Scorpius revisited.

[Green Dragon]

I'm in the process of collecting parts ( mostly done, need so start cutting wood ) for an upscale of the Scorpius.

I remember discussing this a little while back ( did a search, but not sure the thread) - where it was discussed the discrepancies in the instructions ,etc regrading the palcement of the forward 'wings' ( at front or rear of the pod).
My built original had those at the front, unlike most, but as shown in the instruction drawing.

I'm likely going to build my upscale with them REARward, just to see how it lokos both ways.
I like mine as is, but the 'correct' way is growing on me,lol .

anyways, I noted one more discrepancy.

if you note the catalog / header panel photo versus the instructions - the instructions specifically show ,and note, that the four dowels should be aligned with one EVEN WITH the fin / wing .
the panel photo ( and my builtup ) have the dowels aligned 'flat' .
( ie: instruction version would have the dowels in a 'diamond' pattern when laying flat "flying in space", where as the catalog / photo one has them in a 'square' ) .

interesting... ( and better looking in the pic, IMHO), surprise dthis hasn;t been brought up before.

~ AL

ps: I have not had a chance to go grab my original from my parents house /' storage', and info is not posted on YORP re: the length of the dowels.
can anyone provide that info, so I can calculate,etc ? ( don;t kill yourselves for it, just would save me a trip if someone has it handy )

[Green Dragon]

ps: lol

another item I just noticed is the angle between the 'solar panels' and the 'wing'.

per the rear view in the instructions, they should point inward significantly ( ala Vader's TIE fighter ), but the catalog photo shows them as more upright, at least to my eye .. comments ?

on my own, I think I used my fin alignment guide to make them 90 degrees apart, witht he 'wing' centered inbetween, still not matching the catalog exactly.
will have to grab the Scorpius when over at my dad's again, so I can sompare, etc.

- another item I never thought much about, but is interesting, is that the instructions wait and have you unstall the engine mount LAST... this apparently to you can stand the rocket on the fins to dry ( great planning, by the way :), very interesting as it;s both unusual, and shows someone at Estes was paying attention and thought it out - lot different than the 'buy-now fly-now' of today ...

~ AL

[Bob Thomas]

Nice to see this plan revisited. It is one of my favorites as well. I recently built the PDR kit and it was tons of fun. I immediately started planning an upscale, but it will have to wait, too many others in my immediate que. Anyway, I redrew the Decal sheet to better define the solar panels and played with the shading off the typical 3 color R-B-Y decals provided. My first launch the chute burned through, venting the decent right into the trees. Damage to a pod that required rebuilding. This reminded me that the dowel setting was tricky (I opted for the flat square placement). It seemed that the pods, connected by only the dowels seemed to warp while setting, an annoying little quirk. This left them slightly skewed and slightly out of parallel. I should have fixed this when I replaced the forward pods on both sides (for uniformity) . When I do get to the upscale, I'm considering making the inner bt continuous, still hollow, with some tech details ala Dykstra or Lucas space models. I also have plans for a light kit, nothing fancy, space dock illumination type.

PM me for the decal its 8 megs, uncompressed. Not perfect, but easier to enlarge and adjust.

[Ltvscout]

PM me for the decal its 8 megs, uncompressed. Not perfect, but easier to enlarge and adjust.
Bob,

Can I put that decal up on YORP? If so, zip it up and email it to scotth at execpc dot com. Thanks.

[Bob Thomas]

I'd be happy to send them up.
I thought the Scorpius Decals were posted. I don't know if its really worthy of YORP [imho], but I'll zip it and send it anyway so that others can clean it to their level of perfection.
BTW the Scorpius pics I uploaded ended up in limbo, I attach them here again. Please note that the solar panels are decaled over chrome wraping paper glued to the balsa. I like the look.
About the dowel length - I think it depends. The instructions have the dowels resting perpendicular to the plane of the thrust ring, outside and parallel to the inner bt5(?) tube. this gave me a total pod length of 5.5 inches. The thickness of the thrust ring would be the only variable. I don't remember what came in the kit, but the original plans call them AR-520. is this the same as standard thrust rings'engine blocks? Whichever the case, going with the 5.5 inch overall length probably made the dowel 5 inches with .25 inch adapter rings.

[Green Dragon]

I did manage to retrieve my Scorpius from my parents' the other day.

the assembled length ( end of pod to end of pod ) of mine is 6 3/16" .

not sure what length that makes the dowels, as they're inside the tubes - it obviously makes a difference where you put the centering rings / how much overlap there is .

The AR-520 is the standard centerign ring-used-as-thrust-ring, so should be consistent .

