What did you do rocket wise today?

So much!

Filled tube spirals on my Big Bertha (had kind of a breakthrough there - sanding sponges! I've had such trouble sanding off CWF without scuffing body tubes), filled fins (not sanded yet), blogged, got my Quest Quad Runner through UPS, sanded the tube for my first scratchbuild, painted undercoat on my friend's Apogee Aspire rocket, organized my work space so I can use the office instead of the kitchen table, and watched "From the Earth to the Moon."

More sluggin' away at doing the Decals/Vinyl for the Martel. As soon as the Weather is nice enough outside it is getting Clear Coated, regardless of whether I feel it is done or not. I can always add more ontop of Clear Coat, and infact that would be preferable as the Clear will smooth the finish a little more.

Got a Can of Clearcoat on there!

TopRamen said:

Got a Can of Clearcoat on there!

View attachment 184955

View attachment 184956

View attachment 184976

Click to expand...

All of your rockets have a unique look to them. It is hard to put my finger on exactly what that essential style is. It works, so keep it up.

JMZawodny said:

All of your rockets have a unique look to them. It is hard to put my finger on exactly what that essential style is. It works, so keep it up.

Click to expand...

Thanks!!!

I got/get all my Inspiration from Folks here on Rocketry Forum!

I've been cleaning all around my build area, but all that is left is to clean up my actual work bench. The thought of taking everything down, dusting it off, organizing it, or putting it away seems completely wrong to me. It is MY bench, with everything just where I know it should be. Who cares about the thick layer of dust from years of sanding? Out Satan! You are not welcomed here!

I renewed my NAR license...about 60 days late I might add.

Met llegrandudu of Munich while I am in germany on vacation... Great person to talk to...

So, the two transition rockets are getting basswood fins. Don't know when I can make it to a hobby center and I have basswood so... Drew up a bunch of ellipses in Paint and picked out the one that fit the airframes best. Cut the whole ellipse out, folded it in half and glued together. They look overly long when it's the full half so I trimmed a bit off the root edge. Laid out 6 fins on a 1/16th" x 2" strip, cut them out and sanded them to shape over the next 2 hours To keep them the same size I clamped them in a stack with a small C clamp and kept switching the parts around to keep things equal. They came out nice, rounded and all the same Now to start gluing them on...it's almost time for another 8 oz bottle of TiteBond

No hands on rocketry for me today....traveling back to the US tonight. I did get some interesting pictures of a few uncommon missiles at the airshow I was at. Will post after I get home.

Got some of these at a wedding reception:
Gutted them for these electronic components:
And proceeded to use them for this:
Night flying argent here I come!

I machined a couple screw switches out of double sided PCB. I also finished version 2 of the nose cone altimeter bay for my Door Knob.

View attachment 185017

View attachment 185018

View attachment 185019[

Printed up a few copies of the Sparta Wresat stomp rocket.

Added fillets to booster of the Critical Mass and the launch lugs to the main tube.

Bought some dog barf (finally) along with some CA and aliphatic.


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.

Sanded down the 2nd coat of primer on my 4" Batray... Think I'm done with filler; no rough spots left. Another coat of primer to follow, just to even out color. BUT, I need to know how I'm going to paint it before the final primer coat (so as to use the proper primer: white, grey, black). Help me out, TRF... I was thinking of trying to mimic the old Adam West Batmobile somehow... Basically red pin-striping via a red base coat with Black gloss overlay. However, I've also been thinking of a primarily White rocket with black Bat/Batman decals (see attached). What do you all think?

Fixed 3 broken rockets this evening and got the motor mount installed in my Loc Weasel. Also tackled the dreaded task of cleaning up my rocket workbench.

@CZTeacherMan -I'd go with the classic batmobile look- with red edges to the fins + red pin striping, and the rest black. Maybe put in a logo like the side of the original batmobile like this:

I made some Paper Skins for my V2 Fins.

djs said:

Fixed 3 broken rockets this evening and got the motor mount installed in my Loc Weasel. Also tackled the dreaded task of cleaning up my rocket workbench.

@CZTeacherMan -I'd go with the classic batmobile look- with red edges to the fins + red pin striping, and the rest black. Maybe put in a logo like the side of the original batmobile like this:

Click to expand...

black with red pin striping with silver/chrome accents!

