I don't have a "release" from the designer! ;)

That was probably either Pavel Pinkas, Mark Smeiska or Mike Vande Bunt.

I have several of Stine's books, but somehow (for me) his books never hit a chord with me. IMHO, he needed to work on his characterization and dialogue a little more. It always seemed a little stiff.

I always thought that was Kevin.

Has anybody ever done (a) the Rocksim for the Fafnir, or (b) an upscale that you're aware of? The Fafnir picture I saw seemed about the size of an Alpha or a Constellation...and the Latona has so much fin area, it's almost a BG. ;)

I'd agree with that assessment for some of his work --- the Metalaw and Star Driver books come to mind. I always thought his juveniles (i.e. Starship and Rocketman) were pretty well fleshed out characterizations (although I'm pretty sure I saw an article somewhere that mentioned that R.A.H. had assisted him with "notes" on both manuscripts, which may account for them being a little more polished than some of his other work).

Nevertheless -- they were fun. I enjoyed the concept of "Shuttle Down"...after all, how many writers would tackle a Shuttle TAL? :)

Nose Cone "Spackling" Woes
 

I used Squadron Putty to fill the imperfections in the "Tau Zero" nose cone. I discovered that you want to squish it down so that it matches the profile ("curve" or "outline") of whatever it is you're filling. Otherwise, you'll have to sand down a *ton* of putty, which may not turn out so well. :mad:

In the first picture, the putty has been applied, but in the second one, you can see how much *extra* sanding I had to do to get it down to the desired level. :mad: Yep, I managed to sand the surrounding wood filler right off, and I should have stopped to re-fill it right there. :rolleyes: :mad: :o

Picture three shows the nose cone after a coat of primer, but the area where I shot primer over bare wood is still rough. Looks like I'll have to fill and then prime again before hitting the cone with paint. (heavy sigh)


Cheers,

--Jay

"Tau Zero" Fin Painting Technique
 

When I first designed my "Tau Zero," I intended for the color scheme to have "Centuri" orange (i.e., Krylon "Pumpkin Orange") fins, with the rest of the rocket painted silver. However, after noticing how the Testors metallic silver paint made all of the finishing imperfections on my Estes Wolverine 1.36X BT-55 upscale "pop out," I decided to forgo (sp.?) silver on this bird.

I masked the fins as described in a previous article in this thread, and here's how they turned out, in the first two pictures below. I sanded the down the edge of the paint where the masking met the body tube with 320 grit, and I discovered that you want to use a *small* piece of sandpaper, instead of the whole sheet. :o That way, you can avoid noticeable "dings" in your newly finished paint job. (Notice the lower left fin in the first picture. :eek: )

The final picture in this series happened when I picked up my camera to move it, and accidentally had the "business end" pointed my direction. So that shot is for Paul Kinzer, who was concerned that people didn't see enough of me.

I call it "Unintentional Self Portrait #1." :rolleyes: ;) :D


Cheers,

--Jay

We called these the "Mom, turn the camera around" shots. Lots of pics of mom's nostril over the years. :eek:

"Tau Zero" Partial Paint Job
 

I peeled the masking tape off the fins tonight, and here's the result in the first two shots below. The Krylon (medium) Smoke Gray definitely makes the Krylon Pumpkin Orange "pop," but almost too much. It's a little gaudy, so on any future versions, I think I'd use Krylon (light) Classic Gray instead.

For this go-around, I'll use the Classic Gray for the "transition/reducer" part of the nose cone, and Smoke Gray on the rest. Future "revised editions" will probably use White and Classic Gray instead.

Shots three and four are the original images from RockSim (over a year ago :o ).


Cheers,

--Jay