Estes V-2

Love the lines of the V-2, so decided to build one last week!

Box came pretty crushed..



Fortunately on the end that doesnt matter, it was all good!


Contents

Mockup next to the Phoenix for scale






The fit to the bottom part wasnt very good, the tube was much larger in diameter and uneven, took a bunch of sanding and filling to get decent. Cutting out the holes for the fins was pretty easy at least.



Lots of filling and sanding and then priming




Fins glued on, only took a couple evenings to complete, now for a paint scheme....

Decisions decisions...........

Initially I was thinking the yellow and black...



But Im really digging on the ragged camo


But that looks like alot of masking headache?


Flyfalcons Likes the black and white....

The splinter camo isn't hard to do and you can free form it some, so it's not to bad. It's all straight lines so you just lay the tape down and go. I did it free hand with brush paints when I was a kid. I lost the NC on mine and I need to paint the replacement NC one of these days.

Interesting that the nose & tail cone are black, on both the two I built they were white. I built two because I couldn't decide which color scheme to go with, so I did both of the ones I was debating. I did one in yellow/black - but not the same yellow/black roll pattern as the package shows. Mine's based on the #3 White Sands test rocket, the first US-launched rocket to tickle the edge of space. It also had the bonus of using the pin-up girl fin can decal:


The other is a transitional color scheme from the German field testing of the rockets, so it was primarily olive green, but still have a white/black roll pattern aspect:


Both together:


I'm leery about painting rockets in anything approaching camouflage; for that reason, the green one hasn't been flown yet. Finding them in a field can be difficult enough when they're brightly colored.

the pieces are only black because that was the only color of sandable primer I had at first and wanted to get a coat on, if you look in the first pictures you can see they are white, Ive since bought a can of grey sandable as you can see in the end. They were white, with terrible seams.

I hear you on the camo, but with a big parachute it should be be too hard to find back. Maybe switching to a bright color chute will be the answer.

Still thinking on what way to go with it, any direction will be a bunch of masking, unless I do the camo that I can airbrush with soft lines...

I'd say that it depends on where you can fly it and how likely you are to lose it. I realize this is true on all rockets, but I lost a V2 that I launched on an E engine and was glad I hadn't painted it yet. It was all white from the sandable primer, so it was smooth and ready for paint. Now it's tree food.

I dont put the biggest motor I can in them, I like to watch the whole flight, not see a smoke trail as it disappears. I could paint it black and still get it back non problem. I just like scale stuff, and camo.

My A4b/A9 conversion of the Estes V2 took about 5 or 5.5 hours of painting and masking at a high rate of speed to get the splinter camo on it. Lots of post it notes and fine line tape. Without the wings I think I could do it in about 3.5 or 4 hours.

No worries about thus camo model getting lost as the A4b is an RC boost glider and lands near me....

Deezil said:

I hear you on the camo, but with a big parachute it should be be too hard to find back. Maybe switching to a bright color chute will be the answer.

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A big, bright chute isn't always as much help as you might think, though a darker colored one does no favors either. I originally built my green/white/black V-2 with a green parachute, and the other with a yellow one. Well, the yellow chute is still in the yellow/black rocket, but the green chute is in the toolbox as a field spare. I installed a bright orange one in its place. However, that really only helps if the grass you land on is short. Ball field, golf course, fine. One of the sites we fly from is planted with wheat, which by the beginning of this month was waist high to me (I'm not tall). I launched my Bigger Bertha - 38" long, 2.6" diameter, white with a 24" bright orange chute - and it took me over a 1/2 hour to locate in the wheat, even though I had an accurate directional bearing to track it. I nearly stepped on it before I saw it. It was down in the grasses, and had pulled the chute down to. Lighter rockets sometimes let the chute float on top of the grass, but not always. So, your mileage may vary depending on your site, but going camo definitely doesn't help...

I want to do the soft camo scheme but with rattle cans, it might prove too ugly of a finished product. Not sure yet which way I'm going but I want to do an operational scheme, not a test scheme. That way I can scribble some obscenities toward the British on the fins.

Completed the paint job today. Whew.

Deezil said:

Completed the paint job today. Whew.

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Very nice, worth the effort. To me that kind of camo screams "VINYL".

I have a vinyl plotter. But the curves are what make me paint it. I think it turned out okay. It took a while, and a lot of tape. Haha.

Deezil said:

I have a vinyl plotter. But the curves are what make me paint it. I think it turned out okay. It took a while, and a lot of tape. Haha.

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It turned out fabulous the way you did it.

Vinyl with those compound curves would be a nightmare.

I've heard that the real V2s were often hurriedly painted in camo using buckets of paint and a mop...so how wrong could you go? but your results are certainly very pretty

Oh? I thought about using a brush, that would have been scale! Haha

Thanks all!

Next to my quest MLAS

Heres an Image I found that would making a vinyl version much easier, even if just to cut the individual colors and apply over a base color. Not sure how much easier it would be, probably still would be a lot of work. However the image could be used for a pattern and hand cutting the vinyl.

Image is from the V2 rockets site https://www.v2rocket.com

I need to get over to Western Washington and do some rocketry one of these days.

tab28682 said:

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My A4b/A9 conversion of the Estes V2 took about 5 or 5.5 hours of painting and masking at a high rate of speed to get the splinter camo on it. Lots of post it notes and fine line tape. Without the wings I think I could do it in about 3.5 or 4 hours.

No worries about thus camo model getting lost as the A4b is an RC boost glider and lands near me....

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This is awesome! Have any video?

rharshberger said:

Heres an Image I found that would making a vinyl version much easier, even if just to cut the individual colors and apply over a base color. Not sure how much easier it would be, probably still would be a lot of work. However the image could be used for a pattern and hand cutting the vinyl.

Image is from the V2 rockets site https://www.v2rocket.com

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Ive seen that one, but you still have to wrap it around the rocket, which is the hardest part, mainly the nose cone with compound curves. Im sure there is a way, I didnt feel like messing with it though.

The paint job came out great. I think the biggest problem with a vinyl wrap would be if the proportions are off even minutely it would be a nightmare.

You also have the best avitar on TRF.

Cl(VII) said:

The paint job came out great. I think the biggest problem with a vinyl wrap would be if the proportions are off even minutely it would be a nightmare.

You also have the best avitar on TRF.

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Thanks and Thanks!

What motor works best in this guy? Not looking for max height.

Nobody? I bought some D12-3's , hope that works

Deezil said:

What motor works best in this guy? Not looking for max height.

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I like to fly mine on 18/20 reloads with 4 sec delay. I get around 600' which is perfect for viewing and smaller fields.

I've flown mine on E9's. The package says the D12-3 is OK, though the only one I've seen that did use that didn't end well. It seemed to be built heavy though.

Thanks. I watched a ton of youtube vids and did google searches. This seemed to be a good choice. There will be video.