Revisiting the Estes Maxi Brute V-2...

[dpower]

<snip>P.S. Is anyone actually watching this thread? Awfully quiet in here...

Yup. Good stuff, James.

 

[James Duffy]

The next step on our V-2 booster is to map out the location of the various weld spots that can be found over the majority of the airframe. Think of these welds like moss covering a wall, and you'll get the idea.

On the actual V-2 rounds the aluminum skin was attached to the internal framework using thousands of spot welds. The appearance of these welds differ significantly from the rivets found elsewhere on the prototype and on our model. My first idea was to simulate the weld locations using a technique called preshading, where the weld line locations would be airbrushed with a dark color (probably grey) and then oversprayed with the final white color. The dark undercoat would peek out, creating the illusion of panel variation.

I mentioned this idea to one of my model building buddies, David Carlton, at lunch a few weeks ago. He suggested that I take a look at the range of resin rivet detail decals offered by Archer Fine Transfers. These rivets are fine dots of resin attached to any underlying layer of decal film. The strips of decal film are applied just like any other decal, albeit before the final paint colors are applied. Ideally, the final result will be realistic weld details.

I ordered several different types of rivet and weld types from Archer, and ordered a couple for evaluation. A double line of weld details will be used above the tailcone joint, while single rows of welds will appear below that line.



The locations for the weld details are then drawn onto the primered surface of the model with a pencil. Flexible rulers and sheet styrene were used to guide the pencil in most locations, but some of the tricky areas on the tailcone required special curved guides that were cut from sheet styrene.







I freely admit that this will be an experiment. A few lines of weld details will be applied, then we'll pause to see how things look.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The first two packs of the double-line rivet decals have been installed on the model, and so far I'm very pleased. I estimate that four more packs of the double-line rivets will be needed, along with two more packs of the single-line rivets. Bottom line is that the purchase cost of the rivet decals will be more than that of the kit off of eBay, which amuses me greatly.



More rivet/weld decals will be ordered this evening, and progress on the model will pause until next week when I get back from NARCON.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

Found a spare hour today to apply the single-row weld details to one of the tailcone quads. The results look great so far, but I am a bit concerned about durability. After all of these decal-based details are in place the model will need a protective clear coat before any additional paint is applied. Without that protective layer I would be concerned that masking materials might damage the weld details.


Also, it is clear that I am going to need even more detail decal sheets after doing this quad! I'll order this later this evening.

James

 

[James Duffy]

Back at it after returning from an outstanding NARCON event in Tucson! The additional resin detail decals from Archer were waiting for me upon my return late Sunday, so attention was focused on completing the upper airframe section using the dual-track weld bits. A rough count places the number of individual decal elements applied so far at 288, which took about 12 hours total. Here's what they look like at this point:



BTW, I found a great little tutorial video on the Archer website showing how to install the detail decals. If you elect to use these on any future projects I highly recommend taking the time to watch this. In particular, it alerted me to the importance of using Micro Sol as a setting solution rather than than usual goo, Micro Set. All of the decals so far have gone on with no wrinkles or unscheduled drama.



Next task will be to finish up the additional three quads of single-track rivet details on the tailcone.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

Installation of the weld details onto the surface of the aft tailcone was completed this afternoon.



I also took the opportunity to add some dual-track rivet details to the adapter cone for the WAC stage.


Next we'll give the entire model a thorough inspection, cleaning up any stray adhesive from the decal application process, as well as searching out and fixing any wrinkles in the decal film. After that step is complete the entire model will get a couple more coats of Tamiya white primer.

More later,
James

 

[Mugs914]

Thanks a lot James... Looks like I'll be sending my next paycheck to Archer Transfers! They really have some great stuff!

Bumper is looking fantastic, please keep the updates coming!

 

[James Duffy]

Quick update, no photos. The entire model has been sprayed with a few coats of Tamiya white primer, and a few hickeys in the finish have been fixed. So far the rivets look fantastic under the primer, and I suspect that they will look even better under the final color coats.

The model will be set to the side for a few days while I play with some technique experiments on scrap material. I'll be sure to document those and report on the results.

