"Friendship 7" 50th Anniversary Dr. Zooch Mercury Atlas build...

[luke strawwalker]

Well, we're about 6 weeks out from the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic launch of the Friendship 7, America's first manned orbital mission. SO, what better way to relive the glory days of the space program than to commemorate that achievement with the build of a Mercury Atlas 6 stack, of the Mercury Spacecraft #13 and the Atlas 109-D booster...

Dr. Zooch is releasing a 50th Anniversary addition, so what a perfect time to build one!

So, let's take a look at what you get...

Here's the box art...

Here's the inventory of the parts...

A BT-60 main Atlas body tube, a T-50 spacecraft adapter tube, a T-20 motor mount tube, a T-5 tube (for the booster engine bells/sockets for the Flamefins), a T-3 tube (for the Flamefins themselves), a balsa weighted conical transition (upper end of the LOX tank of the Atlas), balsa nosecone (core of the Friendship 7 capsule), a baggie with 4 small centering rings (for the Flamefins), three fiberboard 20/60 centering rings (two notched), a sheet of corrugated mylar (for the Atlas booster section corrugations), kitbag with the tower parts, a couple sheets of balsa fin stock, a wood dowel, trash bag chute, kitbag with screw-eye and recovery parts, sticky rings, chute string, bulletproof thread recovery cord, humorous instructions, and a printed cardstock wrap sheet.

More later!
OL JR

[hcmbanjo]

Thanks for doing the build thread, I'm looking forward to this one!

[luke strawwalker]

SO, lets get down to this build...

We start off by modifying the notched centering rings. Cut the ring mod guides from the wrap sheet very carefully with a sharp hobby knife. These get glued with white glue to the notched centering rings, aligned very carefully, and set aside to dry. Later we'll notch the centering rings using a sharp hobby knife, according to the instructions. These notches will hold the "booster engine spoof tubes".

Next, we cut some "poly-coated Popielium" string off the parachute shroud line bundle according to the instructions. These bits of string get glued to the ends of the engine spoof tubes. The spoof tubes themselves are from the BT-5 tube in the kit, which you have to cut in half. I applied a tiny daub of white glue to the end of the string and the end of the tube, and then clamped the end of the thread about 3/32 inch up from the bottom edge of the tube with smooth-jawed hemostat clamps. Set these aside to dry.

Once the thread is securely glued to the end of the tubes, I applied a decent layer of white glue to the bottom 3/8 inch of each tube, and then carefully wrap the string around the tube, with about 3/32 inch (little less than 1/16) between each wrap-- these are the engine bell "hat bands" which strengthen the outboard booster engine nozzles on the real Atlas. I apply a little more white glue on top, and then going around the nozzle the same direction I wound the string, rub the glue into the string and onto the tube, securing everything in place. If the wraps aren't evenly spaced, go ahead and space them evenly now, using a fingernail or the back of the hobby knife blade-- the more evenly spaced and smooth they are, the better the rocket will look later on. You'll probably have to hold the end of the string down for a few seconds until the glue tacks up a bit to keep it laying flat and the hatbands wound tightly around the "nozzle" (tube). Once you're satisfied and everything's pretty well tacked itself in place, set them aside to dry.

Next, we glue the two notched centering rings to the BT-20 motor tube. Put a vertical line down the tube with your angle (or doorjamb method if you're still doing it that way-- and for pity's sake, get some cheap aluminum angle at the hardware store next time you're in there! LOL). The centering rings have a small "index notch" you cut in the back of the ring according to the ring mod guides you glued over the ring... (of course by this time you should also have carefully cut out the two 'half moons' on either side of each ring-- if you haven't done that, do it now before gluing the rings up!). One ring is marked "upper" and the other "lower"... they go on basically with the "upper" notched ring in the middle, and the "lower" one on bottom. CAREFULLY align the "index notches" (centered between the large "half moon" notches next to the motor tube) with the reference line you drew on the motor tube. The rings have to be indexed as close to perfectly as possible with this line, or the rocket will roll in flight later on, since the motor spoof tube alignment is determined by the half moon notches in the rings, and the Flamefins go into the engine spoof tubes for flight-- and the spoof tubes are aligned to the motor tube by the rings, and you want everything parallel and aligned. Glue the rings on with a dab of white glue, and once you're comfortable that everything is aligned properly, fillet the rings with more white glue.

Next, the spoof tubes are glued on. I actually jumped steps a bit and went ahead and installed the motor hook first per the instructions. Cut the reinforcement band, glue it in place with white glue, install the motor hook, put a drop of CA on the upper end/tube slit to harden the motor tube a bit, wrap tape around the motor hook, and then glue in the motor block in the front of the tube ahead of the motor hook. Check the alignment and fit of the spoof tubes in the centering ring "half moon" notches, and do a little fine sanding or filing to get a good fit... I found that I had to widen the notches slightly on mine, and sanded the front notch on one side and the back ring notch on the other side to correct for a tiny misalignment in the rings... To check the alignment, hold the spoof tube in the half moon notches with one finger, and while looking past the tubes at a fairly dark background, carefully roll the motor tube to bring the visible edges of the spoof tube and the motor tube together... the spoof tube edge should completely "eclipse" or hide the edge of the motor tube... any misalignment will be visible as a small wedge-shaped bit of the motor tube still visible. A tiny bit of sanding is all that's usually needed to bring everything into virtually perfect alignment if you got the centering rings "keyed" to the reference line on the motor tube correctly. Once you're satisfied with the fit, go ahead and glue the spoof tubes to the rings, using white glue, and the fillet them. They are supposed to overhang the back of the rear centering ring by 9/16 inch, but I gave them a little bit more, because looking at the Atlas-Agena I did last year, I think they look a little better a bit further aft (and I remember from the Atlas-Agena having to fiddle with the upper end of the spoof tubes a bit because they were hitting the insides of the fairings when it was time to glue them on).

Fillet everything and set it aside to dry.

More Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

SO, back to the build...

The next step is to make the balsa strips that will serve as the fairings on the sides of the Atlas booster. Cut two strips off one of the balsa sheets in the kit 4 inches long by 9/16 inch wide. Cut two more 2-5/16 inchs long by 9/16 inch wide. Coat one side of one of the long ones and one of the short ones with wood glue, in a thin, even layer, and then press the two long ones and two short ones together. Wiggle them around a bit to ensure the glue is evenly spread, and then clamp them lightly with clothespins or small clamps, and set them aside to dry.

When dry, remove the clamps and sand the edges of the strips lightly to ensure they're all level and smooth...

Next, per the instructions, mark the strip 1/2 inch from one end, and the center of the strip at the very end. Then, using a sharp hobby knife and straightedge, trim the corners off to make the strips into an even point.

Now, using 220 grit sandpaper, invert the strip so that the line you drew across the end of the strip 1/2 inch from the end is resting line-side down on the sandpaper, and tilt it up to about a 10 degree angle and gently sand away the top layers of balsa until the strip comes to a shallow point on the triangular end. The angle you sand at should be flat enough that the point of the triangle lies flat on the sandpaper all the way back to the line across between the edges of the triangle... Correct the angle if needed and sand a bit until it's all even and smooth. Now, using the sandpaper carefully, round over the sides of the strip on the top side edges, along the entire length of the strip. The top corners should be rounded off, and the bottom corners left square. Basically you want to round them over to make a sorta flattened inverted "U" shape. Carefully extend this rounding over along the crisp sanded-in edges along the triangular tapered part down to the point itself... sand carefully to keep it all smooth and even. The finished product should look something like these...

