Estes V2 Build Thread

[Dseter]

OK, think I'm far enough along in the build to post some pix and info. The first hurdle has been deciding what glue to use at the fillets where the balsa fins meet the plastic cone. But before that I did some fin prep by applying a thinned layer of Elmer's wood filler to each die cut fin, allowing it to dry and sanding it smooth.
The next issue is after cutting out the fin slot holes in the plastic cone is the fit of the fins themselves. With the adapter built but not glued in place you may find some gaps between where the fins and the cone meet. I filled these in on the fins by adding some thin balsa to the bottom edge of the fins where they meet the cone. This was a time consuming process because if I added too much then the ttw part of the fins would not meet the motor mount. One nice touch by Estes is that they actually allowed for the right "step" where one ttw part of the fin meets the engine clip retainer outside the motor mount.

 

[Dseter]

The next issue with the V2 is how to apply nice glue fillets to the inside of the ttw fin tabs. In this case, you can't leave the bottom motor mount ring out to apply fillets through the bottom because the ring itself has to insert from the top of the cone and is much bigger than the bottom of the cone. I decided I would instead cut some access slots into the motor mount ring that would sit just on top of the tail cone.

 

[YodaMcFly]

I have one of these ... Looking forward to building mine, and watching yours develop.

 

[samb]

The next issue with the V2 is how to apply nice glue fillets to the inside of the ttw fin tabs. In this case, you can't leave the bottom motor mount ring out to apply fillets through the bottom because the ring itself has to insert from the top of the cone and is much bigger than the bottom of the cone. I decided I would instead cut some access slots into the motor mount ring that would sit just on top of the tail cone.

View attachment 280665

View attachment 280666

I like that alot. For my build, I left the forward centering ring unattached until I had the fins glued and filleted to the motor tube. With a strong internal bond, external fillets are much less structurally critical and can be left out altogether on scale models that don't have them. Of course, the real V2 had quite pronounced external fairings:

 

[Dseter]

I tested adding an internal fillet with Elmer's Titebond II yellow glue before moving on to the others which seemed to go fairly well. Added the other fins using Titebond on the internal fin tabs and some thick super glue on the root edge of the fins contacting the plastic tail cone. Estes provides a nice thick fin alignment tool as shown.