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My technique is to dab the epoxy into the joint, put on a nitrile glove, wet a finger in rubbing alcohol, (pull the glove tight over that finger if it's a bit loose) and drag it over the epoxy in the joint. Glass smooth and needs no sanding - except perhaps a bit to dull the gloss for primer...

Once you get them flat via one of the suggestions above, I'd suggest laminating w/ paper, using non-water based glue (e.g. 3M spray adhesive or contact cement).

Another + is that it's much easier to get into the custom / scratch built side of things in LPR. I turn nose cones, make my own decals, make my own engine mounts, parachutes, etc... For many of our rockets the only thing we buy pre-fab are motors. I even like the making the support equipment...

There is nothing like the "chase and catch" of LPR! It's so cool to see my kid dive to catch a rocket drifting down, and almost as cool to do it myself (makes me feel like I'm his age!) Me: "Hey - whaddya wanna do after lunch?" Him: "Go fly rockets?" Though the answer could just as...

Interestingly, a lot of water-based primers are not marketed as "sandable". I'm specifically speaking of primers usually sold for interior house paint usage. Kwal Howell paints, however, does make a couple of water-based latex primers that are specifically sold as sandable, and I happen to...

Wow - $5 for that gun is stellar. Mine is one of these - on sale now for $10: https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=86 Turns out one can replacement parts (e.g. needles) at Sears!

A Paasche H airbrush with a #5 tip easily covers as much area, as quickly, as a rattle can. Need or want more? A detail gun can be bought from Harbor Freight for under $20 on sale, and it's a pretty good gun at 2x/3x that price. It'll easily cover any rocket we'll ever make. I just used...

Two reasons. 1) Yes, thinning ratios for shooting through either my airbrush or detail gun are sometimes 50/50 or even more (thinner to paint). These paints are quite thick (thicker than house paint) out of the bottle. And 2) there is less overspray with the airbrush / detail gun than a spray...

Great looking rockets! Despite the opinions expressed here and elsewhere (e.g. airbrushing, modeling forums), the cheap craft paints like Folk Art, are more than capable of turning out excellent results, if you are willing to experiment a bit with gun settings and thinning ratios. At $0.88 a...

This property of many acrylic paints being very flat/matte is exactly why they're designed to be used with a topcoat clear. It's just a different form of painting. Many automotive paint base coats dry totally flat out of the gun and depend on a urethane clear coat. The same goes for many...

As my own life schedule has gotten ever more jam packed with activities of all sorts, my building techniques have changed. Because of this, I've found you can build nicely finished rockets and build them quickly. For me, being able to do this revolves mainly around using materials that...

I ordered that very package a few months ago and it is a great value. Easily worth the money.

Here's some more pictures: https://www.doli.state.mn.us/airtank.html A number of years ago I got a compressor for a good price - a nice HD industrial unit. I took a peek inside through the inspection port (many consumer grade compressors don't have such a port) and the amount of...

I'm no slave to computer sims - that's for sure! Your points are well taken, but if I go back to some of my own experiences of taking empirical measurements (nearly 25 yrs ago - yikes!) - the few percentage points that I was seeing on otherwise identical models jive fairly well with the sims...

I like to round the edges mainly for the simple reason that it's actually easier to have a good-looking rounded edge than it is to maintain a good-looking square edge. On some models, I'll go to the point of rounding the leading edge and tapering the trailing edge, but almost never sand in a...

I'll echo this sentiment. It's a great tool, but it also warrants great care. Unless your drill press can turn an very low speeds, the whole apparatus becomes nearly invisible when spinning. Never use it "freehand" in a hand drill. I've painted the parts of my cutter in neon yellow paint...

The way I look at the LPR forum, not much of what we do here hasn't already been done - for decades, in fact. If a kid comes on here with an honest question, I don't care if it's already been hashed out twenty times earlier. It's not like he asked "Hey, where do I buy Krylon?". Asking...

Thanks for the endorsement! I remember the days when my local hobby shop actually carried a lot of parts for scratch builders. It's sort of ironic, but the dissapearance of that supply made me a much better scratch builder. Online supplies are great and all, but only when doing bulk...

OK - I'll be the one who chimes in with the opinion that if you want to fab your own centering rings - do it! Yes - even for LPR. It's a great skill to learn, and it means you're that one step less dependent on having to procure stuff from others. That said, there are an infinite number...

HotRod - Thanks for the scoop here. No doubt about how starkly different a show car finish can be compared to the typical factory job. (I'm a car buff of sorts.) It's actually quite remarkable - funny how much I notice orange peel on even the most "respected" of car makes - e.g. BMW...