CJ's Wildman New 4 inch V-2 build/instructions

The V-2 has long been a favorite of hobbysts, worldwide. Its distinctive looks, along with its history makes it a rocket that appeals to hobbyists everywhere. Now Wildman is offering a 4" version of our popular 6" kit. This stylish kit includes:

4-1 Von Karman fiberglass filled polycarbonite nosecone
4-1 Von Karman fiberglass filled polycarbonite tailcone
6" lightweight fiberglass body tube
6" fiberglass coupler
3" fiberglass coupler
54mm fiberglass motor mount
1/8" CNC cut beveled G10 fins
Aeropack Motor Retainer & special ring to adapt to thin-wall tubing [motor mount tube]
Fiberglass centering ring
Welded stainless eyebolt
High heat resistant phenolic nose cone tip. Threaded for 1/4-20 bolts





For a limited time: All 4" V-2 kits come with a FREE dual deploy upgrade.

Introductory price of 159.99 reg price-200.00 gets you the Dual-Deploy version Free.
Add on DD which is vent band & 2 aluminum stepped av-bay bulk plates would cost an extra 39.99 but is included in this offer free.

So normal price: 200.00 + 40.00 = 240

All for 159.99!! with this offer.

Taking pics and build starts Today!

This features the new Polycarbonate nose cone & tailcone with the built in stop or inside shoulder that's molded in to prevent the coupler from wedging inside. This enables you to do conventional dual deploy in NC coupler by shear-pinning the cone to it. Main is inside NC attached to eyebolt in the phenolic tip & drogue charge fires from aft side of coupler/av-bay in normal manner.

All the weight of electronics & recovery are in cone so no nose weight is needed, if built light like this one!:grin:

I know we did the Voo-Doo V-2 build awhile back, but this is the newer version with the polycarbonate cones...so there are a few things different...like the new ring needed on MM tube for thin wall, the cones have an internal lip/shoulder to catch/keep coupler from sliding forward, they a quite a bit lighter also, among others so...........let's begin!:dark:


Need to drill 2 holes in CR for the recovery harness. Or eyebolts if you prefer. I'm trying to keep the rear end as light as possible, so I'm going with direct shock cord attach. No metal.

Jimbo Tip:

Easy way to center is: slide CR into tail cone & mark edge throughout opposite slots!Click image for larger version.




Lay flat and continue marks on face of CR and center mark for hole. Drill with 1/4in bit.
Click image for larger version.









We use a 2ft section of 3/8 Kevlar for recovery Y-harness. Masking tape ends to a point, fish through holes & tie an overhand or figure 8 knot.




Test fit recovery harness into 3in coupler. Sand if needed to fit. Check fit of 54mm motor mount into hole...sand if needed.





Recovery attachment done.

There is no Centering ring for the rear of motor mount. The Aero-Pac doubles as CR & motor retention. The tailcone has been machined for a close tolerance fit of the Aero-pac.

When you get your AP, [which is included in the kit]
unscrew the cap & you will find the thin wall silver adapter ring inside.....





Remove it....will go on motor mount first.
Check fit of Aero-Pac adapter ring for rear of MM tube. Sand to fit if needed.

Sand entire MM tube with 60-80 grit.....all fiberglass will be sanded with 60-80 grit.

Epoxy the Aero-Pac adapter ring on MM tube. Flush with end of tube. I did use JB Weld for this, but I have used the black Pro-line, when I have some mixed for something else.



No need to wait till cure. You can go ahead & glue retainer on to ring. Set aside to cure.



I have had some rings slide right on, others I have had to sand a bit.

Sand the area where glue is in contact with CR and coupler.
Sand inside of tail-cone where coupler will contact.

The smaller 3in. long coupler is used between the airframe & tail-cone. Sand inside of one end of coupler where the CR will be glued.

The front CR, is mounted flush with edge of coupler.[more on that soon]






Lightly sand rear/narrow end of tail-cone where motor retainer will be glued.
HERE IS A GOTCHA: barely sand it! Reach inside and stay away from the edge, when sanding!
The fit must be snug, if you sand to much on the very edge, you will enlarge the hole and retainer will be a sloppy fit. Then you will have to go back.....smear some glue on that edge... let cure... and sand hole to correct size again. BE CAREFUL HERE....this can come back and bite you!






Take your recovery/CR assembly and push it flush with the sanded end of coupler.





Inside make a nice heavy fillet around the inside edge to prevent the CR from pulling out.






Here's why:
There a basically 2 ways to do internal fillets. Inject or remove a CR & fillet inside with a dowel/stick.
You cannot remove the rear CR as in normal construction the front one must be removed.

