Vintage Saturn K-36 Build

I now have another new Estes Saturn V like everyone else but will hold off building it for now, figure there are plenty of other builders who cant wait to get started. I do want to build a Saturn V for the 50th anniversary. I have a couple of old Saturn V kits that are in short boxes with one being older than the other. The kits are identical with parts except the older model has balsa half dowels vs hardwood and the older kit has the old parachutes. Both kits are in great condition minus the Bt-101 tubes and JT-101 couplers, they are a little distorted in both kits. I am leaning on building the older Saturn V Pre-Damon log, maybe I will just flip a coin. I will be building out of the box with all original parts except the rubber shock cord since it is pretty old and way too short. It will be a little bit before I can start building since I am working on fixing the slightly deformed bt-101 tubes. As soon as they hold their shape I will get started. Just a note, the older box opens from the top or bottom, and the newer box lid comes off to access all the parts.

Those are some real beauties SCIGS. You don't see the pre-Damon box every day. Do they have the 3 18mm cluster and the adapter for the "mighty" D13 ?

Ooooohhh... nice

My build is coming along, almost to the first white coat phase of the build. I am stuck on the embossed wraps that go between the engine shrouds on the bottom of the rocket. The directions show a gap in between the wraps, but does not say how wide the gap is. Also the pattern sheet does not show the gap. I did find a picture of Chris site showing a Saturn V he started back in the early 70s showing the gap. Any help would be appreciated. Also I should have pictures up in the next few days.

Well so far this has been a fun build even though my time has been limited. I have received advise on modifications to the build but I decided to keep it stock as per the plans. I do have a second K36 kit mint newer production that I may build in the future and also have all the other Saturn V rockets Estes has produced. So for this build she is straight out of the box per the plans with all the old parts. The paper transitions are spot on for the correct size and I had to be super careful since the paper and centering rings are made of thin material. I am using PVA Type II white glue I found at Home Depot, appears to be the same as Titebond Type II only it dries faster and clear. I am not a big fan of yellow on my builds, don't know why Titebond adds yellow dye to their glue, they have said it is a marketing strategy, oh well. As you can see the BT-101 tubes came out nice and round after stuffing some Bt-101 couplers inside for a month, the Estes Bt-101 couplers are pretty flimsy but they worked just fine, also a tight fit and you get one shot of gluing in place. The embossed wraps are pretty old and were crinkled before I started but I was able to glue them on without much issues and again a perfect fit. Since this is an old kit I know the build will not be perfect and I am ok with that, basically a paper and cardboard rocket. The black print on the paper parts is so old it scrapes off when I am cutting the parts out. I just finished the paper engine shrouds and they fit ok but more of the issue was using the old paper parts. The embossed engine shrouds are glued on top of the paper shrouds and that stiffens the shrouds, even though I don't think I got them on perfectly straight they will work. So per the plans I still have to add the bottom embossed pieces, balsa fins and then off to the first round of painting. The embossed paper is not very deep so I will have to be careful with painting as not to fill the details. I will finish sanding the fins today and apply 3 coats of balsa sealer and begin the painting process.

Here are the rest of the pictures

Getting closer to painting, just have to glue the fins on and some other details. The plans call for painting the white and black then adding a lot of the details to ease in masking. Since the paper parts are pretty old, I really don't want to mess with cutting and scraping the paint so I may just glue everything on now and deal with the masking later. The large paper wrap makes it pretty easy to mark where all the detail go.

Looks very nice. Can I ask how you did the masking on the wraps?

Wow, that's a lot of work!

I just lined up the paper wraps and used low tac masking tape to hold in place.

The black is not paint on yours??

SCIGS30 said:

The large paper wrap makes it pretty easy to mark where all the detail go.

Click to expand...

David Schwantz said:

The black is not paint on yours??

Click to expand...

The one photo shows the paper wraps attached to the airframe. The intention was to position them, transfer the location of the various features to the underlying body tube with pins, remove the wraps, connect the dots and label. Then you were ready to mask and paint. Some fun ! Read all about it here: https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/k-36.htm

Yes, the wraps are only on there so I could make the appropriate marks as per the instructions.

Here is my completed vintage Saturn V built out of the box using everything except the rubber shock cord. The box has the final weight at 9.9oz and mine came in at 9.5oz, she feels pretty light when I hold her. I really tried to keep the paint at a minimum. I did not use any fillers just plain old balsa dope sealer for the wood parts. I first sprayed a light coat of primer with no sanding followed by a light coat of old Krylon gloss white. I thought I would be doing touch ups after masking so I also spray a light coat of Testors gloss white followed by Testors gloss black and Testors Aluminum. I also had to watch how much paint I used since the old corrugated cardboard wraps details are pretty thin. Masking took about 3 hours one day, then the weather changed and I had to leave the masking tape on for 2 weeks before spraying the black. Luckily the tape did not mess with the paint job. I only had a couple of small touch ups after removing the masking tape and brushed on my Testors gloss white and gloss black where needed. In the end masking was not all that bad as I have heard from previous builders. I did not use any reference material just the info provided with the kit. The decals were first sprayed with Testors Glosscote then went on without issues. I decided to use the D mount provided by Estes so we will see how that goes. I also have a vintage Estes Saturn B I would like to build someday, but that will have to wait.

Now that is "old school" building at its finest. Beautiful job!

I recently acquired a K-36 and after comparing it with the later issues, the embossing is so light that it likely helps with masking as you don't have to burnish tape down into deep stringer detail, unlike with the vac wraps.