Friede comes together

-Slowly, but surely.

The upper stage is ready. It involved the folding of one gazillion little hexagonal engine cones, more than a N-1 had in its first stage. Well, with the right music on (Bach's Wohltemperirtes Klavier and, oddly enough, some African pop music) I managed to do them all.

The rings of the tapered end are just a little too rough for my taste, I would rather have a tighter fit so there wouldn't be ridges at the seams. Oh well. It sure fits well and there's always something to perfect in a next model.

I did some tweaking with the engine section, because I wanted it to be black instead of light grey. With that new circle cutter I've cut circles all day long.
Well, I haven't, but I could have.

Hmm. Circles. Nice. Small ones, big ones, medium-sized ones... Hmmm.

I got a nice little gem in the mail today for a testbuild. (thanks John!) 

This I will do first before I get on with Friede's first stage. That also will involve a busload of small red cones. Hurray!

On another uplifting note: André Kuipers has arrived at the ISS today. The press conference was particularly fun, when Kuipers' young kid started to sing a Sinterklaasliedje. Odd to hear Dutch spoken on the ISS airwaves. I guess when he is used to the microgravity environment and the headaches and nausea is over (if he has them), he'll have the time of his life there. Lucky bastard. (-;