BT80 Ram Jet upscale

Over the holiday break, at the same time I was building my 3X Hawkeye, I also built this roughly 2X Ram Jet upscale. Like with Hawkeye, the Ram Jet was one of my favorite rockets as a kid. A real neat look, good performance. So I bought the BT80 sized decals from Excelsior, broke out the calculator and started laying it out. Here's the final product.


It has a 24mm mount in a BT55 core tube, with a Bullpup nose cone. The BT80 segments are more like long ring tails than anything else. The fins are 1/8" balsa that have been papered for strength, but the overall rocket is pretty light for its size. It has an 18" nylon parachute. I took the opportunity to repaint and redecal my original Ram Jet to match. Obviously, yellow doesn't follow the Estes artwork from the facecard, but plain red is boring. Anyone paying attention will also notice that I placed the decals a little differently than Estes did, but I like the look of this much better. Overall, I think it came pretty damn well...

You have some SERIOUS finishing skills! Kudos on another unbelievable looking finish and a cool rocket!

Later! OL JR

Thanks for the compliment. I think that I've gotten old enough now that I actually care about the craftsmanship. When I was a kid, I just glued parts together and slapped a coat of paint on. A lot of what I've done on these projects are skills I developed building custom cruiser bicycles (which is the other hobby that drains my account). It might be surprising how many things carry over, but painting a rocket body tube and painting a bike frame tube aren't that much different. I guess when I achieved BAR status, one fed the other...

EXPjawa said:

Thanks for the compliment. I think that I've gotten old enough now that I actually care about the craftsmanship. When I was a kid, I just glued parts together and slapped a coat of paint on. A lot of what I've done on these projects are skills I developed building custom cruiser bicycles (which is the other hobby that drains my account). It might be surprising how many things carry over, but painting a rocket body tube and painting a bike frame tube aren't that much different. I guess when I achieved BAR status, one fed the other...

Click to expand...

Sounds familiar... LOL

I was the same way in my builds as a kid... just get 'em together and get 'em in the air!!! The finish be darned...

Course that was back in my youth in junior high/high school the mid-late 80's during my first incarnation as a rocketeer... when I came back to rocketry as a "BAR" in the early-mid 2000's, I started reading these forums, and got interested in two things I'd never paid any attention to before-- finish of the rocket, and scale/semiscale rockets... Now that's where my main focus lies...

Custom bikes, eh... that sounds really cool... and you're right-- the techniques are pretty much the same, regardless of materials... (I paint old cars and farm equipment, so I have a long history with finishing stuff). I've tinkered with the idea of building a tadpole trike... I'd LOVE to have one but the "factory made" ones are WAY out of my price range, even used...

Later! OL JR

That's awesome! Nice Job!:clap:

Love the job you did on this. The Ram Jet is one of my favorites as well.

Got to say they are very sweet looking A job well done :clap:

Hey, thanks guys. I can't wait to fly it, though my niece tells me it looks like a caulk tube with fins...

Absolutely Fantastic looking Ram-Jets!
Like the Lime Gold color and finishing. Vary Nicely done.

Some time ago I built a standard, single D12 and 3 D-12 Clustered 3X Upscale using a BT-80 core and BT-101 outer airframe.
Hope you have as much fun flying yours as I have over the years

Thanks! I've thought about a BT80/101 further upscale, but I've got enough other projects on my plate that I probably won't any time soon. I love the idea of upscales, and I've got three sizes of Hawkeye already, but I have a lot of unique designs of my own that I want to do yet...

Super Ram Jet has finally flown! It launched yesterday in a drag race with the standard Ram Jet, a seasoned veteran. I launched it on D12-5, which might have been a little long in delay, but came out ok. Little Ram Jet took the hole shot, and stayed ahead, but peaked lower. Big Ram Jet hit a higher apogee - not that I could tell from underneath, but was reported by some folks parked next to me that had a farther vantage point to see it from.