Bad Battle Axe Built Thread

[kenstarr]

I suppose I should document my build of a battle axe themed rocket. The idea came up several months ago in the meat department when I thought up a yellow polka-dot rocket that played the song. So, here we go. I've collected an extensive supply of scrap paper tubes from work that will form the body. Fins are made from 2 layers of foam board with cardstock in the middle (helped me to "sharpen" them, the thin plywood would have been major overkill!) and ultimately fiberglassed. Check out the pictures below.

If I had a vacuum sealer, I would have attempted some bagging rather than a mold but it seamed to work well enough. I did discover saran wrap does not stick to the USComposites epoxy!

Propulsion will be 38mm. Once I get the finished fin weight, nose cone weight, and some other basic figures, I'll do some simulations in Rocksim.

[kenstarr]

Forgot to put the nose cone information in the first post. I wanted to have the appearance of the pommel of some gnarly battle axe without too much expense. Hobby lobby had foam cones that were really expensive so I made my own foam cones. I rolled poster board into a cone (2x) and filled one with 2 part expanding foam. The other half found me out of foam but I did have some canned construction foam sealer. It worked in a pinch. I cut each to the length I liked and glued them together. I foamed the whole setup into found coupler tube. In the pic, body filler has been applied but not yet sanded.

[Aksrockets]

I did discover saran wrap does not stick to the USComposites epoxy!

good to know........ This should be a great build!
:subscribed:

[bradycros]

WOW! A five star rating after only 2 post. Simply amazing.

What could the secret of your immediate success possibly be?

[dixontj93060]

WOW! A five star rating after olny 3 post. Simply amazing.

Yep, people are getting trigger happy. I had to get 2/3rds through my L3 build before that thread got a rating.

[kenstarr]

Immediate success? Hardly. Must have been an accidental click on too many stars! ANYWAY, here is a shot of a mostly complete "blade". I plan to get all but the attachment regions primed and cosmetically perfect BEFORE putting it all together. Just too much work to work on fins once they are attached.
The picture does kind of look like a steak gone wrong right now....

[kenstarr]

Here is a mockup of the Bad Battle Axe (envision all 4 fins). It will probably be a bit longer for an optional dual deployment setup.

[dixontj93060]

Here is a mockup of the Bad Battle Axe (envision all 4 fins). It will probably be a bit longer for an optional dual deployment setup.

Safety vest required when handling

[Handeman]

Safety vest required when handling

Would that be a chain link or plate type vest?

[bradycros]

Would that be a chain link or plate type vest?

Either will do.

[kenstarr]

Finally have the fins finished to the point I want so they may be attached. Here is the motor mount with attached fins. Finally! The sub-freezing temperatures here are not conducive to rocket construction. Hence, everything takes a long, long time.
I "tack welded" them on with CA. Now I'll apply internal fillets with aeropoxy.

[kenstarr]

Got the airframe glassed today. It's about 30 F outside so I did the dirty work out there and have brought it in to man cave #2 where it can cure.
After wetting out the fiberglass sleeve (Soller Composites), the frame was wrapped with perforated release film (Saran Wrap poked with a needle after wrapping). You can see the picture where the rocket appears to be sweating. Then 2 layers of absorbent cloth (paper towels) were applied to take up the excess resin. This was then covered with a layer of non-permeable release film (more Saran Wrap). Now it looks like a real redneck Christmas present.

[kenstarr]

Today I sanded the airframe with my fancy new sander hooked up to the shop vac with HEPA filtration. Nary a speck of dust in the garage! A bit more hand sanding and I'll probably shoot some primer and sand to find any imperfections. Imperfections? I'm really not too concerned, this IS a Battle Axe but I tend to be slightly fanatical about the finish.

[kenstarr]

Here is some update on the ol' Battle Axe. All parts have been given an initial prime for finding obvious defects. The fin can has been mounted in the lower airframe. Note the holes for injecting epoxy. I've got 3 CR's on the motor tube so I figured that would be easiest. Also, see the standoff for the rail button. The other one is hidden by the fins. The aluminum tail cone screws on flush with the bottom tips of the fins.

[kenstarr]

Here is The Boy admiring the Axe.

[o1d_dude]

That is definitely a "bad-axe" rocket.

Didn't realize how big it was until the picture of it dwarfing your sprout.

Looking forward to seeing it in paint and ready to go.

[kenstarr]

The 'Axe is pretty much finished except for the ebay and painting. Paint will probably happen in three months because the weather decided to be January again. I'll post pics when it is finished. What a boring build thread!

[sodmeister]

The 'Axe is pretty much finished except for the ebay and painting. Paint will probably happen in three months because the weather decided to be January again. I'll post pics when it is finished. What a boring build thread!

Nothing wrong with the build thread

I`m in the same sad boat......no painting for 3 months at least.....


Paul T

[kenstarr]

And I thought it was cold in northern Utah this morning when it was 0F!

[Aksrockets]

And I thought it was cold in northern Utah this morning when it was 0F!

Tell me about it, I walk to school every morning.

When do you plan to stuff a motor in this thing? I'll be getting some more on board cams soon and I'd be more then happy to throw one on the rocket if you wanted.

Alex

[Aksrockets]

How's this thing going? I look forward to seeing it completed. Should looks cool. Will you be at the Feb launch next week?

[kenstarr]

Planning on going to the launch, pending weather. Battle Axe is still in primer but I'll probably bring the Blackhawk 38. Maybe I'll bring the Axe just for fun.

[kenstarr]

Here are some pictures of the finished product. Hopefully I can fly it this weekend. fins have a brushed aluminum "edge" in an attempt to simulate the sharpened edge of an axe. Flat areas are Rustoleum hammered metal paint. Nose cone is the black version of the hammered metal (doesn't look black in the picture. Liking the pic better!). Rest of the body was primered black and coated with Duplicolor red metal flake. Tailcone is an Aeropac. The Bad Axe can be flown in dual deploy configuration (not ready yet) or as a single long, OR take out the upper tube and ebay and it can fly stubby!

[GDJ]

WHOO HOO! That is one hell of a rocket! Don't walk down the street with that.

[Aksrockets]

Looks nice! What are you planning on flying it on?

Alex

[MrGneissGuy]

Very Nice

[hornet driver]

WOW-Just-WOW

[kenstarr]

Flew the Bad Axe yesterday at the UROC launch. Put a H410Vmax in it. Most everything went well but it only got about 20' off the pad. Motor blew out, popped off the Aeropack retainer, ejected the NC and chute, full deployment and a perfect landing about 10' from the pad. It was the lowest successful HP flight of the day! Just need to reattach the retainer and it's good to fly again. The unofficial cinematographer was not present, I don't know if anyone else filmed the epic launch.

[GDJ]

You gotta admit, it's kinda funny to read that! Glad it came down unscathed.

[kenstarr]

You gotta admit, it's kinda funny to read that! Glad it came down unscathed.

It was the funniest thing I saw all day! I was nervous about the size of the motor, length of ejection delay, It begs to be flown on a bigger motor anyway but alas, one was not available. I really wish I had video of the perfect deploy and descent.