If you wish to inject, then the CR must be pushed down tight to top of fins, so glue cannot leak around the fins.
Either way: we must be able to first tack the fins in place, hold them there with pressure from the CR. Then when cured....remove the CR. [in this case CR and coupler, since CR is INSIDE the coupler....Got it?
The harness makes it easy to pull out.

Now the tricky part. Small bead of epoxy around the interior edge of tail-cone.
Not too much here. You must insert the motor mount tube with retainer on it, and not get glue on tube while sliding it into position past the glue. Unless you are a magician, face the fact you will, and be prepared to clean off top of tube where the coupler/CR must slide on! I put a motor in retainer and had the cap on to be sure of fit.
Click image for larger version.







Now slide the coupler/CR on top of MM tube to keep it centered while glue dries. It doesn't have to be in all the way, just far enough to keep things centered.




Stand assembly on end until cure. With cap on and motor in place or it can just push up into tailcone!




Check every now & then, to make sure the cap doesn't get glued to your tailcone or threads of retainer.
I go back every 15 minutes or so and loosen/tighten cap. If it gets sticky, wipe off glue with rag/alcohol.





You must have motor in retainer if you want proper fit, with out gap or binding! Notice how nice and snug fit is between end of tailcone & retainer cap.

Before pulling the recovery assembly out to proceed, take advantage & fit the fins:

Sand slots & fins for fit. Insert fin and draw line on both sides.Click image for larger version.




Remove and sand both sides of root for internal fillet adhesion, make sure no shine remains.





Reason for the line: when glueing fin onto motor mount, you may catch fin on CR or just not get it all the way tight to MM tube. This is a simple guide to show you instantly if fin is where it belongs.
If line is off airframe you know to push it in farther or remove fin and find what the trouble is.....before the glue sets.







Sand on each side of slot [approximately 3/4in.] for external fillet adhesion.





Now we have finished prepping the fin can

Note some of these pics from previous build. Still the same process.

GLUE:

A few words about what I'm using on this build.

We all have an arsenal of favorite epoxies we use, for the V-2, it is Black Pro-line 4500......West 105 resin, 205 hardner, CA [super glue] and 5 minute for tacking stuff. RocketPoxy.



As mentioned you can inject internal fillets , I add chopped carbon fiber strands to my epoxy, kinda like re-bar in concrete.

Or pack your internals with thick epoxy or thickened laminating resin with a dowel/stick etc. after removing the CR.

When tacking fins in, after aligning them, I use a drop of CA in the fin slot to hold them in position. No more worries about the fin shifting or falling part way out anymore. Just a drop locks them in position.

Remove the coupler/Cr recovery assembly and sand on the outside for gluing.




Butter the root edge of a fin with epoxy, for tacking in place and alignment.



Once all 4 fins are in place, use a straight edge to line up the opposite side pairs. This will assure correct alignment.





If your are injecting internal fillets, coat the inside of tail-cone & outside of motor mount with a thin coating of epoxy. Put a dab of glue on the four areas where the CR[wood shown for clarity, will come with black G-10.] will hit top of fin to seal it for injecting. Push assembly into position in tailcone.







If not injecting, just slide the coupler/Cr recovery assembly back into position to hold things in place while the glue cures.

If you are manually doing the internals, once again remove the coupler/recovery assembly exposing the inside.
Use whatever your preferred technique & finish the internals. I use 2 mixing sticks taped together to reach inside.
With the tapered tail-cone it gets very small & tight at the narrow end.

When finished glue in the recovery/coupler assembly.









First I use the same tool that will smooth the external fillets..... for marking where the masking tape goes, to keep the epoxy fillets where they belong.
I coat an edge with marker ink, then rub in the V-groove leaving lines where the tape should go.
This may take several coats/passes.



Lay tool on tape to check fit. This technique makes even fillets a snap. It also is the only way I found to get symmetry on curved surfaces like the V-2's tailcone. I tried carbon paper etc. in the past, but this just makes marking correctly stupid simple.



Then finish all my taping, laying tape to edge of lines.





Rub tool over tape lines & check for tight fit. If tape edge is off from where tool will slide, there will be a glue ridge. Remove tape and reposition for a nice smooth edgeless fillet!

Mine were so close there was barely an edge at all when tape was removed.

I have used West 105 with 406 filler, RocketPoxy and Pro-Line 4500 [black] for external fillets over the years. We all have our favorites, so pull yours out to begin.

External fillets.... for this a 1in. diam. section of PVC pipe will suffice.
Out comes the old triple beams, to weigh Pro-Line 4500, for these fillets.

