Interceptor E Build—- Pursley Skin

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Skin 3 is the largest, and toughest.

BIG wrinkle, but at least only on one side31C3A7BB-519C-4F2A-AF10-FA9D2B78F55B.jpeg
 

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Most likely you'll do better with the skins as you go.

But as for small wrinkles like that, don't sweat it. My Ragnarok has a million small mistakes that I made, but that is not what you notice when you look at the final product. I think that the more decoration (decals, skins, etc.) a model has, the less you notice stuff like this, because the eye is drawn to the design rather than the defects, unless someone is doing a close inspection *looking* for defects.

Carry on, this will be great.
John recommends another coat of Clear at this point. I am debating, I clear coated before the decals as instructed before applying them, and it went okay (I went light, the vinyl itself has a very “flat” texture, no intrinsic sheen whatsoever.). The gloss I put on is not very glossy either.

There are a few extra piece to cover gaps, I may stick one on a tube and test spray it.

I had a miserable experience about a decade ago with an Estes SR-71. Got a decent finish. Put the decals on. Then clear coated it. Complete orange peel, including ruining all the decals. Pulled, peeled, and sanded them off, painted it flat black. It’s my wife’s favorite plane. Anyhoo, I like the idea of a clear coat to further protect the current decals, and maybe seal them in place a bit better (Neil, I think I saw something you posted on @mbeels XB1 post about peeling

Here it is, post 241

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/boom-xb-1.160102/page-9
Any recommendations regarding the seams?

Any point in another clear coat now? I am thinking I will need ANOTHER after the wings, rudders, and caudal fins are attached, I am afraid the more clear coats the more likely to encounter fecal turbine interaction.
 
For those reading this for working time on wraps, I totally mixed up two wraps, put one on and said, that can’t be right, it leaves a huge blank spot. Had been on for probably 5 minutes. It was going to be game over if I couldn’t get it off. I was able to remove it and stick it back on its nonstick paper. I think had I realized I had that much time, I would have redone wrap 3, which is the biggest wrap on the tube.
 
My own wraps experience is not necessarily going to be the same as yours; I'm pretty well convinced that the particular batch of vinyl used in my skins had a relatively weak adhesive, and that was the source of my misery. I am certainly hoping you won't have that, but even if you do it can be dealt with with CA.

That being said, here's what I can tell you:
1) I didn't apply any clear-coats during the build. The skins were protected initially, then the entire rocket was Future'd at the end. I'm not sure why you'd want an additional clear-coat in the middle.

2) My edges all lifted up within the first few hours. It seems to me that if they stay down on their own for a day, they're good. I don't know if a clear coat will have much effect on holding them down (it might, I truly don't know). More likely, the Future coats will seal the edges, but not prevent wholesale adhesive release like I had. Or maybe it will, who knows.

3) With regards to edges lifting, keep an eye on any edge that is conforming to a tight radius, particularly one that is not adhered to another wrap. E.g., the body tube wraps are not a problem because they seal to themselves at the edges, although I had problems around the fin attachments on mine. If yours are holding in those spots, then you won't have any problems.

4) After initial clear-coating, my skins were not particularly shiny, but definitely not as matte as yours seem to be. I applied 3 coats of Future to mine and the end result is quite glossy. I would expect that a few coats of Future will put a good finish on yours. Note that the Accur8 skins do *not* have the finish problems that my laser-printed decals do. So you won't need a billion coats.
 
My own wraps experience is not necessarily going to be the same as yours; I'm pretty well convinced that the particular batch of vinyl used in my skins had a relatively weak adhesive, and that was the source of my misery. I am certainly hoping you won't have that, but even if you do it can be dealt with with CA.

That being said, here's what I can tell you:
1) I didn't apply any clear-coats during the build. The skins were protected initially, then the entire rocket was Future'd at the end. I'm not sure why you'd want an additional clear-coat in the middle.

2) My edges all lifted up within the first few hours. It seems to me that if they stay down on their own for a day, they're good. I don't know if a clear coat will have much effect on holding them down (it might, I truly don't know). More likely, the Future coats will seal the edges, but not prevent wholesale adhesive release like I had. Or maybe it will, who knows.

