Yes, they all have motors in the. Those are just a couple. They eject the nose cone and chute comes out. Cool to see when everything works. I had one where only the outboards lite but the main didn't. It just sat there. Then the ejection charges went off while the SRB's were still attached to the core. Parachutes come out. I was very funny.
After you told me I checked out the Apogee website to look at the boosters, they're very interesting. Then that got me looking at the different cluster rockets. Is it a hard thing to get say 2-3 or more rockets to ignite at the same time or relatively close to the same time? You must need a different launch control with more wires and banana clips. Plus I'm guessing a larger battery. Thanks so much for the recommendation Teepot. It's definitely something I'd like to try maybe once we have a few normal builds under our belts and have some of the basics down pat. I've watched about 10 videos by Apogee and visited their websites numerous times to look at what they have to offer. There's so many other companies that I hear you guys talking about that I had no clue they even existed or there was much more than Estes rockets. I love looking at the different models I definitely like the ones based on either real rockets or missiles. I think it makes it that much more interesting that you're building a scale model of an already existing piece of history.
It's not hard to get clusters to light. The easiest to do it with are black powder motors. You can twist the ignitor wires together so you only have two leads. You could have a set of wires for each ignitor. And yes you need more power to light the cluster. I like the military stuff too.
Some prefer the auto paints more than the household paints. Personally, I haven't tried them yet. After a layer, I like to use a very fine steel wool 0000 except the final coat. So did you paint in the park?
I actually sprayed in 1 of the garage bays there was a light wind and I didn't want to end up sprayed with white speckles. I actually was going to walk through the parking lot to spray in the park but I lucked out with the wind. When I saw there were no cars anywhere close to the garage bay I felt safe enough to do it in there. Is that kinda speckly look something that frequently happens spraying? I don't know if you can really see in the photos or not but it was totally visible to me. It was a brand new can that I purposely bought for this. I shook it up good and even sprayed some out before to make sure the flow was correct. I guess I'll be going to the Depot in the morning for yet another thing to add to my new overly cluttered new-used art table. One of the perks of working for an estate sale company. I get 1st dibs if I want to buy anything. When and if it doesn't sell and is then earmarked for donation this guy gets to take it home. I guess while I'm there I'll look at the automotive primer. Yippee another hour in the paint isle staring dumbfounded at the rack of paints. Hopefully the local street artists have been on vacation lately. Lol
Is the paint supposed to be gloss or matte? If the paint comes out powdery, it might be because the contents have separated. When this happens, I boil water and pour into a bowl then insert the can for several minutes then shake vigorously. This happens occasionally with house paints but not sure with auto paints.
The Primer was Matte finish. I picked up another few yesterday at Home Depot and Target. To see if I notice any difference in types. I bought three different Rust-Oleum 2x I got #1. Flat White Primer #2 2x Paint + Primer Premium Ultra Matte White #3 2x Flat Gray Primer. Hopefully these work better than the first can I tried. I wasn't going to necessarily use the gray on this build but I figured I'd grab it, in case I plan on doing a darker color theme on another build. I'll make sure to shake the hell out of the can and try it out on a piece of cardboard box scrap to see how it looks before applying it to the rocket.
This is normally the result of overly vigorous sanding of the edges of the body (can also happen at any sharp edge in the design. You can either try to avoid it or deal with it afterwards... I try to avoid it but only succeed mostly, and often have to deal with it a bit. But if you say "fibrous and ratty looking" that probably means you went... well, somewhat too far.
This varies very widely among modelers; you will find no precise consensus here.
Thanks Neil I was able to get rid of the nasty stray paper fuzzy edge with the CA & light sanding of the area to clean it up. I guess me being a total beginner made me sand a bit more than necessary but I did do a couple passes of CWF sanding after the 1st. I felt it needed it especially the way I had to man handle the BT to get the spacer tube I accidentally glued in out. Forming tube crimps and spreading on a few seems, which probably wouldn't have been there normally. Looking forward to get some color on finally what do you recommend for wait times between coats of paint?This is normally the result of overly vigorous sanding of the edges of the body (can also happen at any sharp edge in the design. You can either try to avoid it or deal with it afterwards... I try to avoid it but only succeed mostly, and often have to deal with it a bit. But if you say "fibrous and ratty looking" that probably means you went... well, somewhat too far.
