Project “Refurbish My Orbital Transport”
 

Yesterday it was windy, not a good day to do painting, so I decided to refurbish my old Orbital Transport. I built this over 20 years ago, and after a few years, the clear coat started to yellow. Not too bad at first, and I kept flying it. Had that old classic “built in my youth” look. The next few years it began to get this spreading brownish haze. You can see some of it on the transport. The white areas are where I wiped it down with lacquer thinner last year, just to see how easily I could clean up most of the open areas. At that point, I set it aside; there was no way I’d take it out to fly looking like that.
Yesterday, I wet-sanded the orbiter. It cleaned up pretty easily. Certainly ready to smooth out some repairs, fill some dings, then primer and paint. Today I’ll start wet-sanding the transport. I’m not sure that this will get finished in one day, mostly because cleaning up around all the detailed components will require more effort and patience than I may have for today.

I still have a set of green decals, but may just do this in the standard red, to match my Super OT.

Lee, I love these kinds of projects, so many great memories and the hope of more to come. I am one of those who never sees a loved flyer as too far gone. ;)

I've had a Transport in the stash for at least 15 years but just can't ever seem to find the time to do it. Of course, I want to make mine a 5 engine cluster. :)

Verna
http://www.vernarockets.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHJHOK6
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O14ET8K
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CX1UPCG
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C95BNQH

Only 5 engines ?
No motor in the orbiter ?

Verna, that would NOT surprise me. I’m assuming that maybe when you first started building rockets, you might have done one stock? :chuckle:

And yes, this will be a labor of love. The Orbital Transport is always such a crowd pleaser.

I started sanding the transport today. That’s not a one day project ... at least for me! The orbiter gets some filler tomorrow to fill a few dings, then maybe primer and paint starting mid-week.

One of my favorite rockets. The one I built I applied the sanding after she was all built so not the greatest finish. So many hard areas to reach with sanding sealer and even tougher to sand those areas. I am looking to build the reissue version I have sitting around but I will seal before assembly for a better finish.

I'm currently building a Semroc Orbital Transport.
I'm sanding/sealing all balsa prior to assembly.

Sounds like a very good idea. I don’t recall if I pre-sealed anything, but I might have done the inside of the housing pieces around the engines. If not, even 20 years after the build, I would think I would remember the pain and anguish of sanding them after assembly!

Does this mean we will see pictures from you? :p

A while back I experimented with sealer prior to gluing parts to see if it would make a weak joint. Of course I was careful not to get sealer on root edge of the balsa parts. I glued a bare balsa fin to a body tube with aliphatic glue, added glue fillets and allowed to dry for a week. I did another fin, sealed with 4 coats of Brodak sealer and did the same thing. After a week I tried to break the fins off. Both were solid, and I could not tell a difference when trying to break the fins off.

Ooh, thanks for that analysis! I've always been a bit hesitant to seal BEFORE assembly for that very reason, figuring fillets in particular might not 'grab' as well on a sealed balsa surface. Most builds are not intricate enough to really warrant doing that beforehand, but on a few (like the kit being discussed) it would be a big help.

Earl