Does anybody make a micro Nike Smoke?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Do you have a drill press? Turning your own micro smoke nose cone could be easily done, using files, sandpaper and a dowel chucked into the drill press.
I’m sure I could make my own but I’m pretty lazy. Possibly the laziest in LA county which puts me pretty high in the running world wide.
 
Don't know of any kits, but Fliskits has a super long conical nose that fits the bt-3 tube. Then it's an easy scratch build by downsizing the fin templates and components from other full size plans. For the Nike nose cone flange you can downsize the cardstock shroud in the Seattle Rockets plans for the mini Nike Smoke:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/srw/srwNS/srwNS.htm
https://www.fliskits.com/products/01prod_fs.htm

Or, you can just build the Seattle Rockets mini Nike Smoke with a MMX motor mount.IMG_20180309_070251.jpg
 
Spit some numbers out. You don't know the magic of solidworks with revolve around axis and curve by equation. Nosecone profile type, length, diameter, and units. If your too lazy to upload an .STL I can make you for free and pay some company to print a cone, well I can't help you there. Designed two HPR MD multistage university student rockets last year. We had to make components from equations. It's trivial algebra provided you have access to solidworks program. Then anybody on globe with the net yo can just sh*t a nosecone from a brick of plastic.
 
Don't know of any kits, but Fliskits has a super long conical nose that fits the bt-3 tube. Then it's an easy scratch build by downsizing the fin templates and components from other full size plans. For the Nike nose cone flange you can downsize the cardstock shroud in the Seattle Rockets plans for the mini Nike Smoke:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/srw/srwNS/srwNS.htm
https://www.fliskits.com/products/01prod_fs.htm

Or, you can just build the Seattle Rockets mini Nike Smoke with a MMX motor mount.View attachment 340406
right on
 
Spit some numbers out. You don't know the magic of solidworks with revolve around axis and curve by equation. Nosecone profile type, length, diameter, and units. If your too lazy to upload an .STL I can make you for free and pay some company to print a cone, well I can't help you there. Designed two HPR MD multistage university student rockets last year. We had to make components from equations. It's trivial algebra provided you have access to solidworks program. Then anybody on globe with the net yo can just sh*t a nosecone from a brick of plastic.
So you’re saying there is kit and it’s its made a company that widely distributes it through popular distribution channels? Available from many stores and also with online ordering?
 
So you’re saying there is kit and it’s its made a company that widely distributes it through popular distribution channels? Available from many stores and also with online ordering?

No. An .STL file is a file type saved from a CAD model that the 3D printers such as makerbot take physical insertion on a flash drive to print any component in the world. There are printing companies such as Xometry that will take your CaD file and for a fee they will print it to very high resolution exceeding the typical FDM print process tolerances by using a laser sinter method called SLS. Then they will ship your custom nosecone component to your door. This is how you generate a nosecone prototype before a kit is ever released. You can then cast urthethane nosecones for low volume production using the 3D print as a jig in a mold process. Or you can fly the printed cone. Printing is the slowest manufacturing method and for long term production you will never match kit prices. I'm saying you can make a kit. I was offering to make a CAD model of any nosecone for you for free using an engineering program called Solidworks.
 
No. An .STL file is a file type saved from a CAD model that the 3D printers such as makerbot take physical insertion on a flash drive to print any component in the world. There are printing companies such as Xometry that will take your CaD file and for a fee they will print it to very high resolution exceeding the typical FDM print process tolerances by using a laser sinter method called SLS. Then they will ship your custom nosecone component to your door. This is how you generate a nosecone prototype before a kit is ever released. You can then cast urthethane nosecones for low volume production using the 3D print as a jig in a mold process. Or you can fly the printed cone. Printing is the slowest manufacturing method and for long term production you will never match kit prices. I'm saying you can make a kit. I was offering to make a CAD model of any nosecone for you for free using an engineering program called Solidworks.

Where can I buy this kit?
 