James

 

[James Duffy]

The past several days have been spent engaging in an experiment aimed at making the finished model look a bit more realistic. In the real world large rockets such as the V-2 are not painted cleanly and uniformly. Rather, they tend to be painted as a set of separate components, and technique often took a back seat to speed. Further, the V-2s flown in the US were shipped as parts from Europe, shipped cross country by train, and left to sit outside in the sun at Fort Bliss and White Sands. They were not pretty beasts by the time that assembly and flight took place. You can see evidence of the poor cosmetic condition of many of the White Sands V-2 rounds from this assembly video, particularly around the 6:18 mark:



There are ways to simulate this weathering using techniques used routinely by plastic scale modelers. I'm particularly fond of a trick called preshading, where details are highlighted with dark paint applied with an airbrush, then overcoated with thin color coats. I've done it often with aircraft models, but on each of those projects the final coat was a color, not white. Here's a quick preshading tutorial video that shows the technique:



White is different, though, and I was suspect that a realistic, believable finish could be achieved via preshading with a white final coat. So, I set up a little test, priming a sheet of scrap sheet styrene with Tamiya white primer. Over that I drew simulated pencil lines, just like our V-2 model, then applied leftover resin rivet decals over the pencil lines. That yielded a reasonable simulation of the surface of our model.



The preshading test them proceeded by highlighting the panel/rivet lines with three different colors: black, medium grey, and tan.


Next, several light layers of white are applied, building up the effect slowly.


The black and grey areas simply won't do, but the tan areas come close to the desired effect. Still, I've decided to forego this particular effect on the finished model, and will instead try some other subtle weathering effects after the paint is complete.

I'm a bit disappointed that this won't work for this project, but glad that I tested the technique on scrap material first.

James

 

[James Duffy]

Here's attempt #2 at testing a more realistic white finish for the Bumper WAC. I had a can of Tamiya US Navy insignia white left over from an earlier project, so I sprayed that onto the test sheet from the earlier test. Unfortunately, the result was far too dark, closer to a light grey.

With that idea squelched, I masked off one end of the test sheet and sprayed it with Tamiya TS-27 matte white, then masked and sprayed the other end with TS-26 pure white. Pure white is the "too white" shade used for the first version of the Bumper WAC, documented earlier in this thread. After everything had an opportunity to cure I masked and added a black stripe, similar to that we'll be adding to the model later. Look close and you can see the rivet/weld decals applied to the test sheet.



The pure white is just too bright and clean, the insignia white is too dark, but the matte white falls into the just-right Goldilocks zone. Based on this test I'll be using the matte white, so a few cans have been ordered. I should also mention that the black stripe is Tamiya acrylic XF-69 NATO Black, applied with an airbrush. This is really more of a very, very dark grey, and is a nice alternative to the semi-gloss black that I've used in the past.

More after the paint arrives,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The shipment containing the Tamiya matte white spray lacquer arrived yesterday, and the weather conditions were acceptable today to spray some paint.


I confess that I am quite pleased with how the rivet details look underneath the paint. After this cures for a day or so we can begin spraying the chevrons (the v-shaped details), along with the circumferential stripes and fin roll pattern.

Foreshadowing: the wait for the paint to arrive has allowed some time to consider what the next project to hit the workbench might be, which will get me closer to my goal of having built at least one of each of the Maxi Brute kits produced. (Is there a comprehensive list anywhere?)




If you'd like to go down a really deep rabbit hole for several hours, check out this thread. Turns out that the Estes Maxi-Brute X-Wing kit is one of the preferred starting points for those wishing to build an accurate static replica of the movie prop.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The circumferential stripes on the V-2 airframe were masked and painted today, after allowing the lacquer sprayed yesterday an opportunity to cure. Yellow Tamiya tape was used to mask the paint demarcations, after which orange StewMac tape was used to attach the overspray masks.



Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black acrylic was used to apply the paint, using a trusty old Paasche H airbrush. (My tiny brain is incapable of using a fancy double-action airbrush.)



After removing the tape here's what the upper stripe looks like...



...and the lower stripe.



I should mention that I was really concerned about how fragile the resin rivet decals might be, so I made a special effort to knock down the adherence of the Tamiya tape by attaching it and peeling it up from a sheet of glass a couple of times before use. Fortunately, no problem with the details so far, probably due to the fact that they are protected under several layers of primer and paint.

