50's Sci-Fi conversion

After building a few of these kit rockets I find they're not very challenging..build wise,I built the Solar Warrior in four hours while rebuilding the Atlas, got to have some thing to do while glue dries, even the level 5's are childs play. So I decieded to convert one of the stomp rocket designs to flight. Now the challenge comes in because I have no idea of weights, distribution, balancing ect,ect.

I decieded to go with the best, most stable flying little rocket in the stomp rocket kit, it's a 1950's style sci-fi rocket. Using card stock, I'm not sure of the paper thickness, but the package says it's 110lb. I started off with the engine mount, not sure of how long to make it I made it to come up to the top of fin level. It's triple wrap and the engine fits very snug, I don't have an engine hold bracket but the Bull Pup I have doesn't have one either and there's no problem with the engie sliding out. I suppose I could make one.

I have the first two sections of the lower half of the fuselege done. I double laminated the parts, this is thicker than some of the tubes I've worked with.

Can you tell me where you got the Stomp Rocket pattern? I have a few that I got from either Zealot forum or Paper Modelers forum but they are not like that one.

Looks like a fun project. I would say that since the stomp rocket is stable, balance the converted rocket at the same point with a motor installed.

Looks like maybe here?
https://paperstomprockets.com/html/rockets___space_models.html

-Jeff

gdjsky01 said:

Looks like maybe here?
https://paperstomprockets.com/html/rockets___space_models.html

-Jeff

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Oh, very cool.. I like the F-104 models.

Thats the one. Mikes a good guy, he lives in Alaska and designs alot of stuff. He's really into flying paper aircraft. He's designed these rockets and has been working on a six foot Sat-V APL rocket. I built the X-15 he designed and have on file a large SR-71, I haven't built yet, (I have to wait untill I replace my ink cartridges, that thing's going to take alot of black ink).

Any way..here's some progress and a pic of the X-15 and 104.

Here's some better pics of the X-15

It is looking good so far....
Love that retro....

Are the fins through the wall or surface mount?

It looks like the grain on one of those fins is parallel to the body tube. I suppose if you are planning to cover the fin with cardstock, it might be ok. Otherwise it will be easily broken off.

BobH48 said:

It looks like the grain on one of those fins is parallel to the body tube. I suppose if you are planning to cover the fin with cardstock, it might be ok. Otherwise it will be easily broken off.

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Thanks for the heads up, I didn't pay ant attention to that, I didn't even know wood grain direction even mattered. However it does make sense. I will make the needed correction.

closet astronaut said:

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't pay ant attention to that, I didn't even know wood grain direction even mattered. However it does make sense. I will make the needed correction.

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Generally, for maximum strength, the grain should follow the leading edge of the fin. We have all been there and snapped off a fin with the grain going the wrong way.

gdjsky01 said:

Hang on a sec... I got this all wrong. :bangpan: I thought you were creating a flying model cardstock rocket from the cardstock stomp rocket. But you are creating sort of a hybrid with balsa fins not cardstock. Hmmm... ok...

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Thats correct. If I use the card stock fins I would have to quadruple the thickness to get a flat strait fin, essentially making them the thickness of the balsa. On the stomp rocket the fins don't hold a flat strait shape,even doubled.

I've been informed that I have improper grain direction on at least one of the fins so I'm going to restart from scratch, mainly because in experimenting with surface covering that didn't work out as planned. I was going for a metallic finish and was using metallic shelf paper but getting it exactly strait and getting all the wrinkles out was impossible, so in taking it all off I tore off all the first layer of paper.

I'm going to use crome paper for the rebuild, I've used it before on another project. Here's a few of pics.

Bob,

I was gonna tell him that, you beat me to it!

I forgot to add..the fins are surface mount.

So...I cut open the fuselage, removed the fins, I love paper.

And the build continues, fuselage complete. The nose cone on a paper model is a bit tricky, they're made to slip over the main body, I'm not sure how this would work on an engine powered rocket. I made a cylinder and glued that into the cone, it slides down into the tube like a regular cone.

Stay tuned for the fins.

OK--Very retro and very cool---I'm watching now !! Been out of the loop a bit. Very 30ish-----very cool !!!!

This is crome paper, or card stock used for scrap booking. Scrap booking stores has a slew of different kinds of paper, texture, colors, patterns, with a little creativity there's no end to what you can do.

As far as the rivets, just used a ball point pen.

Ok..got some fin work done tonight.

Oh..and no more worries with the wood grain.

