Body Work

As I build more and more rockets I am starting to pay more attention to the finished look of the airframe. It is pretty simple to build a rocket kit but it is an art to make it smooth and authentic looking. Body tubes are my biggest probelm. They have sprial lines running down the entire thing which make them a pain to get smooth. Here is my solution that I learned from John Coker who has one of the best sites dedicated to model rocketry I have come across. The building a kit section of his site has many finishing ideas.

First get some Elmers Fill and Finish wood filler. Put some in a little cup and add just enough water to give it the consistantcy of cake frosting. Using your finger spread the filler in the groove on the tube. The fill and finish dries in 15 minutes and can be sanded to a smooth finish easiliy. I use a small orbital sander to take off a majority of the material and finish with hand sanding. The first image is after sanding and the second is the application.