Now, grab your 220 grit sandpaper and wrap it around the BT-60 body tube. Wrap the paper tightly so it conforms to the curvature of the tube very closely (don't use a whole sheet-- just a piece about 3x4-5 inches is ideal). Now, CAREFULLY sand the balsa fairings you just made UP AND DOWN the length of the sandpaper to curve the bottom side so it conforms to the body tube... BE SURE YOU KEEP THEM ALIGNED VERTICALLY ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE TUBE AS YOU CAN! You want them to match the curve of the tube, but you also want them to lay straight on the tube when you're ready to glue them on... it's not TERRIBLY difficult but it requires you be aware of your sanding position and motions... and consciously making straight-line movements and keeping the tube and fairing parallel with each other... I find that sometimes the edges want to stay a bit higher, so wrapping the sandpaper around your fingertip and sanding the CENTER of the underside of the fairing often helps to remove a bit more material, allowing the outside edges to snuggle down tight against the tube-- just don't carve the Grand Canyon in there-- you just want to minimize the gap at the edges, not create a huge void in the center of the strip where it should be gluing tightly to the side of the body tube...

Now we're finished with the fairings...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

SO, now we're ready to start bringing the booster together...

First we have to notch the BT-60 for the motor mount, as per the instructions. Use the marking tool on the wrap sheet, sort of a "bullseye", and center the tube over it, and carefully transfer the four arrow marks to the tube to indicate where the cuts should be made. Using an angle, make four vertical lines on the tube along these arrow marks. Next, connect the two adjacent lines 1-5/8 inch up from the bottom of the tube, defining the "rectangle" of material that will be cut out of the wall of the tube, to allow the spoof engine tubes sticking out the side of the motor mount to clear main body tube. Use a sharp hobby knife to carefully cut these away. Test fit the motor mount in the body tube DRY-- NO GLUE, to ensure that everything slides together properly and smoothly and to find the best fit. I found rotating the motor mount resulted in a slightly better fit for some reason... I also had to sand the frontmost centering ring a bit too to slide into the tube a bit easier at the top of the notch cuts on the main body tube. When you're satisfied with the fit, apply white glue inside the body tube aft end and insert the motor mount, and push it forwards until the spoof engine tubes seat against the bottom of the cut notches...

Now we'll glue on the pod fairing covers. Since the motor hook is centered between the nozzles, and should look better on the pad on the "back" of the rocket, a quick check in my "Rockets of the World" book showed that the longer fairing should be on the right hand side with the "front" of the booster toward you (considering the side with the LOX line to be the "front"... the capsule window and hatch should be aligned with the long fairing in this position). Anyway, so with the motor hook down, I put the long fairing on the right hand side of the rocket, and the short fairing on the left hand side. I grabbed an angle out of the toolbox and extended a line on either side of the "spoof engine tubes" sticking out the sides of the motor mounts so I could align the fairings vertically. Test fit everything, outline the forward tips lightly with a pencil (to ensure you don't mix them up as to which fairing goes on which side if you're trying to keep the motor hook in "back") and then apply a healthy even layer of white glue to the tube, and then press the fairings in place, aligning them vertically with the rocket body tube, with the flat end against the top ends of the "spoof tubes". Slap some rubber bands on there to keep everything tight while the glue dries.

Next, we'll cut the aft booster engine fairings from the wrap sheet... again using a sharp hobby knife, a straightedge on the long straight sections, and a steady hand on the short straight and curved parts... set them aside. You'll also need to cut the "heat shield templates" out of the wrap sheet-- they're these little 'fingernail clipping' looking dilly-oh's... and glue them down in the corner of the balsa sheet we've been whittling parts off of. These will be assembled later into the tapered aft booster engine nacelle fairings.

Now, I'm gonna jump around a bit... we're at that part of the build where following the instructions usually means you do one thing and wait hours to overnight before you can do the next step, so it just makes sense to do a little "parallel development" (in NASA parlance) here to speed up the process a bit. While the glue is drying on the fingernail bits, I started working on the capsule. First we cut the "Friendship 7" (or whatever your favorite Mercury mission was... there's even a "generic capsule" that could serve as Deke's "Delta 7" that he never got to fly because he was grounded with a heart arrhythmia... at any rate, cut the capsule wrap of your choice from the wrap sheet, curl it around and glue it up into a conical shape. Be aware that there is no glue tabs marked on the wraps, so be sure you cut a little extra on the edges, or conversely you can also cut a small strip off the edge of the wrap sheet and use it for a butt-splice connection, connecting the two edges of the capsule wrap into a conical piece. Clamp it securely and set it aside to dry.

Cut the small recovery compartment cylinder strip from the sheet, carefully roll it into a circle, and glue the ends together. Once dry, grab the balsa capsule core (nosecone) from the kit and carefully test fit the cylindrical recovery section on the upper end... if it doesn't fit, carefully sand the balsa down a bit until it fits smoothly. The capsule "bell" wrap should be try by now-- test fit it as well. When everything fits smoothly, apply white glue to the conical part of the balsa nosecone, and slide the capsule "bell" over it, tugging and pressing it gently but snugly down into place. Test fit the recovery cylinder again, and if everything's cool, apply a thin layer of white glue to the balsa cone, align the seam in the paper recovery compartment with the seam in the lower "bell", and gently slide the cylinder over the top of the nosecone, and press it down gently til it seats on the lower section of the capsule. Gingerly remove any glue that seeps out without smearing it and making a mess. Apply some wood filler (I used white glue myself) to the top of the balsa capsule (to cover the raggedy end grain of the balsa cone) and set it aside to dry. Your capsule should now look something like this...

Now, cut the small antenna canister from the wrap sheet-- it's a small conical part. Gingerly apply glue to the tab, roll it to shape, and glue the ends together to form a tiny truncated cone. This is where the smooth-jawed hemostats REALLY come in handy! Clamp it up and set it aside to dry... Cut the TINY nose fairing from the wrap sheet-- it's the tiny "Pac-Man" looking thing kinda off to one side by itself near the antenna can you cut out before... (don't confuse it with the three conical LES tower nozzles set to one side nearby!) Cut the "lil' Pac Man" out and gingerly roll it over a pencil point to put a little curl in it, apply a daub of white glue to the tiny little glue tab, and roll it to it's conical shape, and clamp it together to dry with a hemostat, and set them aside to dry...

Later! OL JR

[tbzep]

It's hard to get the capsule wraps to mate perfectly, which leaves some light colored balsa showing underneath. A neat little trick to help hide this is to take a little flat black paint or a black Sharpie and color the balsa where the two wraps will meet before applying the wraps. The resulting black may be darker than the printed wrap, but flat black tends to disappear better than light balsa.

[luke strawwalker]

It's hard to get the capsule wraps to mate perfectly, which leaves some light colored balsa showing underneath. A neat little trick to help hide this is to take a little flat black paint or a black Sharpie and color the balsa where the two wraps will meet before applying the wraps. The resulting black may be darker than the printed wrap, but flat black tends to disappear better than light balsa.

Good tip... Mine fits well, but the edge of the paper is visible... I'll have to go over it with pencil lead to darken it up... works pretty good.

lateR! OL JR :)

[luke strawwalker]

Well, now that the "fingernail clippings" for the aft ends of the motor spoof tube booster fairings are done, we can cut them out with a hobby knife and stack sand them to identical shape. Test fit them on the spoof tubes to ensure the curvature and depth are correct.

The antenna canister parts are dry and out of the clamps, and ready to be glued together.

