Current Projects

RE: Painting indoors.... as the constitution states: "...to insure domestic tranquility" i most definitely do not spray paint indoors. I might be tempted if I had an unfinished basement with an area that didn't have any stuff piled up... but I don't!

I have done it in the Garage when the missus is out on an errand and I can move my car outside... that's as close as I can get.

For the last two winters, I have taken over one bay of our two-car basement garage. I made a "paint booth" by hanging plastic from the ceiling and securing it to the floor with bricks. I then put a junky heater inside the booth. I painted both of my 6' tall rockets this way. It works pretty well, but be sure to wear a good respirator. There are lots of fumes in a small space, and the house smells a little "fresh" for an hour or two after you have painted. (Now that we built a new house, I doubt this will happen again.)

The reminder to wear a respirator is good advice. I was thinking of doing something similar in my shed. The shed is only 12x8 so I can only use it for small kits.

I added the decals to my Red Nova as the final touch. I guess I should throw on a coat of clear coat. I will launch it at the next launch.

Richie and I drove up to the Hobby Emporium on Sunday to check out what they have for rockets. They have a lot if not every Estes kit in the catalog. They no longer carry composite engines but they do have a vast variety of Estes BP motors.

I picked up a Launch Pad Saab kit. It has a 2.6 BT, is 21" before adding the NC and about 29" with the NC. It has surface mounted balsa fins that you have to cut out. I used to have a 3" BT version of this kit that ended up in the trees in Amesbury about 9 years ago. I'm going to see if I can upscale this to a 3" BT using the tubes that Boris gave me. I would like to use TTW basswood fins.

Started working on that Estes Sahara PS II kit I bought a few months back. The simpler the build, the more likely I'll finish it. It's going together as well as the Ventris. It's unfortunate that the Sahara is the only Estes Builder's kit left on the web site. Excellent quality parts and a very easy build.

Time to lay some primer on that ol' centuri saturn v too!

The Sahara and other former PS II builder kits are incredible values. They are fun to build and are quality kits. I am fortunate to have five PS II builder kits. The Super Big Bertha was given to me. The other four are the Sahara, Scion, Partzion and the scratch build Leviathan. I bought the body tubes, motor tube and chute from Estes so it's kind of a cheat scratch build.

That Launch Pad Saab I bought is a weird kit. The instructions leaves out a few things. They tell you to take measurements from inside tubes. I guess I should get a comic book and see if they still have that add for X-Ray Specs. They give you 3/32 balsa wood. The instructions suggest that you coat the fins with thin CA then thick CA. I should concentrate my efforts on up scaling than building this kit.

Of the six kits in the photo how many can you identify? Hint: The small one is a total scratch build.