My project was t' US Rockets “F with Multiple D Pods” rocket kit.  T' kits I built back in t' day and t' most recent kits that I built with me kids were simple, matey, straight forward Estes kits.  So for me next project, I wanted t' try a cluster motor kit with external tubes that actually carried motors.  So after lookin' around a bit, I chose this as me first foray into this style o' rocket.

As far as this build thread goes, when I started t' kit, I wasn’t thinkin' about writin' about it.  I just took some pictures as I went along t' show t' progression o' me effort.  Then I found this site and decided t' give a build thread a try.  I’ll pay more attention durin' t' next one.

T' kit is skill level 3 / 4 (dependin' on which website you look at) with a five engine cluster.  I bought mine online from t' nice folks at Apogee.  T' rocket has one 29mm motor mount at centerline (it also has a 24mm adapter for this space), and four 24mm tubes on t' exterior for a total o' five engines.  T' kit says it will accept combinations o' motors - C through G.

T' kit comes with a number o' different tubes sizes, with t' main body tube bein' 2.25”dia., total height o' 47” and havin' an overall dia. o' approximately 8.25”.  It shows total weight o' t' kit at around 1.5 lbs. Ahoy! (I would imagine that would be finished weight WITH engines, but that’s simply a guess.)  T' fins and rings are plywood and are well cut.  T' kit comes with a large solid balsa wood nose cone, arrr, and four plastic nose cones for t' external 24mm tubes.  It also comes with a 16” Mylar parachute (which I would imagine would be fine), matey, however for me build I upgraded with a 24” rip-stop nylon chute t' give it a little more loft and a slower decent.  For t' chute, shiver me timbers, it comes with a 7’ elastic shock cord that uses a standard 3-fold paper body tube wall mount.

T' kit also does nay come with any type o' motor retainer for t' 29mm or t' 24mm motors.  From t' looks o' it, t' kit appears t' be designed for use o' maskin' tape thrust rings and t' simply have t' motor held in by tape.  Not a bilge-suckin' thin' however, t' external pods are long enough where they will hold any 24mm motor, and t' 29mm motor mount is open at both ends, so it will hold any single use or reloadable 29mm motor out there.

When it comes t' t' finished rocket, arrr, this kit only comes with a couple o' US Rockets logo stickers.  Not much t' speak of, arrr, so it’s pretty much up t' your imagination on how you want t' finished product t' look.  On a side note, that decal was missin' from me kit.  Not a big deal since I wasn’t plannin' on usin' it in t' first place.

I only had a few complaints regardin' this kit, ya bilge rat, one o' which was t' instructions.  Four pages, very basic info.  If you’re an old school rocketeer with some mad modelin' skills, matey, I’m sure they would be just fine.  However for an average Joe like me, t' instructions for this kit are pretty bare bones and left a lot t' be desired.  After readin' through t' instructions, me bucko, it left me with a LOT o' questions, me hearties, so I hit t' net and read all t' reviews and watched all t' videos that I could find t' see how others did it, takin' notes along t' way.  This truly helped and pre-plannin' me course o' attack definitely paid off in t' long run.

To begin, I prepped all o' t' wood pieces usin' sandin' sealer and once dry I gave them a quick goin' over with some 120 grit sand paper t' knock t' roughness out.  Then I prepped all pieces with wood filler t' fill in any holes, voids, and t' body tube seams.

I then sanded them down with 120 first, me hearties, then 320 t' smooth t' pieces t' a nice smooth workable surface.  T' body tubes took a extra effort t' get t' seams t' fill right.  Once I sanded them down, arrr, I hit them with some white primer, which showed all o' t' places that I missed.  So I filled, sanded and primed until all t' flaws went away and they were nice and smooth.

As mentioned earlier, this kit comes with a balsa main nose cone.  This took a little trial and error t' seal, me bucko, fill, prime, sand and paint, t' get it nice, smooth and shiny and NOT change t' shape o' t' cone.  Again, patience paid off here.

When dealin' with t' tailfins, I tried and tried but just couldn’t get them t' get perfectly smooth.  I must have filled and sanded them four or five times.  A minor setback came up when I noticed that after I achieved t' smoothness I was lookin' for, I realized that t' fins had warped a bit.  Panic set in as I thought I had ruined me fins!  I then got each fin slightly damp, me hearties, and set them in a vice betwixt two pieces o' smooth wood.  After about a week in a hot garage – they straightened themselves out.  Dodged a bullet on that one!

