Mercury Little Joe I

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Here is a shot with the new fins and some of the components test fitted...
Next...back to the escape tower.

Need to devise some hardware to secure the tower base ring, and continue detailing the capsule.

LJ-1 eJPG.jpg
 
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Yeah....
Got tired of reading the Doh!...so I thought I'd just post this.
Working on details ...no pictures of them yet.

LJ-1 f.JPG.jpg
 
Worked on the escape tower mounting ring...took my dremel and drilled several holes at an angle thru the bottom of the ring into the dowels.Touchy operation but it worked....kinda.
(notice the split in one tower leg in the picture/lower right from the screw. Small setback...will need to be wrapped and sealed).

Mounting screws should hold the tower legs to the ring, which will attach to the capsule..with more hardware
The tower rocket will hold lead ballast so this will need to be a firm attachment .

Tower ring.JPG
 
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The escape tower rocket motor nozzles are small cones that were turned out of folded mylar sheet. Each nozzle got a layer of fiberglass cloth and then some filler.

Nozzles.JPG
 
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The escape rocket motor was sanded and got a coat of primer.
Trial fitted the nozzles for clearance past the tower structure...
Will need to drill more holes in the tops of the tower legs to hold the escape rocket motor to the tower leg dowels, and washers on the tabs of the motor base for small screws.
Hope to pick up the pace a bit after the finicky work is done.

Escape rocket .jpg
 
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Are you going to have this thing ready for the Fall Battle Park Launch?
 
Thanks U812 - like to see some of your work..visual effects...

While I'm doing the detail work and butressing the inside of the airframe, I was considering how to go about doing outboard motor ignition on future cluster flights.

The central composite motor makes lighting outboard 24mm BP motors a little tricky in the timing dept.

Flash pan techniques have worked on rockets with a central composite motor w/ BP outboads, but I don't want to fry the exterior detail on the bottom of this model so that's out.

The "spider" technique is cool but I have such a radical cant on some of these outborads motors that I think that one is out.

The Apollo Little Joe II on filght #5 finally got the right amount of "umph" on lift off with an H123 to trigger the G switch on my GWiz flight computer to light the outboards...So, if I cut a hatch and build a bay for the GWiz that would work.

I'll need to retro fit a wiring conduit to the motor base plate.

However, ...
On this model I would like to use a smaller central composite motor, which puts me back in the situation of not enough umph to trigger a G switch.

Anybody have experience with a reliable pull pin timer I could use and keep this cluster ignition sequence really simple?
 
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Just go to my web site there's some there.

Can't wait to see this fly.

Steve
 
Max thanks. Well I'm focused now. I'm back to the flame throwers!

Steve
 
Working on the escape rocket motor attachment points to the tower legs..careful drilling and placement of screws and washers...not a lot of room for error here...there isn't much surface area to work with.
One slip of the dremel and ..problem.

motor attachment tower.JPG
 
I have spent a lot of time considering how to attach the escape rocket tower and base ring on the top of the capsule.
Anything scale would probably be a little weak, I thought about various epoxied joints and pins, small threaded rods etc, but I just felt that anything surface mounted and not deeply set inside the structure would have a problem upon opening shock on recovery, i feared it would yank all that minimal stuff right off, given the weight of lead ballast in the nose cone of the escape rocket motor.

There will be lots of lead ballast in the top of the escape motor for future CG adjustment when the outboard cluster of motors is all loaded up.

I hadn't figured this all out when I built the capsule, but being mostly balsa and foam core and posterboard it shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

I elected to drill out three holes on the tower base ring with a very long drill bit...straight through the capsule bulkheads and capsule centering ring.

OK ..its not to scale - and a little bulky, but this is a sport scale model.

Three 12 inch threaded 6/32 rods were inserted, and these will get nuts and washers.

base ring.jpg
 
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The three rods go through the capsule and exit out the bottom.
You can see the excess length on the rods....
They were long enough to allow me to get the airframe transition part that holds the capsule and drill the centering rings on that part as well......

Rod placement.jpg
 
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The rods go through the transition and nuts and washers make for a pretty good compression fit of the whole assembly when tightened down.

This system will also allow for some variabilty - and use of shims to get a 90 degree perpendicular alignment of the tower to the rocket when the time comes to finish this.

Wouldn't have that flexibility if I had just epoxied the stuff in.

transition.jpg
 
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A shot of the capsule assembly with hardware in place, minus the capsule nose piece.
This will be dissassembled for painting and reassembly as each of these pieces have different colors.

Now, on to other stuff...

Trim ring on the capsule, a tube coupler for the capsule to mate to the airframe, fin coverings, recovery system hard points and micellaneous details.

asembly.jpg
 
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I put some primer on the capsule...things begin to get a little more exciting after you get some paint on a project.

I'll be using old formula Krylon Flourescent Orange on this since I liked it and I still have some from other projects.
The Krylon white primer already on the escape rocket motor was also old formula Krylon as well, so that works out.

The capsule is a very light gray and white, according to the pictures for this version of the Little Joe I'm doing.
I couldn't find a gray color that I liked in Krylon brand - but there are some very light dove grays in Tamiya model spray paints.
So, I'll be using Tamiya.

The boiler plate Mercury capsule got a shot of Tamiya "Mr. Surfacer" gray primer to seal up the paper parts.

When that's dry, I'll use a Tamiya light gray and flat white to finish the capsule.

little Joe - 1 c.jpg

Little Joe 1 -a.jpg
 
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MaxQ said:
I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel....

Several evenings worth of work might get this done for Culpeper.
Click to expand...

Might we see a Red Glare appearance as well (barring a major setback)????:pop:

Promise, I'll take flight pics!!!!! :eyepop::D
 
I sure want to go...especially since work commitments kept me away from the April Red Glare in 2009.

I know you will take excellent pictures!
 
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As for your outboards, try the PerfectFlite Minitimer with a breakwire, not the G-switch. Combine that with a few Quest Q2G2 igniters and you're set. Very easy to set up.

I've used the G-switch version and it worked very well to light 3 outboard 38mm G's.

-Ken
 
new2hpr said:
As for your outboards, try the PerfectFlite Minitimer with a breakwire, not the G-switch. Combine that with a few Quest Q2G2 igniters and you're set. Very easy to set up.

I've used the G-switch version and it worked very well to light 3 outboard 38mm G's.

-Ken
Click to expand...

I'll look into it...I have two, I thought the second one I bought WAS the "pull pin"/"breakwire" version............. but it has a G switch on it as well.

I desoldered the G switch and pulled it off...based on suggestions here on TRF.
I've never quite gotten either to work for me on a ground test....
 
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Nice work Jim. I finally decided to get set up here at TRF.
I like the orange/chrome contrast and those fin structures
are killer. :clap:
98mm right? You gonna try that N1666 with the 4 outboard K's?
 

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