K'Tesh's OpenRocket Files...

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My first rocket with a small launch pad set!

I have been thinking about an upscale for a level 2 project. Thank you for this file!

Ray
TRA04700

Ray, I'm glad you liked it... Which one were you checking out?
 
Been working on the Centuri Magnum D Hornet again... I can't vouch that the decals are 100%, but I wanted to show everyone what it looked like (stock).



I deliberately didn't include the black band decal seen in the 1981 and 1983 catalogs, as it apparently wasn't included with the rocket. The 1982 catalog didn't have the black band.

Also, when I upload the file, the decal on the fin required me to add an "air fin" to allow it to look right. As such, I can't vouch for the flight performance.

You can download the new .ork over in post #15.
 
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You make some pretty nice looking rockets, do the real things look just as good?

While I'd love to say that all of my rockets have always looked awesome, truth be told, many of the older ones look/looked pretty sad up close. In my first run with rocketry, and my first BAR period (following my return to the USA after serving in England), I didn't really know all that much about paints. I never primed, rarely filled fins, and don't remember ever clear coating them. So, those that I built during this period may have looked good from afar, but really didn't hold up to close scrutiny, especially when viewed today. An example of my level of craftsmanship from that time can bee seen here in my original Patriot rocket.




My latest period of rocketry is a lot different. I've learned how to seal (or paper), prime, and paint rockets. My first 21st Century attempt at decals (a Maxi Icarus) failed miserably, and scared me off of waterslide decals until I can spend more time mastering them. My vinyl decals are pretty sweet though. You can verify this by asking any of the members of OROC. However, many of my builds are stuck at the primer stage (the landlord I was renting a room from was very sensitive to paint fumes, so I couldn't paint when she was around). Lord Willing, I will be able to get them to look like the ones you see in catalogs when I can get back to them to finish them.

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Oh, and if you look closely at the Cherokee D (above), you may notice that the "D POWER" decal was changed. It reads "29mm POWER" now, as those are the largest motors that it can handle (as I built it). When it comes to the .ork file, I didn't feel like trying to hunt down the font and trying to replicate that graphic detail.
 
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Ok, was playing around with one of my older rockets (Yes, I own one of the later 1248 models). However, I can't remember if mine came with a PNC-55AO nosecone or the BNC-55AO. This was my first baffled rocket... The Estes Bandit (K-48)(which definitely came with a BNC-55A0):



[EDIT] In reviewing this kit, I've found that the paint scheme I *HAD* used was likely incorrect. My forward black section was too long, and the rear black paint was too short. I've corrected the paint scheme, and in the process updated the sim to eliminate the Air Fin needed for the decal placement on the yellow fin. As such, the new sim is far more accurate than the previous version, and I recommend that the new version be downloaded, and the previous version deleted.

The sim includes parts information on the baffle, however the vents are not something that can be accurately simmed. However, they can be faked, but the notched TA-48 centering ring is beyond even faking.



Thanks to LW Bercini for the help on the fins. Instructions are found on JimZ's (and (along with a measured scan of the decals) in my photo album on the Bandit).

If you download any of my files, please give me a like on that post. Likes are appreciated and give me an idea of what people are looking for. If you find any errors, or have feedback, please use my new feedback thread. Please follow the link to and direct your questions, or comments to it or send me a PM. Thanks!

Previous version of the sim was viewed 166 times.
 

Attachments

  • Estes Bandit (K-48) Baffle (Exploded View).ork
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  • Estes Bandit (K-48)(revised paint and decals).ork
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Ray, I'm glad you liked it... Which one were you checking out?


The Sizzler #1906 was one of my very first rockets and I flew it 50+ times on C motors back in the day. I may not be up for a upscale at this time but its tempting to do it for level 2 or even level 3.
 
Ok, I don't have my own to measure against at this time (I'm still in China, and it's in the USA). So, I went ahead and used a .rkt file from RocketReviews for the fin pattern. I used my own scans of the body tube's decals for this sim, but the camera's decals are taken from the instructions found on plans.rocketshoppe.com. The original camera decals were self adhesive decals, printed on a bright metallic chrome (mylar?) film, which is beyond my abilities to sim. Still, I'm happy with it.



For those that don't know, the fin can was made from plastic, which appears to be the same as what the camera was produced from. The fins width tapers from the root edge to the tip (I remember seeing this when I was in the US). The sim omits the single layer of paper "stand-off" that is applied at step 4 of the build.

Here's a mod for the Astocam 110, a look back version based on information from the Winter 1993 issue of the Estes Educator News magazine. An update to this would have the 110 camera replaced with a digital camera, and the camera's hood/periscope could be inverted, or removed to give you different filming options.






