Airbourne Survellance Missile, Estes kit #0867

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6 months later... Is the original topic of this thread ever going to get finished? It has gotten off on to so many tangents, isn't it time to start a new thread???
 
Either Federal Govt. or a branch of the military ordering gold toilet seats and $500 wrenches !

So do we get to see the finished model ? :confused2:

Or do we get to scan through 6 more pages of fill again ?

Some one let me know if pictures get posted. I really would like to see the finished model :clap:

Gotta back to my latest project
 
Either Federal Govt. or a branch of the military ordering gold toilet seats and $500 wrenches !


How do you think BLACK OPERATIONS get their funding? Congress?
You forgot coffe pots and hammers.

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Close.
Military, USAF, retired NCO.

Retired means no more deadlines, but I've had my share of 'em.
Having worked with civilian contractors, the phrase "Every project goes past the completion deadline and is over budget" has alot of truth to it.

While I have been draging my feet, it's not like I haven't already finished alot. I just do it when I feel like doing it. It is just a hobby, I wouldn't enjoy it much if I were to have deadlines again.

I need to make and place the dowels that will go between the 3 inch BT and the BT-60, glue everthing together, paint and detail.

That's not real far from being finished.

So another 6 months.... :roll:
 
Retired means no more deadlines, but I've had my share of 'em. ... "Every project goes past the completion deadline and is over budget" has a lot of truth to it.

Absolutely! Don't give in to pressure. Enjoy the build, keep posting, and we'll enjoy following it. (NASA sets a good example... behind schedule, over budget, and with the constant reminder that the person with the checkbook might cancel the program at any time.)

Patience is a virtue. Hey, how long did we wait for Starbuck and Apollo to finally find Earth? Like, 30 years?

oooops, I tossed in another tangent. :eek:
 
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Fin guides made out of foam board. Available in the Wal Mart craft section for several bucks.

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I simply can't recall why I sprayed the lower fins with primer before the fins were glued into place.

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Dang Todd, you shaped a nose cone with a plane? And they call me Norm! Sodmeister was right, you are a true craftsman. Oh, and I love what you did with the Fat Boy. That looks slick!
 
What are a few years among friends?

That's a good way of looking at it!

Dang Todd, you shaped a nose cone with a plane? And they call me Norm! Sodmeister was right, you are a true craftsman. Oh, and I love what you did with the Fat Boy. That looks slick!

Thank you for saying so. It's appreciated all the more coming from another great builder!

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Thank you for the compliment, but I don't consider myself a craftsman. I have a lot of nice tools, and some skill that was passed down to me by my father and grandfather. But I lack the artistic vision (and patience) of a true craftsman. You, however, are doing amazing things with simple hand tools. In my eyes, that's a mark of a craftsman.

There's a lot of detail in that little rocket! I love the faux rivets and panels. You've given a small simple rocket a lot of visual interest.
 
Thank you for the compliment, but I don't consider myself a craftsman. I have a lot of nice tools, and some skill that was passed down to me by my father and grandfather. But I lack the artistic vision (and patience) of a true craftsman. You, however, are doing amazing things with simple hand tools. In my eyes, that's a mark of a craftsman.

There's a lot of detail in that little rocket! I love the faux rivets and panels. You've given a small simple rocket a lot of visual interest.


Aw, shucks. :blush:

Don't sell yourself short. Look at the number of rockets you have used your imagination on to create. You have tweaked your tools to their maximum, use your hands and your skills to build a quality product time and time again. You to are a craftsman and have been one for quite sometime now.

Their are a lot of people that wish they could be as good at building rockets as well as you do.
 
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I simply can't recall why I sprayed the lower fins with primer before the fins were glued into place.

I think I came up an explanation as to why I sprayed the fins with primer out of order. I planned on using internal fillets only, no external fillets at all.

So I went ahead and painted the fins.

After some over night thinking, I came up a plan as to how I am going to get these big honk'n fins attached and be able to stand up to landings without bust'n off. To start with I sanded off some of the primer so a faux plate made of card stock can both cover the fin/body tube joint and add strength to the joint when saturated with thin CA. Might even double up on it.

This faux plate made of card stock will look like a mechanical joining of the fin/body tube joint.

The heavy duty internal joining will be what holds everything together.

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Here's the plan for the fins. There isn't much space to work with between the inside of the body tube and the outside of of the motor tube, approx. 8mm.

I'll be using a bamboo skewer to apply the epoxy into the cramped space and the small spoon to shape it.

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You know, there is something to be said for fins that break off cleanly, instead of tearing up the body tube.
 
You know, there is something to be said for fins that break off cleanly, instead of tearing up the body tube.

Crumple zones are built into cars to absorb a lot of the energy of an impact . I suppose they could be built into rockets also.

Hmmm...
 
Need to figure out the needed size and length for the dowel that braces the upper and lower sections of the missile.

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Need to figure out the needed size and length for the dowel that braces the upper and lower sections of the missile.

The parts list says the dowel is 1/12 of an inch in diameter.

The handy dandy conversion chart I have converts the fraction to a decimal of .083333

Multiply that by the scaling factor and ya come out with .256145

Looks like a 1/4 inch dowel will be pulling duty on the ASM.

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Ya gotta watch your back when Mr. Burns starts being nice to you!

The dowels need a custom fit. That can't be accomplished until several other steps are completed.

I test fitted the middle set of fin. Right out of the box the fit and placement were excellent, no tweaking required.

These fins are now ready for permanent installation.

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Got the root edges attached to the motor tube and let the glue set over night.

Now that everything is place and the glue has hardened, the real work of putting fillets on all the mating joint begins.

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