After gettin' t' wood pieces squared away, arrr, I cut out t' holes that were called for in t' body tube and external pods (my first attempt at this type o' design).  After usin' t' template in t' instructions that showed where your body tube lines needed t' be, I made me guide lines first usin' t' old door-jam method.  Then usin' a homemade heavy stock paper template, I marked an outline o' where t' holes would go.  I used a fresh hobby cutlass blade for each hole t' try and keep them as shipshape as possible.  This took time and patience.  But then end result was very nice, and t' holes lined up perfectly.

Now as I went into this, I decided t' make t' four external pods look like SRB’s from modern rockets.  At first I thought o' usin' homemade body wraps, but that just became too much o' a pain and I couldn’t get it t' work out t' me satisfaction.  So I opted t' use homemade decals (clear inkjet printer labels printed and cut t' size).

[A note on that:  I read online that after printin' inkjet label decals, you need t' spray your decals with clear coat, shiver me timbers, t' seal them as t' ink may run.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!  After me decals were printed, arrr, I let them dry at room temperature for a solid day.  Once dry, I touched them and messed with them, and t' ink seemed t' have set just fine.  It wasn’t until I had them on t' SRB and it was mounted t' t' main body tube with some CA that things went amiss.  Usin' wood glue t' seal t' holes with small pieces o' paper where t' two holes come together is when t' ink decided t' smear.  What a mess.  Fortunately, this happened with t' first SRB I mounted.  So I stopped, clear coated all o' me SRB’s and let them dry for a solid day in a hot garage, and that fixed t' problem.]

I thought about mountin' t' SRB’s on t' main body tube first, then placin' t' decals on them, but I didn’t think I could get t' decals all t' way into t' seam AND have them nice and straight.  So I opted t' finish t' SRB’s prior t' mountin' them.  One thin' that did worry me (and nay sure if it really would have been a real issue) was mountin' t' painted/finished external pod tubes t' a primed and painted main body tube.   Would t' glue-on-paint joint fail at t' speeds and pressures that this rocket could place on t' seam at launch and simply cause it t' tear off?  Since I didn’t know t' answer t' this question and couldn’t fine it on t' net, I decided t' place a long strip o' blue maskin' tape (about ¼” wide) along t' line where t' external pod and main body tube would be joined, on both t' main body tube and each external pod.  Then once finished, ya bilge rat, I would simply remove t' tape and join t' pod t' t' tube together – cardboard t' cardboard - in t' normal fashion.

After all o' t' prep work was complete, me hearties, I began t' assemble t' rocket.  29mm motor mount, matey, 24mm adapter, t' two couplers (one for t' main airframe and t' other for t' base o' t' payload bay).  These parts were assembled usin' wood glue, me bucko, and then reinforced and filleted usin' epoxy.

Here I ran into one o' me complaints about this kit, which was t' plastic nose cones for t' external pods.  T' cones were shiny yellow plastic.  So when I initially primed them usin' white primer, t' yellow would bleed through.  After a number o' coats o' primer and a really significant difference in t' color o' t' main nose cone and t' pod nose cones, me hearties, I sanded them down, used gray primer and then started over with t' white.  This fixed t' problem and all five cones came out t' same color.

(In this picture, if you look at t' four external pods, you can see a piece o' paper inside o' t' tube through t' hole I cut out.  Those were me body wraps, before I opted t' use paint and decals.  I rolled them up and placed them inside t' form t' t' shape o' t' tube, but it just never really worked out.)

Once t' payload bay was complete, I noticed t' pointy part o' t' threads o' t' eye screw significantly protruded into t' bay.  This caused me t' wonder if it could damage anythin' that I might put in thar (say like me altimeter perhaps).  So I found a really thick sponge (like t' type you use t' wash your car) that was about 2” thick, cut out a circular chunk, and placed it at t' bottom o' t' payload bay – over t' screw threads.  Worked out quite nicely and gave t' bay some protection.

(In this picture, shiver me timbers, you can see t' strip o' blue maskin' tape I used on t' external pods t' keep t' joint face paint free.)

T' final coat o' gloss white paint on t' external pods, me bucko, their nose cones and t' main nose cone.  Once dry, ya bilge rat, I then decorated t' external pods t' make them look like SRB’s.

