Rapid build of Estes Loadstar II

I decided to try a one day build of my Loadstar II two-stage rocket in time to launch it at our last club launch of the year tomorrow.  In order to get it ready, I needed to rearrange a few steps in the instructions and do things in parallel.  

I opened the kit around 10 am:

I sanded and cut the fins, then assembled the two engine mounts and glued them into the booster and sustainer body tubes, coated the fins with wood sealer

sanded after letting the fins dry for half an hour then used my Estes fin alignment guide to attach the three fins at once to the booster.

After letting them dry an hour, I repeated the process with the upper body (sustainer) tube:

After the upper stage fins dried, I attached the launch lugs (with balsa strips so the launch lugs stand off to clear the wider nose cone) and let that dry another hour.  I'll spray paint the nose cone assembly (on right, above) using black paint without separating it; I'll assemble it in the morning.  I then attached the elastic shock cord using the Estes trifold (upper left, above) then I'll paint the booster and sustainer together using yellow paint (with paper towels in the upper body opening).  I'll put the decals on in the morning.

--><-- I decided not to to paint tonight because it's too cold (40 F) for the paint to stick properly.  I'll do my usual priming, sanding and painting as described above.

OpenRocket predicts it will fly 750 feet on a C6-0 booster and B6-4 upper stage, or over 1000 feet on a C6-0 booster and C6-5 upper stage.  The engines get taped together with scotch tape so the booster ejection charge (0 second delay) ignites the upper stage while separating the two stages (Apogee Rockets has a nice picture showing the upper stage ignition and separation).  The Loadstar is too narrow to use the Jolly Logic Chute Release so I may hold off launching until I get to a larger field.  The club launch site is only 1400 feet long (West to East) and 600 feet south of a pond that's already eaten one of my rockets!  (I used Google Maps to measure these distances.)

My goals in building the Loadstar II were to remember how to build a two stage rocket following a kit plans before attempting some kit bashing such as converting my new Super Nova to a two stage rocket and finally building the Little Beth X-2.  This build reminded me of the need to avoid getting any excess glue inside the upper body tube around the engine mount because the booster body tube coupler needs to go there (yes, I had a glob of glue there but was able to wipe the excess away with a damp paper towel using a piece of scrap balsa wood to push the towel into the narrow space).  I also was reminded of the need to align fins carefully so upper and lower fins line up for better aerodynamics.  Using the fin alignment guide helped get these pretty close; I've seen some Estes kits where they suggest taping the upper and lower fins together while the upper are drying to keep them aligned so I may have to find a way to use the alignment guide for both stages at once.  Anyway, building the Loadstar II provided a much needed opportunity to revisit two stage rocketry.

November 25 update:

Well, I live in Chicago and it's supposed to snow tomorrow so I decided it would be a LONG wait for 50+ weather to paint in so, after researching tips from The Rocketry Forum and other bloggers about how to spray paint in cold weather I decided to go ahead and prime the Loadstar II by painting quickly outside (35 F) then bringing it inside to dry.

I'll sand and try painting in a couple of days (maybe after tonight's snow has melted!).

Feb. 3, 2024 Update:

I finally had a 50 degree day and was able to paint my Loadstar, applying the decals the next day.  It's joined the rest of my fleet on display: