Build thread: 5.3:1 sport scale Super Deluxe #2 Skywriter XL Premium Pro Max - Limited Edition
- Thread starter neil_w
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It says no metal structural parts. Screw eyes, swivels, rail button screws, engine hooks, and so on are just fine. Not to mention metal PCB traces, switch contacts, battery outer shells, and wires. I'm pretty sure a metal launch lug would fall in that category, if one really wanted to use one.Hey man, the safety code says no metal parts!
Nose cone is now fully sanded. Looks pretty good.
Next up comes the dicey process of applying CA and then sanding it without screwing up the shape. Should be fun.
Oh, and the finished hex lug came out good. After a wipe of medium CA on the lower bits, it feels solid as a rock.
Next up comes the dicey process of applying CA and then sanding it without screwing up the shape. Should be fun.
Oh, and the finished hex lug came out good. After a wipe of medium CA on the lower bits, it feels solid as a rock.
It looks like your technique was a real success. When working on the nose cone, this particular scale subject has the unique advantage that "perfect" scale doesn't exist, real pencils have some variation. Sort of like how scale modelers of sounding rockets go to great efforts to find the particular combinations of boosters, fin shapes/number, markings, and payload bay sizes to match a real rocket that actually flew.
Regardless of how the pencil nose turns out, you can claim that somewhere, somebody is scribbling notes with a pencil that looks like *that*.
I'm glad to hear that the hex lug nut cut the mustard.
Regardless of how the pencil nose turns out, you can claim that somewhere, somebody is scribbling notes with a pencil that looks like *that*.
I'm glad to hear that the hex lug nut cut the mustard.
Nytrunner
Pop lugs, not drugs
Double coat the flats to protect them. Pretend you're shaping the IRIS-t's fin bulges again and recall the level of care
Hexcellent
Fixed it. Chasing minutia and having scalefolk constantly going "you know the REAL one (except for the early rounds) had such and such difference than what youve got there....." is fastest way to suck the joy out of this hobby i know of
Hexcellent
Fixed it. Chasing minutia and having scalefolk constantly going "you know the REAL one (except for the early rounds) had such and such difference than what youve got there....." is fastest way to suck the joy out of this hobby i know of
True, perfect scale doesn't exist. Although I do appreciate that chasing minutia can be enjoyable, and I certainly enjoy observing the fruits of their efforts (as long as it isn't one-sided criticism).
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I think we can “ascribe” significant talent to you in this case! (Sorry, just want to see if I can get k’tesh riled up!)
Yes, I expected and welcome the variation. It's not nearly as much as on a real pencil, for what it's worth.
Funny, I wasn't so worried about the flats. I'll want them to have some CA for fill and strengthening, but they don't need to be fully sealed because they'll be painted. The rest of the nose, on the other hand, will have no additional coating or filling other than the CA, so it really needs to be good. Actually I suppose I could spray a matte clear coat on the nose when I'm done, although that means I'd need to mask the painted flats which is truly not something to look forward to (especially after I've had to mask it in the other direction, to paint the flats in the first place.)
We'll see how it goes.
I don't think this particular rocket would be likely to rile up the scale nerds.
lakeroadster
When in doubt... build hell-for-stout!
Have you considered spar urethane? I used that on the fins of my Lifting Rocket. You'll get that wood finish you're after... with zero sanding.
Nytrunner
Pop lugs, not drugs
My thinking is without some extra hardening, the outlines are going to get blurred and distorted as you're smoothing the conical part
Just went and read about it. It might work, but I don't think it's my first choice here, for a few different reasons. My choice of
Ah. What I'll most likely do is smooth out the entire round part first, and then finish with the sanding block on the flats. Whether this will preserve sharp outlines or not I don't know. The outlines of a couple of the first faces I did have already softened up a bit when I was rounding the corners; I got better at doing that later on.
My big problem with CA on noses in the past is that I got some small hard bumps and pits that proved very hard to sand out. That's why I started going with a combination of CA and CWF, which works great, but in this case I can't have the CWF obscuring the woodgrain. Gotta be all CA here.
Gotta decide whether to use up my last remaining bit of "old" thin CA on this nose....
Well, I ordered a 1 oz bottle of SuperGold and a 1/2 oz bottle of SuperGold+ from erockets today. My guess is I'm going to switch to using it for most things, especially around my workbench where any sort of fume or odor is verboten (yes, this causes me some great challenge sometimes).
Hopefully I'll have the stuff next week and can take a crack at this nose cone.
Hopefully I'll have the stuff next week and can take a crack at this nose cone.
Hey this is cool.
I bought a smaller bottle of the medium in case I love it so much I want to use it for everything all the time... or, more likely, that I might want to do a bit of mixing.
Anyway, I squirted a small amount of the thin stuff into a paper towel, stuck my nose right up to it and inhaled. It has a slight chemical smell, but absolutely no irritating fumes. This makes me happy. Bottle says 3-5 seconds cure time, vs. the InstaCure which says 1-3 seconds (frankly that's generous).
Looking for next opportunity to attack the nose cone.