After pre-curling the booster engine paper fairings, we test fit everything together to see exactly where everything's going to end up being put. The fairings can be slid forward or back a bit as needed, so we need to "mock up" everything into the positions that we want them to be in. I put an "S" on the "fingernail" and paper fairing going on the short balsa strip side (the "left" side of the rocket) and an "L" on the parts for the long strip side (the "right" side). This way I can custom fit the parts and ensure they mate up again when it's time to glue everything together. I had to do a little 'deepening' of the spoof tube notch in the "fingernails" with a half-moon microfile... and finished up with a bit of 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

Here's the finished bulkhead (fingernail) in place on the spoof tube... nearly a perfect fit!

Here's the test fit between the paper fairing skin, the fairing bulkhead, and the spoof tube... test fit EVERYTHING and see how it all fits together before you glue anything...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Another shot of the test fitting of the paper fairing skins over the fairing bulkhead fingernails and the spoof tubes...

The antenna canister is glued together. I added three TINY little "tabs" to the top rim of the canister to help strengthen the joint to the canister cap. To do this, I cut a strip of paper about 1/16 inch wide and an inch long off the top edge of the wrap sheet with the hobby knife, and cut three small "glue tabs" from it about 3/16 inch long. I then applied a small daub of white glue to one end, and using the hemostats, inserted them into the small end of the antenna can, and pressed them into place with another hemostat. These were dry in about five minutes (because they're SO small and it's SUCH a small amount of glue being used). Bend them inwards at the rim of the can so they're nearly flat, just slightly standing up above the rim of the can. Then, apply a bead of white glue around the rim of the can and the top surface of the strips, and then carefully place and center the antenna can nosecap in place, press it a bit to seat it, ensure it's centered, and set it aside to dry...

Now that the test fitting is done on the fairings, we can glue in the bulkhead fingernails in the proper locations according to the test fit we just did and also glue in the three small reinforcement balsa struts... these are cut from the balsa we've been using to make the fairing parts. These are glued in to keep the fairing sides straight and prevent them "bowing outward" when glued into place. Fillet the main fairing bulkhead and then glue the three small strips into each fairing and set it all aside to dry.

The capsule gets a daub of wood filler on the top grain of the balsa cone, allowed to dry, then sanded flat with 220 grit. Then, paint it flat black with Testor's paint...

Later! OL JR

[jharding58]

Good tip... Mine fits well, but the edge of the paper is visible... I'll have to go over it with pencil lead to darken it up... works pretty good.

lateR! OL JR :)

Always a good practice with printed paper - hard to get ink on to the cut edge without obscuring some printed detail.

[luke strawwalker]

Well, let's see...

Put some white glue in the antenna can and glued it on the top of the capsule, aligning the seams on the antenna can and cap with the seams on the recovery section and bell section of the capsule (so all the seams will be "on back")...

Rubbed a layer of spot putty on the transition to fill it (I had already applied a layer of ultra-thin CA to it and sanded it down with 220 grit). After that dried, I sanded the spot putty down nearly to bare wood and taped the shoulders for priming, and taped the cone to a paint stick.

Four coats of primer later she's sitting on the washer to dry overnight...

The booster engine fairings were glued on to the balsa fairings... one didn't quite want to stay put despite using a double glue joint to help speed the setup time, so I had to clamp it... used a bamboo skewer on one side and a strip of thin balsa, bearing on the balsa fairings at the front and on the balsa "fingernail" inside the fairing at the rear, which is glued to the booster engine "spoof tube"-- this way the balsa keeps the clamp from over-squashing the paper fairing, and keeps everything in a straight line as the glue dries...

The finished fairings, after giving them a light filleting with white glue...

More later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Remember what I said earlier about having to "jump around" a bit... well, here we go... time to start on the TOWER!!!

Now, realize the capsule fits on a BT-50 tube... so this thing is SMALL... but it CAN be done, and if *I* can do it with my farmer's smashed-up, cut-up "twinky fingered" meathooks, then others can probably do a LOT better... BUT it does require you to screw up your patience level a bit (yeah I suffer from an appalling lack of patience as well...) and just bear down and git'er dun...

Dr. Zooch realizes in his infinite ant-wisdom (his ant-munificence is boundless so I'm told... er, wait, maybe that's the megalomaniacal space ant-villian Small O. Drax... can't recall ) that not EVERYBODY wants to practice hemorroid surgery on gnats to prepare for doing this tower, so he includes a cheap-n-dirty "squirming hatch blower" method using a printed paper wrap tower that can be glued on top of the rocket... if you want to take the easy way out...

For the rest of us "steely-eyed missile men" we get to go blind putting hair thin wires on matchsticks... Seriously, I've done one of these before, on the BT-50 "Freedom 7" Mercury Redstone, so it's not THAT big a deal...

SO, first grab the tower kitbag out of the box... it's a tiny dime bag ziplock with some "matchsticks", a bit of wood dowel, half a toothpick, and some hair-thin steel wires in it... Grab the matchsticks and dowel bit and keep 'em where you can find 'em... leave the rest in the bag back in the box.

The "matchsticks" start off square... now the Mercury escape tower didn't have square tubing legs, so you gotta start by rounding them off. Easiest way I've found is to hold one end, grab a bit of 220 grit (if you have one of those "sanding bows" that hold a strip of sandpaper between the ends sorta spring loaded like a miniature hacksaw blade, that's ideal-- I don't have this toy, so I simply hold a piece of 220 pinched between my fingers in such a way as to emulate this handy tool... which allows the sandpaper to "curl" over the stick while I sand it, emulating the 'spring loaded' sanding bow tool). Sand over each corner about half the length of the stick rounding the corners off, turning the stick between your fingers to the next corner once you've rounded off the last one. Once one half of the stick is round, flip it end for end and do the other half... GO EASY, LET THE PAPER DO THE WORK, and TAKE YOUR TIME... it won't take but about 5 minutes per stick to do and they'll come out virtually cylindrical when you're done. Once they're rounded over, you can lay the sandpaper down flat on the workbench and, putting a finger on either end of the stick, sand it in a rolling motion at an angle to the paper, to get them even rounder... they don't have to be TOTALLY round or PERFECTLY round-- don't try that or you'll make them TOO THIN and weak... just get rid of those gnarly corners so it looks right!!

After you've got your tower legs-to-be rounded off nicely, set them aside and grab the bit-o-dowel... it'll probably be cut off at a bit of an angle and not perfectly square on one or both ends... inspect it and then holding it upright on end, sand it in circular motions against the 220 grit your holding down on the workbench... flip and repeat as needed. Don't worry about getting it 100% spot on square-- "close enough" is close enough-- just make sure you sand it FLAT and don't round the thing over... I found that doing a little sanding around the circumference of the cylinder sides all the way around, and dressing the ends slightly, really improved the appearance...

Next, grab the wrap sheet and your steel ruler, and measure out a strip 3/32 inch wide by 6 inches long. Use your sharp hobby knife to cut this strip off the edge of the wrap sheet... it's not marked, you just cut a nice, straight, perfectly even (well, as perfect as you can get it) strip off the side of the cardstock. Cut the strip into (2) two inch long strips, and (2) one inch long strips. Apply a thin layer of white glue to the backs of these strips, one at a time, and roll them around the dowel. The two inch strips go on each end, one flush with the end (the upper one) and the other recessed about 1/16 inch from the end of the dowel on the bottom end. The 2 inch strips will overlap themselves and make a double-thick ring-- this is correct. The one inch strips get wrapped around the dowel about 1/3 of the way between the top and bottom ones, evenly spaced. The 1 inch ones do not overlap themselves, but the ends basically butt together. These are the thinner mid-rings on the launch escape rocket motor. Here's what the finished product should look like, standing upright.

Next, you'll see a TINY triangle printed on the wrap sheet... CAREFULLY cut it out and glue it to some of the balsa strip you've been cutting parts out of... This will be the "former" for the tower in later steps.