Tomorrow we'll start masking and spraying the first of the chevron stripes.

James

 

[Mugs914]

It was harder to see in the previous post, but the surface details really look fantastic!

 

[James Duffy]

The chevron stripes were knocked out today. Our new national "stay at home" culture is making me a wildly productive modeler!

First task was to mask the stripes. Like we did three years ago (and documented earlier in this thread) the stripes will be masked and painted in groups of four. The stripe is conveniently the same width as my 10mm Tamiya tape, so a strip is used to define exactly where the marking will go.



Additional strips of 10mm tape are placed on with side of this strip, then the central strip is removed to expose the area to be painted. (Sorry, no photo, but you can go can to post #61 to see how it was done years ago.) Additional paper masks are put into place using less expensive StewMac tape.

Note that the nose cone is locked into position with four small strips of tape. That tape will stay in place until all of the chevron stripes are in place, as minor changes in the cone/airframe positioning are potentially disastrous during this process.

With the masking materials is place we can airbrush the first set of stripes with NATO Black acrylic.



After the paint dries for a few minutes the masking materials are removed.



After the first set of stripes dry for a few hours we can mask the four opposite stripes, then repeat the process.



Here's a shot of the finished chevron stripes.



More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The first fin has been masked and painted with Tamiya NATO Black acrylic. As before, the paint demarcations have been masked with Tamiya tape, and the plastic overspray masks have been attached to the Tamiya tape with cheap StewMac tape.

Here's a shot of the Tamiya tape in place...


...and the overspray mask in place.


The paint was applied with an airbrush, and after a few minutes we were able to remove the masks.


My supply of NATO Black is running dangerously low, so more has been ordered just in case. I hope that the on-hand stash will be enough to paint the two remaining fins with black fields.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

Knocked out another section of the roll pattern this evening, pausing midway to catch the latest installment of "Better Call Saul."

First up is the masking job. Same drill as before: the paint demarcations are done using the primo Tamiya tape, followed by attachment of the overspray masks with cheap StewMac tape.



The mask outline is defined first with airbrushed NATO Black...



...then the middle section is slowly filled in with color.



After everything dries for a few minutes the masking materials are removed.



Could I do this with rattle cans? Sure, but I would have to settle for a not-quite-right color, and the opportunities for mayhem such as paint leakage and failed mask lines are much high higher that way, at least in my experience.

I may have just enough paint remaining to finish the last fin roll pattern block tomorrow.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The final black roll pattern on the fin can was masked and painted today. Same process as before with Tamiya tape on the paint lines, StewMac tape holding the overspray plastic in place.


My last bit of NATO Black acrylic was used to do this section. After painting the masking materials are removed, et voilà!


The next challenge will be to decide what Bumper WAC round to model. This particular paint job is accurate for both the B-8 and B-7 rounds, at least so far. There were differences in markings and tape placement between the two rounds which will force a decision. B-8 is the most historically significant, as it was the first launch ever from Cape Canaveral.


B-7, on the other hand, has more intriguing details, such as the double line underlining the round number on the fins and the addition of a name.



See the double line underneath the B-7 markings on the fins? There's a great story that accompanies those markings, and also dovetails with the story of why B-8 flew before B-7.

All of the earlier Bumper flights took place at White Sands, and were designed to achieve maximum altitudes. Researchers hoped to achieve as high a velocity as possible with the next two flights, calling for a flight profile that could not be safely executed at the relatively cozy confines of the White Sands Proving Ground. Instead, they chose to use the newly built Long Range Proving Ground on the eastern coast of Florida, where they could fly a flat, fast high-speed trajectory with the Bumper.

On July 19, 1950, Bumper B-7 was ready to go from LC-3 at the LRPG. After ignition the engine fired up, and just as quickly shut down. Repairs could be made to the vehicle, but a decision was made to make the fix within the comfort of a nearby hangar.

B-8 was moved into place on the launch pad, and became the first rocket to fly from the new range on July 23. Unfortunately, the WAC sustainer did not ignite.

