Saturn V.II Build—Day 211
D-BODY DETAILS
Make sure that you take your cat to the vet regularly for any vaccinations needed, and just a general checkup to see how your kitty is doing. If you notice anything different with your cat, such as the way they’re meowing, walking, eating or acting, and are worried, take your cat to the vet. Sickness nipped in the bud is the best kind.
Groom your cat regularly. Grooming is very important. It prevents hairballs, stimulates your cats’ blood flow, stops cat hair left when you pat her/him and provides some good bonding time for you and your cat. If your cat has long fur, a pin brush is best for working through long coat. A flat and slicker brush would work better for short fur. A smaller, triangular shaped brush can be used for smaller areas, like around the face and ears. If you want to use a comb, use a wide toothed comb for long fur, and a fine toothed one for short fur. You may want to buy a smaller and more gentle brush for a kitten.
Make sure to feed your cat the right type of food, at the right times, and the right amount. Feed your cat at the same time you eat-so he/she won’t be begging you for crumbs. Don’t feed huge amounts-just a small bowl will do. If your cat isn’t eating well, it may be a disease. Check with your local vet. If your cat is overweight, never, everdrastically drop the food amount-it is not at all good for cats to lose too much weight very quickly. Instead, try going to your vet and buying a special type of food which is high in protein, low in fat, and low in carbohydrate. Try not to feed your cat your food; it’ll become a habit. Give your cat water daily. Don’t feed your cat milk; cats can’t digest it.
Find some time to bond with your cat. Simply feeding, grooming and taking a cat to the vet won’t fulfill their needs. Even ten minutes chasing a rubber ball around the house together is good. You can snuggle up to your kitty with a good book, dangle a toy in front of their nose, or give them a cuddle. Make sure you pet them every now and then-a little love goes a long way.
Provide your cat with a scratching post or a tree they can climb, cats will naturally want to scratch, it’s a behavior from when they were wild that allowed them to mark their territory. Providing acceptable places they are allowed to scratch will save your belongings from cat claw damage. Cats love tall places, so a big, sturdy cat tree will not only provide a place to scratch, but will allow her to climb and enjoy a bird’s eye view of her surroundings. 
Keep at least one litter box per cat. Keep boxes clean at all times. Some cats prefer uncovered boxes. Experiment with different types of cat litter, most cats prefer a natural wood-based litter. Many cats dislike the hard texture and perfume and dust of clay-based litters. 
Help your cat get exercise. Some cats, if left to their own devices, will just sit around the house not doing much of anything. Be your cat’s personal trainer! Toys are a great incentive to get your cat moving. Try tossing small toys for them to hit and chase. Fishing pole style toys or pocket flashlights let you give your cat a workout even when you’re worn out. 
Let your cat be a cat. Like it or not, you cat is going to do certain cat things that may bug you. Your best option is to give your cat a positive outlet for these behaviors. If you cat scratches your furniture, make sure he or she has a great scratching post to use instead. Your cat loves getting on the china shelf to look out the window? Move the china and put in some window side cat furniture. The cat uses the spot behind the chair as a bathroom? Put a litter box there and keep it clean. (You may also want to visit the vet to rule out an underlying medical problem.) 
Think very carefully before deciding to let your cat go outdoors. Contrary to popular belief, cats are not always naturally able to find their way home and even a cat that usually knows its way around can become disoriented if badly frightened. Other risks connected with letting your cat roam outdoors are parasites, serious or fatal illnesses or injuries from other cats or other animals, fights with other animals that can result in serious injury or death, or theft of your cat. Your neighbors may not appreciate having your cat use their yard as a litter box or chasing and killing the birds at their bird baths and feeder. If you feel you must give your cat access to the outdoors, consider giving it run of a fenced in yard or walking it on a harness and leash. (It is possible.)
by Paul Sahre
A photography, design and video project documenting the restaging of a 40 year-old memory and a shot at dad redemption. ABOUT STORE WHO'S ON BOARD
Saturn V.II Build—Day 208
D-BODY DETAILS
Today we will add the exterior body details to the upper stages of the Saturn V.II. This includes some of the parts that are imbedded in the corrugated wrappers (that i am not using). These must be extracted; others are separate plastic and balsa wood pieces that will simulate the auxiliary propulsion units, nozzles, liquid hydrogen feed lines and exterior tunnels of the Saturn V.
