It's been a pretty good while since I've been in the mood to build anything. A few years, in fact. With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 coming up, I need to do something. I have a retired Centuri Saturn V that hasn't flown in decades. I have a few NIB 2157's and 1969's I could build. I also have a 2001 kit that is partially finished and hasn't been worked on since about 1992. Twenty seven years!
I decided to modify the 2001 kit, but this will be a very slow process. I don't have a lot of free time and these days, even when I do, I'm seldom in the mood to sand.
I started my mods today by printing a 1:100 template of a real scale fin. I cut down the hugely oversized fins of the 2001 kit. I'll get around to shaping the airfoil next time I feel like sanding, which may be tomorrow or it may be in June.
The other main mod I plan to do is to retrofit a removable motor mount. I've worked out a few different ways of going about it that will work, but I haven't decided which design I'll go with yet. Don't expect any updates soon. I really have trouble motivating myself to grab a sanding block these days.
I'm throwing in a couple pics to show just how massively oversized the 2001 fins are. The Centuri kit's fins are oversized about 1/2 as much as the 2001, just eyeballing it. I assume the 2157 and 1969 are the same since they are based on the Centuri kit. The 2001 now looks like the thoroughbred is instead of a jackass.
BTW, spot putty is all over all four fins because the cat chewed them up about 25 years ago. I never got around to finishing the repairs.