3) With regards to edges lifting, keep an eye on any edge that is conforming to a tight radius, particularly one that is not adhered to another wrap. E.g., the body tube wraps are not a problem because they seal to themselves at the edges, although I had problems around the fin attachments on mine. If yours are holding in those spots, then you won't have any problems.

4) After initial clear-coating, my skins were not particularly shiny, but definitely not as matte as yours seem to be. I applied 3 coats of Future to mine and the end result is quite glossy. I would expect that a few coats of Future will put a good finish on yours. Note that the Accur8 skins do *not* have the finish problems that my laser-printed decals do. So you won't need a billion coats.
As I am approaching the more complex curves, wondering if CA or scotch tape may help if I get some peel back issues.?
 
As I am approaching the more complex curves, wondering if CA or scotch tape may help if I get some peel back issues.?
I used both. On the nose cone, which is really quite challenging, I used a fair bit of scotch tap; in other areas I used CA, which did seem to work well to seal down edges.. In hindsight, I wonder if I could have done the nose cone purely with CA, for better appearance. But it's a small matter in the finished product.
 
Trying to figure a paint scheme for the pods and the tail cone, both of which are plastic.

The skin comes with two options for ring wraps to go around the central pod, one white, the other grey.

When I picked out the skin color, I was expecting it to be deep blue, it is really mostly black with blue “chameleon” blocks. I guess it is supposed to be kind of a Stealth look, but I was expecting more of a Blue Angels look. There is no significant yellow in the body, although it does have some red rings. I am thinking fluorescent yellow for the pods, maybe bright red for the tail cone?
 
Hmm. Red obviously goes with the skins better; although yellow in general goes with blue and will add a lot of punch. But I think a red tail + yellow pods will be a bit much.

I confess, my brain always gravitates towards black for the tail cone, which leaves pod options open. I think I'd probably vote for black tail cone plus the fluorescent yellow pods.
 
I think either red or yellow pods would look good. I think in this case I'd have a slight preference for the yellow just for the contrast and brightness of the color.
 
Cutting the vinyl off the area where the fins slots go. I don't think the wing lot lined up as well as they should have. The instructions say when you put that wrap on to line it up with the previous wrap1606331119042326347567786475084.jpg16063311507939041386732360891010.jpg at the seam. It would have been smarter to line it up with the wing slots and assume the same would come out right. Oh well. Close enough for government work.

Test fit the rudder. I went ahead and sanded a taper into the root of the rudder which made it much easier to stick it into the slot.
 
used small masking tape strips to Mark the ends of the slots. Then use Este tmarking guide16063314292383404057813660615045.jpg16063314292383404057813660615045.jpg as a guide to run the knife up and down to make the cuts
 
Test fitting of Rudders and wings. You can see that for at least one of the Rudders the cut out is not really even close to where it needs to be. Also should have listened to Neil earlier on this thread. I am not sure painting the tube really helped me. Although the wings and the Rudders (but not the ventral fins) have partial thru the wall fins BUT also have LARGE sections (ESPECIALLY THE CHINES) that are NOT through the wall. These now have Paint & primer on them and are not going to stick well. My plan at this point is to cover the wrap with blue painter's tape at the edges and use a Dremel to roughen up the undersurface, then blAcking the undersurface with the black Sharpie.

My understanding is that both carpenters wood filler and Sharpie markers can be used to treat for SURFACE prep andd color prior to gluing and you can still get a good joint across CWFed and INKED surfaces. The same is not true for areas that have been prime or painted.

If I had this to do over again I would have built the balsa wings and Rudders and ventral fins. The wings and Rudders I would have test fit and traced in pencil the attachment surfaces, same for marking the central fin sites. I would have roughed up those areas with a Dremel then covered them with precise fitting masking tape masks. Probably use Brown tape. I then would have done the priming and the gloss black background color. When I applied the rap I would apply the wrap over the masking tape leaving it in place, the masking tape areas Would provide marker areas to show exactly where the cutouts should go. Then when I finally got to the point where I would cutting out the cutouts, I would be cutting out the cutouts exactly over the appropriate and pre-prepped surfaces
 

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the one on the left is dremeled and black for the one on the right is just demeled.
 

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16064447858766843811933608988674.jpg16064448354153048893562900660734.jpg again I don't always go along with the instructions. Instructions say just glue the ventral fins on with no fillets. I am not convinced that sins of this size will stay attached on a mid power bird with no fillets s so I used titebond trim and molding glue for two thin fillets each side. We will see how it looks after skinning.
 
