fox_racing_guy
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- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
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This is a brand new kit from the well known and trusted LOC/Precision company. This is a 2" kit with a 29mm motor mount and over all height of 50"
The parts list consist of....
1 2.14X34" Pre-slotted airframe
1 2.14X6" Payload extension
1 2.14 Plastic Nose Cone
1 1.14 (29mm)X8" Motor Mount Tube
2 Plywood centering rings
4 Plywood fins
1 Plywood Bulkhead Assembly
1 Nylon Elastic Shock Cord
1 Shock Cord Mount
1 Nylon Parachute 28"
1 .25 Launch Lug
OK Lets build this thing and put her in the air! If you have ever built a LOC kit you will find this one very familiar and rather easy to assemble. My only modification from the stock build is to leave the aft centering ring un-glued from the motor tube so I can remove it and make internal fillets. I used US Composites 150 Thick Epoxy for the entire build and recommend this as a cheaper and much faster set time than West Systems. For my internal fillets I used some US Composites Milled Fiber for a little more peace of mind and extra strength as I plan on punishing this rocket with some high power loads.
On the external fillets I mixed some 3M Glass Bubbles with the epoxy and this is the easiest stuff to sand that I have run across yet!
I had all the assembly done in 1 day but let it sit over night before any sanding or priming. The next morning I sanded the fillets, fins, body,and nose cone. A little Bondo spot putty and it was ready for primer. My primer of choice these days is Rust-Oleum auto primer in gray, it can be sanded in 2hours and fills spirals pretty good. Here's a good tip on painting plastic nose cones, while your at Wal-Mart picking up your Krylon paint walk on over to the auto department and get a can of Bulldog Adhesion Promoter. This stuff works great and really makes the paint stick to the plastic nose cones, after many flights on various rockets I've had yet to touch up and paint on any of my nose cones after using this.
I'll admit one of the main reasons I like this rocket is the rather easy paint job it takes, after sanding the worst part of building rockets for me is painting!
I use Krylon color paints and have had very good results, lots of very light coats are the key for me and I have masked off areas with as little as 1 1/2 hours of drying time if you use the 3M blue painters tape. I've read were some folks let the paint dry a week before applying masking tape and that is lunacy to me,,,,,,,,, I want it finished and in the air yesterday.
OK The paint is dry lets stuff a motor in and send her up. my first motor was one of the recommended G40-10 and I was testing another product called a Chute Tamer ( I will do a write up of this too ) Basically it's a way to make a rocket dual deploy without using a altimeter bay. You wrap your chute around the product with fishing line and when it reaches the pre-determined time it burns the fishing line in half and lets the chute deploy. You still need to use motor ejection to deploy the device but just let the rocket tumble (or use a drogue if you like) till the pre-set time. Well it worked as advertised and my Tomahawk launched, deployed, and recovered perfectly!
The PK-29 IQSY Tomahawk is not on LOC's web-site yet but you can call or E-mail Barry and he would be more than happy to sell you one. Barry will be selling the Chute Tamer as well but I'm not sure if he has any stock of these yet. Oh yeah, where's the pics? Sorry no action shots as I'm not the best photographer of moving objects with my el-cheapo point & shot digital cam.
The parts list consist of....
1 2.14X34" Pre-slotted airframe
1 2.14X6" Payload extension
1 2.14 Plastic Nose Cone
1 1.14 (29mm)X8" Motor Mount Tube
2 Plywood centering rings
4 Plywood fins
1 Plywood Bulkhead Assembly
1 Nylon Elastic Shock Cord
1 Shock Cord Mount
1 Nylon Parachute 28"
1 .25 Launch Lug
OK Lets build this thing and put her in the air! If you have ever built a LOC kit you will find this one very familiar and rather easy to assemble. My only modification from the stock build is to leave the aft centering ring un-glued from the motor tube so I can remove it and make internal fillets. I used US Composites 150 Thick Epoxy for the entire build and recommend this as a cheaper and much faster set time than West Systems. For my internal fillets I used some US Composites Milled Fiber for a little more peace of mind and extra strength as I plan on punishing this rocket with some high power loads.
On the external fillets I mixed some 3M Glass Bubbles with the epoxy and this is the easiest stuff to sand that I have run across yet!
I had all the assembly done in 1 day but let it sit over night before any sanding or priming. The next morning I sanded the fillets, fins, body,and nose cone. A little Bondo spot putty and it was ready for primer. My primer of choice these days is Rust-Oleum auto primer in gray, it can be sanded in 2hours and fills spirals pretty good. Here's a good tip on painting plastic nose cones, while your at Wal-Mart picking up your Krylon paint walk on over to the auto department and get a can of Bulldog Adhesion Promoter. This stuff works great and really makes the paint stick to the plastic nose cones, after many flights on various rockets I've had yet to touch up and paint on any of my nose cones after using this.
I'll admit one of the main reasons I like this rocket is the rather easy paint job it takes, after sanding the worst part of building rockets for me is painting!
I use Krylon color paints and have had very good results, lots of very light coats are the key for me and I have masked off areas with as little as 1 1/2 hours of drying time if you use the 3M blue painters tape. I've read were some folks let the paint dry a week before applying masking tape and that is lunacy to me,,,,,,,,, I want it finished and in the air yesterday.
OK The paint is dry lets stuff a motor in and send her up. my first motor was one of the recommended G40-10 and I was testing another product called a Chute Tamer ( I will do a write up of this too ) Basically it's a way to make a rocket dual deploy without using a altimeter bay. You wrap your chute around the product with fishing line and when it reaches the pre-determined time it burns the fishing line in half and lets the chute deploy. You still need to use motor ejection to deploy the device but just let the rocket tumble (or use a drogue if you like) till the pre-set time. Well it worked as advertised and my Tomahawk launched, deployed, and recovered perfectly!
The PK-29 IQSY Tomahawk is not on LOC's web-site yet but you can call or E-mail Barry and he would be more than happy to sell you one. Barry will be selling the Chute Tamer as well but I'm not sure if he has any stock of these yet. Oh yeah, where's the pics? Sorry no action shots as I'm not the best photographer of moving objects with my el-cheapo point & shot digital cam.