What's Black and White and Red(stone)?

Almost done with my other builds (see https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/a-pair-of-atlantis-a-gartrell-and-maybe-a-titan.148518/). Time to get some more in the pipeline.

What's up this time?
An Estes Black Hole.
An Estes Mercury Redstone with Accur8 skins
And a Boyce Mercury Redstone (3.9" diameter). I do need to order some parts to work this one so it will run a little behind....

Parts display.
First up, the Estes MR. I have the Accur8 skins next to the Estes parts. I find it interesting the difference in the United States font.



To compare, the 3D printed parts from Boyce. All of the parts came nicely wrapped. I unwrapped some of the pieces to show the details



Last, the Black Hole. Again, this is a builder's kits - balsa fins broken out, tubes damaged, etc.

A little catch up. Got busy with Thanksgiving

Started assembling the Estes MR capsule. They tell you to scrape the edges before gluing. I had problems getting the parts to fit so I kept scraping....and removed too much. Fortunately, I happened to have a second kit so I replaced the parts from that kit. I realized you just needed a bit of "brute force" to get the pieces together. And I called Estes and explained what happened - they are sending me a replacement capsule for free! Fantastic customer service!!

Also, instead of using tube style plastic cement, I dry fitted the piece together and then brushed the inside with liquid plastic solvent. I avoided having any extra glue messing up the outside and not having to fight the set time while trying to get the multiple pieces fitting together.

I want to pre-paint the capsule, so I used tape to mask the tower standoffs and mounting holes.



I also glued up part of the tower



For the Boyce MR. I also masked the tower mount holes. Here is the Estes capsule painted flat black and the Boyce capsule in primer



For the Black Hole, there are 12 fins! Most had broken away from the die-crush, and 2 were broken. I glued the broken ones together, sanded the fins, and started papering. I started with the 6 big ones



There are also 12 rings that I had to release and clean up the tabs. And if you want to play cards, you end up with 12 white chips!



I am using the Estes fin cutting guide to help align the rings. It slows the build as I have to wait a certain drying time between each ring, but will keep all of the rings square. You will notice ring 4 is out of place - it is not glued on yet....there is a madness to my method

I’ve used the tube cutting guide that way too, those are a great purchase.

Look forward to seeing the build progress.

For the Black Hole, the other 6 fins are now papered...



Cut the dowels. I used a rubber band to secure them together so I could sand them to equal length



These glue to the fins. Then you cut a strip of masking tape, wrap the tape around the end of the dowel, and then glue a piece of launch lug on the tape.



I then used a little Titebond no drip glue for a fillet between the dowel and fin

And the picture sort of snuck into the previous post. For the Black Hole you cut some square balsa. This was sanded to equal lengths, glued onto the tube. Then that loose ring I left floating is glued to the top of the balsa.



For the Estes MR, built up the motor tube

There is a similar process for dowels, tape, launch lug for the main fins. However, I did the tape/lug before gluing the dowel to the fin as the fin angle would make it more difficult to apply than the previous fins. After I glued the dowels on I let the tape/lug hang over the edge and used some weight to keep things aligned while drying.



Fortunately, I have several glue containers..........

Then the Black Hole started looking a bit "finny"



One issue, with all of the rings and dowels with tape/lug bulges, none of my fin alignment guides would work. Had to revert to the ols standby Mark 1 eyeball.

For the Boyce MR, I initially thought it would be smooth enough. But when I primed it all of the 3D printing ridges really showed up. I've spent several hours sanding/filing away the ridges

This is what the main capsule looks like now


And for the Estes MR. I had painted the white band by hand and now starting to assemble the struts. I am finding that I need to bend the struts some to get them to align. I decided to glue all 3 to the base and 1st support and will glue the 3 pieces together later. You can see how the struts actually spread out instead of converging.

Went to visit the in laws today so not a lot of progress...
Got a few more fins on the Black Hole (no new pix)

Glued the struts together and the top of the tower on. I had interference with the nozzles and the frame, so I broke them off and re-glued them on at a bigger angle

And the Black Hole is all finned out...

