Estes Orbital Interceptor

Well, a near-clone thereof. Last night, with my large Bertha painted, and not being ready to paint the BT70 Advanced Target Drone, I decided to replicate the Estes Orbital Interceptor (1359). There are a bunch of things that I've planned to build, but I didn't have what I need for the next scheduled project, so I switched the order a little. I had everything I needed on hand for this, and I have reason to wait on other clones I'm planning to build.

One thing I love about these sorts of LPR models is how quickly they go together. I cut the tube and built up the motor mount Tuesday night, then last night cut out the fin patterns and laid out the fins. From there, it was quick to glue up the fins. This one I did the old fashioned way (by eye), due to the nature of the design not lending itself to a jig. I think it came out well. One exception to being a true clone is the nose cone - I have not been able to find the PNC-50Y off the shelf, so I substituted a BNC-50Y. That means I need to nose weight it differently, and more weight is likely required to achieve the same balance. I drilled the cone for a 3/8" hole, and can drop a pair of 1/8" oz fishing line weights into the hole ahead of the dowel. That should be suitable, according to the Rocksim model I made for it.



Next, I need to install the lug, recovery system, and then seal and paint. Oh, and I'll have to pick up the decals shortly. It shouldn't take too long...

Looks good!

OK, the model has been filled, sanded, primed, resanded, primed, etc. I also elected to paper the main wing sections (they seemed a bit springy), though I brushed CA glue onto the vertical stabilizer to stiffen that. I put a final coat of primer on it last weekend, and have now painted the wings blue to match the original Estes color scheme. The blue I had on hand is Insignia Blue, which is not quite the same as the blue on the decals, but its pretty close. It'll have to do.

Once that's had time to fully dry, I'll mask the outer wings off and paint the rest. I think it was originally blue over white, but I may use silver instead. It'd look good either way, I think.

Rick,

I did a BT-80 upscale of the Orbital Interceptor last fall. I thought you might be interested in seeing the upscaled decals by Excelsior:

That's awesome. I actually saw that picture somewhere else when I was first searching for the fin patterns for the clone. What tubing did you use? I've already designed a similar upscale, but used 2.64" LOC tubing rather than typical BT-80 2.60" for it, to make it more rugged.

EXPjawa said:

What tubing did you use?

Click to expand...

I used standard BT-80 2.6" tube. It has a 29mm MMT, and is built lighter for the E through G range.

Most of my scratch built midpower rockets use LPR parts. At that power range, I see no need for beefier parts.

I've been generally doing the same thing with my builds. Looking back at the design, though, I think the tube choice was more based on the only near-scale nose cone I can seem to come up with is the Aerotech 5:1 ogive 2.6", which drives a larger tube diameter to avoid a noticeable step from the tube to cone. What nose cone did you use? The design as I have it is this:

Finished the painting. I used Rustoleum Aluminum Silver, which seems to be a bit quirky. I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with how it came out, but maybe not enough to want to sand everything down and start over. The silver came out much heavier than most spray paints, I couldn't do a fine mist tack coat first. And it behaved oddly when applied. Now that its dry, it seems that some sections have a haze over the paint and others do not. I may try to wet sand it with 1000 grit and then satin clear over it to see if that helps even it out...

I wouldn't try wet sanding a metallic paint if I were you !!!

Why not? If the sanding is followed by a clear coat, it should restore the appearance.

If you sand metallic silver/ aluminum/copper what ever--the area will turn grey. Just has to do with the way the paint is mixed and lays down. Clear coating a metallic( from a spray can) won't work--it dulls the finish changes the color(turns grey). The ONLY clear I have found that works over metallic silver is future floor wax. Trust me , I ran a bunch of tests including clear over wet metallic trying to get the right finish on my 20 mill build---

I gotta tell ya, from where I sit, it looks pretty darn nice !!

Crappy photos hide a lot . It has variations across the surfaces that look a little odd when viewed first hand. Maybe putting wax over everything will even it out, but there's a spot under the wing that formed a kind of circle (maybe a weird fisheye) as soon as the paint laid down, so it isn't consistent in appearance. I might be tempted to sand it all anyway and shoot it with something else...

I ended up using Rusto-metallic silver and was happy with the finish after it dried. Not quite the sheen when wet but nice. Heads up, unless you like finger prints, you'll have to where gloves to handle the rocket or wax it. There are paints out there that will work better but they are prohibitively expensive . If your dead set on re finishing the rocket, go ahead and wet sand it and let it set and cure completely before re coating. You don't want the paint to bust up---always a chance of that. Work slowly, first a couple light coats and then finish with heavier gloss coats. lay each coat while the previous one is tacky and be careful not to load up around the fin surfaces. It just takes practice---

Well, I've elected to leave the paint alone and just put the decals on. It really isn't that bad, just a couple of marred spots underneath. I'll probably put a coat of wax over it and see how it shines up. I still have yet to install the nose ballast or the recovery system. But it at least looks finished...



Better pictures still to come...

Looks great! Makes me want to build one now.

Thanks! A few more photos, a little better, though I still need to get some in better lighting.

Many new photos:



Launched yesterday in a drag race against my Advanced Target Drone, both on B6-4 motors.