Boosting the SEMROC Nike-Tomahawk from 18mm Powered to 24mm and Build.

Apparently I am on a sounding rocket kick now. A week ago I designed an 18mm Viking 7 in Rocksim and built it and now I laid my meat-hooks into a SEMROC Nike-Tomahawk. I downloaded their Rocksim file and wanted to see if and how well, a conversion from 18mm to 24mm would work since the body tube was more than large enough to accommodate a motor this diameter. After I made the requisite modifications to the design file and ran the sims I was pleasantly surprised with the results.


The kit, overall, is a pretty straight-forward build, but for me the most intriguing aspect are the stick and paper fins on the Nike booster! Yes, I like this sort of minutia.

The kit as produced by SEMROC:


I am really looking forward to this project and looking even more forward in launching it to see if it reaches the altitudes predicted by Rocksim.

Stay tuned.

Steve

I'll be watching with interest. I've been bouncing around in my mind a few ways to stage this one. I really like the idea of giving it more kick off the pad as well!

Cheers,
Michael

Beautiful rocket and a great looking kit.

Very nice choice ,I look forward to this build also.

Cheers


Paul T

As I mentioned, I was boosting this Nike-Tomahawk from an 18mm to a 24mm. I cut a new 24mm mount from stock tube at 4 inches to accept up to an E motor. In addition, I notched one centering ring to thread Kevlar string through for the shock cord. Because of the length of the Tomahawk portion of the vehicle, I added a much longer shock cord to the assembly in order to provide enough clearance between the upper half and lower and avoid both halves from whacking each other on the way back down during recovery.


The engine block in place for an E-motor. Stand-offs can be used for D motors.


The completed motor mount sans the new shock cord. Now I just wait for it to dry.


In the mean time, I began filling tube seams using the standard method of Elmer's Carpenters Wood Filler and then I began working on the fins for the Tomahawk portion of the vehicle. If I sound as though I am gushing over the quality of this balsa sheet I apologize. However, this was some exceptional balsa in my example. Very tight, dense grain, sanded easily, best of all, no crumbling. I was able to sand some very nice and very clean airfoils onto each fins. If this quality is repeated in all of these kits, kudos to SEMROC, whomever the supplier of the wood is, keep them.


One of the sanded fins and nice-clean foil.


After sanding the foils I began sealing them with four coats of sealer as well as the transition for Nike booster and the nose cone for the Tomahawk. While they dried, I sanded my filled tube seams.



Once the above steps were completed, I moved onto the portion of the build that intrigued me the most, the assembly of the Nike booster fin frames. Again, these parts were part of the same balsa sheet as the Tomahawk's fins and were quality parts. Each laser cut piece was very clean and very delicate. Each assembly was made up of six parts that connect via joints and tenons. This process really appealed to the scale modeler side of me. I connected each piece with small amounts of glue using a tooth pick and frequently checked my alignment with a square. To remove the connection nubs from each piece I used a Squadron medium grit sanding stick and gently sanded them away.

The smallest parts in the assembly


The completed assembly


One down, three more to go. I'll allow this to dry overnight and will move onto the next one. Once all four are completed, I'll be ready to cover them with the card stock skin.

Stay tuned.

Reviving this 2 year old hanging thread

How did this build turn out? Any launches? I'm thinking of doing the same 24mm conversion to mine. Has anyone ever attempted a 2-stage conversion? I presume the booster length would require electronics.

More necromancy at work ...

Were there ever any updates on this build? And, to repeat the question, has anyone ever tried to stage it?

Obviously, making the booster become unstable at the right time would be important.