With repairs complete, B-7 returned to the launch pad on July 29. The missile was sporting some new markings. Intriguingly, a double line appeared beneath the round numbers on the fins. Peter Alway believes that this was the protocol for any V-2 requiring a reflight, making photo identification of flight attempts simpler for researchers. The rocket also had a name, being dubbed "Reluctant Dragon," perhaps indicative of the frustrations the flight team encountered during the launch campaign.

This time the launch of B-7 was successful, with staging taking place at an altitude of 48,000 feet. The WAC sustainer reached a maximum velocity of 3,270 miles per hour, and the premier launch facility in the US was open for business.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

A decision has been made to go with the more historically significant B-8 round, so the next step is to draw up some markings and have them produced as dry transfers. I plowed through all of my photos and film coverage of B-8 in order to research and draw new art in Illustrator, then stumbled across a file that I had created years ago for a smaller 1/24-scale model.

One of the great things about vector files is that they can be scaled to any size with no loss of resolution. So, it was a simple matter to tweak the existing artwork, after which a copy was printed on standard white paper to test the placement and sizing.



Markings for a future model of the B-7 round were also added to the artwork along with my FAI competitor number, and both a black and white sheet of dry transfers are to be produced. (To learn more about the dry transfer production process, see post #81 in this thread.)

A pdf copy of the Illustrator file is attached below.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

A pair of quick updates...

The exhaust vanes assembled a couple of months ago have been mounted to a stick to simplify painting, then hit with Rustoleum primer. After that outgasses for a couple of days I'll hit them with Tamiya primer, then spray them with black.



Our next task is to paint the dielectric antenna panels at the trailing edge of each fin. On some V-2s these were fashioned from a phenolic material, while others appear to use simple wood panels, possibly plywood. The rounds with phenolic panels are easy to pick out, as they have a mottled brown appearance, while the wood panels seem to generally be painted black. The B-8 Bumper round appears to have the wood panels, and we are going to use a semi-gloss black acrylic to provide some contrast with the NATO black that already covers a few of the fin faces. (Note that many museum displays have replaced these panels with sheet metal, which is not accurate.)

In the past this has proven to be a pretty tricky masking job. All four panels are first masked using Tamiya tape. We will paint the fins two at a time to simplify the installation of the overspray masks.


The panels are then airbrushed with Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black acrylic, after which the masking materials are removed.

Note the contrast between the slightly different paint shades used on the fins and the dielectric panels. This is exactly the sort of subtle contrast I was hoping to achieve! After this cures for a few days a thin copper strip will be painted onto the trailing edge of each antenna panel.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

A number of small projects have been completed on the Bumper model over the past few days. First, a fake nozzle has been painted onto the aft bulkhead of the V-2. This was accomplished by cutting a ring-shaped piece of clear frisket film and positioning it around the motor mount. If you're not familiar with frisket film, it is a clear masking material that can easily be cut and positioned for complex or awkward masking jobs. You can find it at Hobby Lobby right next to the airbrush accessories (and you can even use a 40%-off coupon!). Regrettably, the clear material does not lend itself to compelling photos.



Here's the painted fake nozzle. Why did I use brown? It looks "exhausty," I guess. It also tends to disappear into the void, which is appropriate for a not-really-scale part of the model.


Next is to paint the dielectric insulating frames for the antenna panels on the nose of the V-2. I have seen these on actual V-2 hardware fashioned out of both wood and what appears to be a phenolic material. The phenolic shows up as a dark brown, while the wood is a bit lighter. As these frames don't really pop out in any of the Bumper WAC photos, I assume that they used the lighter wood parts. Here's a photo of part of the frame on the horizontally displayed V-2 at RAF Hendon.


Rather than mask and paint the entire frame, we'll take a simpler path and do all of the vertical sections first, then go back and do all of the horizontal parts.

The vertical sections are masked...


...and then painted.



We next move on to the horizontal sections.


Here's the completed frame. It's a touch on the dark side.

Did you know that this forum had a limit of ten photos per post? I did not, so our next little project will be in the next installment.

James

 

[James Duffy]

Here's the rest of the latest update. The lower circumferential stripe was beginning to bother me, as it did not appear to be quite tall enough. That's easy to fix, as we can remask and repaint the stripe.

The first masking tape strips are in place, showing how much we're going to stretch the stripe, about 4mm.

The overspray masks are attached using StewMac tape.

