Well, after looking at the "finished" Cardinal for a few days, I decided it really needed a cockpit. The cockpit shown here is a 75% scale copy of the "alternate" Centuri Vulcan cockpit, packed inside with paper and yellow glue. After it was good and hard, I soaked the underside in CA; when that was also dry, I used CA to glue it to the painted nosecone. I think, for a non-structural part, this will be good enough. I primed and sanded it twice before it was smooth enough, then painted it gloss white. The window is drawn in by hand with a Sharpie.

Recent painful experiences with clearcoat (see here) have led me to decide not to use it anymore. Instead, I'm going to use acrylic floor finish (a Future knockoff, not the brand name). I expect I'll get used to the feel of it, which has always been my complaint.

This is a kitbash based on a Quest Flash. I used two of the stock balsa fins for the "wings" and used two spare fins from an Estes Viking kit for the "rudders." The side tubes are leftover thrust ring "tools" from Estes kits, and the dowels were something I dug up somewhere. I named it "Cardinal" since I designed and built it during the 2006 World Series, as I sat cheering the Cards.

I used Miracal gray primer (the cheapo brand from Dollar General) followed by Colorplace gloss white and fire red (the Wal-Mart cheapo paint). I'll be putting a clear-coat on it after the paint gets a bit harder.