Yeah. It's much easier than starting from scratch. I've done models from complete scratch where products did not exist. Right now I've made a SAAB BAMSE and a 372 for HPR using 38mm MMT using just a handful of pictures. I've got pics over in the scale what rockets haven't been done yet of the cad models. The 372 I've shared with the TRF for free in HPR thread. Andy Greene requested it. I need to resave those files as .STL than .sldprt solidworks files so more people can print cheaper because for certain part sizes Xometry will cost more than a kit.
 
Where can I buy this kit?
How do you think kits are made? Somebody 3D modeled it then a company with machines manufactures it piece by piece from the blueprints and the virtual part files.
 
Last edited:
Don't know of any kits, but Fliskits has a super long conical nose that fits the bt-3 tube. Then it's an easy scratch build by downsizing the fin templates and components from other full size plans. For the Nike nose cone flange you can downsize the cardstock shroud in the Seattle Rockets plans for the mini Nike Smoke:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/srw/srwNS/srwNS.htm
https://www.fliskits.com/products/01prod_fs.htm

Or, you can just build the Seattle Rockets mini Nike Smoke with a MMX motor mount.View attachment 340406

Er muh gerd! I have got to build me one of those! Thanks for the link!
 
I second that, I think this will be my next cardstock build, but at 1/25.4 scale by using the dimensions shown in inches as mm instead, so it will be slightly longer. Would be cool to make the nose vented and fill with powder to release "smoke" on the way up, but might be too small for that. Will have to study that other version to see how it might be done.
 
I second that, I think this will be my next cardstock build, but at 1/25.4 scale by using the dimensions shown in inches as mm instead, so it will be slightly longer. Would be cool to make the nose vented and fill with powder to release "smoke" on the way up, but might be too small for that. Will have to study that other version to see how it might be done.

Here's how Enerjet designed their smoking nose cone:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/enerjet/enjKE-3/KE-3Centuri-EnerjetNikeSmoke.pdf

About a year ago on Chris Michielssen's blog he built a smoking Estes version. However on the first launch it did not blow out the talcum powder. Apparently 18mm engines do not bring it up to enough speed to force out the "smoke".
 
As far as I know there are no currently available MMX kits. that Said One can get a T2+, T3 and T4 size ONE Page Plan over on the Micro Max Yahoo. group from the files section onces you join the group. There was a 13mm T5 size kit some years ago but haven't seen it around lately. If you can find one on the internet or e-bay it does convert to MMX-II flying very well.

For my money the T3(.375) body 1:44 scale give the best detail to flight performance of the lot. Fins are Cardstock folded as the real fins are made the Nosecones are all turned basswood which holds the detail a bit better then balsa.

Here are all four of these Scratch built Nike-Smokes from my collection from the one page plans.

209a1_MM 30,3308  Nike-Smoke_11-04-97.jpg

209a2_MM 30.3308  Nike-Smoke_11-04-97.jpg

209a3_MM 30.3308 Nike-Smoke_11-04-97.jpg

277_MM Nike-Smoke 56,7186_02-21-04.jpg

278_MM Nike-Smoke 44,0_02-21-04.jpg

279_MM Nike-Smoke 36,8715_02-21-04.jpg
 
As far as I know there are no currently available MMX kits. that Said One can get a T2+, T3 and T4 size ONE Page Plan over on the Micro Max Yahoo. group from the files section onces you join the group. There was a 13mm T5 size kit some years ago but haven't seen it around lately. If you can find one on the internet or e-bay it does convert to MMX-II flying very well.

For my money the T3(.375) body 1:44 scale give the best detail to flight performance of the lot. Fins are Cardstock folded as the real fins are made the Nosecones are all turned basswood which holds the detail a bit better then balsa.

Here are all four of these Scratch built Nike-Smokes from my collection from the one page plans.

those are all pretty awesome.
 
For this experiment the body tube is 129.95 mm long x 16.5 mm diameter, basically interpreting the dimensions in the drawing as mm instead of inches, so this will be 1/25.4 scale. For the cardstock foldover fins I will make a doubler for the flat portion, then crease and fold to make the diamond leading and trailing edge tapers. So, this might be a little big for MMX, although it may be light enough. I am planning to put a 13 mm engine mount in it. This nose cone will be way too small to put a proper vent at the tip for rigging up a powder/smoke system. Will have to do that on an upscale version later.

