Semroc Little Joe II wraps.
 

Hi guys. While assembling my Semroc 1/70 scale Little Joe II #KS-3 I successfully screwed up the embossed paper wraps of the booster. I’d rather not slice open my other kit for the wraps, so does anyone have a set of the wraps (SEM-1KS-3W) that they’ll trade for or sell? ERockets has been out of stock with them for a long time.

I have some nice goodies to trade for the wraps. Among other things I have:

-Estes 1/100 scale SV CM and LES kit.
-Semroc Saturn 1B wraps (full set.)
-1/35 scale Mercury capsule/LES kit.
-LOTS of 1/70 scale RCS nozzle assemblies.

……….plus many other items. More than I even know. Let me know what you’re looking for and I’ll see if I have it to trade for the wraps.

I’ll trade one or two of the above items for the wraps.

Thanks! VR, Jeff

Don't have any (never had that kit). Tried to think of other options, but nothing that's available anymore or seems very practical.

Heck, for a brief time, many years ago (20?), John Pursley sold a kickass 1/70 kit, with cast parts.

I do have a drawn-up wrap that can be laserprinted onto paper, but that's 2-D, would look gray, not practical to emboss.

But, actually, Real Space Rockets did exactly that, used my drawings for their kit years ago, now OOP. Pics on the Apogee site: https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocke...le-Joe-II-A-004



BTW - link to a page on imgur with the body rollout in B&W, not intended as a wrap but gives an idea of the detail the Estes kit never had info on: https://imgur.com/8N2jqO6

Paul Graf (grafgulch on the forum) makes 1/70 vacuform wraps. Somebody on FB put up a post on them, and I have used them and wrote about it here. (here is my post )

That looks like a solution. I've sent him a PM. Thanks!

I've had an epiphany born out of desperation!

While going through my styrene sheet stash I found a nearly exact match to the ridge pattern of the wraps of the Semroc Little Joe II.

The styrene sheet stock is very thick and rigid and not quite long enough to cover the circumference of the BT-70 tube but I'll try using my palm sander on one side of the styrene sheet and MAYBE this will make it thin enough to lay better AND the increased thinness might make it cover the circumference completely.

This just might work!

TBC

I've slit a piece of the styrene to the height of the paper wrap (1.69") and wrapped it around the BT-70. There's .180" gap. I can either solve this by doing the wrap in (2) pieces -OR-try to make the wrap thin enough to enrobe the BT-70 -OR-attempt to heat up and stretch the wrap until it's long enough-OR- cover the gap with a scale conduit.

Whatever the solution, I'm still going to make the styrene sheet thinner to make it lay better.

TBC

I used 12" wide Evergreen corrugated plastic for my 1/39.5 scale Little Joe-I, .10" spacing provided 120 corrugations. The model was scaled to the resulting tube diameter, a BT-80 tube was mounted inside for the recovery system and engine centering rings. I used a BT-101 for the Service Module.



Except for the inverted painted model at upper left, all the other parts shown are bare styrene. Including the fins, vac-formed fairings, BPC ("capsule"), and tower.

The real Little Joe had the corrugations RECESSED, not projecting outwards. So, I suggest you look into curling that sheet into a tube. If you are lucky, you can match BT-70 with 120 corrugations. If not, maybe 124 or 116 would work, putting the flush (not recessed) corrugations aligned with the fins (so that the UNITED STATES decals can go on corrugations recessed in the middle. But for 120 corrugations, the recesses are aligned with the fins and also the UNITED STATES lettering).

Here's a page on my website that shows various Little Joes I built, and how the 1/39.5 model was built. You'll also find lots of links for data, drawings, and photos.

http://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/George.htm

BTW - .040 corrugated sheet, curled into a tube, works for 1/100 scale. Both Tom Beach and I have done that.

YAY! It's gonna work--but NOT in one piece. I'll have to use (2) pieces of the styrene butted together to achieve full coverage of the circumference of the BT. I first sanded the reverse side of the styrene with the Makita orbital palm sander until all of the surface details were gone. I then hand sanded the reverse side with 120, 220, and 320 grits until it was as thin as possible without breaking through and separating at the corrugations. Surprisingly, even with the increased thinness I've gained very little reduction in the gap and that's why I can do it with one piece.

The wrap is now just as thin and flexible as the paper wraps--but far stronger.

TBC

That's very helpful stuff. Thanks for sharing it.

Ya' know, even at 1:70 scale I don't see any reason NOT to replicate the full length conduit for the LJII--therefore I can fill the gap with it, and then of course replicate a shortened conduit for the opposite side.

TBC