Build: Estes Avenger and Estes Tornado

SilicdyneTRF
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The Tornado is a pretty fun little rocket. With no chute or streamer, it helps to have about 50 people watching for recovery purposes, if you use more than an A engine.
 
(Looks like my Internet connection is back this morning (lost connection in the middle of this post).)

Here they are after decals ... I think I need to take some better shots than these. The Tornado gold and flourescent red paint looks different with the flash effect, plus it seems like I managed to highlight the decal edge on the nose portion. I need a better angle for the Avenger.

The Avenger's wrap-around pattern is a homemade inkjet decal. It didn't work quite right as the ink (HP) sort of mixed with the Krylon (1306) clear coat and blurred the crisp lines it had when printed. This was after several more disastrous attempts so I finally threw in the towel and put it on the rocket even though I'm not as happy with it as I'd like to be. The decal looks better in this low-res upload than it does in person.

Tornado_crop.jpg

Avenger_crop.jpg
 
space_bus said:
(Looks like my Internet connection is back this morning (lost connection in the middle of this post).)

Here they are after decals ... I think I need to take some better shots than these. The Tornado gold and flourescent red paint looks different with the flash effect, plus it seems like I managed to highlight the decal edge on the nose portion. I need a better angle for the Avenger.

The Avenger's wrap-around pattern is a homemade inkjet decal. It didn't work quite right as the ink (HP) sort of mixed with the Krylon (1306) clear coat and blurred the crisp lines it had when printed. This was after several more disastrous attempts so I finally threw in the towel and put it on the rocket even though I'm not as happy with it as I'd like to be. The decal looks better in this low-res upload than it does in person.
Click to expand...

Space bus:
Fin looking models. I like the flourscent on the tornado..Should help with recovery:)
 
I've never flown a Tornado before. I tested this one's recovery off my deck and the maple seed effect for the top part was pretty cool before I painted it. Now that it's painted, it doesn't do it anymore. :( Hopefully, it just need a little more velocity. We'll see.

I plan to fly both of these at the NARHAMS sport launch tomorrow. (So, maybe I'll see you there Micromeister. You can certainly take a look at the Tornado if you're still interested. Before your edit, I saw you had asked for fin measurements (or something like that), but maybe you found what you were looking for on the Internet.)
 
rokitflite said:
Don't care, looks great, one of my favorite Estes rockets & my first 2 stage... GREAT JOB!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks!

My Avenger clone is sort of a mix of the two slightly different versions of the kit (K-38/1238). The original kit (K-38) had a sustainer BT-55V tube that was 16.35" long. The later version (1238) had an 18" BT-55. I went with the later version because I already had the 18" tube on hand (so why mess it up trying to cut it?). The K-38 instructions show that the booster stage had thicker fin material (BFS-40) than the sustainer's fins (BFS-30). The 1238 instructions show that all fin material was BFS-30. I went with the earlier version and made the booster's fins from BFS-40.

Edit: Also (as should be obvious from the pictures), I went with the plastic nose cone version (like the 1238 kit) since I had the correct nose cone on hand (leftover from a long gone Estes Astro Bee). [K-38 used a balsa nose cone.]

Some links:

K-38 Avenger Instructions:

https://www.dars.org/jimz/k-38.htm

1238 Avenger Instructions:

https://www.estesrockets.com/instructions/1238%20avenger.pdf

By the way, I've never seen it mentioned that Estes has many OOP kit instructions available in PDF form on their website (like the 1238 Avenger, above). I happened upon these doing a search. Perhaps you are all aware of this already (and, being the new BAR, I've just missed it being mentioned), but here's a link to the top-level just in case I'm not the only one who didn't know:

https://www.estesrockets.com/instructions
 
space_bus said:
I've never flown a Tornado before. I tested this one's recovery off my deck and the maple seed effect for the top part was pretty cool before I painted it. Now that it's painted, it doesn't do it anymore. :( Hopefully, it just need a little more velocity. We'll see.

I plan to fly both of these at the NARHAMS sport launch tomorrow. (So, maybe I'll see you there Micromeister. You can certainly take a look at the Tornado if you're still interested. Before your edit, I saw you had asked for fin measurements (or something like that), but maybe you found what you were looking for on the Internet.)
Click to expand...


Kewl !Spacebus:
Please stop by my Tent before you fly it! Yes i found Jimz finally added it to his list;) but I'd really like to take some measurements if you don't mind:)
can't wait to downscale it for Micro motors:)
 
Excellente! :D

(scribbles note to add Avenger to huge, ever-growing build list)
 

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