Major error on Estes Redstone Capsule build

[Doug Foster]

I did not pay close enough attention to the painting details on the capsule prior to gluing the tower onto the capsule. I realize Estes kits provide zero guidance on painting sequence and I should have caught this. The capsule is black and the tower is red and you have to paint these prior to putting them together. No recovery from this error. I did locate the exact estes plastic capsule kit at a couple places (Kings Hobby and eRockets) but they are out of stock. Other option is to buy a new kit I suppose.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

I did not pay close enough attention to the painting details on the capsule prior to gluing the tower onto the capsule. I realize Estes kits provide zero guidance on painting sequence and I should have caught this. The capsule is black and the tower is red and you have to paint these prior to putting them together. No recovery from this error. I did locate the exact estes plastic capsule kit at a couple places (Kings Hobby and eRockets) but they are out of stock. Other option is to buy a new kit I suppose.View attachment 647369

It will cost you a bit, but you could take my route...
Kevin Cepedes sells this on Shapeways.
I added the window and the aerospike, and you should still have the decals.

I feel for you! Suffering through that tower build only to discover your mistake is a real facepalm moment!

 

[lakeroadster]

Just paint it. Take your time, it can be done.

 

[rcktnut]

Get the paint brush out. I seen builds where lots used a brush for painting the tower anyway. Paint tower and part of capsule, mask and spray rest of capsule, or hand paint the whole thing.

 

[Scott_650]

Unless you’re building this to compete in contests leaving the parachute canister red along with the tower will look fine - mask it off and paint the capsule black, it’ll be fine. At least until the tower snaps off on landing, then you can fix the paint when you rebuild the tower

 

[MidOH]

Don't forget, it's you're rocket.

If I was on the team launching Black Brant 2's, I'd use an orange base color, not white. So my next bb2 is going to be orange.

Who's to say that one Mercury Redstone somewhere, didn't have a red nose.

 

[MALBAR 70]

Don't forget, it's you're rocket.

If I was on the team launching Black Brant 2's, I'd use an orange base color, not white. So my next bb2 is going to be orange.

Who's to say that one Mercury Redstone somewhere, didn't have a red nose.

My OCD is screaming right now.....

 

[rcktnut]

Unless you’re building this to compete in contests leaving the parachute canister red along with the tower will look fine - mask it off and paint the capsule black, it’ll be fine. At least until the tower snaps off on landing, then you can fix the paint when you rebuild the tower

That and painting and then gluing will make the tower snap off that much easier. Paint then gluing is not a good practice anyway.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

My OCD is screaming right now.....

Mine too! After I saw what the actual MR8 capsule looked like, and then after my original kit tower was finally destroyed beyond repair, I bought the one that I showed in the link above.

Added bonus, you don't have to assemble that furschlugginer tower, Kevin prints it all one piece!

 

[MALBAR 70]

That and painting and then gluing will make the tower snap off that much easier. Paint then gluing is not a good practice anyway.

I must be weird, I actually like building capsules, and especially escape towers.
My trick for painting the Estes Redstone capsule and tower is fairly simple. For the tower, I don't prime it, I just shoot a few light coats of color till it looks good. Then. I'll scrape the ends of the tower legs with my trusty old #11 so I can get good adhesion points to the capsule.
On the capsule, where the tower legs attach, there six little divots. I take a tooth pick and drop a very small amount of Elmer's Glue All into each divot. I then prime/sand and paint the capsule. When it's dry, I break out the #11 again and pick the blobs of dry glue out of the divots and complete assembly.

 

[rcktnut]

I must be weird, I actually like building capsules, and especially escape towers.
My trick for painting the Estes Redstone capsule and tower is fairly simple. For the tower, I don't prime it, I just shoot a few light coats of color till it looks good. Then. I'll scrape the ends of the tower legs with my trusty old #11 so I can get good adhesion points to the capsule.
On the capsule, where the tower legs attach, there six little divots. I take a tooth pick and drop a very small amount of Elmer's Glue All into each divot. I then prime/sand and paint the capsule. When it's dry, I break out the #11 again and pick the blobs of dry glue out of the divots and complete assembly.

I wouldn't call you weird at all, to me seems like a perfect way to get the job done. You're not applying glue over paint, which I meant to be not a good practice.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

I must be weird, I actually like building capsules, and especially escape towers.
My trick for painting the Estes Redstone the capsule. When it's dry, I break out the #11 again and pick the blobs of dry glue out of the divots and complete assembly.

I like to build as well, and that's a great tip with the Elmer's, still, look at the two side-by-side:

Granted I could have hid the seam on the porthole window a little better... but man do I like my new capsule and tower!

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Another thing a wonderful fellow here suggested, @prfesser said it's best not to use an elastic shock cord. It can (and did) snap back and break the tower off on the booster. Get a good long length of Kevlar shock cord, and attach the chute about 2/3 of the way from the booster to the capsule.

 

[samb]

@Doug Foster Your choices are some rather fiddly brush work or leave the parachute compartment red.

FYI I left the tower unpainted. The red molded parts look red enough to me.

 

[KenECoyote]

As noted above, just use a brush.

What I did for my Little Joe was spray paint it all black after assembly and then use a brush to paint the red tower (Edit: I may have sprayed the top part as well to make it look smoother).

In your current situation, you can mask off most of the tower (to keep the red paint on it), spray the rest black, then after it's fully dried, use a brush with the same red paint to touch up the base of the tower (spray into a clean yogurt cup until the paint pools and use it quickly).

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Antares JS]

All you need is a decent paintbrush, some masking tape, and flat black pot paint. No need to start over or buy another kit.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

I agree with everyone here that says, yes you can still paint it - it'll just be a wee bit more difficult. Well, depending on how good you want it, it could be a lot more difficult. I'd say start on the inside - the silver band and black nose piece of the parachute cannister, and then onto the tower.

Edited to add: Know that you are not alone.

I wonder how that one turned out?

 

[billpr]

The new capsule looks great. The older one was used on Alan's flight. The Liberty bell had the window one.