King Kraken (L1 Certification) Build Thread

That is a cool rocket you got.
Xan

Which Reminds me... My Dual deployment flight was successful!



A couple of photos by o1d_dude and SCrocketfan:

View attachment 255633 View attachment 255632

Here are a couple of pictures of "Little Kraken" carrying the King Kraken:



Photos taken by Peter Thoeny

License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Copyright (C) 2014 Peter Thoeny

I have decided I need to get a King Kraken. Going to be going to a model airplane event with some model rocketry overtones in Little Rock in June and will be staying with a friend in North Little Rock. Am going to try to pick up a kit from the man himself while in town.

rbelknap said:

Here are a couple of pictures of "Little Kraken" carrying the King Kraken:

View attachment 255631

Photos taken by Peter Thoeny

License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Copyright (C) 2014 Peter Thoeny

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Hey! My folding "rocketry stool" made it into the picture.

Say, I forgot to ask you what the airframe weight finally came in at. I always record the all up weight (AUW: motor, hardware, chutes, etc,) of my birds before launching and was thinking you might have done the same.

o1d_dude said:

Hey! My folding "rocketry stool" made it into the picture.

Say, I forgot to ask you what the airframe weight finally came in at. I always record the all up weight (AUW: motor, hardware, chutes, etc,) of my birds before launching and was thinking you might have done the same.

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I should have. I had my scale out and everything, but didn't record the final weight. I guess that means I'll just have to launch it again. (darn...)
Hoping I can get the top half painted and the final decal applied before too long. (I have to do one more sand/prime/sand cycle to do deal with the dirt I picked up at the launch.)

tab28682 said:

I have decided I need to get a King Kraken. Going to be going to a model airplane event with some model rocketry overtones in Little Rock in June and will be staying with a friend in North Little Rock. Am going to try to pick up a kit from the man himself while in town.

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Sounds like a plan. I hope you enjoy building / flying your kraken as much as I have mine.

Let's see, just shy of 2years since my last post on this build thread. That means it's about time for an update:



In the time since I last posted anything, I moved. Quite a bit more room up here for things like painting. (Not so much for building, although in theory I do have a rocket workbench out in the garage.)

Anyway, that is the top of the rocket currently sitting in duplicolor mirage base coat. Some light sanding once it's cured and then on to the color coats.

The first color coat is now drying

Nice!
I'm looking at the temps, and I might be able to get some painting done this weekend...we shall see...

Final color and clear coats applied. Now I just need to let it cure for a couple of days.

That should give me enough time to locate/dig out the custom vinyl decals I had made for this rocket back in 2014...

The_Lone_Beagle said:

Nice!
I'm looking at the temps, and I might be able to get some painting done this weekend...we shall see...

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Always nice when the weather cooperates, isn't it? 😃

I'm helping with a launch for my son's Cub Scout pack this weekend. And next weekend will be the first LUNAR club launch I've been able to attend in almost a year. I'm planning to fly a (completely finished) KK-DD there.

rbelknap said:

Always nice when the weather cooperates, isn't it? ��

I'm helping with a launch for my son's Cub Scout pack this weekend. And next weekend will be the first LUNAR club launch I've been able to attend in almost a year. I'm planning to fly a (completely finished) KK-DD there.

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Along with qquake2k, I have to ask, have they gotten the road fixed? It sounded like people suspected it might be washed out for a while. If it hasn't been repaired, there is always TCC!

The road has not yet been repaired. Last I heard, they were waiting for things to dry out a bit more before doing the repair work. LUNAR is paying for a load of gravel to help with the repairs. The plan is currently to have the road be passable for a 2/4/17 launch. Make sure to call the LUNAR hotline before making the drive out to the ranch.

I sure hope the road gets fixed in time, and that the weather keeps cooperating. 2/4 might be my only big launch this year. (Working most weekends now-a-days)

rbelknap said:

The road has not yet been repaired. Last I heard, they were waiting for things to dry out a bit more before doing the repair work. LUNAR is paying for a load of gravel to help with the repairs. The plan is currently to have the road be passable for a 2/4/17 launch. Make sure to call the LUNAR hotline before making the drive out to the ranch.

I sure hope the road gets fixed in time, and that the weather keeps cooperating. 2/4 might be my only big launch this year. (Working most weekends now-a-days)

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Thanks for the Snow Ranch update, Robert.

Hope to see you out there...and posting.

I started this thread in July of 2012. Now, 4 ½ years later, l'm finally done building/painting.

I teased the decal I was planning to add to the payload bay back a few pages. I was looking at the postage date on the mailer from stickershock and it's from August of 2013, so yeah, it's about time I applied it.


Decisions, decisions. I had 2 versions made because I wasn't sure which I liked (and would fit) better. I still wasn't sure, so I let my younger son pick.



I'm really happy with how it came out.



And it's still taller than Squiddo, but not for much longer. I better get this bird in the air again soon.

Very nice!

Oh wow, shweet graphics.
WHen are you going to fly this beauty???

Pem Tech said:

Oh wow, shweet graphics.
WHen are you going to fly this beauty???

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I got to fly yesterday! I requested the day off from work so I could get out to my first high power club launch in over a year. My King Kraken went up on a DMS I540W and reached an altitude of 1745ft. I don't really have any other stats (sorry 0ldDude, I still didn't get an all-up weight)







Potentially more photos from others folks at the launch to come. I know Quake2k and SCRocketFan were both there with cameras.

On a side note, I think I've got my simulations for this rocket pretty well dialed in. Predicted altitude on an I540 was 1738ft.

And I'm officially calling this build thread complete. 😁

Was good to see you and number 1 son out on the field.

Your fire fighting efforts were appreciated, too.:lol:

Sorry I missed your flight.

ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!