clone: Centuri Screaming Eagle
 

I decided to start a new thread rather than adding to the digression for this build on the original 3D printing thread, from which the fin can came from:
http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/show...2&postcount=100

It was printed in white, had lots of printing artifacts to smooth out, but turned out really nice, other than I trapped a bug when the final coat was drying, and decided to leave his foot prints. I might buff them out later. So, with the 3D printed fin can from the link in the thread above to the thingy-verse file, I got an engine mount tube, body tube, and balsa cone from eRockets, bent an engine hook from the metal strip pulled from an old wiper blade, and made some of the couplers from those leftover yellow push tubes for mounting 18mm and 24mm engine thrust rings. That pretty much makes the kit parts for this build.

Assembly is very similar to the Alpha VI kit that many of you have recently built. You trap the engine mount with a coupler that goes through the fin can, then you secure that to the main body tube. Easy peasy, pudding and pie. mmm, pie...

One deviation I made from the original is the Kevlar line attached to the coupler, and sort of a half-moon baffle, mostly to protect the Kevlar line at that end.

Next, I need to dig out my peel-stick chrome and make some print at home ink jet decals to apply on top of that. That will be an experiment to see how well I can reproduce the original metallic peel-and-stickers. I found good templates for the stars and bars and checker board, but was not able to find a good image of the "Spec Sheet" sticker. If anyone has a good photo or scan of one of those I would like to reproduce that as well. (nevermind, I just found it here: http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/kf-3.htm)

I decided not to paint the white paper body tube, I may clear coat it after the decals. Nose cone might need one more series of 200 then 400 grit sanding and a final top coat, but most of the grain is pretty well filled in so far after a few coats of Deft sanding sealer and Rusto 2X red already.

Here's how it stacks up with some other recent kit builds.

Very nice!

Many thanks!

I made a test print on regular copy paper and temporarily taped these in place to check out sizing of my redrawn decal artwork. In a pinch, you could just print these on peel-stick label paper, looks pretty decent. But, there is just something special about those original metallic stickers.

GlenP - Great work on the decal draw PDF!

Here's a way to get the chrome decal look -
http://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot...n-build_11.html

Black ink (clear decal) over the chrome Monokote trim looks good,
the red and blue decals over the chrome might look darker than what you want.

Very nice looking, Glen.

Per the spec sheet, I wonder how well that would fly on one of GH's fav B14-5s. :rolleyes:

I may have to experiment with the color saturation or transparency settings when I print the decals. I have printed yellow decals that were applied over blue paint, and they ended up looking green, so it might just be transparent enough, but the red and blue are darker colors than yellow for sure.

The chrome sticker sheet I got has a kind of mottled texture to it, ironically, they have a little chrome sticker that says "NEW IMPROVED!!" on the package that looks perfect, but apparently is not cut from the same type of chrome sticker sheet that is in the package itself. I need to get to a hooby shop and get some Trim Monocote, not sure where I picked up this lackluster chrome sticker. (these are the jokes, folks, I'll be here all week!)

That fin set looks awesome, the print only got you half of the way there, you did allot of work to make those look good.

Filling, sanding, and painting the balsa cone and the 3D printed fin can were most of the work for this clone. The original plastic kit parts and white body tube were all no-paint required. Reminds me of the famous Dolly Parton quote, "it costs a lot of money to look this cheap." (Took a lot of effort to clone this Almost-ready-to-fly skill level 1 kit.) I love irony! I really appreciate your 3D CAD modeling skills and the .stl files you have shared. Those are all a great resource. I have parts for the Vanguard Eagle and the Orion AA-2 vehicle to work on next, using your 3D cone models. Many thanks!

I just acquired one of these and the fin can is red. The decals are old and peeling off. If you make something you can make extras of I would be interested. Thanks.