V2 for my L3

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Its looking better every post, the steering actuators are a nice touch.

Thanks. Still not sure if I will put these on or not. It will depend on how good the other detail parts turn out. It will be an all or nothing with the detail parts.
 
Just fins 1 and 3 ?

According to Peter Alway: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?125737-V2-Color-Scheme post 19
Notice the note across the top of the pic. Looking again, I should be calling these air vane drive fairings

I think the details on the Estes kits are kind of a V2 amalgam. I've decided to go for the V4 flight specifically, so just 1 and 3 for me. Although, it looks odd. That said, I'm not doing the uber fillets, and my tailcone is not quite the right proportions, so I'm clearly cherry picking details when they suit.
 
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According to Peter Alway: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?125737-V2-Color-Scheme post 19
Notice the note across the top of the pic. Looking again, I should be calling these air vane drive fairings

I think the details on the Estes kits are kind of a V2 amalgam. I've decided to go for the V4 flight specifically, so just 1 and 3 for me. Although, it looks odd. That said, I'm not doing the uber fillets, and my tailcone is not quite the right proportions, so I'm clearly cherry picking details when they suit.

Aha, thanks. I knew you didn't just make that up ! :)

There is a picture somewhere, v2rocket.com probably, showing the sprockets and chain underneath the fairing.
 
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Chris, your modeling skills leave me speechless!

Thanks, but I only show the stuff that works. Let's say the first attempt at some of the other fiddly bits ended in cursing, and in one case, a piece of blue tube kicking from the saw and putting a little dent in the wall...I took that as an indication that the building was through for the evening.

Also, thanks for the pics, Sam. I hadn't run across those before.
 
Thanks, but I only show the stuff that works. Let's say the first attempt at some of the other fiddly bits ended in cursing, and in one case, a piece of blue tube kicking from the saw and putting a little dent in the wall...I took that as an indication that the building was through for the evening.

I often considered calling my Level 3 project 'F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!' :facepalm:
 
I often considered calling my Level 3 project 'F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!' :facepalm:

-Nods slowly in agreement-

I could stay true to the V2's German roots and call it "Schiesse!" Also, that is my most commonly applied rocket building term...in English that is.
 
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With the fins in place I get to stack the whole thing up, and have a look.



Hard to get a feeling for scale with this one in a pic...it is about 5'6"-ish (don't remember exactly).

Given that there is a debate going in the HP section about internal fillets I will give my answer here...I like 'em, I like 'em a lot! I like building rockets, but I HATE repairing them. As such, anything that gives me more resistance to hard landing is worth doing within reason. Also, the external fillets here would be between CF and plastic. I don't trust anything to plastic bond as structural when I don't have to.

To do the fillets I drilled a couple holes at the base of each fin, one toward the fore CR and one toward the aft. Loaded up a 50 mL syring with 40 mL of mixed up Aeropoxy and injected 20 mL through the aft hole of two adjacent fins. The fin can was then turned to about a 60 degree angle and the Aeropoxy flowed to the fore CR. I watched through the forward hole to verify that the epoxy had flowed that far. When it had the MM was made level, so the epoxy could level out inside for curing. Looking in the aft hole showed that plenty of Aeropoxy was still applied to the fin-MM joint, so I should have a complete internal fillet. A little residual epoxy from the mix was heavily thickened with milled fiberglass and the drill holes plugged. These will be covered by the external fillets later, but need to be plugged, so I don't end up with dimples/sink holes in those fillets.

Not really a photogenic step, just holes before and after plugging.



The next few evenings are just more internal fillets, and maybe some do-dad making.
 
Your skills are very good.You said you picked up things from members including qquake2k.Jim's a good friend of mine and has helped me many times on my builds.Your V2 came out looking very scale like to me.Great job all around.You said a M motor was your choice,that should really put it up in a hurry.Good luck on the rest of the build and launch.
 
Your skills are very good.You said you picked up things from members including qquake2k.Jim's a good friend of mine and has helped me many times on my builds.Your V2 came out looking very scale like to me.Great job all around.You said a M motor was your choice,that should really put it up in a hurry.Good luck on the rest of the build and launch.

Jim is definitely good people. I for one miss him around here. When he offered advice, it was always informed and done with humility. I hope he turns back up. The scratch build section hasn't been the same since he and Paul went dark.

Thanks for the good words on the V2. I am hoping the end product will be fly able from K through M. I have my eye on that L Dark Metal load for the 75-6400 case. This is probably going to end up being a special occasion, once a year kind of rocket. Can't see popping of M motors more than once or twice a year...at least until I start making them myself.
 

Very nice. No mistaking the quintessential rocket shape. Damn Nazis


Your skills are very good.You said you picked up things from members including qquake2k.Jim's a good friend of mine and has helped me many times on my builds.
...