Extracting some of the parts from the corrugated wrappers
There are four of these guys in this section
Now I have to consider where these parts will land on the exterior of the rocket so that they will accomodate the names i’ll apply later.
Layout, with pre-cloud Adobe Illustrator
Each section of the rocket is then printed out.
Trimmed without the use of any Adobe products
The graphite transfer method:
Now I know where to glue the parts
Some of the other parts
I wish there was more balsa wood involved
Second and third stage ready for paint!
-PS
Saturn V.II Build—Day 199
E-FINS AND FAIRINGS
It’s time to attach the fins and fairings to the body tube.
Just like this
Only I will be using this handy fin positioning guide
Here
A 1/100 scale fin is glued onto the body tube
The fin alignment guide is also handy
The 1/100 scale fairing is then glued into place. Because my fairings will be covered with names, i have filled the embossed surface with bondo. Touch-up will be necessary.
All four fins and fairings installed.
-PS
Saturn V.II Build—Day 190
E-FINS AND FAIRINGS
I really didn’t enjoy making the fins when I built my test Saturn V last fall so I was kind of dreading doing it again.
They turned out alright this time but I still I have no idea how to make these things without sticking my fingers together (and to the fins).
I also ended up (unintentionally) sniffing a lot of the Cyanoacrylate glue.
The fins come as 2 vacum formed plastic sheets
Each half fin is popped out
Cyanoacrylate glue on the inside edges
Here I am sticking my fingers to the fin
After prying my fingers off each fin is taped together and allowed to dry.
Skin stuck to the fin will be sanded off later
Excess plastic is sanded off
NOT IN THE CENTURI INSTRUCTIONS: My automotive body repair days in college are about to pay off; I now apply Bondo to the edges of the fins where the seams meet 
One down, three to go
The edges are sanded
Nice fins
Primer
I’m glad thats over
I feel ya
Another awesome thing from the box
Favorite instruction if taken out of context: “Finish the flange removal by sanding the edges with #600 sandpaper.”
-PS
Day 176
On the face of it, model building seems totally unrelated to things I might usually be designing/making at the studio. But the process is feeling familiar somehow.
For instance, the poster I designed and printed for the SVR Kickstarter—and the make-readies (test sheets) involved in making the finished print—is really similar to this build and to the nature of this project.
If at first you don’t succeed, pull another test sheet.
Test sheet
Test sheet
Test sheet
Test sheet
Test sheet
Test sheet
The final print
-PS
Day 175
Today’s step (like many others to come) will involve finishing.
Turns out, the basic structure of the rocket (making it flight ready) is not the time consuming part; the real time suck is the builder’s threshold for how perfect the finish of the rocket will be. Addressing the bumps, seams cracks and imperfections that spring up as the rocket is being constructed is discretionary and is only lightly addressed in the model instructions.
My father chose to dump a ton of time into this phase (I remember it as months, my mom remembers it as years). 
Ken Sahre (dad) in 1973. His day job was designing flight simulators for aircraft like the C-130
Dad’s Saturn V (pre-launch), 1973
I’m not going to take years, but I am going to back up a bit now and work on the main body tube to get it paint ready before applying the fins.
The main tube is made of paper so it has depressed seams running the length of the tube (like a paper towel roll). I dont want these visible in the finished rocket so I’m going to fill the seams with a technique I learned from the excellent Saturn V build blog by Chris Michielssen.
Main body tube seams
Masking off the main body tube seams
Applying the watered down wood filler
Tape removed/seams filled
It’s been interesting to see other projects in the studio bumping into the rocket build. Here is the USA made of post-its for a book cover I’m designing called ‘America’s Obsessives.’
Each seam is sanded.
Another cool thing from the box
NEXT UP: The fins!
