I recently got an Estes Xarconian Cruiser on EBAY. When Estes introduced it I thought it looked familiar. The above picture is the Estes Xarconian Cruiser. The picture below it is my Starship entry from the 1972 Centuri Photo Contest. I presented the model to Grant Boyd after he gave my family ...
This is one of the more recent Level 5 kits from Estes, the Xarconian Cruiser. Kit # 3223 It sports an interesting blow-molded canopy nose cone. There's plenty of laser cut "wood" and many decals. For my tastes, almost too many decals. This is a Level 5 build probably because of all the tube ...
Here's the parts of interest: The canopy nose cone. It's blow-molded with very little seams. The launch lug is 3/16" diameter. The engine mount tube is a standard BT-20 tube, not the thinner yellow tube usually supplied in Estes kits. A plastic ribbed tail cone. Two 1090 thick walled tubes
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The long strakes are easy to mix up. The upper two are the forward wing strakes. The lower piece is the rudder strake. The front end is a bit smaller than the wing pieces.
I taped some waxed paper down to a hardcover book. The wing and rudder pieces were glued and held tightly together ...
Here's the engine mount with the centering rings and clear retaining ring installed. I'm adding a replaceable Kevlar line on this one. The small blue tube is from a generic cotton swab.
TIP: Thanks to Todd (Bradycros on TRF) I now notch engine blocks for a better fit over the top bend of ...
I didn't align the root edges of the three piece fins. When the pieces were pushed in place the base root edge didn't line up. That's okay, it's easier to sand the root edge even than sand the curved leading edge smooth.
When the fins were sanded flat you can see how the wing was pieced ...
In the third step the instructions tell you to round the leading and trailing edges before the three piece fins are glued together. Gluing the pieced wings occurs in Steps 5, 6, and 7. Glue the fins together then round the leading and trailing edges. They'll end up much smoother this way.
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There was a few steps that didn't really need pictures. Brush on CWF filler: 25 minutes 220 grit to knock down most of the dried CWF: 30 minutes 400 grit sanding to smooth all balsa filler: 15 minutes The picture on the right is all the balsa and launch lug taped down for primer filler ...
The pod tubes are thick walled! Slow down and take your time. The left over pieces from the intake pieces are used to make the wing pods. Start by cutting two 4 1/2" long pieces from each tube piece. You'll have a 2" long piece left for the pod detail. Don't throw any tube segments away.
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While the pod sides are drying, the detail piece is cut out. Cut out the "shield" shaped piece and trace around with a pencil on the left over 2" long tube segment.
Cut out the straight sides with a sharp knife and straightedge. The detail pieces are smaller and the curved ends can be cut ...
Apply more medium CA down the joint with a Q-tip. Before it dries, pick up the excess with a wipe of your finger.
First lightly sand over the slight lifted joint edge with 220 grit on a block. Reapply more CA glue on the joint.
Final sand the CA on the joint with 400 grit. BUILD ...
My tube cut template was a little bit larger than the diameter of the glued halves. Tape in place and trace around the ends with a sharp pencil.
Be sure to have a sharp blade to cut through the thick tube. I went through a few break off tips to keep a sharp clean cut. Be ready, the curved ...
More CA glue was applied to the ends of the cut pods. Wrap some 220 grit around a body tube for sanding. Reapply more CA and smooth sand with 400 grit on the tube.
Here's the first test fit of the wing pod. The fit is tight and strong without any glue. BUILD TIME Apply CA, sand smooth: 15 ...
I thought I'd double check the wrap around marking guide against the full size drawing of the fins on the instruction sheet. Semroc kits have you mark the body tubes by setting it over a marked circle on the instructions. Estes typically gives you a wrap around guide. I'm not a big fan of the ...
Look at the bottom of the wing root edge. Some of the primer was taken down with 220 grit on a block for better glue adhesion. Take off about the with of the fillets to follow.
Use the "Double Glue" method to attach the wings. The wings and rudder are heavy and large. You'll want the glue ...
The rudder tip pieces were glued together. The ends match the curvature of the lower, larger piece. CWF filler was applied to the matching joint edges. After drying, the two ends were sanded smooth. The dowel was cut into three 1" lengths. TIP: Roll back your blade 1/2 turn then roll forward. ...
The instructions are vague about the launch lug position. The nose cone flares out slightly so the lug needs to be a little away from the body for the launch rod to clear it. The inset picture shows the alignment guide with the lug offset on the wing. The lower illustrations looks like the lug ...
