Back To The Workbench...!

 Today, I had a little bit of free time, so what better way to spend it than working on a rocket project?

This time I broke out the box that contains the long-neglected Viking-4 scale project.  Back toward the beginning of 2024, I had been working on sanding the airfoil into the four balsa fins.   

Looking at them now, I am not at all satisfied with how the parts look.  The Viking-4 fin airfoil facet pattern is really fairly complex, and very difficult to properly sand onto 1/16th balsa stock.  A couple of the fin edges came out a bit too thin in some spots, while others had badly defined facet angles.  I recall applying some CWF to some of the mis-sanded surfaces in an attempt to restore the original stock thickness and try again, but that didn't work too well, either.

So today, I decided to give basswood stock a try.  After cutting out one fin to use as a test unit, I set to work with the sanding blocks.

  Much better!   Even though the wood is decidedly harder than balsa, I found I had greatly increased control over sanding some of the angled facets without taking too much material off at one time, while maintaining the proper fin shape. 

If all goes well on the test fin, I'm rolling with basswood for the rest.

Here's a photo of the still-obstructed air-brush paint station.  

The final band rehearsal is scheduled for September 7th, so I can finally take down the amps and speakers afterward and get to playing with the air-brush.

Cheers!