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Old 08-09-2012, 06:13 PM
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AcroRay AcroRay is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: South-Western Pennsylvania
Posts: 265
Default Repairs underway

It's been a bit of a busy summer, and after May's launch I had to leave rocketry on the back of the workbench. But I've got another kit underway now (to be covered elsewhere), and I spent a little time over the last couple of evenings repairing my Tristar's damage.

I thinned out some white glue and carefully fit the broken part of the damaged fin back into place. The thinned glue offered less resistant pressure in the meeting surfaces in cavities of the break, and allowed the parts to fit together better. Glue carefully massaged into the ragged meeting points secured any loose elements of the original finished surfaces. Tiny gaps were filled with Elmer's putty and sanded. The fillets on the inner parts of the broken fin were still in good shape, and took glue & putty nicely.

The root edge of the larger portion of the fin at the body tube had some cracking along the fillets, so I worked some white glue into them, then put on additional glue fillets. (They'll go transparent when I eventually re-clearcoat the area, so the decals will look unblemished again.) I braced the fin elements and let them dry overnight with strong results.

The shock of the impact flexed the tube and buckled the finish at the leading end of the fin root right down to the BT surface. I carefully broke free some of the more-loose edges of the primer & paint layer, and massaged white glue into the rough edges. Then I filled the remaining shallow cavities with Elmer's putty, let dry & sanded smooth.

It's certainly flightworthy now, but I want to restore the deco. The next step will be to carefully mask off the blemished areas and spray them white again. The challenge will be masking off the decals without accidentally pulling them up. I found - much to my dismay when I tried to mask over some decals and touch up some other areas on the build earlier - that the Krylon clear coat isn't really durable enough to protect them from lifting even with the most delicate of masking tapes. In fact, while sanding the repaired areas, the Krylon coat started flaking off like dead skin...
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