Interceptor E Build—- Pursley Skin

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
this looks like more work than what its worth?
If only for the ends of the central fins sticking out, I am glad I did some some finishing. I don’t think I’d go with the latex again. Instructions emphasize the vinyl doesn’t stick to bare balsa.

We will see how the rest of the skinning goes. The nose cone is going to be tough, John Pursley even days if you want you can send it to him and he will finish it for a “Nominal fee.”

Any advice on Monokote Irons? I have one, and I have the sock that goes over it. I have it set to medium high and it isn’t doing anything, supposedly this vinyl is supposed to shrink a bit,

As for the “worth it” bit, part of the attraction for me is that my paint finishing skills after over a decad are still horrible, I see @kuririn , @neil_w , @rklapp , and I shouldn’t even mention @Nathan (although Nathan’s majestic stuff clearly is hours of work, the others seem to produce great stuff in a reasonable amount of time).

Most of my birds are “screwy” in one way or another, in fact most are bare balsa and unpainted tubes, as I hold to the mantra that the probability of first flight resulting in trashed rocket is directly proportional to finishing time. I have always admired the Interceptor, when they briefly re-released the E, I got one but figured I’d do it right, also a little different, going with a skin, but a dark one. I haven’t tried a light Pursley skin, I think this black background is pretty forgiving. Wings and chines are up next, we’ll see how they go.

I think I am going with a lemon yellow for the pods and for the tail cone, for some contrast. The skins themselves have great detail, but they don’t quite “pop” yet, I hope the BCOF (or at least two or three!) help.
 
If only for the ends of the central fins sticking out, I am glad I did some some finishing. I don’t think I’d go with the latex again. Instructions emphasize the vinyl doesn’t stick to bare balsa.

We will see how the rest of the skinning goes. The nose cone is going to be tough, John Pursley even days if you want you can send it to him and he will finish it for a “Nominal fee.”

Any advice on Monokote Irons? I have one, and I have the sock that goes over it. I have it set to medium high and it isn’t doing anything, supposedly this vinyl is supposed to shrink a bit,

As for the “worth it” bit, part of the attraction for me is that my paint finishing skills after over a decad are still horrible, I see @kuririn , @neil_w , @rklapp , and I shouldn’t even mention @Nathan (although Nathan’s majestic stuff clearly is hours of work, the others seem to produce great stuff in a reasonable amount of time).

Most of my birds are “screwy” in one way or another, in fact most are bare balsa and unpainted tubes, as I hold to the mantra that the probability of first flight resulting in trashed rocket is directly proportional to finishing time. I have always admired the Interceptor, when they briefly re-released the E, I got one but figured I’d do it right, also a little different, going with a skin, but a dark one. I haven’t tried a light Pursley skin, I think this black background is pretty forgiving. Wings and chines are up next, we’ll see how they go.

I think I am going with a lemon yellow for the pods and for the tail cone, for some contrast. The skins themselves have great detail, but they don’t quite “pop” yet, I hope the BCOF (or at least two or three!) help.
I hear ya...painting can be just as challenging, but yea the latex just seems like a mess! I think I would have just sanded the balsa and used some type of filler to get it nice and smooth. My painting skills are decent, depends if I'm feeling it. I know this much. Do not build or paint rockets unless you are feeling and want to do it. That's when mistakes crop up and you end up regretting it later, because of all the extra work you have to do to fix it. I hate sanding like most, but I hate it more when I have to fix something in the process. Good luck on the build. Definitely interesting to watch and yea I have to agree I think yellow pods would make things pop!
 
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
I don't think Mini buttons will work with a 10/10 rail.
 
Any advice on Monokote Irons? I have one, and I have the sock that goes over it. I have it set to medium high and it isn’t doing anything, supposedly this vinyl is supposed to shrink a bit,

I've found with the sock, you have to crank the heat way up. It acts like a good insulator. I tried the sock a few times but ditched it, and now I use the bare iron somewhere in the medium range.
 
Mark Hayes also has a video on wrapping vinyl on a nose cone.

I've watched that video multiple times in the past and I find it mesmerizing. Makes me wish I had a 20" nose cone to wrap. :)

However, applying the Accur8 skins to an Interceptor nose cone is a completely different ball of wax from what Mark shows in that video. It's way smaller and there are far more intricate curves and notches to deal with; the concave bits especially gave me trouble as I recall. The good news is that it comes out looking good even if you screw it up (well, as long as you don't totally butcher it).
 
Nice save.
Does John mention anything about using soapy water to reposition decals and squegee out bubbles and wrinkles?
Wondering if that technique can be used with this type of vinyl and adhesive.
 
Overlap will cover important items on the body to grab so you have to trim off segments of the overlap before you use it
 

Attachments

  • 16065897319414016502344384642592.jpg
    16065897319414016502344384642592.jpg
    129 KB · Views: 7
One disadvantage about the personally skins is on the nose cone. The Estes specialized nose cone for this (which I really wish they would sell separately as I think it would sell like hotcakes) has a lot of in molded edges and lines and divots which I'm sure look great on the Finnish model. Most of them however will 16066011153558672471489376495083.jpg16066011392423445173776176558275.jpgget covered up by the skin. Seems kind of a shame.
 
One side with blue cutaway in place.

Personalized with my name on it which I really don't want posted on the forum

Other side cut out16066018380285243150802384169534.jpg16066019447226209971355977380954.jpg
 
Confused here because this piece doesn't seem to really fit over the defect which you get when you cut out the blue areas. I believe he should have left these with the dark chameleon skin and allows us to cut out according to the indentations underneath.

No mention in instructions of this piece.
 

Attachments

  • 16066030155556280720266970748960.jpg
    16066030155556280720266970748960.jpg
    129.5 KB · Views: 6
Well we can answer their paint question here at the very end. Found this on one of these vinyl sheets. I thought I had read all the instructions
 

Attachments

  • 16066077877873435198954322257428.jpg
    16066077877873435198954322257428.jpg
    69.8 KB · Views: 8
Anti glare Shield has a thin red Rim around it but it's impossible to cut out. Would have been better to leave some chameleon skin around the outside. I'm going to put a red mark around the outside and we'll see if it stands out.
 

Attachments

  • 16066081709013385838043388791125.jpg
    16066081709013385838043388791125.jpg
    49.1 KB · Views: 2
Remember to Round the Corner before applying. Rounded Corners less likely to pee a lot. Also put a red Rim around it. We'll see how it comes out.

correction rounded Corners less likely to “peel up.”

I left the voice recognition typo in cuz I thought it was funny.
 

Attachments

  • 16066084289734742072005385121201.jpg
    16066084289734742072005385121201.jpg
    56.6 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Back
Top