Large Redstone Missile, 2 versions

burkefj said:

I added a few lines using a silver sharpie to give the impression of where the angles would be on the fins if they were scale thickness and had the leading edge bevels, etc...

Frank

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Very nice work as usual Frank !

I like the "little details" like the silver Sharpie idea ,sometimes that`s all it takes to give the finished rocket that extra touch that it needs.

This has been a great build ,I enjoyed it thoroughly !

BTW ,what green did you use ?


Paul T

Thanks very much. I use the sharpies for lot of my profile RC rocket boosted gliders and jets, it really adds the finishing touch.

The green is krylon fusion camoflage ultra-flat olive...it's about the only krylon paint that's worth anything any more...it dries very quickly and has a nice flat finish, and covers well, the entire rocket took about 1 1/4 cans in two coats. I've used their camo brown with the olive as well on my old LOC V-2 that was on the cover of highpower rocketry back in the day,....I used the green and brown over a a base of cream epoxy paint.

Frank

sodmeister said:

Very nice work as usual Frank !

I like the "little details" like the silver Sharpie idea ,sometimes that`s all it takes to give the finished rocket that extra touch that it needs.

This has been a great build ,I enjoyed it thoroughly !

BTW ,what green did you use ?


Paul T

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Lovely green! That Krylon Camoflage ultra-flat is by far their best stuff.

Perfect maiden flight yesterday on a K-1103 propellent-x motor, dead straight to 2340 feet, nice deployment and no damage. Also got in another perfectly straight flight on my 7.5" Pershing on a j-570..will post a photo or video when I get them.

Frank

Here is the pre-launch photo and the video, it's from my phone so isn't great but it shows the boost.

Video is at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UP0BM36crw&feature=youtu.be

Frank

It was an awesome flight Frank. What a beautiful flight with a dang near perfect landing. Never mind, it was a perfect landing too.
-Chuck

Here are a couple of pictures from Gary Goncher of OROC of my Redstone and Pershing flights.
Middle picture of the redstone is small, Gary was up on the hill with the way pad for N and O flights, so he is far away, but you can see how small the porta potties are and the rocket was another 500' further.

Nice pictures, Frank! I like your large Redstone, which is seldom done in HPR. The detail on the fins looks terrific. I am thinking that there should be a taper on the forward end and I don't think I see it. The Perhsing looks terrific!

You are right, there should be a taper, but for the effect it was more than I wanted to do, it's not much of a taper but I probably would have had to do an internal 6" tube with some sort of handmade shroud which is pretty long. I let it go with "sport scale" and it looks pretty good from a distance Even for the pershing it should have less of a taper and have a second taper about 2/3 of the way up, but I didn't want to do a custom nose, so I went with a fiberglass conical nose I could get and did the best I could. Rather have a close redstone/pershing than not have one at all

Frank

aerostadt said:

Nice pictures, Frank! I like your large Redstone, which is seldom done in HPR. The detail on the fins looks terrific. I am thinking that there should be a taper on the forward end and I don't think I see it. The Perhsing looks terrific!

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The taper is easy on a smaller version but his was just a "bit" too large to make out of solid wood.

Basically I would have had to started with a barn beam.:surprised:

Attached is a pdf of a smaller version.

View attachment Redstone.pdf

Right, I could have done a 7.5 to 6" tube, and had the nose 6" and then made a shroud, but I try to keep this as a hobby I enjoy....... Thanks again to Sandman for the excellent cone that was made from a few barn beams.....

Here is a short 120fps liftoff video with some stills taken by Peter Dekluyver at the OROC rocketober launch, on a J-510

[video=youtube;k7F3XMlqyKA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7F3XMlqyKA&list=UUmToWCQ4okdIYb848HJn_sQ[/video]

Hi Frank -

You have some sweet scratch builds, sir!
I also have an affinity for "missile" models, and I especially like what you're building.

Thanks again to Gary Goncher for capturing the great photos of my Redstone flying on a J-510 motor.....

Great looking build and very nice pictures of your launch.

Version 2:

After flying my foam structure 7" diameter Jupiter C for a season, I decided to convert it to a Redstone missile cofiguration. This was one of my first foam models and had a 3" parachute bay that made it impossible for me to fit my hand down into the bay to fit the ejection charges. It was a serious pain to try to fit the wires/charges in place and fit the chute into the long narrow tube using a stick and a flashlight. I also had made a removable altimeter pod that I can swap from model to model that I wanted to fit. It also fits better with my personal nuclear triad, I'll have a pershing 1A, Redstone, and Titan II all at the same basic size/scale in both standard and lightweight versions, plus my foam Atlas Missile as my backup nuclear deterrent...I also wanted to make sure it was balance to fly on I-200 motors as well.

So, I figured out that I could cut the top of the structure and 3" tube off right at the forward ply plate and fit a 4" by 14" parachute bay at that point, add some stringers to extend the fuselage, and then do a small 4" by 7" ejecting cone section and convert it pretty easily. I'll do it in one of the white test schemes since it is already painted that way on the lower half. Sims to about 1250' on an I-200 down to 400' on a G-80. AUW should be right around 4 pounds with the larger motor, and very close to far 101 with the G-80.

The way I did the structure it was easy to peel off the sheeting at a joint, add the extra stringers/centering ring and go from there.

I contacted Gord at Roachwerks to make me a 4" by 7" foam cone with a dowel up the middle to take any tip abuse on landing. It doesn't need to be fiberglassed since the cone will only weigh 6 ounces or so.