-PS
Saturn V.II Build—Day 168
C-CORRUGATED WRAPPERS
All of the exterior wrappers
Wrapper detail. No way will i be able to run 500+ names on this surface
This is the design I envision
I’m now going to do some tests to decide wether to keep the corregated wrappers and ditch the original design) as it seems I won’t be able to have names running over the rough surfaces of the wrappers.
Gotham Bold by Hoefler & Frere-JonesI plan to apply the names with old school INT rub downs. You know, press type. To test size and position I started by typesetting the names (in Gotham Bold if you were wondering) and doing laser prints; quickly wrapping them around the second and third stage.
Measuring the top of the third stage
Setting the names on various stages of the rocket
Flats are created for each stage
Test sections are trimmed and temporarily applied with tape.The names will be black, red and metalic silver
Side by side comparison: Wrappers or no wrappers with Erik Carter looking on
I’m sending these test section files to Adam Wahler at A2A solutions where he will make color rub downs so we can see if we can apply the type. I am going to hold off deciding until i can do a real test with the INT material.
It will take a few days for the rubdowns to be made.
Saturn V.II Build—Day 159
B-Basic Body (continued)
I’m back at the studio so if you are wondering, designer Erik Carter is documenting today’s work.
Before we begin, a postcard that arrived today from photographer Jason Fulford. Its from the Missile Gallery at the National Museum of the United States Air Force located near Dayton Ohio. The gallery contains intermediate range and Intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Jupiter, Thor, Titan II, Thor-Agenda, Minuteman III and the Peacekeeper
It’s time to add the reduction wraps to the second and third stages. Now what we are building will start looking like a rocket—instead of a bunch of paper tubes.
Gluing together the second and 3rd stages
Cutting out the wrappers
Curling the wrap with a dowel
Adding tape so the third stage wrap maintains the proper cone-like shape before gluing it to the body
Sliding the third stage wrap into place
The third stage wrapper glued in place.
-PS
Saturn V.II Build—Day 155
B-Basic Body (continued)
Today we are going to attached the coupler tubes to the second and third stage body tubes. Or in plane english, we are putting together the top half of the rocket.
I brought the parts home from the office and am working on my kitchen table at sunup.
Harry—who is almost 4—woke up early and came out to document today’s build with my Canon G9 digital camera. So the photos that follow are Harry’s (except the last one). This is his first experience with the Cannon but he has loads of practice taking pictures of his thumb with my iphone.
Third stage coupler tube
Gluing the third stage coupler tube
My arm
Cyanoacrylate glue
Work area
Not sure
The second stage body tube connecting to the coupler tube
The second and third stages with Bull
Me form Harry’s camera
Harry from my iphone
-PS
Saturn V.II Build—Day 153
B-Basic Body (continued)
After a much longer than anticipated break, I am finally resuming the construction of the 1/100 Saturn V.II rocket.
Since my last post:
-Posters and prints were silkscreened
-Hundreds of packages were sent all over the planet
-There is a new Pope
-AND I herniated a disk in my neck (I sneezed). My doctor actually said “Don’t do that again.”
Like this
I’m feeling much better now thank you so the plan for a late spring/early summer launch remains—so Its time to play catch-up with ‘the build.’
If you are reading along, we are on page 3 of the original instructions:
http://plans.rocketshoppe.com/centuri/cenKS-12/cenKS-12.pdf
As you know from the previous posts, the engine mount and the basic body of the first stage is complete so it’s time to get started on the second and third stages.
As you can see, the second stage coupler tube (which is suppose to be round) has warped to a decidedly non-round state.
Second stage coupler tube and rings
Stay with me here: my work around is to sand down the coupler rings so they can be glued to the inside of the coupler tube (instead of the outside of the tube as the instructions suggest). This way the coupler tube will again be round, as it will conform to the shape of the two rings.
Sanding down the two rings.
Gluing the rings to the tube.
The stage three tube.
Before gluing the the rings to the coupler tube a string is added. This doubled up string with be used later to attach the shock cord (and parachute).
The shock cord string
The finished second and third stage coupler tubes.
I have glued the hell out of these parts and they will now need to dry before i apply the reduction wraps.
-PS
