Building the Estes "Cosmic Interceptor"

I fell in love with this rocket the first time I saw it, finally I have one in my paws. There aren't too many kits that get my attention like this one has, so I was excited to get started on it. Starting another one is not a great idea right now with MWPX fast approaching, but I can't wait...

I bought the kit from hobbylinc, it arrived yesterday with the rest of the order that earned 5000+ points to my account (think that's good for 50 cents?). I didn't do any research on the kit, the look of it was enough. First impression of the kit, WOW! This think is a beauty, and much bigger than expected. I love a kit with a parts list that goes into double letter part designations.

The laser cut cardstock parts are all very nice, the balsa is of decent quality. The tubes are nice, and the nose cone is super cool. I was very surprised when I noticed the rip-stop parachute, because nothing led me to believe that it came with that.

This one is a winner in my book, thanks Estes! On with the show.

The parts:

The nosecone looks to be the Interceptor-E part, which screams "29mm" to me....

G.D.

If it's the same cone, I couldn't say - never built an Interceptor E. It appears to be the same tube size though, the HBT2000. As far as going 29mm, that would be difficult to do with the kitted parts. I'll get to that shortly.

The typically mundane motor mount is not so mundane in this kit, I count fifteen pieces. The motor tube holds some of the bottom end detail, as well as structure for the rocket itself.

At the start of motor mount assembly, I find something that Estes could have done better. The motor tube has a marking guide that gets cut from the instructions, unfortunately it's located on the back side of the instructions needed for construction of it! So I cut it out, used it, then taped it back into place.

After marking, I glued in the engine block and motor hook/sleeve. Debated putting those in, but I don't see myself putting anything bigger than a 24-60 case in it so I followed the instructions as written.

Then came the eight cardstock rear fin things. I'm sure there's a real name for them, I don't know what that might be. Later, the top end of these slide into the main body tube. The combination of all these parts needing to work together is what would make a larger diameter motor rather difficult.

The top end of the motor tube gets a coupler with centering rings. I would have preferred the rings to fit inside the coupler, but they are the same diameter. To glue it up, I first put a wrap of painters tape around the end of the coupler tube with about a quarter inch exposed above the tube. I put a ring of glue in the tube, laid the ring within the tape, then folded the tape over the ring. Flipped it over, work the glue into the corner, then let set to dry.

After the coupler assembly set up a bit, I glued it to the motor tube. I don't believe I've ever spent so much time on a motor mount!

Thanks for doing a detailed build of this great kit ,just what`s needed ! I plan on getting this kit soon ,but not too cheap up here ,saw one so far for about $ 50.00 ,but I`m sure i can find cheaper.....I hope ?

Cheers

Paul T

Your most welcome Mr. Meister, but I assure you the pleasure is all mine. I wouldn't pay fifty bucks for it either, that's pretty steep.

There is one more piece to the bottom end, a short length of the HBT2000 tube. The instructions recommend leaving it off until the underlying parts are painted, I'll take that advice.

Getting started on the main wings, it's time to sort out this big pile of balsa! Love it. The main wings consist of nine pieces, four of which get glued together flat. I sanded the gluing edges with 220 grit on a flat surface just enough to remove the laser stops. The exposed edges were sanded clean. I sanded a small bevel on the corners of the gluing edges as well to give a little more gluing surface. After laying them out on a strait edge, some small gaps showed up - nothing that the glue cant fix. The vertical piece in the picture is not yet glued in place, it's just there for alignment purposes.

Looking good!Qcc explorer is my next build,this one looks twice as complex but I like it

Barracuda said:

Looking good!Qcc explorer is my next build,this one looks twice as complex but I like it

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Thanks! I haven't built a QCC (to the instructions, that is), but I would guess it has more parts than this. Lots of small thin parts in those intake assemblies.

While waiting for the wings to dry, I decided to put the main body tube together. Sat for a minute, looking at the parts, one thing led to another, yada, yada, yada, now the coupler is a baffle. The bottom plate is 1/8" ply, top plate is 1/4", with two 1/8" half-moons inside.

While waiting for the glue to dry in the gaps of the main wings, I glued the winglet halves together. While that was drying, I marked the main body tube for the main wing and center fin locations. What I liked about the marking guide for this was that it had guide lines for both edges of the wings, rather than a single line in the center - nice touch.

Now that the glue is all dry on the main wings, it's time for some elbow grease. Not that much really, but TB II is tough sanding in general. As I usually do, my attention drifted while sanding the beads down, and I cut into the balsa - oops. Oh well, thats what the carpenters wood filler is for. No bigs, I've decided to paper all the fin area anyway. Should get to that this afternoon.

Now that the wings have been filled and sanded, it's time to get them skinned. I like to use self adhesive label paper for this, quick n' easy. After the paper is applied, I run over it with a hot iron.