And for those who missed it the first go around... They released it again (same catalog number and everything), but with a yellow "paint" scheme. The body tube was a high gloss "pre-finished" tube, and the decals were peel and stick.

 

Attachments

  • Estes AstroCam 110 with Delta II Launch Vehicle (Cat. No. 1327) (Original Livery).ork
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  • Estes AstroCam 110 with Delta II Launch Vehicle (Cat. No. 1327) (Yellow Livery).ork
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  • Estes AstroCam 110 (Original Livery)(Look Back Mod).ork
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Ok now. These are all very awesome; but I think there is another you can do! I didn't want to hijack Mushtang's thread, but you brought it up. :) ACME Spitfire. If there is ANYONE that can figure out an OR SIM for that guy it's you. Get busy! :)
 
Ok now. These are all very awesome; but I think there is another you can do! I didn't want to hijack Mushtang's thread, but you brought it up. :) ACME Spitfire. If there is ANYONE that can figure out an OR SIM for that guy it's you. Get busy! :)

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Problem is, I'm just a mere OpenRocket Ninja, and to do the Spitfire, you have to be an OpenRocket God... I'm not qualified (yet :wink:).

This is an AWESOME Rocket job here! I love it!

That's my Offl (pronounced "awful") rocket. I had a lot of fun doing that one... More details are found here.
 
maybe....but your work makes me look like an OR Twerp!

When you can snatch the electron from my hand you'll be ready my son... :wink:

Ha, all this time I had thought that was an exclamation point, didn't realize it was an L! It's funnier with the L. :)

I've said it a number of times (mostly to people who were local to me)... You must read the fine print. There are 4 jokes in the UPC code alone.
 
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Now that I've improved my skills at decals, I've re-done the Estes Magnum Payloader (#1422). Of course, due to the nature of the fin decals, it was required that I use "air fins" to get them to display correctly. If anyone wants to run the sim (for flight performance) the older versions of the .ork file would be better (found in post #20). However for a beauty shot, the new one is best. The grey details are supposed to represent the silver paint and decals of the actual rocket.



Remember that the blue of the original decals is Testor's Gloss Bright Blue (1210). The color of the paint and decals in the sim are based on a sample taken from the scans that I used to "decal" this sim.
 
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This is an AWESOME Rocket job here! I love it!

It is. I saw it pre- and post- maiden voyage. A clever idea beautifully executed.

By the way, if you have some time to kill between classes, I would love to see the BD Dragonfly done up... ;)
 
It is. I saw it pre- and post- maiden voyage. A clever idea beautifully executed.

By the way, if you have some time to kill between classes, I would love to see the BD Dragonfly done up... ;)

That will be a tad hard... Mine was probably one of the last 2.6" ones ever sold/built (I picked up the only one at Tammie's Hobby Shop, after it had sat there for over a year and a half). I don't have the fins to measure, and don't know the angles that the fins were. I also don't know the details of the nosecone.

[EDIT] The Dragonfly was nearly done (except for the markings)... But then Windows 10 Anniversary edition nuked my HD. F***!
 
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Mike is cobbling me together one from spare parts, when I get it from him I can do some measurement. I have the DFX files of the fins and CRs, but I would need to divide the dimensions by 4.9 to come up with the correct size. :)

I actually think that the 2.6" version is a lot better looking than the 3", the proportions are somewhat different with a longer NC in relation to the BT.
 
I added it to post #20.

Just because I wanted to fiddle around, here's my slightly modified version of the Magnum, with silver metallic texture added to the fins and decal. The result looks good from up close (you can see it most easily in the photo studio), harder to see in the finished side view. It does have a little more character than the solid grey though. My silver might be a bit too light for what you wanted, but I wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting with darker versions.

Trying to achieve a proper metallic texture given the limited controls offered up by OR is probably fruitless, but I think it's possible to achieve at least a suggestion of it.

Unfortunately I can't upload this to the forum due to the inexplicable 195 kB size limit on OR files. If anyone wants this I'll put it on dropbox or something.
attachment.php


magnum_with_silver.png
 
Today's addition... The Estes Extreme 12 (7225)



Since the decals on the fins are a mirror of the other side, there was no need for "Air Fins". This rocket also uses a unique (as far as I know) Estes retaining system that doesn't use engine hooks. So, no error messages from those on this sim... Basically, what you see is what you get, and this should sim fairly accurately.

Decals are from scans provided by Nick@JET. Lengths have been supplied by him and d11rok to corroborate my own measurements. Fins were scanned by me when I lived in the US, and imported to OR.
 