Sorry about the lack of blog posts over the past few days. I'm at the mercy of the ship's internet which is the worst it's ever been. Were just pulling into Vietnam and the signal is strong - for now.
Before gluing the intakes you can clean up the cut edges with some medium CA applied with a ...
The dowel end seams were filled with CWF and sanded. It's easier to do any fine filling off the model.
The CWF joints were probably rough after sanding. I've taped the end pieces to a dowel for a shot of primer/filler. BUILD TIME Filler on Joints: 10 minutes Sand Filler: 5 minutes Total ...
The model already feels heavy without paint! The only recommended engine is a C6-3. That doesn't make for much variety, or respectable altitudes. From the Estes website: "The Estes C6-3 engine is a single stage engine designed for model rocket flight. This engine is a standard engine designed for ...
Right now I'm in Singapore. I've used up all the build drafts on the Xarconian Cruise and will finish up the paint and decals when I get back home around November 4. Until then, I've got some generic blog posts to get by. BUILD TIME Spray First White Coat: 5 minutes Wet Sand: 60 minutes Total ...
Okay, I'm back working on the Xarconian Cruiser again. Let's finish this one up!
There are a LOT of decals on this one. In my opinion, some decals are too large. On the top of the main wing are the large XARCONION and mirrored "E" circle decals. These take up most of the wing area. Under the ...
This was a tough mask, I put if off for a while trying to figure out how to do it. Enlarge the picture at the right to see the instruction paint picture. The bottom of the wing is white with a circular mask at the top. Where and how do you separate the tan top and white underside along the wing ...
Here's the front end circle mask in place. On the sides is more tape strips joining the circle to the fin strake.
This had to be the clumsiest looking mask I've ever done! Copy paper and masking tape covered the open areas under the wing.
Look close at the front wing edge and you ...
The mask turned out better than I thought it would. Along the front edge a knife was scraped down the tan paint to sharpen up the edge. This was just some light scraping to straighten out the line. There was a little slippage of the masking tape between the application and spraying. Scrape ...
These kit decals took one full minute of soaking before they started to release from the backing paper. I let them sit for another minute on a paper towel before they slid easily enough from the backing. The decals stuck well and the clear edges almost disappear after they dry.
TIP: When ...
On the left is the first try at the X. Cruiser decals. I'd already used the smaller logo spots on the top off the wing. I pieced together parts of the larger decals and made the Xarconian EE decal on the left. Looking at the model it needed something more. I had already scanned the larger wing ...
Look at the instruction sheet below the model in the picture. I couldn't figure out why the instructions had you set the black intake decal so far forward. At the instruction position you could easily see the end of the black decal inside the intake tube. I set it farther back inside the tube. ...
The nose cone canopy is painted blue. Blue is a good choice, the model needed a third small accent color. The "canopy" is recessed which will help in cutting the mask.
Two pieces of Scotch tape were laid over the canopy area at an angle from front to rear. The lower edge of the tape sits ...
The rest of the nose cone was masked off using small pieces of brown masking tape. The inset pic shows the paint results after first pulling up the tape. It's okay, but the edges are a little rough. This was expected and will be cleaned up.
While the paint is still a bit pliable, some of ...
Those little nubs on the nose cone side need some detail. No decals are included for this. They should have a gun detail or suggested nozzle decal. I'll use black electrical tape to make small circles. You could use a decal from another kit, but I wanted to show a quick solution.
A piece of ...
The instructions don't give any directions on how to set the nose cone decal. It overlaps the joint of the body tube and nose cone. Tape the shoulder of the nose cone for a tight fit. You don't want the nose cone to rotate when the decal is being set down. Look down from the front and center ...
I wanted to darken the inside of the rear intakes. It'd be too hard to paint them now so I'll use some electrical tape. The electrical tape will stay in place and is a matte finish. While the picture shows the width to be 1 3/16", in the end the width was 1 1/8".
Use your long tweezers to ...
I installed a 24mm engine mount in place of the standard 18mm mount. This put the engine hook too close to the edge of the plastic tail cone. It would be hard to slide an engine in without the notch shown here. I used a combination of small files and a hobby knife to get a square cut. The hook ...
This was rated a Skill Level 5 build probably because of the tube cutting.. It wasn't that hard to put together, the wing pods and masking were the most difficult. The build was time consuming. It's an impressive model and should perform better with the D engine mount modification. ...