I'm making the forward fins out of 1/32" lexan which will be covered in white monokote trim and I've made the little steering nozzle/covers that go around the forward fins out of 2mm and 6mm foam. I've removed the upper half, removedthe portion of the lower sheeting to remove the old altimeter bay, added the stringers back in and adding the new 4" centering rings and recovery attachment. Next up, add the 14"x4" parachute bay when it arrives, add the upper straight stringers and the angled portion of the nose that will stay attached to the model, and then re-skin it. I guess it's recycling....

Left to right, original Jupiter C, and Internal structure, Modified structure with extended centering rings/stringers and the planned internal structure

Finished the sheeting on the lower half. Then cut the parachute bay. I then fit the upper shroud support, and added the parachute bay reinforcing lip, removed the bay and sheeted the transition. Then epoxied it in place. Added the lexan upper fins and detail. Just need to do the markings and cut the altimeter hatch, and then wait for the nose cone to arrive.

Frank

Installed the new altimeter pod/bay and door, this time I used .015 styrene sheet for the door and just put a lip of foam for the magnet latch. It's flexible and conforms well and is much faster to build. Installed the built in wiring and cap for the ejection charge and glued the wiring to the cap. Added the stripes and letters. The altimeter goes into the yellow pod and is held in with velcro. It is yellow in case it ever comes out and I have to find it. The pod has two holes for arming depending on which altimeter I use. the hole in the door is just for venting. Wiring goes up into the stuffer tube to the cap, the ejection charge/wires go through the cap and attach to the wires and the cap plugs into the stuffer tube to seal it off. The wires are long enough I can pull the cap/wires fully out of the parachute bay to attach the ejection charge/igniter.



Right now it is at 48 ounces without the foam cone.

Frank

Got my very nice foam nose cone from Sandman(Gord) today, he put a dowel down the middle for me so the nose tip wouldn't get damaged during touchdown, and left the ply base plate in place for me to attach the screw eye into. He did a very nice job and shipped it quickly.

I covered it in vinyl first then white monokote which gives it a tough surface. I re-did the little details around the upper fins and fixed the roll marking to match the fin orientation of the real thing. It's 61 ounces without the motor and has plenty of cg margin even with an I-200 in place. Because the monokote is shinier than the foam it looks in the photo like there is an angle between it and the lower part but there really isn't, it's just the lighting and the fact that the sheeting around the lower portion flattens somewhat between the stringers so isn't perfectly round.

Frank

Here's the flight of the foam version on an I-200 to around 1200' at the Tri-cities Rocketeers launch site, beautiful weather!

[video=youtube_share;bCnOXjj3vx4]https://youtu.be/bCnOXjj3vx4[/video]

If all goes well, I'll be flying my heavy Redstone on an L-1000 in two weeks in Oregon, I'm switching to an 8' rocketman chute and bag and will have the two pieces recover together. This will be my largest motor I've flown. I built it with this motor in mind so CG should be fine. I will probably also fly my 5.5" pershing 2 to test out a 5' chute and deployment bag.

Had a beautiful flight on a dms L1000 to 4200 feet. Since I was recovering by myself I switched to a single 8' rocketman chute with deployment bag which worked great for the 25 pound rocket.

Frank

I had another beautiful flight on Saturday in the tri-cities of the Redstone on a single use L-1000 using a missileworks altimeter for deployment at apogee, a rocketman 8' chute and deployment bag. Worked perfect, flew to 3950' with zero damage. I really like this motor. Dead straight boost.
I also had a very nice flight of my Pershing 2 on a single use J-270 to 2150' that is also a great motor.

Frank

Thanks for the update...your rockets always put a smile on my face!

burkefj said:

I had another beautiful flight on Saturday in the tri-cities of the Redstone on a single use L-1000 using a missileworks altimeter for deployment at apogee, a rocketman 8' chute and deployment bag. Worked perfect, flew to 3950' with zero damage. I really like this motor. Dead straight boost.
I also had a very nice flight of my Pershing 2 on a single use J-270 to 2150' that is also a great motor.

Frank

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Nice photo Frank, I love that motor.

It's funny how the prices of the J-270 and L-1000 are only a few $$ more than the reload for the same effective casings(38-720 and 54-2800).
I probably wouldn't fly L motors if not for the L-1000 reload since I'd need to invest in a pretty $$ casing...I'm two for two on these two motors, hopefully they'll continue to repay my confidence in them Not that it's a lot of work to load and clean, but it was nice to not clean any casings that day I wish they would come out with a 1080 or 1320 single use 38 motor Might be problems with burn through ??

Frank

rharshberger said:

Nice photo Frank, I love that motor.

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spectacular!! beautiful rocket!!

burkefj said:

It's funny how the prices of the J-270 and L-1000 are only a few $$ more than the reload for the same effective casings(38-720 and 54-2800).
I probably wouldn't fly L motors if not for the L-1000 reload since I'd need to invest in a pretty $$ casing...I'm two for two on these two motors, hopefully they'll continue to repay my confidence in them Not that it's a lot of work to load and clean, but it was nice to not clean any casings that day I wish they would come out with a 1080 or 1320 single use 38 motor Might be problems with burn through ??

Frank

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Have to agree Frank, in the absense of finding a really good L2 cert special for the Aerotech hardware, it's a pretty easy decision for me to grab a J270W for my L2 project.

Oh, and I'm totally bummed that I couldn't make the launch and watch this bird fly. Maybe next time.

Here is the final flight of the Redstone, L-1000 casing failure a few seconds into the flight at this years NXRS, Gary Goncher captured it beautifully. You can see the rocketman chute that stripped the shroud line stitching on 3/4 lines, the replacement he discounted me has shroudlines that are thicker and go all the way over the canopy.

Ouch, that sucks.