stantonjtroy
Well-Known Member
With an abundance of time now I, like many, have begun to finish up projects long started and dive further into the build stash. One of about a half dozen rocket projects I have in the works was an older Semroc 1/3 ARCAS. I'll try to post some pics of the finished product (sadly no build pics). Not a bad kit overall. I did change up the process for attaching the fins to the fin support plate and the fin assembly to the airframe in order to create a cleaner, tighter fit. Sanding the diamond foil on the fins was about the most challenging part and that was not too bad. My only beef with the kit (and this is splitting hairs) is the quality & selection of the balsa for the fins could be better. The sheet had a very irregular grain and was quite soft for the thickness being used. If the builder is simply rounding the leading and trailing edges of the fin (an option given in the instructions) I suspect this will be no problem; IF, however, the builder opts for the scale, diamond cross section, a little more care needs to be taken. Being as 1) I like scale & 2) the fin can detail is realy the only detail this rocket has, There was no thought of me NOT sanding the Diamond cross section. When sanded scale, the leading and trailing edges get thin, and I mean THIN. A harder grade of balsa with a cleaner grain here would have been a better choice (20/20 hindsight). I suspect this was to allow a better result with the laser cutting, which I'd like to point out was absolutely first rate! I did stiffen them up after sanding by soaking them in thin CA and a couple of healthy coats of Duplicolor Filler/primer. I have no doubt it will hold up to flight loads, I'm just concerned about damage on landing. It may just be a random chance kind of thing, I built a Semroc Orbital Transport a couple years back and the wood was fine. I have an older Semroc Corporal I'll be starting soon; We'll see how that wood looks. If it's a problem I'll just get some Med/Hard balsa sheet, use the kit fins as a template & cut my own. Probably should have done that on this build. On the whole a nice, quick build scale kit without an excess of labor intensive detail work. Now just waiting to see how she flies.
