Was there supposed to be a link or pic in there, Mr. Mole?

For this build, I built up the fins, as many of the original plastic parts were missing. I pre-printed cardstock as part of that, and those looked pretty darn good - when first built. By the time they were in place, they'd picked up enough scuffs that I painted over them. The pre-printing made masking easy, though. Just follow the lines.

The decals that gave me fidgets were the little ones. The flags and the roll targets. They just curled so badly that I couldn't get them to lay flat enough to cover with something. Slightly thinned Titebond NRND worked some. In a few minutes it would get tacky enough to hold the curl down. Microsol failed me. The bigger decals worked fine.

Thanks for the tip. I've read many good things about the Krylon clears. All my base and color coats are Rusto 2X - and I really dislike the end result of the 2X Clear. I've been wary of mixing systems - though I do use the Testors Glosscote over the Rusto 2X.

The Estes 2048 S1B isn't quite the Centuri KS-10 I had in my youth. (Picked up at the Kennedy Space Center gift shop circa 1980- that no longer carries model rockets, much to my disappointment!). But it's darn close - and I don't really feel like cutting the fuel tanks to make room for the cluster mount, anyway :-)

Edit: Which Book of Faces groups?

I meant to post it like above in the Quote. Too quick on the trigger.

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/show...00+Saturn+wraps

For your next Saturn, paint it with gloss paint so you can apply decals easily, then use a flat clear coat. Make sure the flat/dull clear is compatible with your decals.

Those are the patterns I used for the built up fins. Worked great.

Glad they worked out for you. I was hoping ESTES would rerelease there 1/100 Saturn 1B by now. Maybe when they do they will have plastic fins like the new Saturn V. I'm just waiting for it to happen.

Let's try Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/Z4Dsfi

Hmmm.... can't get the BBCode from the Flickr mobile app. But from the desktop...
Saturn 1B built up fins

That works, so here is the rest:
1/100 fleet...
1/100 US manned space flight.

and flight damage...
Saturn 1B post flight

Great looking fleet. I like the way you made the fins with the little strip of wood at the bottom of each fin. I need to redo the fin sheet so they are the way you have them arranged so you can just fold them over to cover the fins. Really nice job on those rockets.

Thanks.

IIRC, I printed your sheet at 100% to get the pattern for the balsa. Then I ran it through Illustrator, traced it to vector art, and then rearranged the halves into the butterfly form. Printed on cardstock at 101-102% to allow for the increased width and trimmed off the tip overhang. I hand cut little pieces of cardstock to cap the fin tip.

Using Illustrator to trace an image to vector, then rearrange / scale / send to laser cutter has been really handy for me. I have to have AI for label development - if the winery didn't pay for it, I wouldn't.

C.

Oh, and call out to Sandman for the Saturn V Skylab and Titan II GLV nosecones.

C.