K and S Artic Wolf build

The pace of my other build (LOC-IV Clone) has slowed as I work through the cosmetic portions of the build, I thought I'd start work on a recent acquisition.



Here's a shot of all the bits and pieces

The process begins with cutting out the fin guide


The fin guide is wrapped around the body tube that will hence forth be the lower section.


And here we have it all marked out and ready for cutting.

Slow and steady with the hobby knife yields some nice slots. I'm pretty proud of these cuts.

Prepping of the motor mount tube calls for pealing off the first layer of waxy finish.


The centering rings needed a slight sanding on the inside to fit properly onto the tube.


There will be no photos of the next few steps due to my displeasure on how I did.
To summarize, A recovery harness was epoxied to the motor mount tube on one
side down to the middle centering ring location. The upper ring is notched out to
accommodate this. Then all three centering rings are epoxyed onto the tube.

Once this assembly is dry, the whole kit and caboodle is shoved into the but end of
the lower body tube.

For fin attachement I start out by straping the body tube into my handy-dandy jig.


And here I show the attachment of the three upper fins.

Cool kit, and great flyer! I have mine set up as single deploy right now..Mine is getting a little rough in the paint but still flies great..Going to modify it by removing the lug and putting rail buttons on it..

Pantherjon, I am looking forward to flying this one. It's kinda different from my usual 4" rockets.
I'll be setting it up for dual deploy from the get-go though. And with the supplied rail buttons.

Next is the attachment of the rear fins. I hold them in place with two pieces of aluminum angle and some spring clamps.


I then installed the fin supports and finished this step off with some wood glue fillets.

I have always liked the K&S "Wolf-series" rockets.

This past weekend I did some more work on this build.
My main focus was on the ebay. I have to say, I've been looking forward to getting my hands on one of Scotts ebays. Since the day he started making them I have appreciated their design.

Here are all the parts spread out for inspection.


I then began assembly of the parts. Scott includes a photographic instruction sheet that helps get all the parts in the right places.

Build is looking good. What colors are going to paint it?

I was thinking of sticking with your blue/white theme. There's a can of powder blue that I have left from my daughters soap box derby car that I'm thinking of using on this. I will probably vary from your original design a bit.

Every piece fit in perfectly except for one of the lower supports.
A few minutes with my knife and I was able to enlarge the slot so that the support fit in.
It's a very nice design.

Moving on to the bulkheads and all thread portion.
Again, I'm impressed with the quality of the components provided in this kit.


First up is to assemble the lower bulkhead. I choose not to glue these two bulkheads together
since they will held in place by no less than three fasteners.


Before I went any further I thought I'd lay out all the parts in their general installation orientation.
This helped me move forward with a better understanding of Scott's design.


And here we have the lower bulkhead complete.

The ebay sled begins to take on it's finished shape.

Time to build the ebay.

I first start out by coating the ends and inside lip of the coupler tubes
with some thin CA. This gives the tube some strength and allows me
to sand it down for a sooth fit with the bulkheads.


Next the coupler tubes are marked at their mid-point.


I apply some glue to the first coupler


and then then other.


Here we have it all ready to go. Per the instructions, one end is marked
for the drogue (D). If figured if one mark is good, two is better so I
marked the other end for the main (M).

With that being all the time I had for the day, I took a quick shot
of the assembled rocket.

Any updates or launch report on this kit? I have the same kit, it's built but I have yet to launch it, how did you hook up the ejection charge? Can you post photos? Thanks

Flew mine on a G54-long e-match below the drogue and short one under the main. I think it's a little heavy. I yanked out the av abay (mine has rivets) and went full delay motor deploy on a CTI H54, bringing back two halves each under chute. more like it. Next one gets a diet. I hope you foiled the fins. Still a very cool design from Scott.

Rocket is still in primer. I hope to get it painted over the next week.
Its maiden flight will be at OROC's Spring Thunder launch (May 10-12).

And no, I didn't think to foil the fins. That's a drag......

The Arctic Wolf has finally been painted. I had the golden opportunity of free time and good weather this past weekend (I painted four rockets).

Not your standard paint scheme, but I had fun using up some old paint colors left over from other projects.

Since I set this thing to the side so long ago, I have since lost track of the Slimline motor retainer I bought for it. I when through every nook and cranny and cannot find it anywhere. Order placed for another one.

chuck5395 said:

Order placed for another one.

Click to expand...

Now that you've done that you will find it within the next few days--just the way it goes.

chuck5395 said:

Since I set this thing to the side so long ago, I have since lost track of the Slimline motor retainer I bought for it. I when through every nook and cranny and cannot find it anywhere. Order placed for another one.

Click to expand...

S'up with those anyway?? I am working on making a tailcone based around the threaded SlimLine and just tried to thread the retaining ring in so I wouldn't lose it.Wouldn't go. I'm thinking *frack* how did I bugger these threads already? Turns out there is already one in there I put so "I wouldn't lose it". I dug around-yep two snap ring style units, but where the frick did the other threaded one go??? I gotta get organized-tomorrow.....

I worked on the e-bay the last couple of days.
Here is where I'm at. Overall, it's a very nice design.

I received my new 29mm Slimline motor retainer yesterday. The problem is that it doesn't work with the motor tube that is in this kit. It is way too loose. I would have to wrap the mm tube with at least six layers of tape to get it even a little snug. It also appears that I did not leave enough of the mm tube exposed to properly seat the retainer. I need to think about this some more. It does bother me that I've now purchased two 29mm Slimline retainers (one of which is still lost). I'm open to any suggestions.

chuck5395 said:

I received my new 29mm Slimline motor retainer yesterday. The problem is that it doesn't work with the motor tube that is in this kit. It is way too loose. I would have to wrap the mm tube with at least six layers of tape to get it even a little snug. It also appears that I did not leave enough of the mm tube exposed to properly seat the retainer. I need to think about this some more. It does bother me that I've now purchased two 29mm Slimline retainers (one of which is still lost). I'm open to any suggestions.

Click to expand...

The instructions for the slimline, if I remember correctly, say to put strips of tape 120 degrees apart thick enough to support the retainer centered on the tube, and slather on enough JB Weld to fill the gap.

CarVac said:

The instructions for the slimline, if I remember correctly, say to put strips of tape 120 degrees apart thick enough to support the retainer centered on the tube, and slather on enough JB Weld to fill the gap.

Click to expand...

I think I get what you're saying. It just that it will be quite a gap. I'm going to need some way to keep the JB Weld in place get into the motor tube. Maybe grease up a case and put it in until the JB Weld begins to set?

What I did when attaching a slimline to my K&S StarBlazer was to wrap a 38mm snap-ring motor case in a single layer of wax paper. No problems with removing the case once the JB Weld was completely set.

G.D.

G.D.
That's a good idea, but I am unable to slide the motor case in when it's wrapped in wax paper. Maybe I can fashion something from some PVC and masking tape.