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I admired both of those kits for a long time online. A couple detail shots of that L-13 was hung above my bench for reference - and bar to strive for. :) Unfortunately, being in Texas, I'm planning on reaching out to Clark remotely. -Clif

Peter - do you do any other drawings of Goddard's work in any of your books? If so, which one(s)? Thanks! -Clif

That's unfortunate. I was hoping there was another one or two of his designs in a rocketry book or something out there. I may reach out to Clark University at some point. -Clif

You're welcome. :) By all means - you have my permission to post in the gallery. -Clif

Jim - that really means a lot to me coming from you. I have pdfs of all the retrofit plans if you're interested. Assuming I may need to add nose weight they may need a bit of amending after I CP/CG test it. -Clif

Thanks! I have a bit of a nasty habit to feverishly work on a project until it's complete. My problem is staying in a single realm of work. Before the L-13, the last thing I built was a 16" canoe from scratch. :) Rocketry is an old and early love of mine. I'm glad to have reunited. -Clif

Peter and Jim - maybe you can help me in the next rocket I want to build. Peter - Your drawings were amazing and I couldn't have done it without them. They're on the wall behind my workbench and on my phone. I'd study them at down times in work for ideas on how to make the rocket more...

I like the nosecone - it's the only part that has all four colors. There's a steel band at the bottom, alternating sheet aluminum and red and the top is turned aluminum. After all that was done, I put three layers of satin clear coat on. That made the nosecone top a lot closer in color to...

I said I like simple masks. However, there was only one way to really do the vanes - and that was the mother of all masking jobs. I think the vane mask took the better part of two hours just to put the tape down. -Clif

The body painted up pretty much the same way. I painted the steel band that went all the way around (where the cardstock was) after putting down the red on the body. -Clif

Typical painting process. Mask. White. Color. I painted the red fins separately than the red part of the body tube. I'd rather do more, less complex masks than one complex one. -Clif

The rocket after aluminum was painted on. I stuck a piece of aluminum next to it for reference. I think the color is pretty accurate. -Clif

The rocket after it's primed and painted with a base of gloss white. -Clif

This is laying the primer down. It added quite a bit of fuzz to the exposed basswood parts on the vanes. In retrospect I should have sealed these earlier. I made many little sanding contraptions to get the vanes and supports cleaned up. The finish process basically went like this: Prime...

This was my finishing setup. A third cradle, a lazy susan, a 20" fan, a few 20"x20"x1" home air filters and some plastic cover. I use the heck out of my workbench, but I'm a stickler to keep from getting paint on it. -Clif

Then I spent about 20 minutes with some magic markers and slapped the finish on. Wait, maybe not. :) -Clif

Scale detailing came on next. I added the kit-included launch pieces. I also made a cardstock wrap where one of the steel bands was on the rocket as well as a cardstock access door I saw on the plans. Finally, I added some external tubes that ran along the rocket (that were on drawings, but not...

Along the way I made the scale launch pad guides. They're primed, sanded and then rounded to match the curve of the body tube. -Clif

The steering rods were filed down to size, then the inner blast vanes were added. And then triple reinforced with yellow glue. I used the bottom of the support pieces as references for all the fins. -Clif

Next, the steering rods. These were oversized to make fitment easier. I ended up using the end of the rocket as reference instead of my reference points on the fins. These aren't load bearing and are impossible to really get to. So, no triple reinforcement. -Clif