Anyway: two ways to avoid it:
1) Simply be careful at the edges. Don't sand off the edge: rather, sand up to the edge. When everything else is done, sand around the edges carefully, trying not to lean on the edge with the sandpaper when you're half on/half off.
2) At the top end of the BT (where the nose or coupler goes, you can insert a coupler with a piece of sacrificial body tube. This will protect the edge.
Once it's already been oversanded, I have found that a good application of thin CA applied with a Q-tip will fix it. After doing that you'll need to sand again, this time being more gentle and careful. You may need additional application of CWF or filler/primer to finish it up.
This varies very widely among modelers; you will find no precise consensus here.
After doing filler/primer, I sometimes use no further primer, and go straight to the color coats. If I apply primer, I'll usually two two light coats, and usually sand after the second coat.
Painting is usually 2 or 3 coats depending on the paint. Usually your first coats will be light, and the last coat will be heavier to achieve gloss. @hcmbanjo recommends two light coats and one final heavy coat; I use that as a guide, although sometimes I get away with one light and one heavy, and other times I need a fourth.
If the above steps do not yield a satisfactorily smooth finish, and I'm not totally sick of painting, I'll sand after completing the above steps and then apply one additional heavy coat.
View attachment 483832
Rule #1: follow the instructions on the can
Lol.. Yes I read the instructions on the can, cans, then read said instructions again just to make sure. Enamel? You spelled "Name" all wrong it must've been some typo or auto correction are you letting Alexa Dictate messages for you because she can't spell for well you can guess where I'm going with this since my expletive got asterisk out. Lol. I am using the Rust-Oleum 2x Flat White Primer. Does that mean it's Enamel? It says it can be coated again anywhere from 1-24hrs but I'm assuming you could probably recite the directions on the can in your sleep. I just was wondering is there a better number than anyone of 23 possible hours.
Read again. It says two things:
Ok so now I'm all screwed up well I painted it with a light coat probably around 4:30pm then brought it in on the dowel and has a clip holding it my desk light with the dowel still inside of it. So now I should wait 24hrs till I apply the second coat. I definitely read it wrong or do you think I'll be good to paint it in the morning? I'm guessing that they tell you to reapply within the hour to hopefully bond the 2 coats making it 1 strong coat. Sorry for all the questions but I'm not much of a painter in fact regular painting is my least favorite thing to do and will avoid it like the plague. Which in the line of work I'm in I'm always having to do small patch and repair work in the homes when furniture gets moved and scuffs the wall or damages the sheetrock. I'm totally unfamiliar with spray paint at all. I've read numerous threads of people's paint cracking or crackling. So I'm trying to avoid anything of this nature although I was thrown that beautiful curve ball the first layer of primer going on like colored sand.
I.e., wait 24 hours.
The advantage of gloss over matte is that it's easier to move the water slide decals around. Matte is easier to hide problem areas.
rklapp
You can apply top coats right on top of primer within the hour. I have done it. Normally you would do this only in situations where (obviously) you don't need to sand the primer.
Pictures please.
Welcome to the world of rattle-can painting. You'll get the rhythm of it and it will become easier. And periodically you'll *still* run into problems. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You're getting into the thick weeds of model painting. You might want to search for model painting on YouTube and start watching. There's undoubtedly much much more content about plastic models than rockets. I wouldn't worry about getting the rocket wet unless you land it in a pond or something. That's an entirely different set of problems.
Fear not, wet sanding is easier than dry sanding. Just keep a tub of water nearby to periodically rinse off the sandpaper. You need to be careful wet-sanding primer, because too much water can seep through the porous primer and wet the paper body tube. So just keep the sandpaper damp for sanding primer. This precaution does not apply when wet-sanding color coats, or on fiberglass rockets.
