Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - "Friendship 7" 50th Anniversary Dr. Zooch Mercury Atlas build...

Next up, we glue the finished capsule tower fairing ring around the top of the capsule just below the tower struts... be sure you install it NOW, BEFORE you do the LES rocket motor nozzles on the top of the tower, or it'll never fit! Apply a tiny bead of white glue around the top of the capsule with a bamboo skewer and then gently massage the fairing ring in place... make sure it's even with the top of the capsule all the way around, and align the seam in it with the seams of the capsule wrap for a neater build... Once it's dry, you can go over any "bright spots" where the white paper is showing through at the edges with a pencil, which will darken them right up and hide them very effectively...

Once the first layer of glue on the fins' root edges are mostly dry, and on the tubes, grab each fin one by one, put a THIN layer of yellow wood glue on each one over the first layer, spread it evenly, and then carefully align it with the fin line on the tube, (I start at the front, and then pivot the fin down into position on the line, ensuring proper alignment). Hold the fin firmly against the tube for about 15 seconds or so (30 seconds if you used a thicker layer of glue or the first layer of glue was still pretty damp and tacky). Check the alignment as you hold it, to ensure that the fin is straight on the line, and that it's 90 degrees to the tube centerline. Presto, the fins will be locked in place, and you're ready to do the next one... I do opposing pairs, and clamp a scrap piece of balsa to the trailing edges with clothespins to ensure that they stay perfectly straight and aligned to each other while the glue dries for a few minutes. Also, you can go ahead and apply a THIN line of wood glue to the fillet areas and smooth it down with your finger-- this will spread any glue droplets squeezed out from under the fin and make a thin structural fillet at the same time, and fill any voids where the glue might not have completely filled the gap, all at the same time. Basically by the time you get one set of fins done on the second FlameFin unit, you can switch back to the first one and remove the balsa strip and clothespins, and glue the upright fin on in the same manner-- now you can 'eyeball' the vertical alignment with good precision-- hold it 15-30 seconds, and presto it's done... apply the minifillets and smooth them down, and set it aside to dry. Go ahead and finish the second fin unit in an identical manner. I don't bother sanding, filling, or airfoiling FlameFins... the purpose is for them to look a little "textured" with the color applied... since they're not "really" supposed to be there, and I have yet to see fire from the rocket look sanded, filled, or airfoiled... LOL

Next, the launch lug... You won't find any mention of it in the instructions, but you'll need one, because tower-launching an Atlas would be pretty problematical methinks... plus it's just easier to put one on now rather than wait until you've done the complete paint job and have it ready to go, loaded up, walk out to the pad, and start to slide it down the launch rod and go "OH, S#!T!!!"... Don't blame me for this one slipping by the instructions-- I didn't beta-build this one! LOL The disclaimer says not to write the company griping about it, because Dr. Zooch has already printed a bazillion copies and it's already too late... Oh well, it'll be our little secret... LOL SO, take your REAL last remaining tube (small as it is it's still a tube) and glue it on the 'back' of the rocket out of sight... Now, if you've been "clocking" all your seams to be on the 'backside' of the rocket out of sight for a nicer cleaner looking build, then putting the launch lug in line with them just makes sense. Of course, there's a slight complication... A quick check of "Rockets of the World" shows the window on the Friendship 7 (and all the Mercury capsules with windows that flew on Atlas) aligned with the long booster engine fairing on the "right side" of the booster rocket. That puts the seams almost 180 degrees around near the small side fairing, off center a bit toward the 'back' of the rocket somewhat, but too close to the fairing to actually put the launch lug there. After a quick check, the best looking spot to put the lug is basically directly opposite the LOX line on the "front" of the rocket... about halfway between the short booster engine fairing and the vernier engine fairing (the Dracula coffin) which is glued on the centerline of the rocket directly 90 degrees between the two booster engine fairings... this puts the lugs on the 'back' of the rocket, out of sight, and makes them look somewhat like they "belong" on the rocket since they're opposite the LOX line fairing... or so my theory goes... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! LOL SO, I gave the lug my standard treatment, cut it in half at a 45 degree angle, then trim the opposite ends so they're at a slight angle too, which does two things: 1) it really cuts drag from the launch lug, and 2) it really looks cool, and makes the lug look more like it "belongs there" instead of uglyfying everything up with a honkin' square-ended tube glued on the side... Again draw a vertical line on the rocket with your handy aluminum angle, and then glue the halves of the lug on the rocket where they look best, since there's no specific instructions to say otherwise... I put the bottom one just ahead of the mylar wrap on the bottom of the rocket, and the upper one about halfway to the top of the tube from the bottom one (which puts it about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way from the bottom). Turns out after a quick check I did my Zooch Atlas Agena the exact same way! How's that for consistency!!!

Next I worked on rounding the little LES escape rocket nozzles a bit by working them over the end of an ink pen... I decided to stiffen them up a bit by adding some white glue to the interior of them and allowing it to dry... to hold them, I grabbed an egg carton and poked holes in the bottom of the egg cups with a bamboo skewer I use to apply tiny amounts of glue (like on the tower legs) and then inserted the nozzles open end up into the holes, and put a drop of white glue in each one, and worked the glue around to the nozzle walls and the bottom of the nozzle itself with the pointy tip of the bamboo skewer... works like a champ... if there's too much glue in the nozzle, you can always "dipper" it out by wiping off the bamboo skewer tip, and sticking it back in and swishing it around, picking up more glue... do that a few times and you'll have a fairly thin layer in there-- enough to toughen the nozzles up a bit but not so much they end up full of glue... with them pointy-end down, the excess glue will run to the tip, helping strengthen it a bit, since you'll trim it down later and glue it to the escape motor can...

SO, after painting the capsule adapter black with Testor's bottle Flat Black paint, and trimming the aerospike down to a more realistic size and gluing it on with a daub of yellow wood glue, and following that up a bit later with a mini-fillet of yellow wood glue applied by the tip of the bamboo skewer all the way around, letting that dry, then meticulously painting the tower red from top to bottom (meticulous because you have to keep the red paint off the capsule's antenna canister that the tower is glued to, and paint the backsides of the legs, and the tiny inverted "V" struts at the bottom that mate up to the top of the capsule!) ANYWAY, time for test fit... see how the capsule window is aligned with the cable fairing running down the capsule adapter and conical LOX tank transition...

More later! OL JR