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

SO, after cutting out the teeny tiny triangle and grabbing some wax paper from the kitchen, I started trying to do the tower legs per the instructions. A few minutes of foul-ups and cussing soon reminded me why I hate that teeny tiny triangle, as it gave me NO END of fits when I did the "Freedom 7 Mercury Redstone" in the same scale... it finally came together well, but it was a hard journey! The instructions call for you to cut the tiny triangle from the balsa, trim the corners off to make tiny flats, and then CA glue the thing upright to a pair of the matchstick tower legs at the points, setting the thing on wax paper to dry... problem is, the CA doesn't want to dry-- it wants to soak into the wood... then you put more CA, and it STILL doesn't want to dry-- it wants to puddle on the wax paper, and if and when it DOES dry it wants to leave crusty crap all over the tower legs... Once the two legs are cured to the triangle, the thing is to be flipped over and the last leg CA'd to the remaining flattened point of the triangle, then the whole 'tripod' assembly glued to the little dowel LES tower rocket motor...

SO, after a couple failed attempts with CA and the triangle, I started looking around for an alternative. Here's what I came up with. It's not like the instructions, and it's not been "evaluated or approved by Dr. Zooch Rockets, its parent company, or any of its affiliates" so I'm just throwing this out there because it worked for me and seems easier than the "teeny-tiny triangle" method in the instructions... so proceed at yer own risk! Took me a little experimentation to arrive at a method that would work, but it makes the whole process more accurate and easier IMHO...

First, after a quick search of the supplies box, I turned up a long piece of wood dowel the same diameter as the tiny escape rocket motor made from the bit-o-doweling and paper hatbands. This forms the basis of the "jig" that we'll make to hold the legs together temporarily while we glue them to the escape rocket motor. Start by cutting a piece about 1.5 inches long off the long dowel... this is plenty long for the jig... Then roll a strip of printer paper around the spare dowel, and mark the overlap.

Remove it and measure the circumference of the dowel, which in this case was 25 millimeters... divide that by 3 (8.33 mm) and measure out and mark the paper strip for three evenly spaced tower legs. Re-wrap the paper around the spare dowel, and mark the leg placement marks onto the dowel.

I used a foot of brass angle I picked up at the hobby shop for marking lines down the length of very small tubes (and dowels) and made the lines go the length of the doweling.

Next, using a small hobby file (or 220 grit folded in half if you don't have a small hobby file) sand a notch into the wood dowel at a slight angle, about 1/16 inch deep or so, tapering back to the surface of the dowel about halfway back... these notches allow the tower leg "matchsticks" to drop down into the jig dowel a bit, which serves two purposes: 1) it helps keep them aligned properly and evenly spaced in an equilateral triangle pattern, and 2) it points them slightly inward at the top ends, which allows them slightly clamp the back end of the escape rocket motor piece when we glue it together, ensuring everything stays put and gets a good, straight, solid bond.

Next, we measure each of the tower leg matchsticks and mark them at precisely 1 centimeter in length-- you can use any measurement, so long as they are ALL IDENTICAL... 1 cm works very well though.

More to come! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Next, we'll apply a strip of gift wrapping tape to the tower legs, one by one... stay behind the 1 centimeter mark on the leg-- the legs will overhang the end of the jig by 1 centimeter. It's also helpful to give a couple or three wraps of transparent tape around the dowel about where the ends of the tower legs will contact the jig... this helps "shim them up" a bit so they ride down into the grooves we sanded into the jig earlier...

Now, take the legs with the strip of tape, press them gently into the slots in the jig, and MAKE SURE THEY ARE ALL EXACTLY 1 CENTIMETER from the leg ends to the jig dowel end... this will ensure that the legs are all at the same level, and therefore the escape rocket motor will be glued on straight.

Now, apply some wood glue to the ends of the legs, and to the escape rocket motor, and put it together. A quick check of "Rockets of the World" shows that one leg of the escape tower aligns with the window in the capsule, so with a little checking, you can align the seams of the escape rocket motor hatband so that they align with the seams in the capsule wraps so they are all "on the back" of the rocket and out of sight... Once the first layer of glue has dried, go ahead and 'fillet' the joints again and spread the glue around a bit... it's such a TINY amount of glue that a little extra strength never hurts... and of course it'll shrink down quite a bit as it dries...

The three hair-thin wires in the LES kitbag are clamped in hemostats and painted with Testor's Flat Red in preparation for their use in the build. Set them aside to dry.

Here's the dry tower legs, ready to cut the tape and free them from the jig, its job is now done... the clear tape cuts easily with the hobby knife and a little gentle work removes the tape from the legs, freeing the tower so it's ready to glue on the capsule...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Here's the completed tower rocket motor and legs removed from the jig dowel... we'll get back to this part of the build in a minute...

Next, while the glue is drying on the tower legs, we can get the ribbed mylar from the kit to do the corrugated band around the booster section of the Atlas...

We cut two pieces from it 1-1/8 inches "tall" by the distance around the circumference of the main BT-60 body tube, between the two booster engine fairings on the sides of the rocket... the wrap has to be custom fitted for each side, holding the mylar in place and gently 'creasing' it with a fingernail or pencil to give a cutting line. Remove the mylar and cut it to the proper circumference, test fit it, and then cut the proper "slant" into it to make it trapezoidal shape, since the fairings are slightly conical...

Next apply a decent layer of white glue to the area where the corrugated mylar wraps will go, and put them in place, ensuring they're positioned properly... clean up any excess glue and make sure the wraps are firmly seated against the tube (but don't crush them!)

While the wraps dry on the booster, we can go back to work on the tower... Now, the instructions call for CA... I don't have much luck with CA and the stuff has a lot of drawbacks, ESPECIALLY because it tends to make paper transparent and do nasty things, which is NOT what you want to happen to your beautiful new Friendship 7 capsule! SO, I elected to use double-glue joints using white glue, since the wood is being bonded to the paper "antenna canister" on top of the capsule... Apply a thin, fairly broad (considering the size of the spot you're gluing is about maybe 1/8 inch in diameter!) spot on the antenna canister... put three of these glue spots on the canister evenly spaced around the canister... there are little red 'hash marks' to assist you in placing the tower legs on the antenna can, but of course I didn't think about them aligning the leg with the window (as on the real Mercury escape tower) when I glued the antenna can onto the capsule-- I instead focused on lining all the seams up so they're "on back" out of sight... No biggie-- the marks are off by half, so I just colored over them with a pencil to hide them (which is what you use to color all the exposed paper edges of the capsule build anyway) and then put the glue spots evenly spaced between them... Then I applied and spread a miniscule dob of glue to each tower leg, and let it dry... make sure it's evenly spread, and when it thickens up, invert the tower with the legs up in the air, so the glue "sags" toward the rocket motor just a tiny bit-- this will make a tighter fit since the antenna can is actually conical in shape and not cylindrical... Once this first part of the double-glue joint is dry, apply a second THIN layer of glue to the legs, and then carefully install the tower legs on the capsule... BE SURE you "clock" the tower properly with one leg aligned with the window, and that the seams on the motor can should align roughly with the capsule wrap seams and be hidden if you put everything together right... Keep the tower leg ends up about halfway up the sides of the antenna can, or perhaps just a touch less... DO NOT push the tower down until the legs are against the top of the capsule itself! (We'll install small inverted "V" leg ends in this spot later!) The double-glue joints REALLY help you with this step, because basically you can press the tower legs against the antenna can and hold them for about 30 seconds, and the tower will stay put... Turn the capsule slowly between your fingers with it resting on the tabletop, while watching the top of the tower-- it shouldn't wobble or look crooked... the glue is still soft enough for some gentle alignment. Once you're satisfied that it's straight, set it aside to dry. If you REALLY want precise alignment of the tower, once the glue had dried about five minutes, put the capsule in a piece of scrap BT-50 and roll it on the table-- any tower misalignment will be readily visible, and more 'gentle persuasion' can usually coax the tower into near-perfect alignment... (something you cannot do with CA once it 'locks up')...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

While the glue is drying on the tower, cut the three LES rocket nozzles from the wrap sheet, pre-curl them around the tip of a ballpoint pen, and then with a tiny daub of white glue, glue them up and clamp them to dry with smooth-jawed hemostats...

