What can I say, I've got a thing for BT-80.
I picked up all my old rockets that had been sitting around 10 years, and had a few in progress. My father also gave me his Optima, which is in need of repair.
The Shadow had cracked a couple fins, but was otherwise just unpainted. I glued up the fins, and wood filled them up. Sanded down and the first coat of primer is now drying. When I built her, I had added a nylon chute, and it has a MMT mounted cord. Would have liked a baffle in the exhaust tube, but I don't think I'll try to add one. Possibly a nomex blanket, these things use too much wadding.
The Optima was my father's only personal rocket, and saw quite a bit of flying. The fins have come off or cracked a few times on landing, and are currently loose. The paint was never quite thick enough, and it's thinned out in places. The vinyl decals have come loose and bubbled. And the recovery system is in shambles.
I don't know if I want to just get her flyable again, or do a full or partial restoration. Since a full restore would basically involve building an entire new rocket, I'm leaning toward flyable or partial. I have new metal flake vinyl, but it's not a perfect match. I may just replace the fins' decals and save the one on the BT, along with the waterslide. That would let me sand, fill and repair the fins. Then a quick coat of white and it should be decent.
No matter what I do, the recovery system needs to be entirely replaced. I've already cut out the 6" rubber band that was left, and sliced off the chute lines. Since it'll only ever see D12's inside, I plan to put a big ole 28" nylon on it. Not sure on the shock cord material yet. Elastic would probably do just fine. Whatever it is, it'll be mounted to a plywood centering ring I'm gonna stuff down as far as I can get it.
The third bit of this post, I had attempted to build a 72" BT-80 rocket. It was never launched as I never felt quite comfortable with it. So, I Basically decided to slice it in two, making one a phoenix style rocket, and the other is becoming an Optima project. Splitting out the exhaust tube from the bottom section was a bit of a pain, but now taken care of. I need to find a fin template, and remove the old fins. Also I can't seem to find a matching nosecone, but I'm sure a quick search will turn up some options. I've got a few colors of metal flake vinyl, a color shift is probably in order for this one. Then most likely a stickershock Optima logo.
I picked up all my old rockets that had been sitting around 10 years, and had a few in progress. My father also gave me his Optima, which is in need of repair.
The Shadow had cracked a couple fins, but was otherwise just unpainted. I glued up the fins, and wood filled them up. Sanded down and the first coat of primer is now drying. When I built her, I had added a nylon chute, and it has a MMT mounted cord. Would have liked a baffle in the exhaust tube, but I don't think I'll try to add one. Possibly a nomex blanket, these things use too much wadding.
The Optima was my father's only personal rocket, and saw quite a bit of flying. The fins have come off or cracked a few times on landing, and are currently loose. The paint was never quite thick enough, and it's thinned out in places. The vinyl decals have come loose and bubbled. And the recovery system is in shambles.
I don't know if I want to just get her flyable again, or do a full or partial restoration. Since a full restore would basically involve building an entire new rocket, I'm leaning toward flyable or partial. I have new metal flake vinyl, but it's not a perfect match. I may just replace the fins' decals and save the one on the BT, along with the waterslide. That would let me sand, fill and repair the fins. Then a quick coat of white and it should be decent.
No matter what I do, the recovery system needs to be entirely replaced. I've already cut out the 6" rubber band that was left, and sliced off the chute lines. Since it'll only ever see D12's inside, I plan to put a big ole 28" nylon on it. Not sure on the shock cord material yet. Elastic would probably do just fine. Whatever it is, it'll be mounted to a plywood centering ring I'm gonna stuff down as far as I can get it.
The third bit of this post, I had attempted to build a 72" BT-80 rocket. It was never launched as I never felt quite comfortable with it. So, I Basically decided to slice it in two, making one a phoenix style rocket, and the other is becoming an Optima project. Splitting out the exhaust tube from the bottom section was a bit of a pain, but now taken care of. I need to find a fin template, and remove the old fins. Also I can't seem to find a matching nosecone, but I'm sure a quick search will turn up some options. I've got a few colors of metal flake vinyl, a color shift is probably in order for this one. Then most likely a stickershock Optima logo.
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