5.5 gram resin- to 1 gram hardener ratio. Don't forget to put empty cup on first and set your tare!

16.5 grams resin, and 3 grams hardener is what I started out with to do 2. It is a bit much, but I would rather be over than get caught short in the middle of filleting.
You only need about 14-15 total if you scrape the cup clean and work fast. I was too lazy, to figure out precisely the ratio.




My fin front was a bit high in slot, so knowing the fillet would hide it, I made a tape "dam" for front edge so it wouldn't drip/run.




1in. diameter section of PVC used to get my 6-8% fillet radius.



Fill and pull smooth with tool.
Don't forget to tape your motor retainer, you don't want any glue on the threads.
I remove my tape 10-15 minutes after smoothing the fillets, so I don't get the tape permanently glued to fin can. [which will/can happen if you wait till full cure]

Wow is that looking nice.

I am the rare building who is not a big fan of the V2, but that kit and this build make me want one!

Now that fillets are finished , glue the body tube to tail cone.
Sand inside of airframe & outside of coupler. Divide coupler in half....mark. Half will be glued into fin can & airframe.

Smear some glue on inside of airframe, push onto coupler with twisting motion.
Stand aside to cure.






While glue is setting up, move onto the nose cone assembly.

Need to attach our recovery gear to the NC. Supplied is high heat resistant phenolic tip-threaded for 1/4 eyebolt. Gather parts: Thread locker [or CA] 2-3 ft of kevlar for recovery loop-tip-eyebolt-washer-nut.





Eyebolt- nut-washer: dry fit by inserting into cone. You want nut/washer placement so just enough is coming out NC hole to hold with finger, while threading tip on. When tip is threaded tight, it should be snug against cone. After dry fit remove. [pliers is all I needed to hold eyebolt from inside]





I used a section of 3/8 kevlar to make a loop through the eyebolt for recovery gear attachment. Black is electrical tape I used to neaten up the ends after tying a knot.
Run the eyebolt with loop attached through the washer....add a nut to hold in place....drop assembly into NC, while holding NC vertical. Apply some Loc-tite thread locker [or what ever your preferred locker is] I used the Blue, then attach the tip.







Recovery attachment loop for main complete.

watermelonman said:

Wow is that looking nice.

I am the rare building who is not a big fan of the V2, but that kit and this build make me want one!

Click to expand...

I was opposite. Always liked the V-2, but did not want to build one...... motor eject.... to keep the scale-or-stretch it, so dual deploy could be included.
This one with dual-deploy out of the nose cone,solves that issue, keeps scale look...even motor retainer actually part of the design.
Further the DD version puts all that weight in NC & coupler, so no additional nose weight is needed.
It remains scale, I can fly it with nice beefy motors & set it up like any DD, so no long walk.

If you are insane like Wildman,just using motor deploy.....glue the coupler into the nose cone and you are basically done. [except for rail buttons & paint]

No bulk plate is used. Just attach recovery to loop in NC.
This allows you to go up into the NC with motors as large as the 54mm 6xl case!!! Still being scale with no nose weight needed.








This now puts the V-2 in a class by itself. I know of no other V-2 4in. kit than can handle a 6xl grain 54mm motor, and comes standard with Aero-Pac motor retention included in the price!
To "the moon Alice"!!


Now on to the Dual-Deploy upgrade version, which consists of 2 aluminum BP's and a coupler vent-band converting the NC shoulder into a av-bay.
With the DD you can fly 4 grain 54mm motors.

blackjack2564 said:

If you are insane like Wildman,just using motor deploy.....glue the coupler into the nose cone and you are basically done. [except for rail buttons & paint]

No bulk plate is used. Just attach recovery to loop in NC.
This allows you to go up into the NC with motors as large as the 54mm 6xl case!!! Still being scale with no nose weight needed.

View attachment 267310

View attachment 267311




This now puts the V-2 in a class by itself. I know of no other V-2 4in. kit than can handle a 6xl grain 54mm motor, and comes standard with Aero-Pac motor retention included in the price!
To "the moon Alice"!!

Click to expand...

That's pretty insane, though, I thought that the 6xl motors were all plugged?


Looking good as usual Jim!


Braden

UPscaler said:

That's pretty insane, though, I thought that the 6xl motors were all plugged?


Looking good as usual Jim!





Braden

Click to expand...

Some insane people have been known to pull the paper plug cap off & fill it with BP!

blackjack2564 said:

Some insane people have been known to pull the paper plug cap off & fill it with BP!

Click to expand...

I can't think of anyone who might do that!


