My current Fleet of rockets (Pictures Attached)

Since being laid off I had some time to complete some builds and organize the shop/garage. I decided to remove my rockets from on top of my cabinet and put them closer to the floor. With both garage doors open a pretty strong breeze comes through. I would hate to have any of them hit the concrete. Anyway attached are some pictures. I finally finished my Aerotech Initiator, which I had on the back burner for over 2 years. I will post more pictures of it later...

Next rocket to finish up is my Bat Ray (on top of the cabinet) and then start my G-Force for my Level 1 I also needed to make room on the bench to work on my RC Truck...what I need is another work bench.

A few months ago I gave away a dozen or more LPR to the Boy Scouts along with chutes and an "E" pad. I figure they will enjoy them and it's nice to pay it forward when you can.

Pictured are:

• Initiator - 29mm
• Fat Boy - 3x24mm Cluster
• Van Halen Pink, Black and White - 4x24mm
• Big Daddy - 24mm
• Patriot BT-60 - CHAD 3 24's
• Purple, White & Red BT-60 - CHAD 3 18's
• Yellow and Black - BT-60 - 3X18mm
• Stars and Strips BT-60 - 2X18mm

Rockets in build queue:

• SEMROC Mars Lander
• Q-Modeling - Bull Pup
• MADCOW Scooter
• ESTES Big Daddy (Maybe a cluster or 29mm conversion?)

SPECIAL NOTE: I have to add this because I thought it was pretty funny. A lot of the rockets pictured didn't have the Nomex blankets attached so I thought I would get them flight ready. I was attaching one to the Pink, White and Black pattern rocket, when after I had everything glued up I pulled out the entire shock to double check the length only to find I already had one attached...:rofl: I know brain fart right...anyway at least I have an extra one that I can use in the Initiator. OK stop laughing now...can you give me a big DUH!!!:surprised:

nice builds!....rockets...pinball and R/C....my wife said..."all you need is beer in that orange cooler and you'd fell right at home" :wink:

RWmarlow said:

nice builds!....rockets...pinball and R/C....my wife said..."all you need is beer in that orange cooler and you'd fell right at home" :wink:

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Tell her thanks! On the other cluttered work bench I have a coffee maker, my laptop and printer and a refrigerator in the corner, which contains all the necessary liquid refreshments when building. The pinball is great to have...something to do while the epoxy/glue sets up.

Ni ce looking rockets. Been wanting to paint one with the stripes like that ... would you share your step-by-step process?

SacEsq said:

Ni ce looking rockets. Been wanting to paint one with the stripes like that ... would you share your step-by-step process?

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Sure be more than happy to share with you what I did. Basically paint the body white and let it dry for at least a few days. Obviously you will fill spirals and primer just as you would any other paint job.

I then used Tamiya masking tape 6mm and taped off the section I wanted and used paper to cover the fin can and upper portion of the body tube. See link below

https://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam87033.htm

The rest is pretty easy. I took the same tape (6mm) and ran stripes the length of the body tube all the way around the rocket. I didn't measure anything so some red sections are smaller than others, but I just "eye-balled" it. After you get all the tape down go ahead and paint over it with red. Let dry a few hours and carefully peal up the tape.

The stars I went to Michael's and they had some stickers that I used. I just painted the nose cone white. Randomly placed the stars on the nose cone and fin can and spray the sections blue. I let the paint dry and peal off the stars. You may want to use an X-acto knife to lift the edges to get them started...but that's all there is to it. Simple process, but makes the rocket overall look pretty cool!

OPPS: I just realized most of my rockets have strips...I was assuming the Stars and Strips...the Van Halen pattern is pretty easy too. I always start with a base coat of white. I use Duplicolor, but Rustoleum 2x Gloss White is exceptional and covers real nice. Using the same 6mm tape I randomly lay down the strips over the white. Whenever I do this I always try to make sure they are continuous. If the tape goes over the fin I extend it out and keep it going the natural direction it points until it reaches the cut of section. After I have the tape down I come back and paint the second color. In this case neon green. After it dries I repeat the tape process on the fin can area until I have a nice balance of lines. Last step I spray the flat black to cover. After the flat black dries I usually wait a few hours I peel off the tape to have the finish scheme. You can use different thicknesses in tape. I just used 6mm because it's all I had at the time, but I would probably use 6mm and 10 mm next time I paint a rocket this way. Another cool thing to do is when you lay down the tape over the white allow the tape to end in the middle somewhere so when you paint it the second color green, you can pick it up where it left off. When you peel the paint it will look like the line went from white to green without intersecting.

Thanks .... figured it was that simple but thought to ask anyway.

Very cool fleet and a sweet "hobby shop" you have there....I like that !!

I too like the rockets with the stripes ,it`s a great look.I`ll have to try that technique myself ,thanks for sharing friend !!

Take care.

Paul T

sodmeister said:

Very cool fleet and a sweet "hobby shop" you have there....I like that !!

I too like the rockets with the stripes ,it`s a great look.I`ll have to try that technique myself ,thanks for sharing friend !!

Take care.

Paul T

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Thanks Paul and you are welcome. Post some pictures of yours when you paint it. You can do so many cool color combo's. I think you will be pleased with the results.

Dan

AfterBurners said:

Thanks Paul and you are welcome. Post some pictures of yours when you paint it. You can do so many cool color combo's. I think you will be pleased with the results.

Dan

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Well my friend ,things got pretty chilly up here all of a sudden.......snow actually :eyeroll:

How depressing if you ask me.So now it`s time to get in mega build mode !

Regards

Paul t

Well that sounds like a great idea Paul....what are you going to be building? Kits or a scratch build?

AfterBurners said:

Well that sounds like a great idea Paul....what are you going to be building? Kits or a scratch build?

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Oh my ,plenty of both ! I`ll do my usual " The Launch Pad stuff" ,have a few Estes (love those kits) and I have a few high power scratch builds ready to go.

I also have some scratch cluster things I want to get done ,black powder A,B and C motors.I really got into clusters last year ,great fun and very impressive flights.

Take care and happy building !


Paul T

sodmeister said:

Oh my ,plenty of both ! I`ll do my usual " The Launch Pad stuff" ,have a few Estes (love those kits) and I have a few high power scratch builds ready to go.

I also have some scratch cluster things I want to get done ,black powder A,B and C motors.I really got into clusters last year ,great fun and very impressive flights.

Take care and happy building !


Paul T

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My first cluster launch with Boy Scouts...

I love clusters and all the flames and smoke...when those motors light up there's nothing cooler except more motors!!:lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPZMqoFF3Y

2.6 diameter 3x24mm

Nice fleet! Mine keeps growing... i just got lucky and picked up a v2 tonight... funny story behind that too...

Bubba02STi said:

Nice fleet! Mine keeps growing... i just got lucky and picked up a v2 tonight... funny story behind that too...

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The V-2 is a great kit ,I built one just recently and plan on buying a few more.

Paul T

AfterBurners said:

My first cluster launch with Boy Scouts...

I love clusters and all the flames and smoke...when those motors light up there's nothing cooler except more motors!!:lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPZMqoFF3Y

2.6 diameter 3x24mm

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My first was an Estes Fatboy I had laying around.I decided to convert it to 3 x 18mm motors and made a few mods.It flies great on Bs and Cs. but I plan on scratching another
several with more motors ,5 or more sounds like fun LOL

Paul T