I bought a smaller bottle of the medium in case I love it so much I want to use it for everything all the time... or, more likely, that I might want to do a bit of mixing.
Anyway, I squirted a small amount of the thin stuff into a paper towel, stuck my nose right up to it and inhaled. It has a slight chemical smell, but absolutely no irritating fumes. This makes me happy. Bottle says 3-5 seconds cure time, vs. the InstaCure which says 1-3 seconds (frankly that's generous).
Looking for next opportunity to attack the nose cone.
Nytrunner
Pop lugs, not drugs
Waft, don't smell
Interesting, I never considered that possibility, so you can tailor the viscosity between thin and medium?
Yup. It apparently is OK to do if you mix two different viscosities of the same formula. So I could mix two different SuperGolds, but not a SuperGold and an InstaCure.
I did a quick test of the SuperGold. First I sanded a small piece of balsa into a nosecone-like shape. Then I applied the thin SuperGold. Because it has no fumes, I was able to work slowly and carefully and look closely at what I was doing. This is my strategy to minimize waste; with the InstaCure I just sort of slopped it on in the hopes of finishing as quickly as possible; this results in a lot of excess drip-off.
Anyway, other than different working strategy, the results seem about the same as with the InstaCure. As before, I don't get a perfectly smooth shiny surface, but it certainly does soak into the balsa. I tried using the medium for my second coat but it didn't seem to offer any advantage. It was harder to get to lay down into a smooth coat.
In the end, I really couldn't tell if I had full coverage of the wood or not, so I did a quick test with a few drops of water:
Each arrow points to a water drop. As you can see, the drop on the untreated wood soaked in in about a minute or two. 30 minutes later, the other two drops are still sitting there, unchanged. I guess that means it is sealed up pretty good, right?
Reason I'm being careful here is that normally the goal is to harden and smooth, not necessarily to seal 100% because it'll be covered by paint. This time the CA is the only finish over much of the cone, so I need to be sure it does what it needs to.
Anyway, other than different working strategy, the results seem about the same as with the InstaCure. As before, I don't get a perfectly smooth shiny surface, but it certainly does soak into the balsa. I tried using the medium for my second coat but it didn't seem to offer any advantage. It was harder to get to lay down into a smooth coat.
In the end, I really couldn't tell if I had full coverage of the wood or not, so I did a quick test with a few drops of water:
Each arrow points to a water drop. As you can see, the drop on the untreated wood soaked in in about a minute or two. 30 minutes later, the other two drops are still sitting there, unchanged. I guess that means it is sealed up pretty good, right?
Reason I'm being careful here is that normally the goal is to harden and smooth, not necessarily to seal 100% because it'll be covered by paint. This time the CA is the only finish over much of the cone, so I need to be sure it does what it needs to.
Y'know, this stuff has *so* little smell, that if one were willing to invest sufficiently (!), one could fill a small container with it and just dip the nose cones, then let the excess drip right back into the container. That would be awesome, and require a pretty large up-front investment. Also it would possibly introduce contaminants into the CA. But man oh man dipping a nose cone like that would be *sweet*.
How do the pen finishers do it? I saw your link, but didn't dig too deep into that.
Put it on a lathe and apply with some sort of cloth (haven't watched any of the videos yet). Not practical for me unfortunately.
When it has fully cured it's time for the thumbnail test to see if you can indent it.
I'll try that tomorrow. I don't know if it'll be completely thumbnail-proof, but it should be better.
lakeroadster
When in doubt... build hell-for-stout!
Got a cordless drill? That's what I used on my Mercury Capsule....
Also.... thought of your #2 Pencil build thread when I saw this..
Hmm, "contaminants" like pigments? Or better yet dyes if one can find dyes that wouldn't either kick off or inhibit curing?
Probably possible, but I sure as heck am not experimenting with my painfully expensive SuperGold.
In the meantime, the piece seems to pass the fingernail test pretty well, and I tested coloring the tip with a Sharpie:
The Sharpie worked quite well, but I quickly realized that the point should not be black, but some sort of dark grey. I am supposed to have a dark grey Sharpie among my vast collection, but I can't find it, and Sharpies are expensive, so I'll probably just go with a 99 cent bottle of Craft Smart acrylic paint from Michael's, and hope it sticks to the CA OK.
SeanW78
Well-Known Member
Wow, that's real glossy for sharpie on CA. Didn't expect that.
Yeah it is pretty darn shiny. The paint I'm going to use will be Craft Smart Satin Ash Gray, which should be closer to the desired effect. They also have a Gunmetal Metallic which might be even better, if I want to splurge.
You might try coloring a test piece of balsa with an actual pencil, or rubbing in powdered pencil lead, before the CA treatment. If the coverage is solid then the color can't not be right.
Clever idea! Unfortunately it did not work well when I tried it; too hard to get an opaque coating of graphite onto the wood, so it always looked too light. And applying in a manner anything other than gentle would dent and mess up the balsa.
I think a dark grey will work fine.
I think a dark grey will work fine.
SeanW78
Well-Known Member
Even black will work as most will see it from a distance. No doubt the resemblance to a pencil will be clearly noticeable.
