4" Pershing 1A and 2B scratchbuild

I had wanted to do a pershing 1A for a long time, missed out on the whole maxi-brute thing, what pushed me over the edge was the availability of a fiberglass cone from wildman(PR) for 4" for $36 and the vinyl markings from stickershock23.

My original plan was to build a version using loc tubing with a 29mm mount, using 1/16" ttw fiberglass fins(no contour, sorry scale fans), and a fiberglass body tube 38mm version, with 1/8" fiberglass fins, and use the same cone swapped between them.

I'm still waiting for the cone which is shipped already, but based on how much the fiberglass tube weighs I was worried I'd have to put too much weight into the cone for the 38mm version to make the 29mm sort of wimpy.

What I decided to do was make a pseudo pershing II using the fiberglass tube, using 1/16" ttw fins, and small ttw fiberglass steering fins on the top of the tube to give it a sort of pershing 2 look. This should allow less nose weight required for the pershing 2 version, and still allow me to swap the 1A nose cone between them.

So, the pershing 2 won't be scale, but gives me a 38mm version that is sturdy and should look mean, and a 29mm pershing 1A.

I was just too lazy to build a pershing 2 dedicated nose cone....

For the steering vane pads, instead of forming them from basswood, I just cut slotted and shaped strips from the extra loc 4" tubing I had to cut off for the main tube length, and made the conduit and separation straps from styrene. So, they aren't true scale profile, but they were easy to make, and give it the right look.

These both went together really quickly, 2 days for each of them including painting, both have aeropac motor rentention, eye bolt and kevlar strap recovery, and rail buttons.

I used the spare set of pershing 1A decals I had for the pershing 2 and they worked great, and with 2 coats of krylon flat clear they really look nice.

I'll re-post pictures after the cone arrives and I paint and apply decals.

Hope this motivates some folks, you don't have to be super scale to look good and have fun

Enjoy

Frank

Frank ,

As you may or may not know ,I love pershings (so I`ve built a few),I mean hey ,what`s not to like about them ,with that unique nosecone shape and those stubby fins......pure raw beauty !!

I like what you`ve done there ,and hope you post more pics soon ,very nice work !!

I like that "pseudo" Pershing II ,very cool and different......I approve

Take care

Paul T

Thanks very much, I like your pershings a lot, and read through those last week. I just finished installing the recovery systems, and now am just waiting on the cone, hopefully will arrive this week and I can paint it.

BTW, did you do your markings with vinyl, and do you apply it wet or dry? I found it very difficult to apply the body bands straight, even using the tape method as the backing is thick and didn't reflect misalignment well, just curious.

Frank

sodmeister said:

Frank ,

As you may or may not know ,I love pershings (so I`ve built a few),I mean hey ,what`s not to like about them ,with that unique nosecone shape and those stubby fins......pure raw beauty !!

I like what you`ve done there ,and hope you post more pics soon ,very nice work !!

I like that "pseudo" Pershing II ,very cool and different......I approve

Take care

Paul T

Click to expand...

burkefj said:

Thanks very much, I like your pershings a lot, and read through those last week. I just finished installing the recovery systems, and now am just waiting on the cone, hopefully will arrive this week and I can paint it.

BTW, did you do your markings with vinyl, and do you apply it wet or dry? I found it very difficult to apply the body bands straight, even using the tape method as the backing is thick and didn't reflect misalignment well, just curious.

Frank

Click to expand...

I use a mix of Mark`s (stickershock) and my own Monokote (both a vinyl) for the markings.

I just use the masking tape as a straight edge technique and plenty of care and holding of the breath.

What I do however ,is to cut almost right up to the decal edge ,leaving perhaps a 1/16" ,and then tack one edge lightly then slowly un-peel and slowly roll the vinyl on ,never really applying any heavy pressure until I`m happy with the way things are aligned.

Sorry if that`s not much help to you ,but that`s what i do ,and it seems to work.I also have a new Exacto blade to prick any airbubbles out from under the vinyl.

Don`t forget those pictures when available

HTH

Paul T

Paul

A Pershing 3... how cool is that...

Later! OL JR

Maybe I could stack them and make a bumper pershing........


Sodmeister, I understand what you mean, and that's what I've been doing, I also use trim monokote and trim the backing close to the vinyl, and had to pull them up and re-attach when it went really bad, just didn't know if there were any other secrets


Frank

luke strawwalker said:

A Pershing 3... how cool is that...

Later! OL JR

Click to expand...

Frank ,

I think the soap & water thing may work.If you go to Mark`s site ,there is a tutorial on how to apply them ,but i just do the hope and pray and git `r done technique with much luck.But like you ,I do ,from time to time ,pull them up and re-apply.Now that`s a true test of just how well your paint is adhearing to your primer coat !


Cheers

Paul T


PS- Hmmmmm....a Pershing III ,now that`s interesting !

I got the nose cone last night, and I wanted to give a little story, a little funny, a little sad, sort of how my hobbies go from time to time, Sort of like in Jurrasic Park, it's all great till the running and the screaming.....


