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My latest project
I've recently received some email asking what I've been doing while LAUNCH has been on hiatus. The answer is that I've been very busy building rockets and writing about them. The down time at the magazine has given me some extra time to build and photograph the new models that I'm building for my rocketry book. Some of you are
probably asking, "What rocketry book?" so I'll tell you a little bit about it.
After I had written a few build articles for LAUNCH Mark Mayfield, Deb and I talked about the possibility of doing a build book that was a compilation of the articles from the magazine. Our thinking was that the articles in the book wouldn't need to be edited for size as much as the magazine articles are so some of the more detailed builds could have additional information in them. Also, some of the building techniques that I use could be explained in greater detail in a book. After a bit of time there were also some builds that I wanted to do that really didn't tie in well with the magazine so those were put on my book build list.
So, what is going in the book? First of all some of the more involved builds from the magazine will get moved to the book - especially the onse that have had follow-on work done to them. These include the 1:12 scale Mercury-Redstone which was given a new paint job as Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell and now has a new home at the Grissom Museum at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana. Also, the Saturn builds and Launch Utility Tower will get revisited. This time around I'll be building both Saturns to 1:70 scale and will also add in the Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas and Gemini-Titan at the same scale. The Semroc Saturn 1B build will also have some additional build information for making more accurate. The book will also contain some straight clones as well as some up-scales of classic kits. Oh, and some gliders and at least one simple three-fins-and-a-nose-cone rocket.
In the techniques section I'll cover many of the things I do when building my models. Everything from making transitions and nose cones, casting resin parts, assembly, and painting. I hoping the book will have something for everyone in from beginner to advanced model rocketeers with a little thrown in for beginning HPR too. Publication date is not set and the content is still somewhat flexible so feel free to comment on what you'd like to see here.
Mario
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