Attachments

  • Estes Extreme 12 (7225) Stock.ork
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I'm interested in your process of creating the graphics for the decals and getting the measurements right. Care to share (or perhaps you already have?).
 
I'm interested in your process of creating the graphics for the decals and getting the measurements right. Care to share (or perhaps you already have?).

I had a nice little write up to reply to you when I tried to add an image as an attachment, the window froze, and I lost it. :mad:

frozen writeup.jpg

The short version... 1" = 100 pixels. If you know what your length or width is in inches, do the conversion to get the number of pixels it should be on the rocket.

If your doing a decal (or multiple decals) on a body tube, your image should be 100 (pixels) x length of body tube (in inches) by 100 (pixels) x circumference (in inches). Then you paste in your decals in the correct locations, save it as a .png (.jpg gets too many weird artifacts), and use the appearance tab to apply the image to the rocket. If you botch something, you can use the edit function to select a graphics editor (I still use MS Paint), make the correction, save, and it will apply the changes to your design. Key thing to remember about body tube decaled images... The orientation of the graphic is just like it would be if the rocket were built and on the pad ready to launch.

Fins are a little more problematic. They need to be oriented as if the rocket was laying on its side, pointed to your right (with one fin perpendicular to the ground). Your fin would be the one on the underside of the rocket. If you can remember that this the orientation of the decals, you can get good results.

If the fins have decals that have writing on them, or the fin has a unique decal for each side of a fin, you'll need to create what I'm calling "Air Fins". I copy the fin in OR, click on the body tube then paste the fin into place. Next I open the new fin(s) and adjust them to be streamlined, made from "air" (a custom setting of a material with no mass), remove the graphic attached to them (using the appearance tab), then back into the general tab, I'll usually adjust them a degree or so until I can't read the real fin's decal through the air fin. Back into the appearance tab, I'll re-apply the graphic, then edit it (and only this decal) to mirror the original. The results of this is an image that is written backwards (but readable in a mirror). Once I save that, the mirrored image should be correctly oriented on the new fin. I also am labeling the "Air Fins" to remind myself to delete them if I want to run a flight simulation.

Oh, and scans of the decal sheet that includes a ruler (hopefully with 1/32" increments or finer) are really helpful for measuring what the lengths or widths of a decal should be.
 
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Here's the OR file for my silver-modded Magnum Payloader.

I use this as my source "silver texture", which works pretty well at 100 dpi (which is what I and I think you do all your OR decal work at):
silver.jpg

General method:
1) Adjust brightness/contrast of the silver as desired for the rocket
2) For solid colored parts, create a new image in the appropriate size.
3) Copy/paste the silver texture into it. If you need it to be larger, then do more copy and pasting, don't ever resize the silver texture.
4) How I converted the Magnum body wrap decal, using Paint.net (what you should be using if at all possible):
a) Open decal file
b) Create new layer and copy silver to it
c) Go back to original layer. Using magic want, shift-click each area to be converted to silver, until all are selected.
d) Invert selection (ctrl-I)
e) Go back to silver layer, hit delete

Everything should look good now. Either merge the layers and save, or first save as PDN file with layers intact, for easier modification later.

Any questions let me know. I used this general approach on the Diamond Cutter OR file, and it definitely gave me a good hint what the silver would look like. If you want to do gold, you'll have to go find a good gold texture sample to use as a base (or you could convert the silver, but that's beyond my pay grade to do effectively.)
 
Here's the OR file for my silver-modded Magnum Payloader.

I use this as my source "silver texture", which works pretty well at 100 dpi (which is what I and I think you do all your OR decal work at):
View attachment 288646

General method:
1) Adjust brightness/contrast of the silver as desired for the rocket
2) For solid colored parts, create a new image in the appropriate size.
3) Copy/paste the silver texture into it. If you need it to be larger, then do more copy and pasting, don't ever resize the silver texture.
4) How I converted the Magnum body wrap decal, using Paint.net (what you should be using if at all possible):
a) Open decal file
b) Create new layer and copy silver to it
c) Go back to original layer. Using magic want, shift-click each area to be converted to silver, until all are selected.
d) Invert selection (ctrl-I)
e) Go back to silver layer, hit delete

Everything should look good now. Either merge the layers and save, or first save as PDN file with layers intact, for easier modification later.

Any questions let me know. I used this general approach on the Diamond Cutter OR file, and it definitely gave me a good hint what the silver would look like. If you want to do gold, you'll have to go find a good gold texture sample to use as a base (or you could convert the silver, but that's beyond my pay grade to do effectively.)

Thanks for that! I'm not used to using any programs other than MS Paint, and PaintShopPro (which is now no longer working). I've fiddled a very little with Gimp, but I haven't been able to figure it out (yet).
 
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