Model Rocket Building Blog
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 1, PartsHere's another new kit design from Estes. It's BT-55 based and uses the interceptor nose cone. It's a builder's kit, some extra time will be spent on the jet engine assemblies. All the parts - That's a pre-assembled 15"parachute. The balsa sheets hold the wing and jet intake pieces. One of the new ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 2, Parts PrepI've mentioned this before - Laser cut parts are cut at an angle. The top of the sheet is the fine, narrow cut line, on the bottom of the sheet the line is wider and diffused. The thicker the balsa the wider the bottom line. Lightly square and clean up the sides but don't change the shape of the ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 3, Gluing Up The WingsThe two piece large wing was glued up against a straightedge. On this pre-production kit, the root edge wasn't quite flat. Not a big deal, the glued up root edge could be sanded flat with a block. But take a look at the wing slots on the right side. As I mentioned, this was a pre-production kit. ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 5, Jet Engines AssemblyBefore adding the stringers, the assembly top and bottom were sanded smooth. Use a sanding block here with 220 grit sandpaper. The small stringer notches are cut square by the laser. These have to be trimmed at an angle for the stringer gluing. TIP: Use a single edge razor blade to do two cuts at ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 6, Jet Engines AssemblyThe curved side supports are glued on both sides of the center strut. After the supports were in the correct position, tweezers held them tight on the sides as the glue set up. Here's my first CWF pass to fill the tab slot recesses. The picture shows the side after sanding. I'll have to go ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 7, Jet Engines AssemblyHere's a dry fit of the upper card stock cover piece. Notice how the center is higher than the sides. On the left is the front view, on the right is the back view. The card stock piece overlaps a little at the front and rear when cut on the printed lines. TIP: To get a soft fold down the printed ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 8, Jet Engines AssemblyI trimmed off the card stock from the front of the engines but left the overhang on the rear. I simply thought it looked better that way. Here I'm rounding the edges on the front of the intakes. This took some more CWF passes and some spray and sanded filler/primer. The front and rear of the side ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 9, Wings & Tail ConeI know, I've been bouncing around on this one - Back to the wings. The wings and rudders were sprayed with filler/primer after they had a coat of CWF and sanding. There are two rudders shown - I'm building two kits. Note the mask for the jet engine support gluing area. The shroud is long ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 10, Tail Cone FormingThe centering ring with the "O" burned into it is the larger disk, the one that fits into the top wide end of the shroud. For a better fit and no edge bulge, a slight taper (at the same angle as the shroud side) was sanded into the outside edge using a sanding block. TIP: It takes very little glue ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 11, Wings & Tail Cone FittingThe tail cone and body tube joint got a shot of filler/primer. The middle rudder (top) fin goes right down the seam joint. I set the wing against the body tube and tail cone to check the fit. With a bright light behind it, you can see some gaps. I marked with pencil where the wing root ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 12, White Paint & Decal Color MatchI did a test fit of the jet engines. Some cleaning up of the gluing slots made for a good fit. Before the body was painted an overall gloss white, the engine gluing slots were masked off. The tape strip was cut just under the with of the support pieces. TIP: The Ace Hardware brand MAROON Premium ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 13, Masking The Engine TopI was building this model before the new 2020 catalog came out. In the catalog and on the website more views were shown later on. I made a few guesses as to how the engines were masked. In the face card picture I could see the top of the jet engines were maroon. That curved detail on the side is ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 14, Paint Touch-ups & Engine DecalsAfter the tape was pulled I did have some clean up to do. Here on the engine front some maroon paint was carefully scraped off with a new blade. The decals are printed close to each other on the the sheet. Cut them out carefully. The decals on the pre-production kit were a tad small, not ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 15, Body Air Stream DecalsThe layout of the decals on the decal sheet is confusing. Each long "airstream" wave decals are in two pieces. GOTCHA - there are two top and two bottom curved lines. The top two-piece line is thicker than the bottom two-piece line. Match up the end thickness to find which piece goes with which ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, Part 16, Remaining Decals & Engine GluingThe remaining decals are set on the nose cone. Double check before setting down the black squares, they are different sizes. These should fit into the squares molded into the nose cone. The engines are glued into the wing slots. The rear slot was a little longer than the support tab. While the ...[Read More]
Estes Low Boom SST #7289 Build, FinishedThe finished look is good. If I were to make another, I'd be tempted to add a clear coat to the decals before transfer onto the model to get them a little thicker and maybe prevent stretching. The engines are the most difficult part of the build. These show what is possible with laser ...[Read More]
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