Hey! Thought I'd start another build thread on my next build... the Dr. Zooch Lifting Body shuttle kit. Been raining a bit every day (good thing we've been TOO DRY!! so the cows are happy now) and so I figured just having basically finished with the Dr. Zooch Return To Flight Space Shuttle kit, I'd go ahead and work on this one while my experience set is fresh from the shuttle stack.
This kit is pretty neat. It comes in the ubiquitous Dr. Zooch 4x4x12 inch-ish shipping box, as usual. The kit consists of two BT-20 SRB tubes, a BT-5 flamefin tube, motor mount and associated hardware, and 3/32 inch sheet balsa stock. The main difference from the Space Shuttle kit is the External Tank tube, which forms the backbone of the stack, is only a BT-55 in the Lifting Body shuttle kit instead of the BT-60 found in the Space Shuttle kit, which I found a bit curious as commonality would surely have eased the kitting process, but I'm sure the Doc had his reasons. At any rate, the materials look to be the usual Dr. Zooch good quality. The seven double sided sheets of instructions are well documented and illustrated as usual, and a sheet giving the background not only of Dr. Zooch lifting body but also giving the history of NASA's forays into lifting body development over the years, including some neat photos and even a reference and drawing of the lifting body featured in the film "Marooned" is included with the kit, as well as two wrap sheets printed on cardstock.
We start the kit off by constructing the SRB's. These are identical to the SRB's used in the Space Shuttle kit, save for the wraps which feature "United States" printed on them (like Ares I?) and are built by cutting out the two aft skirts from the wrap sheets, gluing them into hoops, marking the SRB tubes 13/16 inch from the aft end, gluing the aft skirts onto the SRB's with white glue, and then cutting the SRB wraps from the wrap sheet, applying white glue around the edges, and carefully rolling them onto the tubes. Two 20/50 centering rings are also included which are sanded to a taper to glue inside the SRB aft skirts to stiffen them up and make them look good! Once sanded and test fitted, glue them in with white glue.
http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/atta...tid=13824&stc=1
The engine mount is constructed by cutting a slot for the engine hook per the instructions, installing the hook and securing it with black electrical tape, and gluing the front and rear black fiberboard centering rings to the engine mount tube as instructed. The aft centering ring was not notched for the engine hook, so I cut a small notch with my hobby knife to allow the hook to move properly. The bottom 'tank dome' for the Lifting Body shuttle kit is a conical paper transition that looks great-- gives the tank a very "Delta IV" or "Ariane V" look... clock the transition seam to align with an SRB seam (90 degrees from the engine hook) and carefully notch the smaller diameter end for your engine hook to have room to move, and glue it over the engine tube with the large end butted up against the aft centering ring. When you install the engine mount in the rocket, the transition will butt up against the aft end of the ET looking like the thrust structure of an Ariane V or Delta IV with the centering ring JUST inside the rear end of the tube. Wrap the corrugated paper "intertank" around the ET tube and mark where it meets itself, carefully cut it to length, apply white glue to the back, and wrap it around the tank at the indicated area as instructed.
http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/atta...tid=13825&stc=1
While that was drying, I stepped out of the instructions a bit for something I always do on my kits... I took the SRB and ET nosecones outside and hardened them with ultra thin CA from Hobby Lobby, let them dry, then sanded them a bit to remove the hardened 'balsa hairs' and dust that the CA inevitably raises and to get a good fit of the cone shoulders in the tubes, and then masked the shoulders with tape and took them outside again and primed them. Between the second and third coats of primers, the wind caught my painting box and flipped it off onto the floor of the porch, dinging my ET nosecone a bit, so I filled the ding with spot putty, allowed that to dry over night, and sanded the cones with 320 grit dry and finished sanded with 320 wet.
http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/atta...tid=13825&stc=1
More later! OL JR