8-4E6CF0D6649C.jpeg08AAA83F-48B4-4746-991A-EA3CC502A6E0.jpeg
 
Thanks. All I see are the mistakes, though. 😂 It’s not where I want it, but it’s getting there. I’ll touch up that black paint and make some of the lines straighter in a couple days when the paint dries. Then I’ll feel better.

Next up are some detail parts. The RCS nozzles and scimitar antennas, which are both attached to the command module. I need 4 RCS motors and 2 antennas. As you can see, I have extra. As you can also probably see, they are tiny! First things first: trim the RCS nozzles clean. 1C250FC2-9B3F-4EBA-B23C-522A7621D0FC.jpeg
 
A3A5C7AC-322B-4620-9C3D-497ED789CE7C.jpegAll trimmed up. The scimitar antennas are to be painted white. The RCS thrusters get silver on the body, gold for the nozzles and black for the nozzle tips. Oh boy. 🙄

I got paint pens for this job. Wish me luck! If this thread goes cold again for awhile, you’ll know it didn’t go well.
 
The RCS nozzles turned out alright. I’m going to sand the spots in the CM where they’ll be mounted and glue them on with a dollop of epoxy. The scimitar antennas will be glued on at the same time 27B7CF13-55D7-49E1-8156-A00D66908410.jpeg
 
Here are the nozzles and scimitar antennas attached:

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And one shot of the upper portion of the rocket so far. All that is left here is the capsule, and to include the nose weight. But I’m going to move on to the lower assembly for now.
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Moving on to the lower assembly. First up are the fin fairings. The instructions call for CA glue to attach the fairings, and then a fillet of epoxy on the inside of each fairing. The fairings’ edges are stepped, and there’s a little hook shape to them at the point where they should be glued to end of the body tube. That way, they will line up where they’re supposed to go. Using the line markings I marked ages ago in post 42, I glued the fairings in.

Before CA application:
082A7282-66A4-4A2C-BA0E-0DD78ED5BD10.jpeg

The first one glued on:
0B498240-4BFB-4E69-B1B0-3171BB5FEC52.jpeg

All four on, and epoxy fillets applied:
F66CC04D-3CC1-403B-A64D-92D1CC62AB01.jpeg

Letting the epoxy run towards the harder to reach forward portion of the fairing:
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You might have noticed the body tube has blue tape on it and are wondering why. The next part to be attached are the lower body wraps between the fin fairings. But when I freed the parts, they were very stiff. I could barely hold them down to see if they fit. So, I taped them to the outside of the body tube to see if they would curve a little. They’ve been taped to the tube for a couple weeks. I’ll check them tomorrow.0A0E8F9A-6A3B-49F9-AFE3-4419D93A1185.jpeg
 
Well, the lower body wraps were a real pain. They did not want to stay curved. When I pulled them off the tube, they kept the curve of the tube for all of about twenty seconds, then turned back to being twisted and stiff. In test runs, there was just no way I could keep them down against tube while waiting for the glue to cure.

I was getting frustrated. Then, while offhandedly bitching to our club president, he suggested applying heat to the resin wraps. :facepalm: I didn’t even think of that. So I grabbed my wife’s hair dryer (“for Science, hon!”) and as soon as that hot air hit the resin, all its defenses broke down. It wanted to do my bidding. I laid it down on the tube, hit it with the heat again, and taped it down, periodically giving it heat.

After that, I was able to glue the wraps down. Pictures are taken at my local makerspace. Lots of room to work there, unlike at home. C7765B07-7FAE-4AA8-92E3-4B9FF50031B6.jpegC923E77C-0052-44E1-BE3C-06887C95079F.jpegThe cutout is for the S-1 tunnel that runs up to the intertank wrap. There’s another one on the opposite side.

I also glued the S-II/S-IVB interstage shroud at the top of the 6” body tube. So it’s starting to take shape.F8536340-AF00-4DDB-8EAE-601CB65351CB.jpeg58B153F3-01C4-4B26-B782-97B368296AF2.jpeg
 
I took a break from trimming up the wraps and decided to work on the F-1 engines. They’re a bit easier. The engines come in two pieces that are glued together. The engines are for display only. They’re not used in flight. I used 5-minute epoxy. A3C9EA7C-107F-4517-951E-7F315D935710.jpegDDBA2B85-B722-438D-B59B-8623729A467C.jpeg2FC7137D-644D-4EC9-A660-79A5BF2AC0ED.jpegE9B4DB97-58AB-42BD-8984-B36DEE17949E.jpeg
 
Here are all 5. In case you’re wondering why they don’t look very smooth, that’s intentional. The parts are designed to look as if they’re covered in foil batting, which was used on the real engines during flight for thermal protection.
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I’m gonna glue the engines to the base plate today. I drilled an extra 1/2” hole in the plate that’s aligned with the internal launch lug. This way I can mount the whole assembly on a 1/2” rod with a stand for stability when it’s in display.
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Pics while the glue cures. After it sets, I’ll cut and sand down the pins that stick up above the plate, so it can seat in the body tube properly. CE763E96-92BE-4833-B9E4-C881BA8A4C91.jpeg030BA19D-E07A-47C7-AC02-EEA2CE5B7F5A.jpeg30895A06-0DAA-44F5-B98A-26236CCFA467.jpegB91C087A-FF35-427F-B18A-416F020C30E7.jpeg
 
Painting the engines silver really makes the detail pop.They look like they are wrapped in foil. I think it looks really nice. Sirius knocked it out of the park on this kit. 32197943-2C38-49FE-AA67-B2AFE3E391DC.jpegD5C82DA5-99EA-42D4-8CF8-D7B84DE088C4.jpeg63A855DD-1EAD-4C4C-A7D7-B7C58E53B7FA.jpeg835511FB-C50B-433B-B84D-B6F787FD940B.jpegE0C8ED81-68D4-4816-B01E-FD40BB346BC2.jpeg
 
I’m going to try and get the wraps started during the week and finish them up next weekend.
 
I’m going to try and get the wraps started during the week and finish them up next weekend.
😂
8 weeks later….

Most of the wraps and tunnels are on. I just need to attach the interstage wrap and the second stage tunnel. But I have a slight problem that I’ll detail later. For now, here is how it looks so far.
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