Rocketry Warehouse Reaper 3 Photos

The Reaper 3 arrived today.

Here it is out of the box:


It has beveled fins, stepped av bay bulk plates, and the new FW nose cone.



This one is going back in the box to be built at a later date. I blew this year's wad on the X-Celerator. This deal was too good to pass up.

Very cool! Mine arrived yesterday but I've been too busy to unbox it yet. Really looking forward to building it and flying it this season!

Jim Z

Also received mine today , beautiful kit. Kids are wanting it. May have to auction it off to one of them for the most chores completed around the yard.

I like the red and black fiberglass since I hate painting. I figured I'd just fly it naked, but it might look good with some gloss clear coat on the red tubes. If it ends up shiny red with visible filaments that might look interesting. Has anyone tried that on color or black FG tubes?

that red+black looks pretty awesome. Kinda wish i had gotten one of those kits on the wednesday sale!

You should get your sickle decal in gold or yellow for that fine rocket, comrade !

If you blow your X-Celerator on the L1000W then you could fly the not used K535W in this fine, sturdy rocket?

Oh thats right you had mentioned your affinity for those 5g CTI motors with the two colored grains.. a excellent choice for this fine red rocket .. very social of you to match the rocket and motor so well.

Kenny

Your lawn isn't white enough, need to add more snow!


JD

Exactimator said:

The Reaper 3 arrived today.

Here it is out of the box:
View attachment 256867

It has beveled fins, stepped av bay bulk plates, and the new FW nose cone.

View attachment 256868

This one is going back in the box to be built at a later date. I blew this year's wad on the X-Celerator. This deal was too good to pass up.

Click to expand...

I got the red and black also. I am going to ask Stickershock to add his flare to mine. I did get the yellow factory decal, didn't realize I had ordered the Kremlin version

JDcluster said:

Your lawn isn't white enough, need to add more snow!


JD

Click to expand...

No snow. Lots of this kind of stuff.

Question-with the small fins will they get in the way of putting a bottom rail button on? and are they to big to get in the way of the rail?

crossfire said:

Question-with the small fins will they get in the way of putting a bottom rail button on? and are they to big to get in the way of the rail?

Click to expand...

I have the exact same question. If someone who owns one could chime in on this.

Will take and post pictures of fins mocked up later today.

This was discussed in the RW HHD Sale thread.

3" airframe X pi = 9.425. Fins are 1/8" X 6 = 0.75". 9.425 - 0.75 = 8.675. 8.675 / 6 (no. of fins) = 1.45

So, with 1.45" of space between fins, and a 1" 1010 rail, you'll have a hair less than 1/4" between rail and fins. That sounds like plenty of clearance to me.

If one "has" to use a 1515 rail, just leave one of the little fins off. Looks like a 1010 rail should be sufficient. Kurt

Here are the photos of the mocked up fins. It would be no problem, if centered, fitting a 1010 rail between them. 1515 might be tight.
All the parts fit perfectly, I don't think I will need to sand anything. I might be able to wash and epoxy.

What do people think about clear coating this rocket?

I don't think you need gloss paint. I heard Armor All works perfectly.

accpool said:

What do people think about clear coating this rocket?

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Don't do it! I clear coated my first black fiberglass kit and was disappointed. the fibers don't show like carbon, they mostly disappear except for the real obvious ones, not a uniform color or pattern. also, the clear doesn't bond well to the fiberglass and will scratch and chip easily. Floyd recommends armor all or clear shoe polish AFTER the decals are on. I'm going to try that on my blue Scarab 54 once I get the decals on.

Hi
I use spray on Pledge furniture polish on colored tubes it works very well.

RKeller said:

Don't do it! I clear coated my first black fiberglass kit and was disappointed. the fibers don't show like carbon, they mostly disappear except for the real obvious ones, not a uniform color or pattern. also, the clear doesn't bond well to the fiberglass and will scratch and chip easily. Floyd recommends armor all or clear shoe polish AFTER the decals are on. I'm going to try that on my blue Scarab 54 once I get the decals on.

Click to expand...

Second this. I cleared my 3" darkstar and after one flight it's a chipped up mess.

