#1
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My Estes Leo Space Train
My Leo Space Train is coming right a long, this is the second day and she is almost ready for primer. The first day I glued the balsa fins together with white glue, weighted the parts down to dry flat over night. Today I sealed the balsa with 3 coats of Brodak Balsa sealer, still have to finish a couple of fillets and add the launch lug. Not too hard of a build but I think the painting will take some time because of all the tight area masking involved.
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#2
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Well, I had the Rustoleum Professional Gloss white on for over a week and applied my masking tape yesterday for the grey areas. I sprayed the Rustoleum Professional Lt. Machine Grey and noticed a couple of spots began to wrinkle😟. I have no idea why this happened since I definitely waited over 48 hours to apply the grey and like I said it was just 2 small areas. I have had no issues up until this point with Rustoleum professional, looks like I will have to sand those areas and try again. I am working today so I wont be able to sand until tomorrow. Question...….After I sand the wrinkled areas, it will have been over 48 hours since I applied the grey. Can I sand, wipe clean and spray more grey, or do I have to wait another 48 hours after sanding? Also the rocket was clean, weather was perfect and I do not spray heavy coats since I don't want the paint to seep through my masks. The wrinkles started after the first light coat.
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#3
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That’s a COOL rocket! I’ll slit mine open after I build the Bumper V2/WAC.
Sorry about your paint. That occasionally happens to me—and I don’t know why either. When it does, “The Vixen” corrects it for me by hand. She has sanding and painting skills that frighten me. It’s possible that she weighs the same as a duck.
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Never trust an atom. They make up everything. 4 out of 3 people struggle with math. Chemically, alcohol IS a solution. NAR# 94042 SAM# 0078 |
#4
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My Estes Leo Train is finally done. The design and build is actually pretty easy, I think she was all built and balsa sealed in less than 2 days. Since there is a lot of balsa, and this is a big rocket I tried to keep the weight down. I brushed on 2-3 coats of Brodak balsa sealer for a grain free finish. Since there is a lot of balsa on the bottom, I used a foam brush for the sealer and it worked great. I shot one coat of primer then Rusto Gloss white. After a week because of rain, I shot the grey then some of the areas wrinkled and that delayed my finish. Also I was contending with my work schedule and more rain. After another week or so I shot the gloss black and applied the decals once that was dried. The decals went on with no issues. There was a lot of masking since I built the rocket then decided to paint. The biggest issue I had was trying to follow the recommended color scheme, kind of hard to tell from the instructions and computer generated face card. Estes should have had the builder paint in stages during construction to ease painting with less masking. Instead Estes has the builder assemble the entire rocket, fill the balsa with primer, then mask and paint. I am pretty sure that would have produced a heavy rocket and a pain with sanding. The instructions have the weight coming in at 3.4oz, mine as shown with shock cord and parachute came in at 3.2 oz. I am sure using balsa sealer, no fillers and light on primer and paint helped my cause. Estes also etched the balsa to show the control surface separations, I messed this up as you can see. I ended up using a fine tip pen to outline the etched details.
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#5
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Had to upload the pictures in 2 posts.
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#6
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That LEO Space Train looks great!
I am not sure, but gloss white paint seems to be the culprit, at least for me. I have had issues with both irregular sheen and textured looking spray from a can of Rustoleum Painters Touch Gloss White, but not the Semi Gloss or Flat. I did take the can back and got it replaced. That can worked fine. I have never had Rustoleum wrinkle, but I mostly use the Painters Touch /2X variety. My “Pro” cans are yellow and several metallics, and the have worked very well, especially the metallics.
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Lee Reep NAR 55948 Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold! Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp |
#7
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My Leo
I just started my Leo today.
Question? How do you get glue up a tube? A Stick? I'm trying a new idea for me. I'm using a soda straw trimmed on one end so it acts like a spoon. It seems to work.
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If it flies, I can crash it! |
#8
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I just used scrap balsa, if you are referring to gluing the engine mount.
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#9
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Quote:
That turned out gorgeous! I started on mine a few days ago. I hope mine turns out at least half as nice.
__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything. 4 out of 3 people struggle with math. Chemically, alcohol IS a solution. NAR# 94042 SAM# 0078 |
#10
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Quote:
Yes I am! What a PITA!
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If it flies, I can crash it! |
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