So, the cone from PR looked pretty good, the gel coat was mat finished, not shiny and had some surface imperfections I had to sand out, not terrible though. It doesn't have a true three angles, just a main cone angle, and then the nose angle, but for $36 for a fiberglass 19" cone, I could live with it.

Problem was the shoulder was too tight on both my fiberglass and loc 3.9" tubes. I've had this problem on a madcow honest john, and it took me 1.5 hours to get it to where it fit correctly in the tube and wasn't too tight. So, here we go, I thought.

Sanding, and sanding, and it's not getting a whole lot better, and the shoulder is starting to get thin in places, so I do one last test fit. It's too snug in the tube and I can't get it out by pulling, so I decide to blow it out from the motor tube end. Of course I'm ready to catch it with my other hand, when it pops out like a cork, skips accross the air hockey table, and onto the concrete garage floor breaking off the nose. CA and some sanding later, it's back in business, but now I'm thinking I can't send it back, so I have to find some solution to the shoulder.

So, I decide to take the plunge, cut off the shoulder. I then slit the old shoulder, removed a portion of it, so I could slip it back into the back of the cone 1.25" and then epoxied the shoulder back into the cone. I then took a 4" piece of loc tubing, slit it and re-glued it back together so it was a perfect fit inside the body tubes. This was my new shoulder. I epoxied that onto the old shoulder that was reduced to fit into the nose cone, and voila, a new perfect fitting shoulder.

Ok, now I can make some progress. So I look at my CG I need, and get out the number 8 shot, and put it into a baggie and stick it into the cone, and verify the weight is correct. Ok, it's good, but in pulling the baggie out, it snagged on some fiberglass and tore and now I have shot all over the counter, and the carpet, the cat is trying to eat it, and it's not good.

I re-weigh shot, and mix up my 15 minute epoxy, and I don't find paper cups like I normally use, so I'm thinking, I'm going to be smart and just put the epoxy into the baggie, mush it around to mix it in with the bb's and then squeeze it into the nose cone. Well, it just make a sticky mess that doesn't want to squeeze out so I only wind up with about 2/3 of what I need in the cone. Iv'e got epoxy all over my hands, it's now on the cone, get out the alcohol, and I'm out of paper towels. I get more under the bathroom sink, but knock over the garbage can in there that turns out is filled with scooped cat poop which is now all over the floor.

Out comes more shot, pour it into a new baggie, shot slips and goes all over the floor again. This time I mix it on wax paper and am able to squeeze it out like a cake decorating cone.

Finally get that in, verify the CG, install the bulkheads and decide that it's not a good idea to work on rockets from 12-4 in the morning....sigh.

At least I've got the white base coat and front decals on, and did the olive rear end.

During installation of the forward stripes, I make little marks with my magic marker inside the boundary of the decal so that it will be covered once the decal is in place. However it turns out my marking pattern was slightly over sized so I have little index marks on the white paint just outside of the stripes that I have to carefully scrape off with my exacto.

So, I hope you find this as funny as it seems the day after

Sometimes things just go as planned, and sometimes the 5 minute job turns into 4 hours....


Frank

and here they are in final form, weight with H-128 and chutes for the 1A is 60 oz, weight for the pershing 2 with H-123 is 83 oz.

Two rocketman 3 foot chutes for nose and body.

Enjoy

Frank

Those look great ,nice work ! Your story sounded like quite a fiasco to say the least ,humorous indeed ,but I`m sure not at the time.

I had a fiberglass nosecone that needed a lot of sanding (Polecat Nike Smoke ) much like yours ,and the shoulder did get very thin, so I added fiberglass to the inside wall.It worked very well ,and at the same time ,helped to strengthen the bulkhead plate i added.

I did not know PR had those cones, and the price seems very resonable.

Again, love those Pershings !

Paul T

Very Nice.

I'd love to build one of these...both look pretty wicked.

I have a 4" fiberglass Pershing nosecone...think I bought it from Ken Allen years ago for no particular reason.

It has a heavy weave on the inside..seam down both sides longitudinally....
Nice white gelcoat finish on the outside.
19 " long with a 3.4" shoulder.


Could this be one of Curt/PR's Pershing NoseCones like yours?

You got me thinking....hmmmm
(Just what I need, another project on the list.....)

Beautiful work.

I don't know how long he has been making them, but it sounds about right compared to mine. I'm hoping he actually will make the 7.5" version for me that I ordered through wildman, a friend of mine gave me some 7.5" laquer/paper tube that I will glass, already cut out three centering rings and a bulkhead, and cut the tube to 41" long(slightly longer than scale).

The 4" version only took two days to build and paint, there isn't a whole lot to a pershing if you have a cone.

Frank

MaxQ said:

Very Nice.

I'd love to build one of these...both look pretty wicked.

I have a 4" fiberglass Pershing nosecone...think I bought it from Ken Allen years ago for no particular reason.

It has a heavy weave on the inside..seam down both sides longitudinally....
Nice white gelcoat finish on the outside.
19 " long with a 3.4" shoulder.