RKeller said:

Don't do it! I clear coated my first black fiberglass kit and was disappointed. the fibers don't show like carbon, they mostly disappear except for the real obvious ones, not a uniform color or pattern. also, the clear doesn't bond well to the fiberglass and will scratch and chip easily. Floyd recommends armor all or clear shoe polish AFTER the decals are on. I'm going to try that on my blue Scarab 54 once I get the decals on.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that Riley. I've always primed and painted but with these pigmented tubes wondered if there was an alternative. i have a Dominator 4 I am trying to figure out what to do with as far as the finish and ordered an R3 before I had to leave town for awhile. Should be there
when I get home. I was toying with the idea of rattle can lacquer I've had good luck with. Example: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ol...s-Clear-Lacquer-Spray-Paint-1906830/100194482

I did the very laborious shooting the prime, sand, color, wet sanding (1000-1500-2000grit), clear lacquer, more wet sanding, rubbing compound,
polishing compound and finally car wax in the past. Yeah a real PITA but oh, what a beautiful finish. A fellow had suggested to me with the colored pigment tubes I might be able to wet sand with fine grit and then shoot the clear lacquer. I thought O.K. but in reality I figured by making the bare tube as smooth as possible with fine grit sand paper that wouldn't allow for adhesion of the lacquer to the surface of the tube?

So, is a better routine with colored tubes is put the decal(s) on and use a furniture polish or armour-all or floor wax? Kurt

Glad to hear from everyone, that would have taken all the beauty out of this rocket. What about regular car wax? Would Armor-all or floor polish get really "dirty" flying in the desert?

I did a quick dry fit of mine and realized the third centering ring isn't needed. There's not really a space for it since it's not a split fin. I could put one at the forward edge of the fins and another at the forward end of the mmt, but they would be very close together.

Everything fit snugly with no sanding. I think a light sand for epoxy grip is all that will be needed.

Yea that red and black fiberglass is pretty cool!

I won't be using the 54mm motor mount so I am testing the Pledge floor polish on an area of that part.

Let me know what you find.

Day 3 with the Pledge (Future) polish on the 54mm mount.
Observations - still looks wet, with the larger "grain' pattern of the filament wind visible, even highlighted. However, I am noticing that it does not look smooth, and does not feel smooth. Neither does the portion without Pledge. So I lightly sanded with 500 grit an area. That feels much smoother. I suppose I could work up to some of the 1200 grit I have.
Now I have to re-Pledge and give it a rest to see how it lasts. More to follow.

Edit - Well of course it is not smooth ya big dummy - you sanded the whole mount w/ 120 grit the day you got the rocket.
Worked it up to 1000 grit, and re-applied Pledge. Babies bottom, but not glassy. That would require an overcoat.

I had just enough time to get the main fins filleted and the small ones double-buttered in before ROCstock last weekend. I still need to fillet the small fins, add the sticker and put on the finish (Armor All or something).

Here it is going up on a CTI 1 grain I165 CStar. The rocket was set-up for motor eject (no electronics). Dry weight was 6 lbs, 12 oz. It was a little under powered and flew in a big arc. Still recovered fine.



The 1010 rail fit between the fins.

I'm getting ready to start on mine. I've got some extra centering rings lying about, plywood and G10. Shockcord bridle I'm giving some thought to. Am toying with the idea of using a bridle loop with both sides attached to the
sides of the motor tube. Only issue I see is from the forward centering ring to the ring that's abutted against the forward fin tabs is all of 2 inches. I have 1" strapping that fits in between the fins (all 6 of them) but I wonder if
2" is enough purchase space to epoxy the strapping? If that's possible I avoid having to deal with notching two rings and having to be stingy on the epoxy on the aft portion of the strapping as it mounts on the tube.

I bought a flange aeropack retainer and I'm going to use a plywood centering ring along with the G10 (or 12) ring to allow more purchase of the threaded inserts.

One way around the MMT thing would be to simply buy a longer MMT and use that instead.

I am tempted to epoxy the strapping on just the 2 inches available and then run a slightly longer "safety" strap from the motor eyebolt to the endloop on the bridle. I'd leave slack in it and if one or both sides pulled out, the strap would
serve as backup. I can try to mock up and post pictures. Kurt

I did a 1" kevlar bridle in the 2 inches of the forward end of the mmt. I wasn't confident to keep the strap and epoxy out of the way of the fins.

I installed the two forward centering rings as you describe, with one at the forward end of the fins and the other at the forward end of the tube.

I notched only the very forward ring on opposite sides of the mmt.

Brought the strap down through the ring.

Folded the strap over and ran it between the rings, halfway around the tube until it reached the spot where the other strap came through. When I was done, each end of the strap wrapped halfway around the tube, X2, the entire circumference of the tube has strap around it.

Epoxied down with Rocketpoxy.

The kevlar doesn't crease where you fold it and the Rocketpoxy wasn't quite enough to keep it down, so I rapped a small rubber band around it to keep it against the tube while it cured. The band is embedded in the epoxy.

I had photos of it but my phone died and the gallery died with it.

It's pretty sturdy and can handle some really hard yanks. It survived a total of (1) flights so far. I'm pretty confident in the part that's fastened down. The only issue I can think of is maybe there's a stress point that will wear through eventually. But the bottom half of the rocket just isn't that heavy. And unless I really oversize a charge with a short cord, I don't see that much force on the joint.