tbzep's workbench
 

Finally got around to shooting a few pics of the last few months of building and finishing. None of these have Future on them yet, so they aren't as shiny as they will eventually be.

The Citation Patriot upscale was chronicled in the Pair of Patriots thread that chronicled my Patriot and my son's Army Patriot builds. I've had it finished for ages, but put off adding the gold wrap decal because it's such a large and fragile application.



Semroc Space Plane

Semroc Space Shuttle





I've had this Servo Launcher a while, but thanks to YORF member Bob Thomas, I now have a red blast deflector to go with it.

Semroc Constellation with Estes catalog paint scheme.



Estes Nova Payloader. I was very disappointed in this one. It looks nicer on the face card. The peel-n-cuss decals are terrible, plus, the fins only have decals on one side.

I've had this Challenger I rebuild finished for a long time, but I found an original box and launch pad along with some other goodies. Here it is on the new pad along with my original Challenger I. It was the first rocket I ever bought (mail ordered), built, and flew on my own.



Semroc Astron X-Ray. Estes catalog paint scheme. I hope Carl doesn't mind the Estes decal. I don't know if I like the straight roll pattern or the checkered better. :)
Edit: I forgot to mention that I built it with a 13mm motor mount instead of the stock minimum diameter 18mm mount. :rolleyes:

Sweet builds!! I have been looking at the Semroc Space Shuttle for a while now and your build up has pretty much made up my mind. Pardon me while i go order it.

The upscale Patriot is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! :cool:

Awesome. Where'd you get the vintage batteries? :cool:

I've got the rocket and the box, but none of the other stuff was included.

Great stuff tbzep! Thanks for sharing.

Excellent pics! Thanks for sharing.

I've heard some great things about using Future and may want to give it a try but before I go looking can you tell me what form it comes in? Is it a spray, solid like car way or liquid that you dampen a rag with and then rub on?

Mine is a big bottle of liquid, but it's thin enough that you could put it in a spray bottle and apply it that way. An old Windex bottle seems like it would be perfect, or even a fine mist plant sprayer.
A garden hose, not so much. :chuckle: :rolleyes:

Future may be prone to clogging sprayers... I've had problems trying to run it in an airbrush. Ammonia-based cleaner seems to be the best way to clean up the nozzle afterward.

I dampen a rag or paper towel (a cheap one that doesn't lose fibers easily) with water first, then squirt some Future on it, and apply it that way. Works well, but may be prone to loosening decals (and will eat laser printer toner).

Sweet Shuttle, Tim.

That's the second Semroc Space Shuttle I've seen in a week. The other was in our contest Saturday.

It inspires me to to dig out my Blast From The Past clone kit I've never built.

I seem to have collected a disproportionate number of parasite glider kits and Edmonds kits. I have the Quest Space Shuttle Intrepid (unbuilt) that's very similar to the Centuri/Semroc Space Shuttle. About the only one I dont have (yet) is the SST Shuttle-1 now offered by Semroc. I need to add that to my stash :)

Doug

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They were in the box with the Servo Launcher. Every now and then you get a cool deal on ePray. :cool:

I think you meant "ePrey" ;)

It's been a while since I've posted on my workbench thread... :o

I've had a Semroc Taurus painted in base white for several years, just sitting on the shelf, patiently. With all the masking needed, I've put it off for a long time. I already had all the nose cones painted in brilliant Italian Red. I couldn't find the orange-ish red that I wanted, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with Italian. ;)

I finally masked off the bottom and painted it black. Had some hazing due to the humidity, so I shot another coat on here in the house to get rid of it. Don't tell the wife. :eek:

Next up were the instrument tunnels. I had some beautiful metallic blue paint and shot it on. It's a deep blue, so unfortunately, it looks black in all but bright sunlight or in front of a bright camera strobe. :mad: It makes me mad because I had the tunnels shaped very nicely, perfect tiny fillets, near perfect masking, and absolutely zero wicking of paint under the masking.

At any rate, I'm in the process of sanding of the paint so I can put something on that's a little brighter. Kody has some nice Creatix metallic blue stuff that might be the ticket.

Here are the tunnels, which still look a little dark even with the camera strobe. It won't look anywhere near as slick after reworking it, but at least they won't look black.

That's living on the edge! :eek: If we don't see any future posts we'll know what happened. ;)

No kidding! I missed the IN THE HOUSE the first time around. Jeez, that's asking for a butt-kicking. No wonder you mess with power lines. :chuckle:

What can I say....I'm a risk taker. :D

Very nice fleet! Thanks to you I just dropped more coin over at Semroc. That Constellation clone is on its way here along with a Centurion. My uncle gave me a Constellation kit when I was wee and I love its lines. If someone would only reproduce the Condor I wouldn't have to clone one of those either :)

Man these things are like crack!

"Impressive young Skywalker" Very cool!

Gunner

Excellent pictures and great work! Thanks for sharing...

Oh, sure! You are one of *those* people who actually PAINTS their rockets...

... and applies the decals !! :eek:

OK, master modeler, go try to build some that look every bit as good with just coats of white or gray primer! :mad:



:chuckle: :D

You know, sometimes I forget how good rockets can look when they are all dressed up. Nice job!

Most of mine are wearing the paint equivalent of boxers and wife beaters... They are dressed too casually to leave the house (or to have their pictures posted on the forum.)

Yeah, but that's almost overdressed to go to WalMart! :eek:

Ya'll do realize that all those pics except the last one were posted three years ago, right? :p

True. None of them are wearing thongs or are flashing tramp stamps. :rolleyes:

.....

Memory is one of the first things to go...

It's a good thing too. I don't want to remember it when bladder control goes. :eek:

Finished three more today. Well, almost finished. I haven't clearcoated them yet.

I just sprayed the white on my Photon Rupturer.

You won't. You'll get that nice warm feeling all over when it dawns on you ...

Okay, the Stellar Spartan, but what is the middle bird? And what's with the SPEV nailed to the wall in the background? Is that stretched, or an upscale?

The middle one is the new Estes (old Centuri) Payloader II.

The SPEV in the background is original size. It's just a little distorted at the edge of the image. I cloned it and within a month, Carl released it as a kit. :rolleyes:

Here's the SPEV in 2005. SPEV

Not sure of the timing, but I think this is going on with me at the moment. ;)

I had a pretty good streak going. If not full kits, he'd at least release parts to build them after I turned my own on the lathe. Kody added to it by cloning an Orion and it got released too. :p

Nice Spartan. I have one in primer right now... I hope it comes out as nice.

I'm planning to post a thread full o' pics soon... just got decals on my Stellar Hercules, Nova, and Nomad. The sky wasn't pretty enough for pictures today, but maybe this weekend...

Very nice looking rockets!

Those are all beautiful rockets Tim!

Nice gang of rockets (as usual). I'm particularly partial to the Payloader II, I had one as a kid and it's the first time I've seen one built on the rocket boards. The fin pattern is fairly unique and I put the strakes (?) on the fins of a Chuter II as they're essentially the same fin shape except for that feature. The Estes version of the 'Chuter II is not quite the same as the Centuri version so I didn't feel too obligated to adhear to the kit's design and as I said—I like that fin shape.

I always enjoy seeing photos of your (excellent) builds. Thanks.

Oh, after a half dozen builds or so... I finally "get" your tag line.