Sirius Rocketry 1:64 Saturn V Build Thread

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Interstage wrap. The ullage motors, liquid H2 drain fairing, lox vent fairing and all the other bits and details will get glued on after painting. You can see the spots where they get added on. That will make painting the black sections easier. 5DE2B803-27DA-4791-8567-181EE54ECABB.jpeg5AA2984C-7667-4D48-A0B6-1E277BC4F8C2.jpegE21707EA-910B-4A53-B320-FEA218E38538.jpeg
 
S-II forward wrap. There’s a noticeable gap. The wrap was thicker in that section and I couldn’t sand the back side down enough. 69B23C13-DB84-4C47-8634-393956F175D8.jpeg01C8F466-F303-4670-AECC-7188CD151C9A.jpeg
 
The S-IVB forward and aft wraps, with tunnels. I like the way this whole section looks. A5374066-F82B-4310-B879-DFE47BB07EA6.jpeg181AB4BF-05AF-47A2-9BEA-C180B7ECC850.jpeg
 
For the first stage section, I’ve still got to attach the intertank wraps. These are the corrugated wraps that go above the fins, just above where the USA decals will go. There are two wraps. They each run half the circumference of the body tube from one S-I tunnel to the other. Unfortunately, they’re still pretty twisted and won’t stay down on the tube. 5290BA96-FE14-45A8-80C1-EA37E8EEAC1D.jpeg
With the other wraps, I could line them up to the opposite end and hold them down with rubber bands. I don’t think it will be as easy with two half-sized wraps. So, I’m thinking about the best way to go about this.

The other issue I have is with the S-II tunnel. Here’s a pic of it taped into place. 3BBDEC5F-8BD6-44A3-A5BA-B8A53D40863E.jpeg
See the problem?

It’s too long. It’s not supposed to run to the top of the forward wrap, but to just underneath. The wraps have cutouts so you can see where the tunnels go. Here is the tunnel next to the spot designated for it, so you can see where it‘s supposed to go. B3EE47F8-0DE7-4323-AC7F-A3AB38354BFC.jpeg

It’s just a little too long. It’s supposed to stop at the blank area. And before anyone suggests the interstage wrap (the lower one in the picture) is too high, know that the lower S-I tunnels line up perfectly. It’s right where it’s supposed to be. The S-II tunnel is just a bit too long.

As I see it, my options are:
1. Cut an end of the tunnel - No, the ends of the tunnel are beveled and detailed. I don’t want to lose that detail.
2. Cut the chunk out of the middle - This is better, but I don’t really like this idea. On the plus side, I won’t lose the detail and I can get the length correct. But I’m risking getting the ends of the cut crooked and then it will look bad.
3. Cut out the extra part of the wrap and just live with the tunnel being long. I think I’m going with this option. It the least messy and I’m probably going to be the only one who notices it. Well, me and the 5 people who read this thread.

Option 2 would probably look best, but the risk to reward ratio is too high.
 
I thought the vacu-form wraps were tough, but the resin ones look harder to work with. On the bright side, they'll be tougher. And the tunnels look a little more detailed at the ends. Looking good!
 
I thought the vacu-form wraps were tough, but the resin ones look harder to work with. On the bright side, they'll be tougher. And the tunnels look a little more detailed at the ends. Looking good!
Yeah, they’re pretty stiff, much stiffer than vacu-form. They can be shaped with heat, and that worked well for the full wraps. But it’s just not as easy when it’s only a half-wrap.

I had essentially the same issue with the lower body wraps that run between the fin fairings. I can apply heat and get the wrap to shape, but after the heat wears off, the wrap will try to go back to its pre-heated shape and pull from the tube. How do I hold the edges down other than tape or my hands? Neither of those options works well. Maybe I need stronger tape.
 
I’ve been applying heat to the intertank wraps and am slowly getting the curl out of them. I’m still working on it.

Meantime, I put the final tunnel on. I went with option 2, letting the tunnel be a little long and cutting out a little more of the wrap. 8A4C02F3-EBAF-4B14-B5B7-074E863826AD.jpeg
 
In order to avoid working on straightening the curled up wraps, I decided to paint the fins today. The big ones are the fins for flight, the smaller ones are to scale and display only. Yes, the kit came with an extra flyable fin. I don’t think it was intentional.

1577583A-B623-497D-BE8A-607ABD63C179.jpeg

I also had the detail pieces out to trim the flash while I worked (at my real job - the one that paid for the kit).

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In order to keep procrastinating on the final set of wraps, I decided to build the capsule and tower. The parts included the capsule, the launch escape system spike, 4 LES nozzles, brass rods for the legs of the tower, and resin parts for the struts and that support ring that’s always a PITA to glue in on every single Apollo tower I’ve ever built. The struts and ring were still on the backing sheet because, let me tell you, they are FRAGILE! CD397E36-E258-4C70-86A7-B1269C57C8BA.jpeg
 
First step was to drill 1/16” holes in the capsule and tower on the spots pre-marked on each piece. The holes were straight down in the capsule and at an angle parallel to the slope of the shroud in the tower. I drilled by hand because I can’t be trusted to not destroy the piece with a power tool. E5DC2160-2EF2-464A-BA3F-4625DFBC8BA8.jpegD37187AF-C004-4678-858D-404A9A44059D.jpeg7FF00EDC-E067-4108-8449-C5BD974719F0.jpeg

I then went and destroyed the tower piece when my hand slipped and took a nice chunk out of the shroud. :facepalm:BCCA13D7-E30C-4ABE-9A5B-02F23AF53CE8.jpeg
 
A little Bondo makes it all better. 0B002275-57BF-4096-9395-010F7016ED0F.jpeg
In the meantime, the brass rods were cut to 2.5”. Then I gave them a bend at one end to match the holes I drilled in the tower and glued them into the tower.
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The brass legs were then glued into the capsule, which I forgot to take a picture of before I glued the struts in.
 
I cut the struts and ring out of the backing and proceed to snap one of the struts in handling. Ugh, not my day. Like I said, the struts were fragile. Here‘s the capsule mid-glue with a couple struts on. Broken Estes Saturn tower on the side for motivation.872D1615-97F9-41C5-804D-3F90E8EDA0F4.jpeg83A93771-DACD-4DE0-B463-63B895AD9FCC.jpeg

All 4 struts on here. The only thing left to glue in are the nozzles, pictured foreground. But first I’ll paint the capsule white. The nozzles will be painted black before being glued on. And the tip of the tower will be black.
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Capsule painted white. The umbilical connection will get silver, while the tip of the tower and nozzles will be black. I’ll use a paint pen for those.

F4555F91-095F-4350-9812-D703BD0F818F.jpeg43370259-5098-41A3-A375-EDF1329DAADF.jpeg
 
You’ll be glad to have an extra flight fin, they tend to snap off on landing. I’m down to 3 good flight fins, will need to make some plywood fins to fly it again.
 
Capsule painted white. The umbilical connection will get silver, while the tip of the tower and nozzles will be black. I’ll use a paint pen for those.

View attachment 544985View attachment 544986
That's an achingly beautiful capsule/cover/tower, but methinks your whit balance is off, they look quiet tan to me. But I'll take your word for it!
 
wow, nice modeling skills, but how do you think the tower will hold up on landing?
The tower is stout, mine has survived many landings. The upper section of the rocket comes down in a cradle, aft end lower, and the capsule/tower is designed to pop off on landing if needed, held on by a small Kevlar cord.
 
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