Could this be one of Curt/PR's Pershing NoseCones like yours?

You got me thinking....hmmmm
(Just what I need, another project on the list.....)

Click to expand...

Made some more progress slotting the main 7.5" tube today, cut out the 1/4" ply fins from the scrap marine ply I had left, and started the pivot pads...I moved the front fins back 2" and downsized them slightly and upsized the bottom fins just a bit, to help with cp a little.

This booster is the same length as the completed 4" I just finished.

Plan is for a 3/8" centering ring front and back and two 1/4" centering rings sandwiching the ttw fins to a 98mm tube. Will make a fiberglass 54mm adapter to fly it on, but in theory I could move up to 75 and 98 later.

When I get the cone, I plan on making a stuffer tube out of pvc pipe going through the main cone bulkhead up into the point of the cone, that I can fill with lead shot and use another tube inside it as needed to keep the shot forward, and put a screw in cap at the shoulder end of the cone/bulkhead. Idea is I can then add or remove shot for balast as needed.


Frank

Finally got in two flights on the 4" pershing today. First on on a g-75 metalstorm and the second on a G-80, both with modified delays to give me about 5 seconds. Separate nose and body chutes worked perfectly. Thanks to John Lyngdal for taking the photos and for George Rachor for taking some video and using his property.

Both burn curves are almost identical, and the stability was two calibers with no wind and launching off of a 6 foot rail. Both flights took off perfectly straight to around 200 feet, then the rear end did a small circle/wobble, and then it straightened back out again. Not sure why this is, if the nose cone with all the weight isn't perfectly aligned(I had to redo the shoulder for the performance rocketry shoulder issue) or what. The CG was right at the body tube/nose cone intersection, so two calibers ahead of the front of the forward fins. Not sure if a higher impulse motor would cure that or not.

Frank

WTF...........now those are some great pictures !

You have no idea how great that looks, beautiful......I mean really.....

Top 10 for launch pictures !

Paul T

Very, very cool!

G-80 flight worked Great!

Here's a great shot of the maiden of the Pershing 2(ish) fiberglass booster with the pershing 1A nose cone, flying on an H-123, weighed 5 pounds ready to fly, separate chutes for nose and fuse.

Frank

burkefj said:

Finally got in two flights on the 4" pershing today. First on on a g-75 metalstorm and the second on a G-80, both with modified delays to give me about 5 seconds. Separate nose and body chutes worked perfectly. Thanks to John Lyngdal for taking the photos and for George Rachor for taking some video and using his property.

Both burn curves are almost identical, and the stability was two calibers with no wind and launching off of a 6 foot rail. Both flights took off perfectly straight to around 200 feet, then the rear end did a small circle/wobble, and then it straightened back out again. Not sure why this is, if the nose cone with all the weight isn't perfectly aligned(I had to redo the shoulder for the performance rocketry shoulder issue) or what. The CG was right at the body tube/nose cone intersection, so two calibers ahead of the front of the forward fins. Not sure if a higher impulse motor would cure that or not.

Frank

Click to expand...

I like Pershings,....I love that picture in the middle, ....I've been using some G metalstorms myself. Wish I could get the old silver streaks but these will do.

Beautiful !

Thanks for posting Frank ,and for bringing life back to this thread.......VIVA LOS Pershings !!!!!


Take care


Paul T

Great Job!

here is a pershing-inspired one I need to finish up - bt 20, 13mm - calling it BlackJack. plan on the body being the green of the nose cone and 2-3 flourescent orange or yellow stipes so it will be close

Now wait a minuet there is a 4" Pershing missile nose cone out there?

TA

Performance rocketry listed it, and wildman got one for me. It looked very nice, and for $36 I couldn't resist. However the shoulder was so tight on any tube I had, even after massive sanding, I finally gave up, cut the shoulder off, split the shoulder piece I cut off, cut out a piece and glued it back inside the nose cone with epoxy. I then epoxied a piece of loc coupler tube to that new sub-shoulder and reinforced it with a couple of screws and put in a plate to attach the shock cord to. The loc coupler fits nice on any tubing. So, in the end I got a nice cone, but a 2 minute sanding/priming job turned into 2 hours of farting with it to make it work, but it was still easier than trying to make my own.

Frank

thobin said:

Now wait a minuet there is a 4" Pershing missile nose cone out there?

TA

Click to expand...

thobin said:

Now wait a minuet there is a 4" Pershing missile nose cone out there?

TA

Click to expand...

Gordon "Sandman" made me one.

Years ago ,Alien Enterprises used to sell fiberglass NCs and resin fin sets.I bought that set about 8 years ago ,but not sure if the fellow is still in business.


Paul T

Here are some shots of my 4" 1A and fantasy 2B booster version...

1A is flying on a G-75 metalstorm and the 2B on an H-123

Here's some great shots from Gary Goncher of OROC at the rocketober launch, again flying on G-75 metalstorms

Also decided to just create a properly weighted dedicated nose cone for my pershing 2 ish rocket and flew it as well this weekend....on an H-128