When I started this kit, arrr, I decided that I would move away from t' normal kit look o' a white body with red trim, and do somethin' a little more interesting.  I decided t' theme me rocket after more modern rockets includin' t' new Ares rockets, ya bilge rat, with a white main body, matey, orange lower body/fuel tank, and white SBR’s with t' various colored bandin' straps.  I also wanted t' add some texture t' t' model as it has a REALLY long main body tube and can look a bit plain.  So while surfin' t' Apogee website, shiver me timbers, I found thin plastic body molds and decided t' give them a try.

Puttin' t' body molds on t' rocket was pretty easy.  Just take care t' ensure your cuts are nice and straight, so t' two ends can line up when you wrap it around.  A little CA around t' edges held it on nicely and t' CA also filled in t' gaps in t' accordion shape on t' upper and lower edges.  If you need t' add a little extra pressure t' t' wrap as t' CA dries t' keep it down and in place, a simple trick is t' use plastic (like from a large clear plastic lunch baggy) t' hold t' wraps tightly with your hands as you put t' glue along t' edges.  T' CA will nay dry t' t' plastic baggy and t' baggy will keep it off o' your hands!

More challengin' be t' add a body wrap around t' base o' t' rocket, about ¾” up from t' trailin' edge, ya bilge rat, betwixt t' tailfins and SRB tubes.  For this I had t' cut one wrap into eight sections and then mount them individually followin' a guide line.  This be done after t' tailfins were added but before t' SRB tubes.  T' measurin' and cuttin' t' allow space for t' SRB tube took some thought (and math), but worked out pretty nicely in t' end.

Here is a picture o' an almost finished SRB tube.  T' homemade decals worked out better than I had hoped, and their thickness actually gives each band a bit o' depth addin' t' its reality!  I kept t' bottom o' t' SRB open t' allow t' application o' tape t' hold t' 24mm motors in place and nay tear up t' decals takin' t' tape on and off.

Here be t' completed main body tube, with t' plastic body wraps installed.  T' body has been primed, t' upper portion has been painted with gloss white and t' bottom portion is ready for a final coat o' gloss orange paint.  I also elected t' paint t' fins silver so that they would stand out a bit from t' main paint theme.

On t' SRB’s, matey, I also added a single piece o' 1/8” dowel rod down t' tubes face at its outer most point t' give each SRB a little bit o' depth t' themselves.

Here be t' almost completed rocket.  All four SRB’s have been mounted, me hearties, t' main body tube completely painted, ya bilge rat, and at this point, me bucko, I was in process o' mountin' t' SRB nose cones.

Once mounted and t' spaces where t' holes betwixt t' SRB and t' main body tubes meet filled in, I used epoxy t' add fillets along t' seams on each side o' t' SRB’s.  T' four fins were originally mounted with wood glue, me bucko, and then epoxy fillets added t' set them in place.

This is a view o' t' completed lower portion o' t' main body tube.  I added small pieces o' black MonoKote t' t' leadin' edges o' t' tailfins.

You can see at one point on t' inner seam o' t' left “C” SRB, where thar was some bubblin' in t' epoxy fillet.  It only happened at this one point and it is exactly where t' hole was covered, where t' two ejection exhaust holes met.  I’m thinkin' it has somethin' t' do with t' epoxy bein' over t' wood glue used t' apply t' paper t' fill t' hole but I’m nay sure.

And here be t' completed rocket, me bucko, ready for launch (sans motors).  T' decals used were from t' replacement Saturn V Decal sheet from Apogee, with t' exception o' t' NASA emblem that I made.  T' large black trackin' marks just below t' American flag were made usin' black MonoKote trim sheets.

I elected t' paint t' payload pay light gray t' add a bit more color t' t' overall look.  T' black/white checked stripe at t' base o' t' payload bay was also MonoKote.

Overall, t' kit was a blast t' build.  It took about two months o' weekends, from beginnin' t' end t' complete.  My final weight without motors is 452g (or just at one pound).  My empty CG is located right in t' middle o' t' plastic body wrap that runs behind t' SRB nose cones.  And me CP is just in front o' t' tailfins.  So I would imagine that I’ll need t' add a little nose weight once I add t' engines, especially if I decide t' “CHaD” launch this thing.

T' only bummer for this build?  I won’t get t' find out how or if it flies until October when we take t' scouts back out for a rocket trip.  More t' follow then…