(although that tribal bat is pretty cool looking too... only one thing to do: build another one. )

rbelknap said:

black with red pin striping with silver/chrome accents!

(although that tribal bat is pretty cool looking too... only one thing to do: build another one. )

Click to expand...

This is very curious. When I saw the Batmobile in the early 70's it was flat black. Not even really flat black, it was flocked with a velveteen finish for a completely non-gloss finish. It was supposed to resemble bat fur. The card with the car went on about how difficult it was for George Barris to find and apply the finish.

I spent a fair amount of time today cleaning my original workbench and re-arranging, discarding, storing, and cleaning various and sundry items that had take up residence there. At this point I have approximately 8' of the available 10' length open for business.

Unfortunately, clearing the original desk required temporarily stashing the miscellaneous stuff on top of my new rocket workbench but at least the piles are neatly sorted.

dave carver said:

This is very curious. When I saw the Batmobile in the early 70's it was flat black. Not even really flat black, it was flocked with a velveteen finish for a completely non-gloss finish. It was supposed to resemble bat fur. The card with the car went on about how difficult it was for George Barris to find and apply the finish.

Click to expand...

The original Batmobile (aka "the coolest car ever") had "40 coats of glossy black" then was trimmed with "florescent cerise. "

https://www.barris.com/carsgallery/tvmovie/batmobile.php

You saw one of Barris's "bat fuzzed" replicas.

https://www.1966batmobile.com/replica.htm

-- Roger

jadebox said:

The original Batmobile (aka "the coolest car ever") had "40 coats of glossy black" then was trimmed with "florescent cerise. "

https://www.barris.com/carsgallery/tvmovie/batmobile.php

You saw one of Barris's "bat fuzzed" replicas.

https://www.1966batmobile.com/replica.htm

-- Roger

Click to expand...

Thank, Roger, I knew there was a reason At the same carshow they lit off the Raider Coach built by Barris for Paul Revere. It had 4 400 cube supercharged Pontiacs, insane power for it's day.

The two transition rockets I've been working on are assembled and filets have been done, they should fly really well on the A's and B's they were designed for. I should have photos later, grainy though they might be

Papered the V2 Fins. This particular Balsa was poor, even by Estes standards. Maybe it's because it was the "Canadian Arrow"??? uke:

They're under a stack of Books now where they will stay for the next 2 Days to dry/cure,(Giving them every chance), but if they come out wonky I thankfully have plenty of spare TLP and BMS Balsa on hand to do them over if necessary.
I'm sure they'll be fine, I guess I've just been spoiled in the Balsa Department lately.

Took a brake from sanding on the Sidewinder and the Laser-X.
So, I started cutting some parts and doing some layout for me Razors Edge upscale. About a 1.8 upscale. Comes in around 42" tall.
Using Midwest 1/16 Birch Plywood. Did some dumpster diving and found a bunch of 6x7ish end pieces. Nice stuff.
Changed a few dimensions cuz of the look.
Thinking of putting the triangle pieces at 1,2 --4,5---7,8---10,11 o'clock. around the mid section.
I'm also entertaining the idea of flatting the tops of those pieces. Maybe have about a 3/8 flat?????
Hard telling not knowing.
I'll do me usualy "tack it together,to get the look".
Need to find a BT-70 conicial NC around 10" Whats that, like a 4:1?

Plus,I got a "Second Chance" from ebay to purchase 6 balsa BMS NCs for short coin.
1-80,3-70s and 2-60s. I jumped on it and hit the Buy Now button.

Began developing/practicing my Skills at changing a Body Tube Diameter. A True Scale Seawolf is within reach!



Not to mention other Scale Military Missiles!!! Time to go browse through my Books with renewed Enthusiasm!

Got another package of goodies in the mail today!




Jerome

Wrote my first 'real' program in ANSI C. It is a basic rocket numerical simulation software. It is limited for now and the simulation is not accurate, but is a fun project to put my brand new C skills at use

I backed this kickstarter for $50

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bryanfriestad/johnston-mark-ii-rocket

Wee!!

Krusty

I dry assembled my MadCow 4" removeable altimeter bay that will eventually live inside my Madcow Frenzy.

And already the modifications to the alt bay have started...