A bit of NATO Black acrylic is airbrushed onto the exposed area.

Here's the final result after the masking materials have been removed.


More later,
James

 

[Mugs914]

That thing is absolutely amazing James! I'd love to see it in person. Any chance you might bring it to the next AARG launch (whenever that might be)?

 

[James Duffy]

Any chance you might bring it to the next AARG launch (whenever that might be)?

Thanks for the kind words, Mike! Sure I can bring it to the next AARG launch, although I doubt I'll fly it there.

I'm currently trying to decide exactly what this model is intended for, which is a bit unusual. Is this a sport model? A competition model? Should I send it to a museum?

I genuinely have no idea what the end game for this project might be.

Puzzled by myself,
James

 

[James Duffy]

The prototypical V-2 has a prominent joint that connects the aft fin section to the forward fuel tank section, featuring 24 fastener details. This started out life on the V-2 assembly line as an unpainted metallic bit, and generally weren't carefully painted along with the rest of the rocket. In fact, the joint was designed to the covered by a flat strap that extended around the airframe, although in practice that cover was rarely used, if ever. (The cover strap did make a reappearance on the Soviet R-1 clone of the V-2).

On the Estes Maxi Brute kit a simulation of the joint and fasteners are molded into the tail cone part. We are going to mask off the joint and airbrush it with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum acrylic. The overspray masks have already been removed in the first photo.


\
Here's what the painted joint looks like. This may not be entirely accurate in either configuration or color, but it should look pretty good after a dark wash is added later to "dirty it up" during the weathering process.

I should mention that the aluminum paint initially sprayed out with a grainy texture, which generally means that the paint is starting to dry even before it hits the surface of the model. After adding a few drops of a retarding medium the paint flowed much more smoothly and the graininess went away.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

A couple of details next need to be added to the fins. The trailing edge of each antenna panel has a thin copper strip that we can mask and airbrush with dark copper acrylic (Tamiya Xf-28).




Here's a view of the aft end of B-8 as it appears in a film shot at Cape Canaveral during the July 1950 launch campaign. Note the two grey access panels inset into the face of the antenna panel. These appear inconsistently on V-2 prototypes, but they always seem to be on the counter-clockwise facing side of each fin. Although we can't see that side of each fin in the available photos of the B-8 Bumper round, we're going to take a leap of faith and assume that these features appear on each fin.

A bit of crude photo interpretation seems to indicate that each panel on our model should be about 10mm wide x 6mm tall, with an 11mm gap between each element. Tamiya masking tape is cut to the appropriate size and applied.

After taping a plastic overspray mask in place the access panels are sprayed using FX-66 Light Grey. (This photos out of focus, sorry.)

The same mask can then be moved to the next fin and reused.

After removing the masking materials we can see the finished panels, as well as the hint of copper on the trailing edge of the fin.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

Building scale models has led me down some remarkable rabbit holes over the years, and another one of these trips has just taken place. Take a look at this photo of the B-7 Bumper WAC, and note the scads of tape sealing the edges of the various hatches. (I believe that this collage was created some 20ish years ago by Tom Campbell.)


That's duct tape, right, with the grayish color? Would launch crews in the post-war era have access to duct tape, or is that particular product a more recent innovation? Let's take a look at another B-7 photo...

In particular, note the tape stripe above the LOX vent duct, and the two dark squares covering the vane servo access doors. That's black duct tape, right? Or gaffer tape, perhaps? (No to gaffer tape, as that was not introduced until the late 1950s. I have no idea how civilization held together without gaff tape before that.)

So, I went down a path spending a day learning about, remarkably, duct tape. Turns out that there was a product called "duck tape" that was manufactured using a loose cotton duck fabric as early as 1899. The duct tape that we know today was developed as a result of WWII, and was called "Revolite," designed to seal ammunition boxes. Most of the wartime production was of an olive drab-colored product. Hmmm...

In the years following the war commercial versions or Revolite were introduced, including an heat-resistant aluminized version that was immediately adopted by the heating trade, who called the stuff "duct tape." So, by 1950 both silver and olive-drab versions of tape were available.

Here's my guess: the lighter tape on the upper hatches is silver Revolite, and the dark stuff used lower on the airframe is the OD green type. I may be completely wrong, but until a quality color photo emerges of these details emerges that's what we're going to assume.