Once dry, remove the hemostats and roll the nozzles over the tip of a ballpoint pen to round them out nicely and set them aside...

Next cut the capsule top/tower base ring from the wrap sheet and gently pre-curl it over a sharpie, apply a tiny dot of white glue to the end, and glue it up, clamp it and set it aside to dry. It's probably easiest to color the back with a pencil before gluing it up to darken the underside so it's not so visible when glued to the top of the capsule, but I did it after it was dry-- either way works with sufficient care...

Round over the end of the oxygen line to emulate the bend going into the rocket body... flatten the other end on sandpaper. I cut mine a bit to a closer scale length (4-3/8 inch roughly) and once I was satisfied with the rounded end, set it aside for later...

Next, we cut the vernier nozzle mounts... These are sorta 'diamond shaped' protrusions centered between the booster engine fairings on the "front" and "back" of the rocket, just above the corrugated booster section... I preferred to cut them out of basswood since it whittles more smoothly and is much less noticeable grain... cut two 'blanks' a half inch long by 3/8 inch wide, then trim them down to the tiny "Dracula's coffin" shape as shown, then gently whittle them down with the hobby knife to make the elongated diamond shape. Set them aside for later...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Here's the vernier mount on the "front" of the rocket-- beside the double-glue joint for the LOX line...

Here's the vernier on the 'back' of the rocket...

There's a short cable tunnel running from the 'back' vernier... made from a strip of cardstock cut from the edge of the wrap sheet...

There's a much longer cable tunnel that runs from the vernier on the 'front' of the rocket, so long in fact it continues up the conical forward section of the LOX tank (the balsa transition). Here's the section glued down to the rocket body tube itself...

Finally I installed the LOX line... the rounded end goes forward, and the flat end should be about halfway between the bottom of the corrugated booster section ending about halfway down the smooth section below it, but above the bottom of the rocket (in scale it should be about 27 inches or so below the bottom of the corrugations).

More later, but it'll probably be tomorrow night at the earliest... gotta check cows tomorrow!

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

SO, back to work...

The next thing up is the capsule adapter... it's a slightly tapered (5 inches IRL) section that connects the top of the Atlas booster's conical upper LOX tank end to the Mercury capsule above it. It's made in the kit out of a short piece of BT-50 body tube, with some additions. From the wrap sheet, you'll find a long thin reddish stripe between the capsule wraps and the rest of the stuff on the sheet... using a straightedge and sharp hobby knife, cut this strip out. Apply a thin layer of white glue to the back of it, and wind it around the end of the tube, flush with the end, overlapping itself about three times or so... this will build up the "mating clamp ring" that connects the capsule to the adapter section. Next, using some of the leftover corrugated mylar used to make the corrugated booster section on the bottom of the rocket, cut a strip to size and test fit it on the adapter section. When you have a good fit, apply a decent layer of white glue to the outside of the adapter section and then carefully apply the corrugated mylar wrap. This re-creates the ribbed appearance of the actual adapter section... (historical note-- on one of the early unmanned Mercury-Atlas test flights, the rocket mysteriously blew up at max-Q... after a review it was discovered that this adapter section was not strong enough, and it collapsed in flight, allowing the capsule to impact the top of the LOX tank hard enough to rupture the "steel balloon" construction of the Atlas. The adapter section was strengthened and the problem was solved.)

Here's the conical upper LOX tank of the Atlas (balsa transition), the adapter section we just built, the Mercury capsule, and the still rather bare tower, test fitted together... starting to look like a Mercury Atlas!

Next, we cut a strip of balsa off the side of the balsa stock from the kit... it's basically a 3/32 inch wide strip (same as the thickness of the sheet) several inches long. (Thankfully I have a handy-dandy little "balsa stripper" tool that I picked up at the hobby shop-- it has and adjustable X-acto blade on the end of an adjustment arm controlled by a screw, and a fence that you simply slide along the edge of the balsa sheet, cutting a perfect strip- If you don't have this handy toy, you'll have to do it manually with a straightedge and carefully using your hobby knife). You have to CAREFULLY round this balsa strip into a "U" shape (rounded on top) to simulate the line fairing extending from the booster fairing to the adapter section below the capsule. This is fairly difficult to do, because of the softness and brittleness of the balsa and it being such a thin, slender piece. I found I couldn't reliably simply round the thing over on one side, since it tended to get uneven on me... so I simply "roll-sanded" it until it was basically ROUND... not exactly what you want, but you can always drag it across the balsa a time or two to flatten the bottom out enough to glue it to the Atlas... I'm sure some of yall can do this better than I can! Once you have your line fairing, take the Atlas, and carefully cut the point off the tip of the LONG (right hand) fairing... then using white glue, glue the strip vertically up the side of the rocket. Cut it off flush with the end of the tube.

Once it's dry and no danger of gluing the transition to the main body tube, install the balsa transition onto the top of the Atlas. Glue the next strip of line fairing up the side of the transition, keeping it perfectly vertical and inline with the fairing on the body tube. There's also a cable cover that's glued from the vernier fairing centered between the booster engine fairings, on the "front" side of the Atlas, that runs to the forward end of the tube. Go ahead and glue the remainder of the strip so that it extends up about 3/4 of the length of the transition. Ensure it's straight and in line with the rest of the fairing, and that the balsa fairing you just glued on it properly 'clocked' with it's other half on the body tube, and then apply a layer of white glue to the back of the paper strip and glue it to the transition.

Now it's time to start the HARD STUFF... LOL THE TOWER!!!
The tower legs should be securely bonded to the antenna can, and the escape rocket motor can above. Grab the red painted hair-thin wires, some nail clippers, and some tweezers or smooth jawed hemostats, and apply a big drop of yellow glue to some paper to dip the end of the wires into. Lay the wire across the tower about 1/3 of the way up, ensure it's the width of the legs, find the spot to snip it off, and then carefully snip a bit of wire off with the nail clippers. Make sure it can drop down onto the work surface and not get lost... grab it with tweezers or hemostat and dip the ends into the drop of glue and swish them around a bit to pick up a drop of glue, then carefully apply it to the tower legs. Ensure that the placement is about 1/3 the way up the tower, and that it's as close to level as you can reasonably get it. Repeat for the other cross-piece, then cut the angled pieces in the same manner and glue them all down. Using a toothpick, apply a tiny bit of wood glue over the ends of each and wet it out onto the tower leg sticks a bit to ensure a good bond. Here's the first side of the tower...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

SO, FINALLY, back at it again...

First off, we can now test fit the spacecraft adapter to the top of the conical LOX tank transition... Looks cool don't it! We glue the last tiny strip of tiny rounded over "U" shaped balsa cable fairing to the spacecraft adapter in line with the rest of the fairing on the transition... The end should be rounded over a bit.

Next we have the tower lattice pretty well finished on the first two sides... Now for the last side...

