Prepare for "Blood Atonement"

Very cool!

I was worried about the red color match.

Notice the "Vagabond" on the first sheet. Sometimes Corel Draw or maybe it's the Alps printer will do that. The print on the screen is nothing like what comes out on the paper.

Not sure why it does that.

If I convert the type face to a curve, it fixes it.

Anybody know why it does that?

Saw it. Very strange! Must be the printer interpreting the font rather than doing explicitly what the shape is... no worries. You got me a correct one and the strange one is my backup for when I lose the rocket and rebuild!

Your creation turned out very well! How long do you normaly let the final coat of paint cure before you apply the clear coat?

This one is water based acrylics so in my air conditioned house would let it sit for a day before using lacquer based clears. Less time of using just Future or Liquitex high gloss varnish (both being water based). Here, paint was done a week ago but I wanted the decals dry overnight before hitting with clear lacquer.

When painting with lacquer color coats, I have had equal success waiting 10 minutes or 10 days or anywhere in between between color coat and clear (both being lacquer). If the piece is a single color I will usually clear it about an hour or two after shooting with color unless I run out of time and have to wait. If the piece has multiple colors I will give it a full day for the last color to dry so the clear doesn't melt it too much into the clear causing runs of one color into the adjacent one.

If using rustoleum fluorescent paints I usually wait overnight between the white lacquer base and the fluorescent color. Then another day before clear lacquer.

:wink:

Nearly ideal day for lacquer painting here in drought-stricken central Indiana.

These days rarely come along, and when they coincide with a day I wish to paint something outside, or in the garage, it's nearly a miracle.

Anyway, it was about 80 deg F, 23% humidity, and quite breezy but not so windy that painting in the garage with the door open would be a problem.

I broke out a fresh can of Valspar high-gloss clear lacquer gave BA three coats: a light tack coat, after which I waited about 7 minutes (this is how long it took me to get my sprinkler going in the front lawn without watering the street). Then a medium coat, with a 15 minute wait. Then a heavy coat. I used about half of the can on the project.

Here are some pics after about 30 mins drying time:






The hot rod sparkle on the white is kind of hard to see, but in person it really pops! And the gloss from the Valspar is second to none that I've used.

Eventually I will get a glory shot with booster attached.

Marc

Final weight with parachute but no engines: 176.2 grams. Time to sim it with different engines!

Turned out great.

Also liked the "Marc G" decals, which I assume are reserved for a future build!

Ya know, I've been sittin back and keepin my mouth shut on this one. ----That is one fine piece of work---OUTSTANDING !--Great detail work--Super paint-- and thank you for taking time to make the fins right and sharp---LOVE IT---Well thought out and well done !!! I'll keep my mouth shut now, mainly because my limited vocabulary can't express how nice that is---JUST WOW!! WELL DONE !!

Thanks for the kudos guys! I can't wait to put this one in the air. May be a week or two because of wind and dry conditions.

I like the Marc G decals Sandman made and they have inspired my next creative build. They will be used there. Top secret for now :grin:.

This summer, as most of you know, the midwest U.S. suffered the worst drought in recorded history, with extremely high temperatures for months.

Blood Atonement sat in my basement, occupying a place of honor on the table with a growing number of birds built but not yet flown. By this point, there were also three Vagabonds (various scales), an Estes Hornet, and a few others waiting. Eventually, enough rain came to our area and last week, the burn ban was lifted in Hamilton County. Thank goodness!

On Sunday I took to the field. My own kids decided they would rather build with Lego than join me. Stung by this rude defection, I was nonetheless heartened to have a friend from work join me with two of his daughters. We also drew an itinerant crowd during the 2 hours or so that we launched. I will document the other launches that day in other threads (specifically, my Vagabond thread will eventually get updated), but here I will focus on Blood Atonement.

It was to be the final launch of the day, but I decided to try it as a single stage rocket first, before trusting it to two stage flight. My friend had never seen an APCP engine before, so using one of those Estes 18-24 mm adaptors, plus the extra orange thrust ring for length, I inserted an Aerotech SU D10-5W. I love these engines, by the way.

I will apologize for horrible camera work. In addition to my weak skills, my camera was actually broken, with no charging capability and a focus that drifted more than usual. I did my best.