More later,
James

 

[James Duffy]

How wide are these tape details? Modern duct/gaff tape is widely found in 2" wide rolls, so we're going to assume that the '50s-vintage were produced in the same dimensions. On our 1/16.7 scale model 2" works out to ~3mm, so our tape stripes will be the same width.

On earlier Bumper models I've done these details with decal strips, and never been satisfied with the results. Instead, the tape strips on this model will be masked and painted. It will be a time-consuming process, but the results will ideally look pretty spiffy.

Rather than paint all of the stripes at once, we'll break them up into several steps, masking and painting the vertical strips on the hatches, then remasking and painting the horizontal bits. I'll be using Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray, and adding a few drops of flat aluminum acrylic to add a tiny bit of sparkle to make things look more like aluminized duct tape.







Here are the finished tape stripes. There are a couple of problems with them. First, the color is too dark, and I really should have tested the color on scrap first. Second, they're simply too wide, which tells me that the stuff the launch crew used in 1950 was narrower than 2", and should perhaps be about 1.5" wide. (Maybe it was a wide cloth-based electrical tape?)

No effort will be made to correct the error on this model, as I've pretty much decided that I'll be doing another one in the next couple of years. Besides, the people who would notice the oversight can probably be counted on one hand.

We'll move on to the OD green stripes next, and tweak the width of those markings. If anyone thinks I should go with black instead of green on the lower stripes, please try to convince me ASAP!

More later,
James

 

[Cape Byron]

<snip> Besides, the people who would notice the oversight can probably be counted on one hand.
<snip>

Prolly one of ET's hands would be sufficient. Brilliant work, James.

 

[James Duffy]

Here's a question: why do the V-2 rounds launched at Cape Canaveral (B-8 and B-7) have scads of tape on the tail cone? I can only venture a guess, but it seems pretty obvious: humidity.

Consider that all (but one*) of the American V-2 rounds launched before July 1950 had launched from the desert of White Sands. Rain was rarely a concern, and LOX condensation would be minimal. There was little or no danger of moisture leaking through the many openings in the V-2 aft section and damaging the delicate innards in low-humidity conditions.

Now, move the operation across the country to a ratty beach on Florida's Atlantic coast. Nothing there ever dries out, and moisture accumulation might have been a very real concern, especially after the oxidizer tank was filled with liquid O2. How to keep rain and condensation from entering the hatches and seams on the V-2, especially those below the LOX tank? Seal them with tape, perhaps? I have no way to know, but that makes sense to me.

Whatever the reason for the proliferation of tape on the Cape Canaveral Bumper rounds, the time has come to finish up the lower dark stripes. After agonizing over it for a couple of days, I have decided that the crew probably used 1"-wide black electrical tape for the lower seams. 1" at our scale works out to about 1.5mm, so that's the width we'll be masking.

We'll be doing these stripes in several stages, beginning with the four instances above the turbine exhaust, LOX vent, and pull-out plug shrouds. Here's a photo of how that looked on the tail of the B-7 round.

The stripe on each quad is masked off using Tamiya tape, then overspray masks are taped in place.


The stripe is then airbrushed with Tamiya X-1 Black acrylic, which has a gloss finish. I'm trying a new airbrush for this phase, a Paasche S1 internal mix single-action model, slightly fancier than the Model H that I've used for decades. So far I like it, although it is a little trickier to clean.

After the paint settles down for a few minutes the masking materials can be removed.

The contrast between the gloss black and the NATO black acrylic is especially realistic! We'll do the tape bits around the vane servo access doors next.

More later,
James

* The one other American V-2 not launched at either White Sands or Cape Canaveral was Operation Sandy, which was the launch of a missile from the deck of the USS Midway on September 6, 1947.

 

[James Duffy]

The tape stripes on the vane servo motor access doors were painted into place today using the same techniques used on the other stripes. The horizontal components of the features were masked and painted first...

...followed by the vertical elements.

Here's the final result.

There are a couple of minor flaws in the paint on the fins after all of the handling during the masking process. That will be an easy fix, though. Once that is done we'll turn our attention to the WAC sustainer.

More later,
James