Now for the FlameFin tubes... this is "the last remaining tube in the box"-- a T-3 (smaller than the BT-5 "engine spoof tubes" they slide into). We bisect it into two equal halves, glue the centering rings on properly spaced per the instructions, and then using a handy small brass angle, put fin lines down the length of the tube, spaced 90 degrees apart... yes, the FlameFins use THREE fins spaced 90 degrees apart, like a FOUR FINNED rocket would, with one fin missing... I've seen some done with the three fins equally spaced and it looks weird, plus it probably makes the fins less effective by putting them into more 'disturbed air' in the wake of the rocket. I've even seen someone glue FOUR fins on each FlameFin unit and then wonder why the ones under the motor mount burned off... "is that SUPPOSED to happen??"

Next the tower, having gotten all three sides completed, get the tiny inverted "V" struts at the base of the tower legs, extending down to the top of the capsule... Do them one leg at a time and allow them to dry... it's hard enough getting the pair lined up and set... trying to do all the legs at once is asking to knock the previous pair all out of whack while you're working on the next ones...

While the glue is drying on the leg struts, it's back to the FlameFins... Here you can see the fins all lined up in the egg cup "clamps" with the first layer of glue applied to the root edges, drying down, with the FlameFin tubes in the background, held in spring clothespins (another tool that's EXTREMELY handy to have!) with the lines of glue applied to the fin lines, all set up to dry.

More later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Next up, we glue the finished capsule tower fairing ring around the top of the capsule just below the tower struts... be sure you install it NOW, BEFORE you do the LES rocket motor nozzles on the top of the tower, or it'll never fit! Apply a tiny bead of white glue around the top of the capsule with a bamboo skewer and then gently massage the fairing ring in place... make sure it's even with the top of the capsule all the way around, and align the seam in it with the seams of the capsule wrap for a neater build... Once it's dry, you can go over any "bright spots" where the white paper is showing through at the edges with a pencil, which will darken them right up and hide them very effectively...

Once the first layer of glue on the fins' root edges are mostly dry, and on the tubes, grab each fin one by one, put a THIN layer of yellow wood glue on each one over the first layer, spread it evenly, and then carefully align it with the fin line on the tube, (I start at the front, and then pivot the fin down into position on the line, ensuring proper alignment). Hold the fin firmly against the tube for about 15 seconds or so (30 seconds if you used a thicker layer of glue or the first layer of glue was still pretty damp and tacky). Check the alignment as you hold it, to ensure that the fin is straight on the line, and that it's 90 degrees to the tube centerline. Presto, the fins will be locked in place, and you're ready to do the next one... I do opposing pairs, and clamp a scrap piece of balsa to the trailing edges with clothespins to ensure that they stay perfectly straight and aligned to each other while the glue dries for a few minutes. Also, you can go ahead and apply a THIN line of wood glue to the fillet areas and smooth it down with your finger-- this will spread any glue droplets squeezed out from under the fin and make a thin structural fillet at the same time, and fill any voids where the glue might not have completely filled the gap, all at the same time. Basically by the time you get one set of fins done on the second FlameFin unit, you can switch back to the first one and remove the balsa strip and clothespins, and glue the upright fin on in the same manner-- now you can 'eyeball' the vertical alignment with good precision-- hold it 15-30 seconds, and presto it's done... apply the minifillets and smooth them down, and set it aside to dry. Go ahead and finish the second fin unit in an identical manner. I don't bother sanding, filling, or airfoiling FlameFins... the purpose is for them to look a little "textured" with the color applied... since they're not "really" supposed to be there, and I have yet to see fire from the rocket look sanded, filled, or airfoiled... LOL

Next, the launch lug... You won't find any mention of it in the instructions, but you'll need one, because tower-launching an Atlas would be pretty problematical methinks... plus it's just easier to put one on now rather than wait until you've done the complete paint job and have it ready to go, loaded up, walk out to the pad, and start to slide it down the launch rod and go "OH, S#!T!!!"... Don't blame me for this one slipping by the instructions-- I didn't beta-build this one! LOL The disclaimer says not to write the company griping about it, because Dr. Zooch has already printed a bazillion copies and it's already too late... Oh well, it'll be our little secret... LOL SO, take your REAL last remaining tube (small as it is it's still a tube) and glue it on the 'back' of the rocket out of sight... Now, if you've been "clocking" all your seams to be on the 'backside' of the rocket out of sight for a nicer cleaner looking build, then putting the launch lug in line with them just makes sense. Of course, there's a slight complication... A quick check of "Rockets of the World" shows the window on the Friendship 7 (and all the Mercury capsules with windows that flew on Atlas) aligned with the long booster engine fairing on the "right side" of the booster rocket. That puts the seams almost 180 degrees around near the small side fairing, off center a bit toward the 'back' of the rocket somewhat, but too close to the fairing to actually put the launch lug there. After a quick check, the best looking spot to put the lug is basically directly opposite the LOX line on the "front" of the rocket... about halfway between the short booster engine fairing and the vernier engine fairing (the Dracula coffin) which is glued on the centerline of the rocket directly 90 degrees between the two booster engine fairings... this puts the lugs on the 'back' of the rocket, out of sight, and makes them look somewhat like they "belong" on the rocket since they're opposite the LOX line fairing... or so my theory goes... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! LOL SO, I gave the lug my standard treatment, cut it in half at a 45 degree angle, then trim the opposite ends so they're at a slight angle too, which does two things: 1) it really cuts drag from the launch lug, and 2) it really looks cool, and makes the lug look more like it "belongs there" instead of uglyfying everything up with a honkin' square-ended tube glued on the side... Again draw a vertical line on the rocket with your handy aluminum angle, and then glue the halves of the lug on the rocket where they look best, since there's no specific instructions to say otherwise... I put the bottom one just ahead of the mylar wrap on the bottom of the rocket, and the upper one about halfway to the top of the tube from the bottom one (which puts it about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way from the bottom). Turns out after a quick check I did my Zooch Atlas Agena the exact same way! How's that for consistency!!!

Next I worked on rounding the little LES escape rocket nozzles a bit by working them over the end of an ink pen... I decided to stiffen them up a bit by adding some white glue to the interior of them and allowing it to dry... to hold them, I grabbed an egg carton and poked holes in the bottom of the egg cups with a bamboo skewer I use to apply tiny amounts of glue (like on the tower legs) and then inserted the nozzles open end up into the holes, and put a drop of white glue in each one, and worked the glue around to the nozzle walls and the bottom of the nozzle itself with the pointy tip of the bamboo skewer... works like a champ... if there's too much glue in the nozzle, you can always "dipper" it out by wiping off the bamboo skewer tip, and sticking it back in and swishing it around, picking up more glue... do that a few times and you'll have a fairly thin layer in there-- enough to toughen the nozzles up a bit but not so much they end up full of glue... with them pointy-end down, the excess glue will run to the tip, helping strengthen it a bit, since you'll trim it down later and glue it to the escape motor can...

SO, after painting the capsule adapter black with Testor's bottle Flat Black paint, and trimming the aerospike down to a more realistic size and gluing it on with a daub of yellow wood glue, and following that up a bit later with a mini-fillet of yellow wood glue applied by the tip of the bamboo skewer all the way around, letting that dry, then meticulously painting the tower red from top to bottom (meticulous because you have to keep the red paint off the capsule's antenna canister that the tower is glued to, and paint the backsides of the legs, and the tiny inverted "V" struts at the bottom that mate up to the top of the capsule!) ANYWAY, time for test fit... see how the capsule window is aligned with the cable fairing running down the capsule adapter and conical LOX tank transition...

More later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

A little more progress on the Mercury Atlas...
The escape rocket nozzles get painted red on the backside, since it would be VERY hard to paint them once they're glued on the escape motor... The fronts will be painted afterwards...

