Screamin' Green Meenie Build

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Screaminhelo

Shade Tree Rocket Surgeon
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I picked up a PemTech Screamin' Green Meenie to pass time in the evenings while out of town for a little while. I've had to overcome a couple of challenges, but I am happy with the results thus far.


1-1_Layout.jpg 2-2_MMT.jpg 3-3_FinPaper.jpg 4-4_PaperedFin.jpg

1- I didn't think to take any pics until I had fished the motor mount but I got a partial parts layout

2- A closer shot of the MMT. A slight deviation from the destructions here. I built the MMT for friction fit and cut a tube from a cheap cotton swab to make it easy to replace the shock cord later down the road. I think that I learned that from Chris Michielssen

3- Ready to paper the fins

4- Papered fin before trimming

More to come.
 
Time for round two

5_FinsDone.jpg
A quick shot of the finished fins. There is a cut out in the root edge of the balsa so that the ring fin is flush with the root, I was a little overzealous when sanding the fin, so I had to sand the ring fin slightly to get it flush with the balsa. This resulted in a rock solid bond to the body tube so it ended up being somewhat of a happy accident. The provided marking guides were spot on.

6_Built.jpg
The fins are glued on and were very easy to align thanks to the ring fins. After fillets, the papered fins are pretty much bullet proof and don't tempt over building.

7_FWD_Lug.jpg
I like to set launch lugs in the fin root but the ring fin made this a little challenging. I wanted to hide the bottom lug is in the ring but that would raise the lug a bit off of the body tube. I just sanded a scrap of balsa into a thin wedge using the ring fin as a guide. The spacer was glued in place, faired in with glazing putty and then the lug was guled in place.

I'll wrap it up a little later but it is time to grab a bite to eat right now.
 
And now for the paint

8_WhiteBase.jpg
I started out with Krylon Colormax gray primer followed by Rusto 2x gray primer. It took two thin coats of each before I got it down to a reasonably even surface. This was followed by two coats Krylon Colormaster Satin Bright White, the first being mostly sanded down to primer.

9_Masking.jpg
I didn't get a shot of the Rusto Titanium Silver for the bottom but this shows the initial mask for the Krylon CM Gloss Purple.

10_FinalColor.jpg
Painting is done! The silver bottom really pops in the sunlight, I'll get a pic when I get home in a couple of days. I do plan on an overall clear but that will have to wait for the paint to cure for a while, the clear that I have is pretty hot and will crinkle most under coats that are not fully cured, and care must still be taken to be sure that it is built up in multiple light coats.

O.K. It's not green. I liked the color pattern but I wasn't crazy about the two-tone green livery. Since I had the white and the silver already, I just found a third color that struck my fancyayb, me it is more of Meen Gallopin' Grape now. There are some paint lines that aren't crisp but it looks nice at three feet and the paint looks perfect from five.

This was a fun kit and my first from Pemberton Technologies. Now I want to bash the SGM with the Kraken, It may require some nose weight to keep it stable but it would make for an awesome short, fat rocket.
 
Turned out really good. Did you build it in a hotel room?
 
Very nice! And thank you for your service!
I have a stack of naked rockets that I refer to as the hotel fleet. Life on the road makes for lots of building, but not good for getting them painted.....
 
Very nice! And thank you for your service!
I have a stack of naked rockets that I refer to as the hotel fleet. Life on the road makes for lots of building, but not good for getting them painted.....
Painting was a bit interesting. It has been pretty cold, wet and snowy over the last couple of weeks. I had to break most of the painting rules and let it dry in my room. As long as I kept the window open, I didn't get too bad of a buzz.
 
I finally got the finish work done. This one called me to do a slick finish and I think that it was worth the effort.

SGM_Finished.jpg

I rushed the masks a bit so some of the lines are not as clean as I would like but i still like the way it turned out. I don't see the bleed through in the pic and there is no way it will be noticeable on the pad. It has been damp and cloudy here for the last week or so. I wanted to get a shot of the Rusto Titanium silver in the sun ( it is really amazing in the sun ) but I am not sure if I'll have that opportunity for a while.
 
Thanks guys! When I e-mailed Layne for the Rocksim file, I told him how the design just didn't do much for me at first but after seeing the Nuclear Scream build I had a change of heart.

Somenoc you guys have built quite a few oc the PemTec kits but this was my first from the Llama ranch
I think that I could have just about squirted some glue in the bag, given it a good shake and dumped.out a finished rocket. All of the parts were top noch and the kit is pretty impressive all.put together.

I've got to tell y'all though. There is one problem with the kit. I am afraid that this is going to be my gateway to MPR. I swore up and down that I was going to keep things small to keep the launch budget down but this little guy is Screaming for bigger motor than I have ever flown. I really want to get this guy to a SOAR launch so I can feed it composites.
 
That's a nice looking rocket. Amazing that you could achieve those results on the road..... I'm not sure I could do that neat of a build at home.

Dave
 
That's a nice looking rocket. Amazing that you could achieve those results on the road..... I'm not sure I could do that neat of a build at home.

Dave
Thanks Dander. The paint isn't as clean as it looks though, there are several areas where I had some bleed under but it looks great from the pad.

Truth be known, the final finishing was done at home but it wouldn't be that hard to do on the road ether. The only challenge is having a spot to do a little wet sanding. In some respects, it was easier to do on the road since I had plenty of time to kill in the evenings. Once I threw the painting rules out the window, the color went on quite nicely.
 
I am afraid that this is going to be my gateway to MPR. I swore up and down that I was going to keep things small to keep the launch budget down but this little guy is Screaming for bigger motor than I have ever flown. I really want to get this guy to a SOAR launch...
And so the symptoms begin to appear... welcome to the infirmary, but I'll warn you, not many here have found a cure for the "more power!" bug. :facepalm:
 
I am afraid that this is going to be my gateway to MPR. I swore up and down that I was going to keep things small to keep the launch budget down but this little guy is Screaming for bigger motor than I have ever flown. I really want to get this guy to a SOAR launch so I can feed it composites.

That's how it starts, man! We got you now!
 
As long as I can keep 'em low and slow. Most of my launches have to be from the ball fields down the road or my sister's pasture. Both are easy places to lose a rocket that goes too high.
 
Just build bigger. I'm working on a 4" with a 29mm motor mount. It sims at 900' on a G64 reload.
 
Just build bigger. I'm working on a 4" with a 29mm motor mount. It sims at 900' on a G64 reload.

That's pretty much the direction that I am headed. Like you, I like low'n'slow anyway. If you add short'n'stubby to the mix, I'm in hog heaven. Most of my OR musings revolve around large and/or draggy rockets that will stay low.
 
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