Friede on earth

What does PK do when he's got some time on his hands on Boxing Day? He does some work to get Peace on earth. The German one, Friede. The rocket. Of course. I already am peaceful enough. Okay, that's enough puns.

33 centimeters (approximately one foot) in length.

This is the bottom side. Here the 49 1st stage engines will reside.

Today the first stage hull was readied. Straightforward, easy to build. Oh, that circle cutter is marvellous. I made three big ones from thick cardboard to reinforce the long cylinder. They fit perfectly. On top of the first stage there is a platform to house the parachute - Oberth apparently thought of reusing his rocket!

The upper stage slides into slots on the four protruding parts.
The parachute platform is quite elaborate but looks great when finished.

I folded some pieces of paper and moulded an aluminium (chocolate wrapper) dome over it to protect the 'chute from the exhausts of the 2nd stage. Some black strips of paper were used as straps to hold the dome in place.

I cut a circle from chocolate wrapper and made it into a cone. After fitting, I pressed the pointy bit inward to get a more dome-like structure. It has to look like a blanket of aluminium and I think it does, now.

The legs are next. Four of them big ones. Quite sturdy, since I make them from 280 grams card which has to be double-layered. One down, three to go. and another 49 engine cones in clusters of seven. 

For a piece of paper it has become quite heavy!

27 centimeters! 14,5 cm is protruding underneath, so that makes Friede roughly 47 cm in length.

Callus awaits!

That's for a later time. The light of day is starting to fade now and unfortunately my eyes aren't what they used to be. I think I am in line for a pair of reading glasses quite soon, I'm afraid...

Oh well, maybe then I finally get somewhat of an intellectual look over me.

The testbuild I did the other day went well, this model will soon be up at Jon Leslie's site. The model will also be on my diorama-to-do-list for later next year. There's some really nice stuff one can do with this model.