Jim is definitely good people. I for one miss him around here. When he offered advice, it was always informed and done with humility.

...

cjp, please pass along my best wishes to a friend I never met. The Captain made a big positive impression with every post here. All y'all need to search the threads started by qquake2k to see how TRF operates at its best.
 
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Very nice. No mistaking the quintessential rocket shape. Damn Nazis






cjp, please pass along my best wishes to a friend I never met. The Captain made a big positive impression with every post here. All y'all need to search the threads started by qquake2k to see how TRF operates at its best.

I will.I talked to him on Facebook a few hours ago.He's turning pen blanks and has sent 5 or 6 great looking pens to me in the last year.There is no better friend than Jim for sure.I'll pass it along.Good luck and hope you have video of your flight.
 
Question: Has anyone ever primed and painted directly over adhesive vinyl successfully? If so, did it hold up over time?

I'm thinking about how to do some of the panels. Before, I've done them by glueing on cardstock, CA coating it, and polishing that smooth. This is a lot of work. I have some sheets of adhesive vinyl I could easily cut into panels. These would stick great to the airframe, and show the relief I'm looking for.
 
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Question: Has anyone ever primed and painted directly over adhesive vinyl successfully? If so, did it hold up over time?

I'm thinking about how to do some of the panels. Before, I've done them by glueing on cardstock, CA coating it, and polishing that smooth. This is a lot of work. I have some sheets of adhesive vinyl I could easily cut into panels. These would stick great to the airframe, and show the relief I'm looking for.

Maybe try using a adhesive promoter like Duplicolor Plastic Adhesion Promoter. At Home Depot the other night I saw some self adhesive plastic panels about 12"×12" for testing paint colors, they might work since they are paintable.
 
cjp, please pass along my best wishes to a friend I never met. The Captain made a big positive impression with every post here. All y'all need to search the threads started by qquake2k to see how TRF operates at its best.

Stop it, you're making me blush!
 
Captain Low and Slow himself! This is officially a scratch build thread now. Hope you are well, Jim. I feared we had lost you in a pen avalanche or other lathe related disaster.
 
Jim is definitely good people. I for one miss him around here. When he offered advice, it was always informed and done with humility. I hope he turns back up. The scratch build section hasn't been the same since he and Paul went dark.

Thanks for the good words on the V2. I am hoping the end product will be fly able from K through M. I have my eye on that L Dark Metal load for the 75-6400 case. This is probably going to end up being a special occasion, once a year kind of rocket. Can't see popping of M motors more than once or twice a year...at least until I start making them myself.

I still maintain it was more my tools, rather than an abundance of skill. But thank you for the kind words. I've been out of rocketry for over a year, due to several reasons. Poor health, the drought, and one of our local clubs lost its launchsite. But I'm hoping to get back into it, at least a little bit, once we get some rain. If we get some rain...

Your V2 looks awesome! I always wanted to build a big V2, but never got around to it. (I need to get me a package of round tuits!) Any thoughts on paint scheme? There are so many cool ones to choose from, from the original German schemes to the roll patterns the US used on some of them. (I apologize if you mentioned it in your build thread, I haven't read through it all yet.)
 
For paint scheme check out the link in post 93. I think I'm going with the roll pattern from the first successful flight.
 
The project began at "The Bob Stash". This is a large collection of parts, kits, and rockets left to DARS by a deceased member, Bob. The stash is a much beloved source of far below retail parts for a donation to the club. Also, I think Jack wants his shed back, which probably helps with the deals. Fortunately the stash yielded me my high dollar components, 7.5" phenolic tube, 75mm phenolic tube, a 3:1 NC and a 5:1 NC. A 4:1 would have been more accurate for a V2 boat tail, but I can happily live with the discrepancy for the savings...sport scale, not scale.

Interestingly, the 5:1 NC had a line marked around it, which I realized days later turned out to be exactly where the cut should be for the boat tail. The short piece of 7.5" phenolic that I originally took in case I needed to make a coupler, turned out to be 17.75"...exactly what it should have been. Apparently, I bought Bob's V2 project. Our V2 will fly Bob!

This is very touching, that you're using his components to build your own V2. Godspeed, Bob!
 
I still maintain it was more my tools, rather than an abundance of skill. But thank you for the kind words. I've been out of rocketry for over a year, due to several reasons. Poor health, the drought, and one of our local clubs lost its launchsite. But I'm hoping to get back into it, at least a little bit, once we get some rain. If we get some rain...

Your V2 looks awesome! I always wanted to build a big V2, but never got around to it. (I need to get me a package of round tuits!) Any thoughts on paint scheme? There are so many cool ones to choose from, from the original German schemes to the roll patterns the US used on some of them. (I apologize if you mentioned it in your build thread, I haven't read through it all yet.)

Thanks for checking in. It wasn't just the tools. :)
 
Question: Has anyone ever primed and painted directly over adhesive vinyl successfully? If so, did it hold up over time?

I'm thinking about how to do some of the panels. Before, I've done them by glueing on cardstock, CA coating it, and polishing that smooth. This is a lot of work. I have some sheets of adhesive vinyl I could easily cut into panels. These would stick great to the airframe, and show the relief I'm looking for.

At work, we occasionally spray DuPont Chromabase over sign vinyl and then a light coat of clear flat lacquer over that. However, that is just when we need some temporary markings that usually get removed in a few weeks. The paint sticks pretty darn well, as we hit the vinyl before painting with a touch of scotchbrite to give it a little tooth and a light isopropyl wipe. We have tested adhesion by applying hi tack tape over the painted vinyl and it does not come off at all. Have not tried adhesion promoter yet.

If I were going to do some large panels that way, I think I would experiment with using adhesion promotor and go that route. I would also make a test panel of painted vinyl over scrap plywood and give it some moderately intense hangar rash by hand to see how it holds up. That way you can test your desired paint on the vinyl before going all in.
 
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Your V2 monster is Looking great, and they will be a really cool paint scheme.
 
At work, we occasionally spray DuPont Chromabase over sign vinyl and then a light coat of clear flat lacquer over that. However, that is just when we need some temporary markings that usually get removed in a few weeks. The paint sticks pretty darn well, as we hit the vinyl before painting with a touch of scotchbrite to give it a little tooth and a light isopropyl wipe. We have tested adhesion by applying hi tack tape over the painted vinyl and it does not come off at all. Have not tried adhesion promoter yet.

If I were going to do some large panels that way, I think I would experiment with using adhesion promotor and go that route. I would also make a test panel of painted vinyl over scrap plywood and give it some moderately intense hangar rash by hand to see how it holds up. That way you can test your desired paint on the vinyl before going all in.

Thanks for the advice. I've got some Duplicolor adhesion promoter en route, and I'm going to do some experimenting with finishing self adhesive vinyl and cardstock + Super 77 over the NC tip I cut off the now boat tail. Most of the panels are going to be on the NC or boat tail.
 
With the internal fillets all done it is time to do the external. I decided on 1 cm width fillets, so I measured that off on fin and boat tail. I then scuffed up both really well some 80 grit, and taped it off. The fillets need to have very little flow because of the boat tail, so I thickened up a 40 g batch of Aeropoxy with some milled fiberglass until I got thin peanut butter. Laid this on the fillet area, gave it about 10 minutes to release any major bubbles, and pulled the fillets with a piece of PVC dipped in ethanol. It took almost all of the epoxy I mixed up with probably only 15% waste. After that set for 10 min or so, I pulled the tape, and added some new tape dams to the aft end so I don't have any flow down the aft face.

 
As I do the mundane fillets, I'm also working on the accent do-dads for this beast. Aside for the panels and drive vane covers there are two other prominent sets of whats-its on a V2. Those are marked in G. Harry Stein's drawings as "Pullaway Plugs" and "Turbine Vents", and can be seen in a few different looks here:



The Turbine Vents are rather easy. That just required cutting some 38 mm blue tube coupler at a 45 deg (boat tail) angle, and then a 22.5 deg cut of part of about 1/2 of the circle. This was a complete failure with power tools, so a hand miter box was used. The only challenge was to keep the tube from rolling between cuts, so it was taped to a little jig I made for holding tubes for drilling...worked fine.



The Pullaway Plugs were a bit more challenging. For these I order a balsa nose cone (BNC-60OR) from Semroc (eRockets). Aside: I love that there will be a balsa nose cone on my L3 project...this amuses me to no end. I split it by eye with a Zona Saw and box cutter (because the saw was too short). Then I removed the shoulder and match sanded the two halves.



To get the shape generally right I knocked them down with the sanding bar, and smoothed out the shape with some gentle hand sanding.



To get the contour correct for the boat tail I taped some sandpaper to the boattail, and carefully sanded the contour into the underside of the do-dads. They didn't come out perfect, but well within spec.



To give you an idea of how they fit:



Both do-dads are a bit large relative to scale, but again, I plead sport scale. In actuality these pieces appear to have changed size quite a bit in the many versions, particularly among the early examples. I will need to harden up the balsa parts with some CA, polish, CA, polish, fill, CA... cycles, but I'm pretty happy with them. They should also be pretty well protected on landings as they are well inside the "fin valley" if that makes sense.

As a bonus, all of these accent bits weigh almost nothing, and should provide some drag at the correct end. I doubt it would influence the CP much, but if it does it will certainly be to pull it aft.
 
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