Vintage Estes Ramjet Build

[SCIGS30]

I had a day off, so I was able to watch Football and build another vintage Estes rocket from my stash. I built the Ramjet yesterday starting in the morning. I would say the longest part of the build was punching out the die cut balsa parts...21... and truing them to size. With die cut parts, the pieces are never the same size. After truing the parts I sealed all 21 pieces with good ole dope based sealer, 3-4 coats. This process goes pretty fast since the sealer dries in less than 30 min and can be sanded with little effort. Sanding only takes a few seconds with 400 grit and my handy Great Planes Sander. The final sanding is 600 grit. I tried to take a picture of the finished fin, should look like plastic with zero grain. In the picture there is still balsa dust on the fin, I wiped this off with a damp paper towel later.
Gluing on the little vanes takes some time, trying to get them all to line up. Then I followed them up with white glue fillets. The Bt-55 fits over the vanes with very little sanding for a perfect fit.
Today, I will apply a light primer coat and hand paint the silver vanes then spray paint the Gloss Orange with Krylon Acryli-Quik. Tomorrow the decals and I will be done.

 

[SCIGS30]

Built yesterday, painted today, decals tomorrow.

 

[OG1959]

Beautiful! Love that orange.

 

[Amsterdam]

SCIGS30,

Beautiful,
Have you tried using Minmax Polycrilic instead of the dope based sanding sealer?
I thin mine with wiper fluid and spray it on, it could be brushed too but the wiper fluid is a must so it dries in that same 30-40 minute time frame.
Its far less acrid than dope, and since its acrylic and water based it goes with everything and cleans easy.

 

[SCIGS30]

SCIGS30,

Beautiful,
Have you tried using Minmax Polycrilic instead of the dope based sanding sealer?
I thin mine with wiper fluid and spray it on, it could be brushed too but the wiper fluid is a must so it dries in that same 30-40 minute time frame.
Its far less acrid than dope, and since its acrylic and water based it goes with everything and cleans easy.

When I came back into the hobby, I tried most store sealers, including the one you asked about. For me, dope based sealers are easy to use, fast, and do a great job of taking care of grain. I also build a lot of model airplanes, so I don't mind the odor of Dope.

 

[markschnell]

@SCIGS30 Your builds of these vintage kits are one of my favorite things in this whole forum. Keep 'em coming!

 

[SCIGS30]

This was a fun 3 day build of an old vintage kit. The old decals went on with no issues.

 

[nosecone]

Beautiful !