:wink:

Braden

This is a great build thread and I don't want to take away from it, but is anyone else bothered that the nose on this kit is so wrong, the length and shape? The 2.6" is much better....to my eyes..is the kit picture on his site just bad?

burkefj said:

This is a great build thread and I don't want to take away from it, but is anyone else bothered that the nose on this kit is so wrong, the length and shape? The 2.6" is much better....to my eyes..is the kit picture on his site just bad?

Click to expand...

Wait till its painted, it really doesn't look "bad." The exact scale element isn't there.....but come on, this is a 4" lightweight sport scale kit.

burkefj said:

..to my eyes..is the kit picture on his site just bad?

Click to expand...

This better after some primer?

I think it's an optical illusion....first 3in. of NC are actually airframe diameter & it kinda throws things off when just dry fitting the parts.

Looks good from here. Now grab the can o Yeller

I thihnk its still too long and tapered, but let's get back to the build and not let me put a damper on anything

Mark the vent band for 3 holes. These marks will be used for shear pin position & vents for AV-bay.
Can't use the slots in fin can trick....4 fins..we want 3 positions.
I just sat the band on another 4in diameter rocket and marked it using the fin positions.




Slide Av-bay [with bulk plates attached or coupler will go farther up into NC!] into nosecone & add the vent band.
Draw line around coupler.





Remove coupler/av-bay, remove vent band. Apply tape around mark.
This is to keep excess glue off coupler. Stick back into NC and mark front edge where vent band would be, mark around.






Remove coupler/av-bay. You now have a marked area to sand for vent band attachment & tape to catch excess glue.

Sand inside the vent band.
In-between the lines on Av-bay/coupler.






Smear thin band of epoxy onto the Av-bay/coupler, between lines only.
Do not put any inside vent band .





Slide on vent band, twisting, to evenly disperse glue.
Remove tape & Voila!..... no muss, no fuss, no glue to clean up.




Check the fit by placing into the nosecone, make sure nothing has shifted, so there is no gap between band & NC, adjust by pushing band lightly to fit.



REMEMBER.....BULK-PLATES TEMPORARILY ON DURING THIS, OR FIT WILL BE OFF BY THICKNESS OF BP!

Hey! quit playing around with those cheese curds today and build me an AV bay already! :wink: I'm actually building mine along with you. I'm at the AV bay. I'm gonna drill the plates to fit the MW 4" printed sleds. I've got a couple extra RRC2+'s that can go for the ride. I've got the external fillets to do yet.

May try ProLine 4500 for these. Gimme a little advice with this stuff. Can I do all eight fillets at once or will it sag if I flip it to do the next set? Or a better way to ask is should I only mix up enough to do one set of fillets at a time?
I may actually have this ready by MWP. Although there is that whole paint thing....

Adrian

blackjack2564 said:

I used a section of 3/8 kevlar to make a loop through the eyebolt for recovery gear attachment. Black is electrical tape I used to neaten up the ends after tying a knot.
Run the eyebolt with loop attached through the washer....add a nut to hold in place....drop assembly into NC, while holding NC vertical. Apply some Loc-tite thread locker [or what ever your preferred locker is] I used the Blue, then attach the tip.

View attachment 267198

Click to expand...

What kind of knot are you using Jim?

4kids49 said:

What kind of knot are you using Jim?

Click to expand...

It's hip to be.............."square".

jd2cylman said:

Hey! quit playing around with those cheese curds today and build me an AV bay already! :wink: I'm actually building mine along with you. I'm at the AV bay. I'm gonna drill the plates to fit the MW 4" printed sleds. I've got a couple extra RRC2+'s that can go for the ride. I've got the external fillets to do yet.

May try ProLine 4500 for these. Gimme a little advice with this stuff. Can I do all eight fillets at once or will it sag if I flip it to do the next set? Or a better way to ask is should I only mix up enough to do one set of fillets at a time?
I may actually have this ready by MWP. Although there is that whole paint thing....

Adrian

Click to expand...

I was at the Bong-a-rooo!

Testing the 2-stage.

Just do 2 at a time. It's a curve fillet [tailcone] & this stuff will settle like JB weld, unless you let it sit awhile.

The amounts needed are in the posts above to do it. I did use black 4500.

Av-bay ....hold yur horses ....I'm almost there!
I just did simple 2 rods-sled and a RRC3 -9v battery.

Thanks for the build log, Jim. It cleared up what to do with the silvery thing.

View attachment WILDMAN V2 4 INCH.ork

Attached is my Open Rocket sim file based on actual kit measurements.
I am not a pro at this so please consider this 'vers 1.0'. Motor data for the J500 C star is not available so
the closest motor is simmed.