Here is the layout fresh from the bag. Lots of parts, lots of pages, this is gonna be a blast. I can already see some changes I'll make along the way...

I thought I had a piece of 36" BT and I was just going to replace the two small pieces with the one single piece, but my stash of tubes are 30"...too short!  So, here is the coupling taking place. Wait, that sounds bad...

Manually pre-curving the shroud material, then gluing by hand. This camera takes some killer pictures!

My only complaint with the PDR kits I've made so far is that the centering rings are perfectly sized for the BT going over them, but not for the BT the rings have to fit over. Every time I use one I have to carve out a layer or two from the inside.

I hate the glue-in shock cord mounts, so I'm going to tether in a nice long piece of kevlar instead. I've modded the parachute tube centering rings to anchor the kevlar.

The transition shroud made earlier slides up the LOOOONG BT to snug under the parachute tube.

The top's complete.

All the fins all cut out and shaped to match. I just noticed I cut the small offset pieces for the ram tubes and the lasers with the grain going in the wrong direction. I could redo it, but I decided to paper all the fins anyway for added strength, so no need.

I'm getting pretty good at papering fins. On these fins I'm not rounding any of the edges, so I create the wraps to go all the way around the leading and trailing edges as well. Here, I decided to jump ahead, install the lasers and paper OVER the dowels to insure they will never come off.

The small fins have some adhesive tabs hanging off that I'm going to try and use when I mount them on the sail fins. The sail fins came out perfect.

I didn't paper the conduit risers yet because I want to paper over them after the conduit dowels are installed, the same way I papered over the laser turrets. This will keep from having to seal any balsa, too. Bonus!

I've notched out all the fins where the engine rings will be and installed the engine rings. Sweet.

Got to let these fins set up straight, so I'm calling it a night. I'll try to finish this up tomorrow night.

I'm doing things out of order now from the instructions, but I want to get this section paper wrapped. I dry measured the length and glued the conduits to the risers. Let them dry.

The first one is papered now all the way over the conduits, these will never break off this way. I papered the riser and left an extra 1/4" of paper material to affix to the BT after the glue sets. This should add some nice detail under the paint as well.

The papered laser turrets installed. Notice the paper wrap going all the way over the turret to keep it from ever snapping off.

I also used paper fillets on this section to add visual detail. These are part of the original fin paper wraps so the strength should be excellent.

The alignment lines on the ram scoops make eyeballing a perfectly straight installation a breeze. I'm debating whether or not to add paper fillets. Hmm...

I hate dealing with sanding sealer, so I'm coating the whole thing in couple of thin layers of wood glue. Easy to sand smooth later.

Another mod, I knocked the ram scoop off twice while it was drying, so I'm distrusting the holding power of the white glue. Look closely and you will see adhesive paper fillets have been added. I will lay a coat of white glue along the edges to seal it, shouldn't ever have a problem with them coming off now.

Panels, rails and port detail pieces mounted around the rear assembly.








Here she is, ready for the paint dock...

Using a grey Krylon to prime this beast.



Here she is after two coats w/sanding. Smoooooooth.

I really debated on this one, but went with the stock flat black. I'm using the Walmart .99 a can paint and it is really coming out nicely.

Five light coats to get the smooth black. I tried adding in a smokey second color, but it looked awful, so I covered it over again.

For the nose, I chose the Walmart brand aluminum color. This paint smooths over nicely, so not sanding the grain was no problem at all.

She's dry and now fully decorated with the stock decal sheet. The paper fillets on all fin roots and over the laser turrets added nicely to the design once the paint was dry.