There are 2 body wraps that come with this kit. One upper (self adhesive) and one lower (embossed paper glue on). As we discussed in and earlier post, we will not be using the upper wrap and will opt for waterslide decals instead. The lower wrap must be glued in place and since I hadn't glued a wrap on a rocket in quite some time, I solicited opinions from people who had. Probably the most popular method currently is to use spray adhesive and after several people recommended this to me I opted to go with it.
The one thing most people who used the spray adhesive method recommended was that I use the high strength "90" spray (shown above) instead of the general purpose "77" spray. $16 per can at Ace Hardware...OUCH!
...and worth every penny! This stuff worked great. The wrap went on very easily and the adhesive held it very firmly with no noticable buildup underneath the wrap.
In the above picture, I tried to show how smooth the wrap looks on the rocket with the 3M spray adhesive. I do remember having a lumpy wrap on a rocket I built back in high school when I simply used white glue.
After the main wrap was in place, it was time to add the smaller detial wraps and tunnel covers.
Here is another view... In this view you can see where I "wicked" some thin CA glue under the wrap to seal it down. I'm not sure if that was necessary or not but it couldn't hurt. With the wraps all in place, it's time to start working on the fins.
Great segment, Don. I like the fact that you've done some research into the current methods to do this rocket. Where are you getting your decals
ReplyDeletefor the upper section?
Jeff
I purchased the decals from Gordon at Excelsior Rocketry (http://towrowrow.tripod.com/excelsiorrocketry). He has very accurate decal sets for all of the Little Joe rounds.
ReplyDelete