Got a bit done over the weekend, and I believe I may have finished the off the last of fiddly details.
I know, I know, can't be true! Well, may not be; There are a few other things I'm thinking about adding, but they are very minor things like bolt heads, rivets and panel lines. We'll see...
The last detail I wanted to add was the attachment tabs for the main fins, These kind of show up in a couple of pics of both the Zeus and Spartan, but unfortunately, not in any close detail. I guess that could be seen as a problem, but I decided that it was an opportunity: an opportunity to just make it up!
Here's a pic of the real deal that shows the brackets:
It looks like the brackets are welded to the fin skins and bolt to the booster skirt, a lot like other missiles and rockets of the period.
I know that anyone who has followed this thread will be shocked, but I decided to make the brackets out of 1/64" plywood.
Here are all of the pieces cut out and ready to glue to the fins. The strips on the right were going to be the base of the bracket that fits against the tube, but it proved to be too thin (I used 1/32" balsa instead):
I made a little tool to make sure that the main bracket parts were all glued in the right place.
The rear brackets were glued just about even with the fin trailing edge and the balsa base pieces added:
Everything was glued with medium thick CA. Any glue that oozed out was wiped with a paper towel to form a "weld seam" around the perimeter of the bracket.
When all was said and done I was pretty happy with the way they turned out. When everything is painted they will stand out a bit less than they do now, and I think they'll add a nice bit of interest to the thing. Just need a few bolt heads to finish them off!
As always, thanks for looking!
Mike