I papered the winglets as well, just on the outer side. After applying the paper and ironing it, I removed the center section to glue the caps to wood rather than paper. Here lies the evidence that ironing gets that glue moving, the paper was a pain to get off!

The last step to the main wings (before attaching to body tube) is the strake, if that part can be referred to as that. Nothing too exciting there.

Chad,

Looks awesome; gonna have to get myself one too!

Hurry up and get it done for Midwest Power:wink:.

Keep up the good work!

-Eric-

Finally feel like I'm getting somewhere on this! To glue the main wings to the body tube, I first marked the location of the glue surfaces and ruffed 'em up with 120 grit. I taped the tube down sitting on top of a 1/16" wide steel scale. the wings were then clamped to 1" square tubes and glued to either side with TB II.

ECayemberg said:

Chad,

Looks awesome; gonna have to get myself one too!

Hurry up and get it done for Midwest Power:wink:.

Keep up the good work!

-Eric-

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Thanks Eric.
Funny thing is, I really should be working on things for Midwest Power rather than this! Might just be able to get it ALL ready.

Looks good so far. I would recommend doing as much surface finishing as reasonably possible before final assembly. Some of the areas on the underside of the rocket can present a real challenge to finish correctly. Unfortunately, due to the strakes on the engine mount assembly, it would be very difficult to increase to a 29mm mount. I suppose one could alter the strakes to allow for this, but I'm not sure how much stress the wings can withstand as they have a tendency to flex. After flying I mine on an E9-4 (definitely not enough thrust), I switched to a CTI E22 smoky sam with a 4 second delay, which gave great flights.

Now that the wings are attached, they get a small support piece to attach them to the body tube. The fit had to be adjusted a bit for them to sit horizontal, no big issue.

kmf04040 said:

Looks good so far. I would recommend doing as much surface finishing as reasonably possible before final assembly. Some of the areas on the underside of the rocket can present a real challenge to finish correctly. Unfortunately, due to the strakes on the engine mount assembly, it would be very difficult to increase to a 29mm mount. I suppose one could alter the strakes to allow for this, but I'm not sure how much stress the wings can withstand as they have a tendency to flex. After flying I mine on an E9-4 (definitely not enough thrust), I switched to a CTI E22 smoky sam with a 4 second delay, which gave great flights.

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The finishing looks like it will be a bit putzy, but not too bad. This rocket will never see a BP motor, I'll likely first-flight it on an E18.

Are you going for a nonstandard paint scheme, or the colors on the box? This rocket seems like an excellent candidate for alternate livery.
Oh, and I love E18's. I may have to get me one of these...

Rocketbuilder said:

Are you going for a nonstandard paint scheme, or the colors on the box? This rocket seems like an excellent candidate for alternate livery.
Oh, and I love E18's. I may have to get me one of these...

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I agree, though I have not yet decided how I'll paint it - those juices tend to flow at the strangest times. I love E18's too.

Again ,this thread will prove pretty handy when i get one. I wanted to ask you what kind of label paper did you use to skin the fins, as I have never gone this route before with Balsa ,and might give it a try.I`ve seen the glue and paper technique ,but have never tried it......too scared I think ??

Keep up the nice work !

Paul T

sodmeister said:

Again ,this thread will prove pretty handy when i get one. I wanted to ask you what kind of label paper did you use to skin the fins, as I have never gone this route before with Balsa ,and might give it a try.I`ve seen the glue and paper technique ,but have never tried it......too scared I think ??

Keep up the nice work !

Paul T

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I sure hope you're able to pick one up for a reasonable price, I'm loving it so far. Glad Estes is getting into some more advanced things, looking forward to the "Black Star Voyager" too. Which by the way is being auctioned on fleabay right now, if anyone is so inclined to pay (at minimum) full retail - I'll wait. https://www.ebay.com/itm/160905573069?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
I asked the seller if they'd consider a buy it now option, they said no.
Back on track here - the label paper is just full sheet label paper from the office supply store. The funny thing with that is I originally bought it to use as shipping labels, now I save it for rockets and print the shipping labels on plain paper.

Thanks for the picture ,that helps very much, I`ll go check those types of label out.

Oh and yah ,that Black Star Voyager is also on my list ,and I agree ,Estes is doing some great things these last few years.It`s a good time to be into rockets or a BAR !

Cheers

paul T

sodmeister said:

Thanks for the picture ,that helps very much, I`ll go check those types of label out.

Oh and yah ,that Black Star Voyager is also on my list ,and I agree ,Estes is doing some great things these last few years.It`s a good time to be into rockets or a BAR !

Cheers

paul T

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No problem at all. I took the day off today to catch up on some yard work, grumble.:sigh:

I really have to get one of these. Great build pics. Keep em coming