Estes LTV Scout build question
 

Finally acquired a Estes LTV scout kit and during the process of building and attaching the conduit strips, I noticed that they sit up higher and are not as wide as the molded plastic conduit. Have others who have built this in the past handled this? Did you sand and mold the wood to the same size and or putty to blend? See attached pics.

I did basically the putty and blend method on mine. Yep, that miss match was a bit of a pain as I recall.

Earl

+1 to what Earl stated above.
I remember the mis-match being relatively GIGANTIC.

When I built mine I ditched the split dowel conduit and redid it with Plastruct or Evergreen half-round plastic stock. I remember sanding down the flat side of the stock until it matched the profile of the conduit of the plastic transitions.

I like Jeffy's answer better than using the junk wood supplied.

Ugh. Keeping in mind that it's been almost 50 years since I build mine, I recall that I replaced the wooden conduits with styrene plastruct rods. I believe I sawed them in half on a scroll saw, then a lot of sanding to match the contour.

I'll amplify my comments here to say that before the putty and blend part, there was a great deal of bottom sanding on the supplied wood stock and even some sanding around the upper part to get it, overall, to be more of a match to the molded plastic parts. Tedious as I recall.

Earl

Another case in point for using Plastruct for conduits:

Today I conduitated the upper stage of my Estes BB XII. I ditched the balsa strips and replaced them with .187" half round Plastruct styrene strips. The Plastruct wasn't quite long enough to do it one piece, but the two pieces butted up nicely and the seam (at the arrow) will be invisible after painting.

Thank you for the BBXII conduit suggestion, JeffyJeep. I have a kit on the way from Chris Rocket Supplies. Could not pass it up at $63. Will have to check my Plastruc stash or (darn) make a hobby shop run.
A friend sent me 3D printed fins for the first two stages. Might actually get it built. Darn.

Chas

It?s a tough build. I?ve been working on mine for months because I keep stopping. ?The Vixen? had to shape the balsa fins for me because I suck mightily at it.