The last pieces: Pod Nozzles
The last bit of construction is the tail nozzles for the two pods. These will do double-duty: visually finish the rear of the rocket, and also reinforce the ring attachments. At least, that is what I hoped. I had a great deal of uncertainty of whether it would work out. Reminder that this is what the rear of the rocket looked like at this point:
Yuck. Let's pretty that up.
Step 1: design the nozzles
My design is fairly pedestrian, and in hindsight I could probably come up with something a bit more visually interesting, but it is what it is:
The idea is: those long extensions would fit around the ring pieces. I would fill the gaps with blue, and therefore the ends of the rings would be held securely inside the pods, and not just held in by the CA on the outer seams. Inside the pod it would be would look something like this:
Hopefully that gets the point across.
Step 2: print
I used Craftcloud, which was the cheapest I could find: $12 for 3 pieces (I always get one extra, cost permitting.)
Step 3: finish
The exterior bits get sanded smooth and brush-painted with Vallejo black, then coated with Future. Here they are sitting on a spare ring piece to dry...
And here is a close-up of the finished nozzle:
Not bad.
Step 4: Fit
The left pod piece fit in easily. The right piece was more of a struggle, due to some unforeseen factors. Suffice to say, to eventually ensure a flush fit, I needed to remove to of the prongs. The other two were shortened, probably not needed but I was initially having a great deal of trouble figuring out exactly what was preventing the piece from pushing all the way in.
Regrettably, the two prongs I had to remove were the ones that would have secured the bottom ring piece, which is the one I most wanted to strengthen. Oh well! In hindsight could have fairly easily just dabbed an epoxy filled inside the tube at the joint with the ring, but for some reason that didn't occur to me until after the rings were installed. Oh well^2! At least the rings would be very well secured in the left pod.
Step 5: Install
No pics of the process because I was working with drippy epoxy. I applied a bead along the prongs and then pushed it between them with a toothpick. This would ensure (I hope) that the ring piece will be securely encased in glue between the two prongs.
Here is the result:
Beauty shots up next.