Once dry, the nozzles are trimmed on their pointy end slightly at an angle to promote a good bond when glued to the escape motor, and then a daub of glue is applied to each and the underside of the motor can, and allowed to dry. Then another daub of glue creates the double glue joint and the nozzles are stuck in place... They lock in place within seconds...

Another shot of the nozzles...

And another shot... coming along pretty well... once the glue dries, they'll get their final brush coat of flat red inside and out...

Meanwhile, despite the cold (well below freezing last night) I managed to shoot the main Atlas booster with primer... it's maybe 60 outside, so I brought it inside to dry... it'll be probably tomorrow before I can sand it though...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Things are going slowly... the cold weather really put a crimp in my primer drydown... I can still smell it quite easily... Maybe late tomorrow I can sand it... we'll see...

I did get the tower finished... painted the nozzles inside and out...

Got the shock cord made and ready to glue in...

Guess I'll work on the world-famous Dr. Zooch trash-bag parachute...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Well, after waiting a day or so for the primer to harden, it was finally hard enough to sand... filled the tube spirals and grain on the balsa fairings, and did a bit of touch-up with some Bondo spot putty and sanded that down... ready for another light coat of primer, just to cover the spots where the primer was sanded through, and the sanded spot putty...

Painted the upper LOX tank conical section (balsa transition) with a couple coats of flat white... ready to glue the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule on top...

While the second coat of primer dries on the rocket, I couldn't help but test fit the finished Atlas tank section and Freedom 7 on top of the Atlas body...

Picked up some Valspar "Metallic" Silver today at Lowe's for the lower sections and fairings of the Atlas... the rest of the rocket (LOX tank sections) will be flat white... not messing with the "chrome in a can" mess again...

Later! OL JR

[wilsotr]

Really nice job with that tower, JR ..... the rest too, for that matter. Assembling all those little bits takes steady hands and lots of patience!

[luke strawwalker]

Really nice job with that tower, JR ..... the rest too, for that matter. Assembling all those little bits takes steady hands and lots of patience!

Well, thank you wilsotr... :D I appreciate it!

At least we can agree on SOMETHING... (like those itty-bitty towers being hard to do... LOL:) :chuckle: ;)

Have a good one!
Later! OL JR :)

[luke strawwalker]

Lil more work done, despite the high winds out here today and cloudy conditions... actually remarkably warm today (got up to about 73 or so-- unheard of for January!-- makes me shudder to think what things will be like in a couple months or so! ) Having to run the A/C in the house just to keep it from getting too stuffy... it's too early for this crap...

Anyway, I picked up some Valspar "Metallic" 85052 Silver yesterday at Lowe's, and shot the rocket with two coats... well, first I did a compatibility test with the paint on the Rustoleum primered bit of spare BT-60 I installed above the Atlas to keep paint out of the rocket body itself (and nosecone shoulder area). This new paint says "recoat anytime" and "quick drying" and the contents on the back list "acetone, ethylbenzene, xylene, petroleum distillates, aluminum, and psuedocumene." Nowhere on the can does it say what the formulation is, whether it's an enamel or a lacquer... but the "quick drying" and "recoat anytime" tells me that either it's a lacquer or it's a HOT enamel... So, rather risking alligatoring the whole rocket, I decided I better do a compatibility test firsthand... after a thick first coat on one side and lighter on the other, and then a pretty heavy second coat (I figured the heavy first coat would be the most likely to attack the underlying primer, and that a light coat might actually work, so I tested both, THEN put a pretty heavy coat on again just to see if it would cause problems with the first coat or underlying primer then-- spaced about 15 minutes apart.) Both coats went on well with no real problems, and dried pretty smooth and even. I have to say, I LOVE the paint, but I DESPISE the stupid "locking can nozzle"... it's innovative, in a way-- you twist the "trigger guard" part surrounding the nozzle to "unlock" the can trigger, and twist it back when you're done to "lock" it again and prevent something from unexpectedly mashing the button... The nozzle itself seems to be the problem-- it's VERY crappy-- it sorta "sputters" or "spits" the paint out, in a mish-mash of VERY coarse almost globule-like droplets, but also a lot of "fines" and mist which the wind of course whipped everywhere today, despite be going behind the house out of the wind to spray... I put a coat on the rocket and thought it REALLY looked crappy-- globby and messy looking, and went over it again because it looked somewhat pebbly or sorta like "dry spray"... Then I thought it was on TOO thick and likely to run, so I was pretty disgusted. I have an old motor casing firmly taped to an old curtain rod I use for a spray handle, and I figured I'd have to "rotisserie" the rocket for a half hour like I did the last Atlas I did, when spraying it with the dreaded Krylon "Chrome in a Can" which turned out to be an absolute nightmare... that stuff went on kinda sloppy and too heavy, but it was VERY runny and it took some VERY careful manuevering of the rocket to keep it from running! Well, I have to say, I was VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED when, over the next couple minutes, the stuff seemed to lay down and flow out quite nicely, eliminating the pebbly globby-looking surface when it was first shot, and after about a minute of rolling the rocket on the paint stick it looked like it was well set-- and safe to stand up to dry. I put the rod into a box on the porch to stand out in the wind and dry, while I returned to doing laundry. By the time I got another set of clothes hung on the line, I checked on it and it looked REALLY good... Almost decided not to give it a second coat, but then I thought about it and figured I should just to ensure everything was well covered, so I took it behind the house and shot it again. Same story-- looks too dry and pebbly, then the second pass makes it look to wet and globby, looks like it's thick enough to run, but it doesn't... rolled it 30 seconds or so and stuck it back out to dry, and went in the house. Came back about 20-30 minutes later, and it looked DRY... so I gingerly touched it in an inconspicuous location, and it WAS DRY! Now, maybe it was the 72 degree southwest wind blowing 15-20 today that dried it that quick, but still... that's pretty darn good!

I brought it inside and stuck it, still on the paint stick, in the corner out of the way... I could still smell the smell of paint, so obviously it isn't CURED, but it was dry to the touch, and layed down really well... sort of a "satin" aluminum look-- not quite "chrome" but not just a "metal flake silver paint" look either... it LOOKS like brushed aluminum...

Here's the pics... it was cloudy so the second one is a bit underlit... probably should have gone out in the yard at the least...

Once I can't smell the paint anymore, I'll mask it and paint the LOX tank a frosty-flat-white...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Still got to make the tanks frosty... so another coat, this time flat white. That's why I want to make sure the aluminum is REALLY dry... Have to mask off with Tamiya tape around the LOX line and long fairing, then around the body tube just above the short fairing tip.

I did a slight goof and glued the capsule adapter onto the balsa transition (LOX tank conical section) before I painted either of them. A steady hand with a sable-hair fine point brush and Testors flat black took care of the adapter section... and the red-ringed capsule adapter ring that attaches the capsule to the adapter section (the multi-layer paper band the capsule butts up against). But the conical upper tank, being flat white, had to be sprayed to look right... SO I broke out the Tamiya fine-line tape I bought at the hobby shop last time I was in Sugarland and gave it a whirl... folks on here have raved about how good it is, and they're right... I put a wrap around the bottom of the adapter section over the corrugated mylar, and using a slightly sanded (rounded) pointed tip of a bamboo skewer, carefully burnished the tape down into every corrugation in the mylar, and around the long line fairing coming up the side of the adapter from the conical LOX tank transition below... then I went over that with some blue painters tape just to cover the rest of the transition and keep the paint off it, popped an old Alpha III nosecone into the adapter and ran some tape around it to seal the adapter section off completely. Also ran a wrap of blue painters tape around the transition shoulder where it slips into the top of the rocket. Then shot the LOX tank balsa transition with Walmart Colorplace Flat White... I LOVE this paint! (and it's nozzles!) At 99Cents a can it's hard to beat, and does a good job! I shot a couple coats of white on the transition and let it dry... Soon as it had tacked up really well (hour or so) I peeled the tape off it, pulled the nosecone off and carefully pulled the tape off the adapter section, since the blue tape is a little stickier and I didn't want to risk peeling paint off the paper band or the mylar, and then carefully peeled the Tamiya tape... it did a terrific job and I've got a clean black/white line like I had done it the way I was supposed to-- paint the mylar capsule adapter black and paint the LOX tank white (or silver if one is so inclined) and THEN glue them together afterwards...

