December 18, 2007 - Miscellaneous Leg and Shoulder Work

This update is just a bunch of little updates, all sort of related to the shoulders.

For starters, I got my layered shoulders in the mail from Andy Schwartz. These are nothing but 1/8th-inch styrene sheet that has been cut into one of three sizes, all with the same basic shape. When put together, the outer edges all lin eup, but the inner edges are staggered. The third size is a shim, which goes between the shoulders and the body, and is smaller along the outer edge. The picture below shows one shoulder getting glued up. I ended up using every clamp I had for each side, to keep everything flat and nice.

While the shoulders were gluing up, I pre-drilled the shoulder portion of each leg to accept the shim.

Once the shoulders were ready, I test-fit them onto the legs. Below, you can see the mock-up, with the booster cover in place for alignment.

Before the shoulders could go onto the legs, I needed to pre-drill for the shoulder hubs. These are the little details that hide the original mating point for the legs. These days, it's just a little cup... sorta like the power couplings at the bottom of RD-22's body. The basic technique (well, for me, at least) was to router out the center hole, then shorten the bit and scrape out the outer ring.

As you can see in the pictures above and below, the shim from the layered shoulders has been screwed onto the leg. This will allow me to glue the rest of the shoulder assembly to the shim, attaching it all to the leg.

Each shoulder, being a set of styrene pieces, needs to be filled with bondo to make it smooth.

Well, that's it for now. More to come as I get some pictures... It's kind of hard to stop myself in the middle of a section of work and go get the camera. Hopefully, you won't miss too much because of my enthusiasm!

Bob
December 18, 2007