Estes D-Region Tomahawk- Finished- Now with launch pics and extras

Just finished up my Patriot build in the LPR section, check it out, I think it came out well.
This is next in my build box and I plan on some small mods to the original plans, as well as a Paint scheme inspired by the 1971 Centuri face card. It might not be a scale paint scheme or the same exact rocket, but I haven't seen one painted like that and I like it.

More to come, here is where we are starting.



In the build box



sneak peak at the paint scheme colors...



...and the inspiration.

There seems to be a general consensus that model glue is incapable of successfully bonding the plastic parts on this rocket. Do yourself a favor and use CA instead. After each of my fins fell off on successive launches, and I reglued them with CA, they stayed on after that.

Would you suggest 30 min epoxy on the fins?

I don't think I would. It is pretty thick, and not really necessary. And adds a lot of rear-end weight, where you don't want it.

I think that the epoxy would just sit on top of the plastic and not really bond the fins to the body. I used a plastic welder on my fins, and they have held up fine. I lightly sanded the surfaces to be bonded first, and I think that helped.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried that stuff sell on TV, that uses UV light to create an instant bond. It looks incredible in the commercial, but what is its real shear strength and load strength? What does it bond well, and what does it fail to bond? I wish I could think of the name of it....

That is an old glue that surfers used. It dried In the sun instantly.

Bat-mite said:

I wonder if anyone has ever tried that stuff sell on TV, that uses UV light to create an instant bond. It looks incredible in the commercial, but what is its real shear strength and load strength? What does it bond well, and what does it fail to bond? I wish I could think of the name of it....

Click to expand...

Dentists use a similar medical grade product iirc.

Ah, here it is. https://www.asseenontv.com/5-second-fix/detail.php?p=924889&v=household_home-repair#tabs Looks like junk.

Here's a thread I started about the plastic and the product that I used.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?124043-D-Region-Tomahawk-What-Type-Of-Plastic

Devcon Plastic Welder
It is an "Epoxy", but definitely holds tough.

And yes, of course I roughed the surfaces slightly before bonding, but it seems as though it did literally "Weld" the plastic together.

I used epoxy on my plastic parts. The can is holding fine but I have had a couple fins pop off on landing. I glued them back in with CA. Mine flies awesome on E20-7W motors.

It's a very nice rocket if you can keep the fins on. :wink:

I bought one of these kits right after it came out. Glued the plastic pieces as per instructions in the box. Then had to set it aside for maybe two years (don't you just hate when real life interferes with your goofing off?). Picked the model back up to complete it. Well, the cats had peed on the body tube (easily fixed with enough primer...), then most of the glued joints fell apart. I was lucky in that I had access to Pasteur pipettes (they taper into almost a needle), and some toluene. By carefully wicking the toluene into the joints, they "welded" themselves together. You can buy toluene at WalMart, Ace, or paint stores.

ES6209 on mine. Heavy, but that is a 29mm mmt in which I will be stuffing 3 grain H motors so I am not concerned.

The ES6209 is applied to exterior fin mating surfaces, fin is then placed, excess external epoxy wiped off, then, after that has cured the internal bed of epoxy laid. I have not yet flown mine, but I will start taking bets the fins will remain attached as we get closer to my Feb 20 launch date.

I thought of doing the same. I like it. Are you in vegas? I'm trying to make it Feb 20th as well.

I use Medium Vis CA on all my plastic to plastic joints including my Estes Tomahawk. Had a fin on a Estes SuperNova Payloader break in half, CA joint did not budge.

I am in stupid Tampa Florida.

The amount of epoxy I used on the inside was excessive but ES6209 is expensive when you're poor and I already had it mixed and had nothing else to use it on and didn't want to toss it. Just scuff everywhere plastic touches plastic and anywhere epoxy touches with 80 or 100 grit and you'll be fine. I have total confidence in this technique and I will be using a 24" Spherachute which will bring it down to a ground impact speed of about 19fps. I wouldn't hesitate to drop it onto concrete from the second story but I am not going to do that. It will go up in a couple of weeks and I will post a video.

The only cement which has worked for me on this kit is Tenax 7r. It was difficult to find for awhile, but it seems to be fairly common in the market again.

My first attempt was to use the recommended model glue. On the first landing onto very soft sod, the rocket completely disassembled itself. Literally. None of the components were damaged, though, so I rebuilt it using Plastiweld because I could not find Tenax 7r anywhere except eBay at a significant markup. This time, I only popped a fin. Same story on the third flight.

I built a second kit using the Tenax 7r and this one has held together completely through several flights. It seems like magic. I don't think epoxy would hold. The CA probably would, but it becomes brittle so I would worry about it snapping eventually. The Tenax welds the pieces together completely. I don't think it will ever come apart without shattering!

By the way...cool idea for the color scheme. I love reproducing actual rockets as closely as possible to their "as launched" condition, but I also like to see the result when somebody has a vision!