Mine is a semi-clone ( opened kit that sat for years, tube and cone used elsewhere, later built it up using a 'guestimated' tube length from the catalog ( this being prior to Jim Z or YORP ), and measuring it now I was very close since I used a 12.625" tube length :) .
I believe I used the original kit dowels, as I apparently had these 8 the same length, plus original decals, etc.

If anyone has a built-up , please measure and let us know ( or if you have an unbuilt, even better ) .

~ AL

ps: the decals on that look good, like the little 'scorpius' name on the pods, etc.. really personallizes the bird.

[Ltvscout]

Mine is a semi-clone ( opened kit that sat for years, tube and cone used elsewhere, later built it up using a 'guestimated' tube length from the catalog ( this being prior to Jim Z or YORP ), and measuring it now I was very close since I used a 12.625" tube length :) .
I believe I used the original kit dowels, as I apparently had these 8 the same length, plus original decals, etc.

If anyone has a built-up , please measure and let us know ( or if you have an unbuilt, even better ) .
I have the plans online here:

http://www.oldrocketplans.com/estes/est1375/est1375.htm

Just look at the model # for the tube you want a measurement on then go here for the length:

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/body_tubes.html

Bob, I do have the regular Scorpius decals online, I just thought I'd offer the alternative decal you made as well. Thanks for sending it to me.

[Green Dragon]

I have the plans online here:

http://www.oldrocketplans.com/estes/est1375/est1375.htm

Just look at the model # for the tube you want a measurement on then go here for the length:

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/body_tubes.html

Bob, I do have the regular Scorpius decals online, I just thought I'd offer the alternative decal you made as well. Thanks for sending it to me.

Scott,

thanks for the tip :)

refering back to my original post - the length of the DOWELS is what's mising / unsure of.

The plans only specify a part #, which I failed to find a cross-reference for, so was wondering if anyone could verify ( lots of times when you post plans, there's a short text file witht he unspecified details - which is a blessing when cloning em - thank you :-) , this has no such info, however.

( and I did check the tube, as the Estes 12.7" - meaning my original guesstimate of 12.625 was real close * grin * , so I'm happy with it .)

Keep up the great work, don;t know what we'd do without you / YORP :) ... be bored, or * gasp ! * have to build kits ..

~ AL

[barone]

refering back to my original post - the length of the DOWELS is what's mising / unsure of.



Al,

Measurement from my built up Scorpius clone kit from PDR......

Distance from tube ends is 5.55 inches. Subtract 1/2" for AR5-20s (1/4" each) gives a length of 5.05" for the dowels. Attached photo shows dowels and you can use the tubes for reference for scale.

Don
NAR 53455

[Green Dragon]

Al,

Measurement from my built up Scorpius clone kit from PDR......

Distance from tube ends is 5.55 inches. Subtract 1/2" for AR5-20s (1/4" each) gives a length of 5.05" for the dowels. Attached photo shows dowels and you can use the tubes for reference for scale.

Don
NAR 53455

Don,

thanks for the info .

Since you're estimate ( aprox 5" ) is similar to Bob's post above, I ;m going to go with 5" dowel length.
mine seem to be about an inch longer on my builtup ( only partially an original kit, as explained in my last post ), so maybe I used wron dowels or ???.
You;d never tell by looking at the builtup, the .7" difference looks good, I just wanted the info for my upscale, plus - since it's not posted on YORP ( the dowel lengths) - thought it could be added, if we knew 'for sure' ,lol ....

thanks again, will use the 5" as bassis for my upscale.

~ AL

[hawkshobby]

Hi guys



I just got out my kit of this model that is still in the bag and the measurment is























5 15/16" long :D


And btw this rocket is on our list to upscale at 240% :)



Mark

[Bob Thomas]

I hope you didn't wreck any plans for collectability. Now you have given me an excuse to rebuild the Scorpius right. Thanks

[Green Dragon]

Hi guys
I just got out my kit of this model that is still in the bag and the measurment is
5 15/16" long :D
And btw this rocket is on our list to upscale at 240% :)

Mark


Mark .

Thanks for the info :)

After further review, I have to say the longer dowel length is likely 'correct' /

If you look at the photo of Bob's nicely done bird ( above )
, versus the catalog / header panel photos on YORP - note the rear 'panel decal' ( rectangular blue decal on top ).. on Bob's the forward wing / pod support is at the front of that decal, where-as the catalog version has the wing a slight distance in front of the decal.
could be a variance in where Bob put his decals, but most of us tend to be pretty picky about placement,etc.

I'll go with the 5 5/16" which seems to aggree with my own vintage built-up version .

Thanks again ( and will be watching for that upscale version :)

~ AL

[Ltvscout]

I just got out my kit of this model that is still in the bag and the measurment is 5 15/16" long :D
Thanks, Mark. I'll get this info added to the plans for that kit on YORP.