The Centuri Lil' Hercules (also called Lil' Herc) first appeared in the 1965 catalog and remained in there lineup until the Centuri product line was phased out in 1984. This was supposed to be a quick fill-in build while I was waiting for Little Joe II replacement parts. Well, it turned out to be less trivial than I thought...
The build started out straight forward, filling in the balsa grain on the wood nose cones and fins...
For marking the body tube, I decided to purchase Estes new model rocket construction tool and fin marking guides. I have a feeling I'll be mostly using the fin marking guides although the tool is handy for drawing straight fin alignment lines on the body tube.
... but for this build, I just used my aluminum angle.
Then while reading through the instructions I saw that the supplied washers were not for nose weight as I had assumed but for tail weight to allow the rocket to tumble correctly. The instructions called for just glueing them to both sides of each fin near the bottom.
I wanted to make my model resemble the kit panel which had no such visible washers so I decided I would have to embed them into the wood.
I used a little thicker than normal Elmers wood filler to help "bury" the washers into the face of each fin and the results were fairly successful.
Here is what the embedded washers looked like after an initial coat of primer. They were now ready to attach to the body tube.
Due to the extra weight, attaching the fins was a bit more challenging. Basically I had to hold each fin in place manually until the epoxy set up.
I was originally planning to use the Estes tool for attaching the fins but it proved to be a less than ideal design for this size rocket.
All fins attached...
Primered and ready for paint...
The completed model...
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