Here's BA on the pad for single stage flight:



As a side note, I was unable to get the supplied Copperhead to fit in the slot. I took out a pack of Estes Sonic igniters, and the first one I tried slid right in all the way. I didn't bend it or anything, just pushed it all the way in. Used a tiny bit of tape to hold it in place.

The video from the ground of the launch was very very poor so I won't post it, but will instead put a blurry screen cap from it.

5-4-3-2-1 And she's off! The igniter did a great job with the D10-5W year-old engine.



More fun was the attached 808 Keycam (a #3, standard definition). Here is what it captured:

[YOUTUBE]hibBDNbqjwc[/YOUTUBE]

It was a nice ride but there was a bit of coning going on. The wind had picked up from <5 miles to probably around 7 mph by this time. I guess the rocket was overstable, as predicted by simulation. But up she went, and then down for a nice touchdown.

Second Launch: Two stage, dual camera!

I loaded her up with a D12-0 booster and a C11-5 sustainer. I would later regret the 5 second delay, by the way. The same camera on the sustainer as in the previous post, and an 808 #5 (not as good video as #3) was taped to the booster looking up.

The wind was picking up and we nearly scrubbed the launch. But, in a brief lull in the winds, we put it into the air:

Pad shot:


Takeoff!



The ground video wasn't great but I'll attach it here, mostly so you can hear the two stages as they doppler away...

[YOUTUBE]ZxPFQk2K6w8[/YOUTUBE]

For me, the cool thing was to be the "boostervision" camera. The problem was that I hadn't thought through the attachment well enough. Sure, the camera was on with a rubber band, but the tape I used didn't hold it vertical enough to catch quite the framed shot I desired. You can't see the sustainer much. Here it is:

[YOUTUBE]KneIo_G5iyk[/YOUTUBE]

I did get a couple of interesting frames from the staging event. I had hoped to catch the rocket jetting away, but really not so much:





If you look closely, you can sort of see the fins, in a distorted sense. Only these two frames caught anything worth showing.

We recovered the booster (it had a little streamer, to aid visibility and recovery), as well as the camera, obviously.

The sustainer went off at maybe a 30 degree angle... not quite a HARM missile, but enough to carry it away from the field. It landed high in a tree, beyond initial hopes of recovery.

So, the sustainer on that 5 second delay, and having tilted over during boost, left the recovery zone by about 100 feet and landed 35-40 feet in a tree in a densely wooded patch adjacent to, or perhaps part of, the park. We did get lucky, as the tallest trees there are maybe 60-70 feet. I tried lots of things to get it down, and let's just say in the end I got it back, 5 days later. There are no grand revelations in technique. Call it luck plus friendship [shout out to my buddy OP--you da man!]. I was a bit worried because a brief rainshower happened on Monday, but the rocket seems undamaged.

I was also able to get the video off the camera, which seems unharmed by exposure to the elements. Mostly, other than that rainshower, we had good weather with lows in the 50s and highs in the low 90s, and it was hanging in a shady spot.

Here is the onboard flight video.

[YOUTUBE]ZkiA7AKhNrQ[/YOUTUBE]

I've trimmed off the better part of an hour of Tree-Cam.

On this take-off shot, not high up, you can see the spiral coning has already begun by looking at the smoke trail:



The staging event caught on camera was a lot of fun. Feel free to go slowly through the Youtube video. Here are some captures:



Successful deployment of the booster streamer is clearly visible.

The path of the flight is clear from looking at some screen caps from the video:


This first one is after the sustainer lit. Under full boost, we're nowhere near vertical.



By flameout you can see we've already traveled a ways laterally from the launch site:



At around apogee there is a beautiful view of the park and the next park over, across the street. For Indy folks, that's the Carillon bell tower of Coxhall Gardens in the distance:




As the rocket drifted under chute, the winds took it farther afield. Uh-oh! Trees below!




I was thinking, "this is gonna cost me!"



But it was a cool flight, and we eventually had a happy ending. Nobody got hurt, sued, or arrested.

I will create "Blood Atonement, Season 2" which will hopefully give a straighter flight with less coning.

I learned a lot from this build. Thanks for all your support. I'm retiring Blood Atonement except for times when I find a bigger field. Then, in light winds, I'll give it another shot. Part of the problem was a too-short launch rod. If I got it going faster off the rod, I think it may have fared better.

Marc

Very happy that the rocket flew well. I know you put alot of work into it, and it looks like the hard work paid off!