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Nothing earth shattering here, but I ran accross an unopened Titan III E kit at a good price and had always wanted to build another. I built one in the 90's and flew it at the boeing Kent space center field on E-11 motors a lot. I always hated the duck fins though. So I decided to upsize the fins and make them from 1/32" polycarbonate and mount them through the booster motors permanently. One fin slots through the side booster tube, through the 24mm inner tube completely to the other side of the booster tube. The other fin goes through the booster tube and 24mm tube and will butt glue to the other fin. I decided to glue the transition in place after opening up the lower portion, and keep the upper portion of transition which has a reduced opening as is. This will allow me to keep the nylon chute up forward to help CG and will keep the wadding and chute from sliding down under thrust. Just the nose cone will eject. I glued a 1/8" kevlar strip down inside the main body tube and routes forward about 3" from the end, I'll attach 3/8" elastic which will help prevent zippering. I added rail buttons on one of the booster tubes in a similar location to the recommended launch lugs.
I decided on this kit I would wrap the tubes with self adhesive vinyl and then use Stickershocks cut vinyl set. I was never happy with the Estes decals over the silver paint so this should be much better. Only painting required are the cones and the engine bell details. I've got it framed up with vinyl removed at the gluing locations, waiting for decals then assembly. The polycarbonate fins were around 5 grams more per side than the original plug in units, but aren't as far back so not very significant.
I worked up two rocksim sims just for CP calculation only(ignore weight and CG location) by modifying one that Charles Mcg posted recently updating it for the correct estes tube lengths and motor mount location and my fins. I did one with the original fin placement and size and one with my fins just to see how much the CP changed, around 1.7 inches, I think I'll still get away with very little added nose weight on this one. For the rear booster bells I just used a transition that was the right length and rear diameter but not the complex shape of the real units since it doesn't matter.
I may also make the upper transition detachable via a couple of screws so that I can put a Dynasoar upper as well, even though it wouldn't be 100% right, it would still look neat.
My original flying at the Kent Space center...The black duck feet in front of the Trees hid them pretty well.
I decided on this kit I would wrap the tubes with self adhesive vinyl and then use Stickershocks cut vinyl set. I was never happy with the Estes decals over the silver paint so this should be much better. Only painting required are the cones and the engine bell details. I've got it framed up with vinyl removed at the gluing locations, waiting for decals then assembly. The polycarbonate fins were around 5 grams more per side than the original plug in units, but aren't as far back so not very significant.
I worked up two rocksim sims just for CP calculation only(ignore weight and CG location) by modifying one that Charles Mcg posted recently updating it for the correct estes tube lengths and motor mount location and my fins. I did one with the original fin placement and size and one with my fins just to see how much the CP changed, around 1.7 inches, I think I'll still get away with very little added nose weight on this one. For the rear booster bells I just used a transition that was the right length and rear diameter but not the complex shape of the real units since it doesn't matter.
I may also make the upper transition detachable via a couple of screws so that I can put a Dynasoar upper as well, even though it wouldn't be 100% right, it would still look neat.
My original flying at the Kent Space center...The black duck feet in front of the Trees hid them pretty well.
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