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  #11  
Old 06-05-2010, 08:23 AM
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sandman sandman is offline
Custom Cone, Kit & Decal Maker
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsotr
What I'd really like is an injection-molded LES tower in 1:48 scale so I don't have to build another from scratch when I do my some-day Saturn V ... I keep watching those Revell kits come and go on eBay, but they're a bit pricey. Maybe Revell will re-release it some day ... I keep hoping.



Not injection molded but I am working on "something".

I may have said too much.
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  #12  
Old 06-06-2010, 06:53 PM
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wilsotr wilsotr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman
I may have said too much.


On the contrary, you haven't said NEARLY enough ....
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  #13  
Old 06-06-2010, 06:58 PM
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wilsotr wilsotr is offline
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Here's an "almost complete" shot of mine. Decals need some Solvaset to help them comply a little better, then clear coat. The finish isn't as nice as I would have liked, but at this point I'm not inclined to do it over. The upside is, I won't mind flying it.
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  #14  
Old 06-06-2010, 07:59 PM
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Gus Gus is offline
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Wow, Tim.

That looks great!

I particularly like what you did with the cable raceways on the escape motor and the detailing on the escape motor skirt.

Really nice.
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  #15  
Old 06-07-2010, 09:42 AM
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ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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Absolutely beautiful LJII, Tim !
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  #16  
Old 06-07-2010, 09:44 AM
jamjammer53150 jamjammer53150 is offline
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That is a fantastic job . I have been toturing myself with this kit for nearly 2 months now. I do have build photos , but I need to wait to post them .

As mentioned before this is essentially a scratch build , and it is semi scale at best. But it does provide seveal challanges depending on how far you want to push your skills.

As mentioend , the nose cone can be a challange , I went through no less than 5 attempts , and just yesterday got one I like.

I eventually made a nose cone out of carbon fiber , somewhat silly but a membe rof our club gave away scraps so why not.

The fins I built I deviated and used sqare styren tube to strengthen them and also provide a better mounting method.

I also shortened the corrogation so i could have a flat surface to bond the fins to.


What does yours weigh in at? and what do you have planned for recovery , LES and all
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  #17  
Old 06-07-2010, 11:49 AM
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EchoVictor EchoVictor is offline
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While I don't have a SHR kit, I do stop at Dave's shop often when I'm passing through on my way to WI. IMHO, I think Dave is going to be bald soon, based on how much hair he's pulling out over how much he's finding that these kit parts don't meet up with his personal level of quality.

Two specific examples;

He was showing me how the details on the molded resin cone are nowhere near what the real thing is. He said he's seriously considering starting over from scratch with a new mold.

He also showed me the original decal file he got for the "United States" lettering, and then held it up to the drawings in Always "Rockets of the World" reference book. The letters were nowhere near the right font. Looks like she just rotated text in MS Word without even changing the base Arial font. Ack!

For all that are looking at these kits, be patient, because I believe you'll see the quality increase exponentially.....

Later,
EV
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  #18  
Old 06-07-2010, 11:57 AM
jamjammer53150 jamjammer53150 is offline
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yes Ill bet he is going bald. I ended getting decals from gordy , he worked with me to make a set , including the plaques and some super rare stencil only seen in one photo( dave should just get them from him) for a whopping 7 bucks.

Gordy even compensated for the corrugation on the font so it turns out correct. and with a few bonuses you can do any of the LJ's with his set
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  #19  
Old 06-07-2010, 01:15 PM
jetlag jetlag is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamjammer53150
yes Ill bet he is going bald. I ended getting decals from gordy , he worked with me to make a set , including the plaques and some super rare stencil only seen in one photo( dave should just get them from him) for a whopping 7 bucks.

Gordy even compensated for the corrugation on the font so it turns out correct. and with a few bonuses you can do any of the LJ's with his set


Thanks for that. I have all of Sheri's offerings and have only built the Gemini Titan, which had its share of non-scale anomolies. I wrote to her with pics about the problems which she said she would consider for the next batch. Nothing was done, so......
Anyway, I'm glad Gordy can cover the decal needs for the LJII. Wonder if he has the decals for the other ones...
Allen
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  #20  
Old 06-08-2010, 10:10 AM
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Cohetero-negro Cohetero-negro is offline
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Thread,

Sorry but I have been busy busy busy with rockets, wife, and life.

OK, I think someone had asked how to make your cone perfectly conical; or as near perfect as you can...

Well first the obvious: Follow the SHR instruction sheet and first trace the template out and cut it as perfect as you can. SHR's recommendation to then transfer the template to a stiff card stock is the correct way to go! I just used card board cut from FREE U.S. Postal priority mail boxes. It’s the right thickness and stiffness to be cut can then curled and act as a ‘dummy’ piece to see if the resulting cut part will be close to what I want.

Next, the trick to working with Vinyl, styrene or other plastics is heat! Now you can't place the stuff over an open flame, but you can immerse the plastic into warm to hot water. This makes it more tractable and easier to work with. The thick .030" styrene will crack and buckle (deform) too much if you don't 'loosen' it up a bit first.

So the final nose cone (without stabilizers and LES) looks like this:



Total time spent on the cone assembly so far ... ~5 hours, and I still need to sand it with 600 grit and add stabs ...

OH and by using the SHR directions for drilling holes and mounting the LES system, will only result in errors... bad bad bad ... I will be using a laser and condiment turn table to accurately position and mark holes. More on that later.

Jonathan
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