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| Estes Yankee Clipper (Click to enlarge). |
I have been making good progress finishing off builds that have languished for months. This year's 4th of July rocket, the Yankee Clipper, is finally done, and I have 4 others sitting in white primer awaiting their coats of paint. Considering they were in gray primer at the beginning of the week, that's good progress, especially when you realize that I had to sand all that primer off before applying the white. I was pretty pleased with myself as I started looking for my cans of gloss white, which I use as the base coat on all of my models.
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| Models in primer - from left, clone of the Estes Screaming Eagle, Estes Olympus, Jupiter-C plastic model conversion, and the Boyce Redstone Missile (Click to enlarge). |
And that's when I realized I had a problem...
I had only a couple of cans of Krylon gloss white, and those were practically empty - maybe enough for the small Screaming Eagle, but certainly not enough for the Estes Olympus and the Boyce Redstone. So I hopped onto the Internet to order a case (6 cans) of Krylon Acryli-Quik gloss white.
Only to find out no one had any...
It turns out that the manufacturer (Krylon) is suffering from a materials shortage due to the pandemic, and gloss white is backordered to the tune of 1-2 months.
Yuck...
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| Desperately looking for cans of this stuff... |
I could use another paint brand like Rustoleum, but it isn't as forgiving as Krylon with regard to runs and drips; also, other folks have had poor "orange peel" or crinkled finishes. Not my thing...
So I scoured the Internet some more, and finally located a couple of cans in a mom and pop shop up North. So I placed the order, and am keeping my fingers crossed their online inventory is accurate.
Because no one else has any.
However, things are not at a complete stop. I have a can of Testor's white to use on the Jupiter-C, so it will get moved to the front of the line while I await the arrival of more Krylon. That's probably a good thing, because it takes Testor's enamel a long, long time to dry (at least a week).
The pandemic continues to affect us in unforeseen ways...
Hi, Bill,
ReplyDeleteIs that Jupiter-C the old Hawk kit or is it another manufacturer?
It's a Hawk kit I got off eBay a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat is cool! Back in the old days I had a Hawk JupiterC which was built as a static display model before I discovered flying model rockets. Sometime around 1975 the C came off the shelf and was taken apart to retro-convert into a flying model.
ReplyDeleteIt performed very well under power, just use some nose weight. Also, the nose must be rigged up so that the top stage/Explorer will not break off during landing. Mine broke off on the model's first flight, and was replaced with a wood dowel.
ReplyDeleteWhy fly? Simple. The Grand Canyon may be a massive. It covers quite 1,000,000 acres and averages 18 miles wide and one mile deep. you'll see tons of it from the rim. But what if you'll zip across the middle of it and be at the North Rim in, say, 10 minutes?
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