Things Are Getting Sirius....

A couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I posted on the NAR Facebook page that I had decided to finally build my Sirius Eradicator that I won a couple of years back at the DARS Classic. Funny thing about putting things on Facebook like that...it kind of makes you have to follow through. So, since I was on Spring Break this week (I work in an elementary school), I decided to dive in. Here is my pictorial journey of building...The Eradicator!!!

The parts. They were all great quality and well made. If anything went wrong with this build, it would clearly be my fault...

I like to fill all my parts before building. A quick coat of DAP on the fins and rings, and we were on our way!

Ok, not so quick. After sanding everything once, I spot filled as needed and sanded again. Still beats the heck out of old school sanding sealer...

A cool feature of this kit is that it comes with a small piece of threaded tube that screws into the lower centering ring for a motor retainer. This was a nice touch.

The motor mount is fairly typical. I only used epoxy in a couple of places, but this was one of them.

Sirius has you cut your own fin slots. It's actually pretty easy, but I did make a run to Hobby Lobby for new (sharp) exacto blades.

Little tube goes into big tube, then add rings...Got it!

The fins going on makes any project start looking more like a rocket.

Big tube goes into bigger tube, add fiddly-bits and test fit rings. Bingo! I waited until I painted it to actually install the rear rings.

Speaking of painting, here we go! The whole rocket is gloss white at this point. By the way, a cheap music stand really makes a nice rocket stand. Just saying...

The nose and rear rings are gray. I painted them all at once by just sliding the rings onto the base of the nose.

A simple trick for marking a nose cone is to cut a circle in a piece of cardboard and use it as a template.

The instructions call for three inches of the tip of the cone to be black. I went four inches instead, because I liked the way it looks and I'm a rebel. Here it is all masked off.

And here the fins are masked, as well. The area between two of the fins is also painted black.

By the way, I used flat black. I just thought it looked cool.

...and the fin can...

And there she is with all the paint in place!

Then I permanently attatched the rings. I used a stick to apply internal fillets.

Sirius gives you a choice of launch lugs or rail buttons. After much thought I went with the lugs. Why? Mainly because DARS' rails are all on the "away pads." ...and the mid power pads have nice sturdy rods. 

Now came "decal time!" How many decals does this rocket have? Forty... it has forty...I counted.

But it was worth it!

Side two...

Side three...

Side four!

So there you have it! Sirius really did a great job with this kit. I have a G80 that I think might go nicely with it...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!