Oh man, that is beautiful! I will have to look around in the scrapbooking store that is near me, I never even knew that stuff existed!
The only thing that concerns me is the pic you posted of the dowels on the fins; they look pretty heavy. But with enough nose weight, you should be fine. What size is the motor mount?
Oh, and don't worry about friction fit motor mounts. My faith in them is quite unshakable after flying my two stager on a D12-0 to D12-5 without putting the D to E adapter in the booster! The motor was not touching touching the engine block or the motor hook, and it didn't budge, even when staging. The motor didn't even feel tight in the tube. I guess the rocket gods were already satisfied by the three CATO's earlier that day. (That was probably the most failure-prone club launch I've ever been too.)

Good luck with the rest of the build, though it looks like you're about done. Let us know how she flies!

closet astronaut said:

This is crome paper, or card stock used for scrap booking. Scrap booking stores has a slew of different kinds of paper, texture, colors, patterns, with a little creativity there's no end to what you can do.

As far as the rivets, just used a ball point pen.

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Ok, is this chrome *paper* or *cardstock*? And, where do you get this, specifically? Would HobbyLobby have this, you think? If there's a chrome cardstock, then I'll be able to make some REAL COOL GLIDERS with it! Also, despite its chromed appearance, does it glue easily with wood glues?

This may be the coolest thing I've ever seen.

AstronMike said:

Ok, is this chrome *paper* or *cardstock*? And, where do you get this, specifically? Would HobbyLobby have this, you think? If there's a chrome cardstock, then I'll be able to make some REAL COOL GLIDERS with it! Also, despite its chromed appearance, does it glue easily with wood glues?

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Ooh, I would love to see that! If you build one, will you please bring it to TTRA? :drool:
Maybe if wood glue doesn't work, CA would, although I suspect that it is only "chrome" on one side. If it isn't thick enough to make a glider out of, I guess maybe you could laminate it onto regular card stock.
A little off-topic, but a similarly cool thing I would like to see is some kind of metallic inkjet ink. Do they make that?

Rocketbuilder said:

Oh man, that is beautiful! I will have to look around in the scrapbooking store that is near me, I never even knew that stuff existed!
The only thing that concerns me is the pic you posted of the dowels on the fins; they look pretty heavy. But with enough nose weight, you should be fine. What size is the motor mount?
Oh, and don't worry about friction fit motor mounts. My faith in them is quite unshakable after flying my two stager on a D12-0 to D12-5 without putting the D to E adapter in the booster! The motor was not touching touching the engine block or the motor hook, and it didn't budge, even when staging. The motor didn't even feel tight in the tube. I guess the rocket gods were already satisfied by the three CATO's earlier that day. (That was probably the most failure-prone club launch I've ever been too.)

Good luck with the rest of the build, though it looks like you're about done. Let us know how she flies!

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The dowls on the fins are balsa also, it was actually square, I had to carve and wittle down to size, I am concerned about weight also. I'm not sure where to tie the string on the fuselage to determine balance, and if the chute and engine should be intalled when balancing. I've done some balancing on a couple of the stomp planes but they have a spot on the top of the fuselage premarked in the pdf file.

The paper I'm using I found at HobbyLobby, incase you have one in you'r area.

AstronMike said:

Ok, is this chrome *paper* or *cardstock*? And, where do you get this, specifically? Would HobbyLobby have this, you think? If there's a chrome cardstock, then I'll be able to make some REAL COOL GLIDERS with it! Also, despite its chromed appearance, does it glue easily with wood glues?

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It's crome paper with the thickness of card stock. You have to be careful of which kind you get, good crome paper will be fairly stiff like card stock and have a strong mirror finnish, there are other metallic looking paper that has like a thin layer of foil laminated to the paper, this kind is not good, when you cut it or handle it too much the foil will start to peel.

And yes Hobby Lobby is where I got this specific paper, I have also found good crome paper at Joanns fabrics in the strip mall thats connected to the Curcuit City. The glue I've been using is laminate flooring glue, the stuff used to glue the joints when laying laminate flooring, I also use this when building kit rockets.

closet astronaut said:

The dowls on the fins are balsa also, it was actually square, I had to carve and wittle down to size, I am concerned about weight also. I'm not sure where to tie the string on the fuselage to determine balance, and if the chute and engine should be intalled when balancing. I've done some balancing on a couple of the stomp planes but they have a spot on the top of the fuselage premarked in the pdf file.

The paper I'm using I found at HobbyLobby, incase you have one in you'r area.

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Now that I know that the dowels are balsa, I am not nearly as concerned. I just never considered that they might be balsa because they're round.
As for balancing, do it with the engine, parachute, wadding, and everything that will be in the rocket when it is flying installed.
Did you get the paper at the Lakeland Hobby Lobby?

Rocketbuilder said:

Now that I know that the dowels are balsa, I am not nearly as concerned. I just never considered that they might be balsa because they're round.
As for balancing, do it with the engine, parachute, wadding, and everything that will be in the rocket when it is flying installed.
Did you get the paper at the Lakeland Hobby Lobby?

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Yes...the brand new one on S. Fl, ave.