DSC_7375.jpg
 
For this experiment the body tube is 129.95 mm long x 16.5 mm diameter, basically interpreting the dimensions in the drawing as mm instead of inches, so this will be 1/25.4 scale. For the cardstock foldover fins I will make a doubler for the flat portion, then crease and fold to make the diamond leading and trailing edge tapers. So, this might be a little big for MMX, although it may be light enough. I am planning to put a 13 mm engine mount in it. This nose cone will be way too small to put a proper vent at the tip for rigging up a powder/smoke system. Will have to do that on an upscale version later.

View attachment 340500

Dude! You did all that in one day? I'm ordering MMX tubes and centering rings from Fliskits right now. Awesome.
 
The hard work of dimensioning the drawing was already done by Peter Alway, and reproduced in the SRW plans. Then you just take Pi*dia to get a circumference for the width of the unwrapped flat body tube template, add 1mm for thickness and then you can roll a tube the size you want. The decal artwork had a nice white background and was pretty much ready to use, I did not have to redraw any of it. I also used the fin guide to mark my fin lines on the body tube template. I used a 0.5" dowel, not as a mandrel, but a slightly smaller dia support to pre-curl and push the butt-joint seam together for this non-standard dia body tube. There are a few different techniques, but for a short length tube it's not that hard to spread your fingers along the entire seam to help line it up and tack it down, just have to use very little glue on the glue tab and let it tack up for 20-30 sec or so.

I think the fins turned out okay for this size. You might try a similar technique for an MMX model. My doublers were a little too long in chord at the tip, but you can still see the diamond pattern along the entire span. I ended up using 4-ply doublers for each fin, then folding over the fin template, so the flat portion is 6-ply and those taper down to 2 ply at the edges. The white edges at the tips were colored with Crayola yellow and orange marker.

DSC_7376.jpg

DSC_7377.jpg

I didn't push the engine all the way to the thrust ring in this picture, when fully inserted the engine type label is mostly covered. Kevlar ring is wrapped around the 13mm engine tube mount in between the centering rings and goes through a slot in the top ring.

DSC_7378.jpg

SRW_Nike_Smoke_25.4.jpg
 
Very impressive! The launch lug will be needing a slight standoff due to the nose flange. And the four part cardstock flange will be needing some extremely dexterous hands to form, especially on the MMX level. Will you be posting a pdf somewhere?

EDIT: Never mind, I see the pdf has been added above. Thanks!
 
This version is 1/25.4 scale, slightly larger than the 1/30 SRW version. MMX-downscalers, you are on your own. I enlarged the SRW patterns by (30/25.4) 118% for this version. The .svg and .pdf vector graphics file is too large to post to TRF, so I made a 300 dpi bitmpapped PNG, looks like TRF converted it to .jpg. Hopefully print quality is good enough for this scale or smaller.
 
One final update. I added a round toothpick colored with a black Sharpie to the nose tip. I made kind of a stepped through tube to support the nose cone and help keep it centered with the nose cone shoulder to body joint, and I cut the transition for the nose cone base. I might double that up to match the body tube dia better. Just need to glue the nose to the support structure and the transition, then the launch lug on a standoff. This will probably get a clear coat of Matte Finish to top it off.

I had another idea to replace the heavy dark line on the nose cone. This could be lightly creased with an embossing tool, I use the rounded back of the file edge from a nail clipper. You can cut the guide from this template and use that to emboss that curve before you roll the nose cone, it will look more like a formed seam. Go lightly, you don't want to tear the paper. Reinforce the back side with a light coat of white glue after rolling the nose. Some of these cardsock techniques might help with a smaller MMX size clone as an alternative to using conventional pre-made parts. I have always wanted to do a Nike Smoke, and might do the larger Estes kit later. I really like the size of the SRW version, makes for a nice desktop display and small field flier.

DSC_7379.jpg

DSC_7380.jpg

DSC_7381.jpg

SRW_Nike_Smoke_25.4.jpg
 
Yeah. It's much easier than starting from scratch....

Great, thanks so much for offering and agreeing to do that. I have been trying to find a suitable reproduction of that fin can. I really look forward to it.
 
Back
Top