Cheers,
Michael

OK got some updates in....
Looks like this is going to be a CA only build. I spent a good amount of time just fitting and looking at the plastic and decided to use gel CA and milled fibers to glue the fin can assembly. I sanded the areas to be glued with 180 grit.









Next i decided to ditch the twist motor retainer for an Estes 24mm screw on retainer. This required hogging out the fin can MMT centering ring to allow the tube to slide through. It also required lengthening the complete MMT/ejection charge tube to the body coupler bulkhead. I used the yellow assembly tube to act as a coupler on the small length of 24mm tube.

















I let everything dry, brought it inside and held the fin can about 12 inches or so above the counter top and dropped it repeatedly on the fins about 5 times. So far... so good...I am taking bets if the fins pop on launch day. I plan to launch it 3 times that day. Maybe I should start a poll..... LOL

Anyhow, this is where its at. Updates soon, comments welcomed, good, bad or indifferent.

Oh, and i left the motor block out.

I got it primed today, did a bit of sanding and some more primer. Just a tad of bondo filler on a few spots, just a bit. Now it's drying till tommorw. Still working out the paint details in my head.

I got it primed today, did a bit of sanding and some more primer. Just a tad of bondo filler on a few spots, just a bit. Now it's drying till tommorw. Still working out the paint details in my head.

Well, I started the painting process after about an hour of staring at it and some colors... I started, what is going to be a tedious lengthy process......I started with the nose cone to get a feel of how this primer is going to work. I don't normally use spray can high build primer, but I chose it for this rocket as there were some imperfections that weren't big enough to fill but not small enough to work out.....I just had to tell my self that this one WILL not be perfect and learn to deal with it. Anyways, I digress....

Started my normal sanding process. 600, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit with my simple green/water solution. I dont press real hard when sanding I wet out the paper with minimal on the surface, let it get soft and let the paper do the work. At least in this situation. There was a run on the primer (again why I don't like canned primer) that took a little knuckle grease to get out.






Next up, Clean the surface, since this nose cone is going to take a lot of masking and a lot of different colors I didn't want to chance any surface fish eye or adhesion as it would be a complete pain in the... to sand it down if there was a problem. So i used wax grease remover. I've used this before in the past on fresh fiberglass parts out of the mold as the first wash and it worked great and also as a wipe down on primer and colors.



Ready for the first color.



And.... the first color. White. Nothing special to see here, for now.
Masked with Tamiya 6mm tape and Scotch blue with painters paper.
I used Testors Opaque white 1:1 for this, I was having a few issues getting a consistent spray pattern so this is going to need some color sanding.:bang:.. not a happy start... I don't usually have issues in the paint process....





Should have some more tomorrow.

Got some more work done with the paint department... Getting everything sorted out..


Masking all the areas, I knew this was going to be tedious. I used Scotch low tack, but I stuck it on my forehead first to lessen the tack, as this acrylic paint takes a few hours to set.



Got the nose cone theme sorted out, I think it came out nice. I have a few touch ups to do and will be "dotting" the rivets with chrome paint....Haven't fully committed to that yet. We will see how I feel once the majority is painted.



Got the first coat of Laguna Seca Blue (one of my favorite colors) on there, thinned this paint a little more since it is not quite 75 degrees today, it will give it time to flash and set.



Waited 10 min. and another coat



Waited 10 min. and another coat



Waited 10 min. and the final coat!



This color is awesome in the sun, goes from a teal blue, to dark to turquoise. I think it matches well with the face card theme I was going for in the first post. I plan to paint one fin that dark silver that is on the nose cone, and the other 3 fins, black. The nose cone point was painted that same dark silver. I think once everything is painted, color sanded (since there are so many overlapping/transitions) and the clear is put on, everything will pop. I don't think I want to fly it...

That's a nice paint jig you have there. Very clever.

Updates!!
After a few touch ups, sanding, re-painting, and hours of masking..... the paint is done, Just need to lightly color sand, shoot clear coat, mount the motor retainer and the recovery gear.... almost done! Then I can move on to the next one.

masked off One Fin to paint dark silver, matches the nose cone tip and bands on the nose cone.



Touched up the nose cone in the back ground, sprayed 3 fins black, in this picture it looks like a missed spot but its the light reflecting...wierd.



After the paint set, pulled off all the tape and this is what we have.





Took it outside to see what it looks like in the sun, there are a few spots I would want to color sand, and a few spots I am going to ignore...have to draw the line somewhere with OCD..







Later today I will do the finishing touches and shoot clear and try to button it up in the morning. I know it will look 100 times better color sanded and with clear over it. I just want it to dry and flash off as much as possible as its a bit warmer today, in the 80's and the paint really went on well today.

let me know what you think of the paint scheme and if it matches the face card in the first post...comments welcomes good, bad or indifferent. Thanks!! :cyclops: