Dr. Zooch R-7 Soyuz Build Thread

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I re-did the Witch’s Hats again! After they were glued on, I noticed some puckering around the top seam. I tried what Foose4string talked about, more zig-zag cuts, closer together.
This really helped as the picture shows. The wider spaced cuts allow the cardstock to crease when they are pulled into the top of the larger shroud top. The closer, smaller cuts allow the paper to flex easier.
 

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  • 43. Soyuz Witches Hats with more Vs.jpg
    43. Soyuz Witches Hats with more Vs.jpg
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  • 44.Soyuz Witches Hats painted.jpg
    44.Soyuz Witches Hats painted.jpg
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THE 16 ENGINE BELLS
Okay, so I’m back-tracking a bit. I rarely build models in the order of the instructions.
The 16 engine bells were made about a week back. No problems, just time consuming.
I had bought some Testor’s Brush-on silver. It was self-leveling for the most part, but showed brush strokes. I had a can of the 98 cent WalMart Aluminum and decided to see if it was close. It was, only slightly darker. I decided to use the Aluminum spray instead of the brushed Silver.

I knew the placement of the Engine Bells would be tough.
I decided to glue the painted end disks into place, then glue the Bells onto the disks - but not one by one. The Bells will be final glued as a group of four.
I drew an “X” onto my workboard and covered it with waxed paper. The edges of all four Bells touch at the widest end of the bell.
The Bells were turned over, widest opening on the bottom. I used a small drop of White Glue at each of the edges where they touched. Using the drawn X as a reference, I was able to line them all up at 90 degree angles.
After the white glue dried, they were flipped over and hit with small drops of CA.
The engine shrouds were painted with the Testor’s Euro Grey spray before the engine bell assembly is glued into the back.

45. Soyuz Engine Bells sprayed with Aluminum.jpg

46. Soyuz Engine Bells in fours.jpg
 
Once again, I've bounced around in the instructions.

STEP 12: DETAIL AND GLUE ON THE STRAP-ONS
I didn’t take pictures of glued on ring construction. You are to glue 1/16" wide cardstock strips near the bottoms of the Strap-On Boosters.
I cut out a few extra strips and picked out the eight that were the closest to the 1/16" width.
The Strap-Ons locations are marked at 7/8" and ½" beyond the first mark. I would recommend making many marks around the tube, mine were spaced at about ½" intervals.
There is a good reason for this. With the taper of the shroud it would be hard to start on a single mark, wrap the glued strips around and try to get the ends to match up on the other side. The strips won’t lay in a straight line.
I thought getting spray paint into the tight angles would be hard, so I pre-sprayed the Strap-Ons before gluing together.
I didn’t find it necessary to set the model on the Strap-On Alignment Guide, I did use it for reference though. The Strap-Ons were glued opposite each other as the instructions said to do. No problems, just be sure the Strap-On seam is centered toward the Motor Tube assembly and the tip of the Witches Hat is at the Upper Shroud seam.
I touched a drop of CA glue at the back of the Spider Beam/Shroud joint and directed it down the seam with the tip of a toothpick.
After all four Strap-Ons were on, the nozzles (glued and grouped in fours) were set in place with white glue. After the white glue dried, I followed with CA on a toothpick at the joints.

47. Soyuz Thin Bands in place.jpg

48. Soyuz Strap Ons glued on.jpg

49. Soyuz Engine Bells on.jpg
 
It's done!
The Alignment guide was used to glue the Second Stage to the Booster dowels. I used White Glue first with the Alignment Guide on. After it dried, I slid off the Alignement Guide and touched the joints with CA.

I had to go back and glue down two of the Witches Hats to the inside shroud.
Again, I made a small puddle of CA on my work board. I pushed the tip of the "Hat" against the shroud and touched the joint with the CA on a toothpick tip. Note the gap at the underside of the Witches Hats - None of my four matched up with the inside shroud.

The fins weren't a big problem. Since the shrouds were already painted, I scraped away a little of the paint where the fin would sit. White Glue was used with the "Double Glue" method.
After the glue dried, White Glue fillets were applied. White Glue will dry clear and flat, no gloss. If you really look, you can see the dried glue. For the most part, it's invisible on a flat finished model. I'll follow with a flat clear coat.

In the picture, you can't see the Launch Lugs, but they're on the other side. Two inline, short lugs on stand-offs above the booster shrouds.

Another great kit from Dr. Zooch. So far this has been the hardest to build.

Some tips:
Be patient with the Boosters and Witches Hats. I'd recommend scanning the sheets for making back-ups.
I've read the EMRR reviews, that parachute is a tight fit.
I thought the Interstage "Vs" would be the hardest part of the build. Not so - the Booster Shrouds took the most time.
That Testor Master Modeler Spray Paint was a great surprise. Good coverage and blend with previous coats. The small 3 oz. can is more than enough for a model this size.


Next project - The Zooch Saturn V.

50. Soyuz Second Stage Alignment Guide.jpg

51. Soyuz Second Stage in place.jpg

52. Soyuz Engine Tips Glued Down.jpg

53. Soyuz FINISHED!.jpg
 
Agreed. Definitely a well-executed build leading to a fine finished project. Kudos!
 
Sorry its been a while but man that rocket turned out well have you launched it yet?
Cheers
fred
 
GREAT job!!!

I haven't quite had the guts yet to pull this one out of the box... I want to do it justice and not butcher it... :)

Thanks for a GREAT build thread!!! OL JR :)
 
Thanks to all for the compliments.

To Fred22,
No, I haven't launched it yet.
Our local NAR section (R.O.C.K. Orlando) lost it's field and there is nothing close by to me that is suitable.
I did launch my Zooch Saturn V yesterday. I had others I had to get in the air. The Soyuz should fly at my next launch.
 
hcmbanjo said:
Thanks to all for the compliments.

To Fred22,
No, I haven't launched it yet.
Our local NAR section (R.O.C.K. Orlando) lost it's field and there is nothing close by to me that is suitable.
I did launch my Zooch Saturn V yesterday. I had others I had to get in the air. The Soyuz should fly at my next launch.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will go well:)
Cheers
fred
 
Chris that's an awesome build. I can't wait to see it in action one day. Please bring it to a NEFAR launch next year!

John B
 
Thanks. I had to have help from my nimble-fingured daughter on those strap-ons. My stubby digits just couldn't do it! :eek:
 
Sorry if this is a bump of an old thread but Ive got one of these coming in the mail tomorrow and Im trying to gain as much techniques for it as possible.
Would you mind telling me how you painted the insides of the engines copper? Spray can? If so how did you keep it from getting on the other parts of the engine, lots of masking tape? Or did you brush paint the inside copper...?
Thanks for any response :)
 
Odo,

I'd try painting the inside first, then masking and doing the outside... but then again... I haven't looked at the rocket or the plans.
 
K'Tesh said:
Odo,

I'd try painting the inside first, then masking and doing the outside... but then again... I haven't looked at the rocket or the plans.
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought thatd be more efficient, but from hits pictures it looked like the outsides were painted before the copper.
 
Odo....Chris (Hcmbanjo) has a good technique with these engines...glue the 4 engine bells together and then paint them as a unit. I painted the outsides of my engines with spray paint and then painted the insides with a brush. when done you then glue the unit of 4 engines onto the strap on boosters. The tough part with this build is the witches hats.


Odo said:
Sorry if this is a bump of an old thread but Ive got one of these coming in the mail tomorrow and Im trying to gain as much techniques for it as possible.
Would you mind telling me how you painted the insides of the engines copper? Spray can? If so how did you keep it from getting on the other parts of the engine, lots of masking tape? Or did you brush paint the inside copper...?
Thanks for any response :)
Click to expand...
 
When I built my Vostok (which is VERY similar to the R-7 Soyuz - the bottom is the same) I glued the engine bells on first and went back with a small paint brush to get the insides a copper color.

To paint the outside of the bells you can put a piece of tape sticky side up on a scrap board and tape the ends of that piece so it won't move. Then put the bells on the sticky side up tape and it will hold them for you to spray paint. When they dry they come off very easy and look great.

Check out my Vostok build thread here:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?31660-Dr-Zooch-Vostok-Build-FINISHED!
 
look what the cat dragged in... :D
Soyuz box.jpg
The one on the left was ordered from UncleMikesRocketShack
The one on the right was ordered from DrZooch.com
Both managed to come on the exact same day, even though the unclemikes one was ordered a week after the DrZooch one :eek:
One thing to note, Unclemikesrocketshack always puts the shipping crap over the cool picture you get on the box, and since this is the first time Ive ordered from anyone but Unclemikesrocketshack (That is getting hard to say) So this is my first time getting a cool picture on my box. :(
 
Mushtang said:
You got two. Awesome! Send me the one on the left. :)
Click to expand...

Hehe no way :pP
I bought 2 for a reason!
Even though Im not sure what that reason is... But it cant hurt to have spare parts right? :p
 
Odo said:
Hehe no way :pP
I bought 2 for a reason!
Even though Im not sure what that reason is... But it cant hurt to have spare parts right? :p
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Be sure and do a build thread on yours, and take lots and lots of pictures. More than you did previously. We like pictures!
 
Mushtang said:
Absolutely. Be sure and do a build thread on yours, and take lots and lots of pictures. More than you did previously. We like pictures!
Click to expand...

Ill try, I think I've said this before but, the reason I cant get many pictures is because on average it takes about 4-5 minutes to get one picture up since Im using my smartphone..
Which is a long time for one picture, and its not something I can do on my smartphone alone, its an annoying process of taking picture uploading to tinypic then running downstairs and typing in the URL of the tinypic picture to safari and then copying the picture onto my desktop for later uploading. The real catch is that the picture can not be taken and then uploaded to tinypic later. Its gotta be taken FOR tinypic, and then uploaded right away or else the picture wont save. So...
Uploading pictures for me is a big pain in the neck :eyeroll:
Which is why I generally take a picture when Im done with a step/something is drying.
 
51. Soyuz Second Stage in place.jpg
How come the orange stripe is below the interstage Vs? From every Soyuz I've seen its above it, to mark where the 3rd stage starts..
Example:
Soyuz stripe.jpg
 

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