I finally glued the Friendship 7 into position atop the adapter, carefully clocking it to the fairing line coming up the transition and adapter...

Tomorrow it's check cows, and hopefully after I get back, get the masking done and ready to paint the upper rocket body LOX tank flat white with frost... Plus I need to get started with painting the Flame Fins...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Did something rather stupid...

Masked the rocket off to paint the frosted white LOX tank, which means masking off around the LOX line (which must be insulated since it didn't frost over) and the long fairing on the "right" side of the booster, which doesn't frost over either obviously... Gave it a couple coats of white paint and brought it inside, let the paint harden up a little while, and then pulled the masking off... without realizing that I had painted it GLOSS white, not FLAT white like I did the conical upper LOX tank section (balsa transition) a few days ago...

SO, I had to REMASK it and reshoot it with FLAT white...

HOPEFULLY it'll be ready to unmask in a little while...
In my defense though, the Walmart Colorplace paint uses little stickers affixed to the can to tell you the color, in conjunction with the cap finish and color... I guess I mixed up a gloss cap with a flat cap, and the stickers tend to dry out and fall off... so I took the Sharpie pen and wrote "FLAT" on the flat can and "GLOSS" on the gloss can...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Okay...

SO, I'm finally pretty much finished with the Friendship 7... Glued in the shock cord "teabag" mount per the instructions, with its embedded kevlar shock cord, which the other end is tied in a loop, to which the length of elastic cord is tied, which is subsequently tied to the nosecone screw eye, itself having been screwed in with yellow wood glue to ensure it stays put... The standard Dr. Zooch trashbag parachute went together as usual, and is ready to go... I finished the flame fins and painted them white, then followed up with a dusting of yellow and then pumpkin orange to give a 'flame-y' effect sorta like I've seen in some other Zooch builds on TRF... thanks for the great idea, fellas!

The paint is finally dry, just now needs to finish curing over the next few days... today is QUITE warm for this time of year (SCARY warm-- 77 degrees!) and VERY windy, with heavy clouds coming and going, letting the sun peek through every so often... IOW not a particularly good day to photograph outdoors, but I don't think the weather's promising to be much better for the coming few days, so c'est la vis...

Here's the glamour shots on Pad 14Z ("Z" for Zooch!)...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Here's a few more pics... the silver paint looks kinda wonky in the overcast, dunno why... shines like a new dime in sunlight...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Now here's a few "just for fun" glamour shots... WITHOUT the Flame fins...
I don't want anybody seeing this and saying "oh, look, HE'S flying it without the Flame fins-- so who needs 'em!" and try launching the thing without Flamefins- THIS IS STRICTLY SET UP FOR NEAT PICS, NOT TO LAUNCH... (as Dr. Zooch said in the instructions-- "this disclaimer posted in compliance with the "Americans who are Dense" Act of 1992... )

ANYWAY, enjoy the pics...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

And a few more...


GOD SPEED JOHN GLENN!!!!
Later! OL JR

[jharding58]

Perhaps print some round numbers?

[luke strawwalker]

Finally flew my Friendship 7 Mercury Atlas, a couple weeks or so after the actual 50th anniversary...

Here she is, loaded up with a C6-5 on Pad 14Z-- "Z" for Zooch...

Range is GO, all systems are GO... We are entering the final countdown...

Main engine ignition...

To be continued... OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Cont'd...

"The clock has started"... We have LIFTOFF!!!

"GOD SPEED JOHN GLENN!!!!"

The boost was high and pretty straight, just a gentle arc toward the south, as winds were light from the south, a very smooth, high flight... Ejection looked about perfect, and on the way down, I noticed that the tower was actually upright, between the shroud lines... interesting. She came down smoothly and landed in boot deep clover maybe 100 yards from the pad...

I retrieved her and everything appeared to be in good order... until I noticed THIS...

This has to be THE worst case of "Estes dent" I've ever seen... the slit is actually where the transition snapped back into the top lip of the tube (which was TOTALLY unharmed, I might add-- not even a paint scratch!) and the tube cut into the transition nearly the depth of the shoulder! Then a large chunk of wood popped out never to be seen again... SO, she'll be in the shop awhile til I figure out exactly how to fix this... I'm presently trying Carpenter's Wood Filler, but I'm unsure how durable or desirable that's going to be... or how well it will "stick" in the hole, and how well it'll hold up being 1/4 inch thick or so... may have to do something different... and I'm open to suggestions...

Upon a little further investigation, I noticed a strange "half moon" cut in the very peak of the Zooch trash bag chute. Upon inspecting the top lip of the body tube, sure enough, there is a hair-thin line of yellow plastic embedded in the very top edge of the tube where, evidently, the parachute was pinched between the snapped-back nosecone and the top edge of the body tube... the tube evidently cut straight through the plastic chute like a razor blade and into the cone before everything popped apart and the chute deployed... interesting! I'm just glad she came down intact.

I think the thing is the shock cord is too short... especially with half it's length being kevlar leader coming out of the "teabag" shock cord mount, with the other half being elastic. I think I'm going to quit using the kevlar/elastic combo and just switch to straight elastic... or at least double or maybe triple the length of the elastic... What I think happened is, the ejection charge went "BOOM!" and the nosecone and chute blew off... the kevlar leader and shock cord played out to full length, which put the cone about a foot from the rocket or thereabouts, then it started to stretch. Since the kevlar does NOT stretch, it forces the elastic to stretch MUCH FARTHER than it would were it one long piece of elastic... IOW the elastic stretches twice as much along it's half length as it would if it were stretching along it's full length... in both cases it would stretch equal amounts, just the half length elastic stretches twice as far over that half length than the all-elastic cord would stretching over it's FULL length (since it'd be twice as long). The more you stretch elastic (the higher the 'percentage' of stretch for a given length) the more energy it stores, and the harder it snaps back... (at least that's been my experience... do a test-- stretch a piece of elastic that's a foot long 6 inches-- it'll nearly be as far as it can stretch-- say near 100% of it's stretch capability. Now let it go... POW! it snaps back HARD! Now stretch a 2 foot long piece of elastic 6 inches... it can actually stretch MUCH farther because it's longer, so each inch of the elastic is actually stretching less since the same distance/energy is spread out over more inches of elastic... so for argument we'll say it stretches 50% of it's total "maxed out" stretch limit... now let it go... it snaps back, but with MUCH less force... 3 feet is even better... a 6 inch stretch on 36 inches of elastic is hardly stretching it at all, and when let go it rather lazily flops back with MUCH less force. That's what I think is happening here. Since I already have the kevlar leader glued in, I'm gonna add about 2 feet or so of elastic to the existing elastic shock cord before I fly her again... that should give more room to dissipate ejection energy (both on the way out and on the way back from any 'snapback' and give the chute more time to open and get things tumbling or slowing down to dissipate any snapback energy, which should itself be less severe due to the longer cord spreading it out more...

Later! OL JR