So now I'm a lean, mean, filleting machine...



Built part of the escape tower for the Boyce MR



And added the Accur8 skins to the Estes MR

Need to clean up the struts on the escape tower. If you look close you'll see some of the "defects" that need to be repaired



For the Estes MR, I purchased the fins offered by Accur8. One fin had a major void on the backside. Here is my attempt to repair that.



The fin halves need to be epoxied together. I first sanded the "rears" and scored the parts to give the epoxy a better bite. And then glued them and used tape and clamps to hold them while the epoxy cured

Attached the launch lug to the Black Hole. I cut the front angle to match the fin



And after the glue dried - primer



Sanded the Accur8 fins for the Estes MR


And came up with a jig to hold the fins while I primed it

Sanding all the nooks and crannies on the Black Hole has been a pain. I used a craft stick wrapped in sandpaper to fit in between the rings. I did a little touch up and then painted.



Did more work on the Boyce tower. I was having issues getting the top part to fit correctly, and then had a duh moment. The center alignment pin was too long. Once I sanded that down it fit fine.


And painted the Estes Tower. The "bar" between on the bottom is just a painted line. Dry fitted on the capsule

Just a few things today.

Installed shock cord into Black Hole - no pix. Typical Estes tea bag (but replaced the old rubber cord with an elastic braid)

Primed the Boyce tower. This has to be done in sections (as will the painting) as there is no good way to hold the bloody thing while trying to paint it (and you need to keep twisting and turning it to get all sides.



And painted the red band on the Estes capsule

Could have sworn I posted this the other day, but....

Started painting the Boyce tower. Needed to hold it to tilt and twist to get access to get coverage. I'll need it to sit for the 48 hours before I can paint the balance.



Also painted the red band on the Boyce capsule



Suddenly realized the ends of the Accur8 fins for the Estes MR will not be covered by the vinyl. The exposed parts needed some cleanup so more painting



Finally, worked on the Boyce fins. Their instruction stated that with multiple coats of primer the 3D printed ridges would disappear. After the capsule difficulty, I decided to try with one fin. After 3 coats and sanding ... well, it needs more....

Prepped the Accur8 fins (painted appropriate edges black) and skinned them



Painted the bottom portion of the Boyce tower so now it is all red

Glued the Boyce tower to the capsule - then realized I hadn't painted the white band first - Duh...

Here are the 2 capsules side by side (and that is when I realized I forgot the white band)

Now to see if I can paint the band without making a total mess.
I'll do some sanding of the fins for the ridges, but for now the Boyce MR is on hold until my tubes come in (ordered during Black Friday - or should I say Saturday)



Epoxied the fins to the Estes MR

Applied the decals to the Black Hole. I had multiple issues as they kept breaking
The paint color came out darker than I thought it would. Look at a test spray I had done earlier. The color was coming out uneven (with all of the "nooks and crannies". The more coats, the darker it got.



And the Estes Mercury Redstone is complete - ish. Still need to add the launch lug and the shock cord




May be time to start a new build thread now..........

Took some leftover vinyl to cover the launch lug and glued it onto the Estes MR



Masked and painted the white band on the Boyce capsule



And still waiting for my 3.9" tubes.....
To be continued.........

Tubes came in and filled the spirals - no pix.

But was unhappy with the Blackhole. The decals looked horrible.



I contacted Gordy at Sandman Decals. He happened to have a set of Blackhole decals available. So I scrapped the old ones off, got some new paint, and repainted. Much lighter now...

And the Black Hole with new decals - much better!

The tubes for the Boyce Redstone came in. Filled the spirals, primed, and painted the white.
Doesn't it seem odd that we take a white tube, paint it grey, so we can then paint it white again?????

Boyce Redstone - I applied 3 coats of primers. I felt there was still too much 3D print layers showing through, so I sanded them down and ready for another coat of primer



NOTE - I've been purposely dragging my feet on this - I've been hoping to get some wraps from John at Accur8.....