In my previous post, I mentioned that I thought I’d make a small mistake by masking the Interstage/S-IVB/IU segment first. Now that I’m nearly done masking the S-IC/S-II unit, I’m not sure it really matters. Although there are many more small things to mask on the S-IVB and IU (numerous antennae), and although the Interstage conical section was a challenge, the S-IC/S-II unit has its own interesting masking issues.

The S-II has a lot of fairings (LH₂ feed line fairings, and LH₂ recirculation line fairing, LH₂ fill and drain fairing, LOX vent fairing), and masking them is not trivial. I’ve still not masked the S-IC fin fairings and, though I think I understand how I’ll do it, it’s not so easy, either.

Because of the size of the S-IC/S-II unit, small angular inaccuracies while laying out the masking tape could be too easily visible, so alignment is difficult. And, even when the wraps are perfectly layed out, perfectly aligned, and perfectly attached, they’re not quite dimensionally perfect, so I’ve had to make compromises in laying out the roll pattern.

Planned holds coming, though, for the weekend and almost all of next week.