If the skins don't lay down nicely on the fillets (I suspect they won't, but see what happens), do what I did and apply a medium CA fillet along the root edge. You'll need the skins to stay in place long enough for the CA to cure, or perhaps that would be a good place to use accelerator. I've never used accelerator so I'm guessing there.
 
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There's some overlap along the edges of the ventral fins on the skins. I'm going to try to use it to wrap around rather than cut it even. You can see however that the red stripe doesn't go all the way to the edge so I cut that part out. We'll see how it goes with one before I do the other.
 
Well I put the fin on the requisite 1/8 inch forward but with it in that position the stripe on the fin wrapp does not match well with the stripe on a body wrap. I'm going to have to adjust accordingly. It does mean that the thin wrap won't go all the way around the tail end of the fin16064489423868328662258717298999.jpg.
 
rounded the corners as I know sharp Corners have a tendency not to stay down
 

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You can see the expose caudal end of this ventral fin. In this case I am definitely glad that I put an undercoat of black paint underneath. It would have been PITB to try to paint this after putting a skin on in exposed areas.
 
I am taping around the wings to protect the tube from the glue
 

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I think the Learning lesson from the ventral fins is too, before you glue them on, Dri-Fit the Skins to the fins and figure out where the red stripe is going to come out. that determines how far from the tail end you will actually glue the fins, and then glue the fins on accordingly.

I don't know if all sets are like this but it looks like the way they were printed was about 1/8 in or possibly more off. it would easily have been rectified had I glued the fins on just a little bit more forward and I wouldn't have those small bare areas on the ends of the fins. I'm debating whether to cover them with some of the spare material that I have, but as I've said before, often the enemy of good is better.
 
oh, one other thing about the ventral fins. I think I'm happier using the extra skin to overlap to fill its. Therefore I in this case I'm very glad that I did not follow the instructions and I went ahead and put good fillets on these fins. The extra material hides them well and I think having a vinyl to vinyl attachment at the edges is likely going to be as strong or stronger than vinyl to fin.
 
Okay, I figured I’d take a break from scratch building and build the Interceptor E I bought a while back,
I also got the John Pursley Union Skin (not because I have any particular affectation for the Civil War but because I liked the dark blue color.)

Instructions have lots of warning about exceeding 425 grams.
I am going with mini rail buttons and I have a 6 foot 10x10 rail.

I fly in a medium size field (parking lot essentially with soccer fields on all side). This rocket likely will be flown once, maybe twice, I would like to get it back relatively undamaged.

I’d prefer to stick with the 24 mm motor mount,

Only recommended engine is E9-4.

Seems like Estes website doesn’t even LIST this motor

https://estesrockets.com/product-category/engines/large-engines/

All they have in 24mm is E9-8, or the E12-4,6,8

I am thinking the E12 would be good, was thinking 4 second delay?

So do I need to worry about the weight of the skins much? @neil_w , I think you built a Ragnirak with these, so your input as usual would be appreciated.

Are the Wing Support and Fin Support pieces really needed?

Will it screw up the skins if DON’T put in supports?

For the mini rail buttons, will just screwing them into the body tube be enough? I have the crazy idea of building and finishing the rocket, putting masking tape over the button sites, drilling a small hole in each through the tape, injecting some Gorilla Polyurethane Glue in the holes, covering the holes and allowing to dry hole side down for a couple days (figure that curing might take a bit as no air circulation.). Thought that might give me some thickness or substance to hold the mini button screws in place. ????

Tho
You could always use conformal rail guides? I know Aerotech offers them with their rockets. They are plastic so not mush weight will be added and they are a lots easier to line up. Just a thought?
 
I also tried it on some test fins.
Both of these teams were fairly well sanded about as smooth as I expect I can get with Balsa plain wood. I then painted one fin on both sides. I painted the other Finn only on one side, because I was curious to see whether the latex would cause the wood to Warp. The pictures are laid out After this post. There was no warping of the fin that was painted on one side. The paint did not really seem to do that much as far as filling in the Balsa, but I really didn't expect it would. You can see a side by side of the unpainted side of the sanded Fin and the painted side of the other fin.View attachment 434671View attachment 434672View attachment 434673
this looks like more work than what its worth?
 
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