Ballistic Chicken build

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Sooner Boomer

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I exchanged a few posts here on the forum with Krusty, and he invited me to look at his galleries on his web page https://www.oflittleinterest.com/

Poking around there, I noticed he also sells a few types of kits as well. The "Ballistic Chicken" caught my eye.
https://therocketryshop.com/product.php?id_product=14
I've always been a sucker for the unusual, and this one is "creatively different". After some negotiation, A kit arrived at my door. I looked through everything, and exchanged a few more emails with Krusty. His design is excellent the way it is. But I've just *got* to mess with things; sometimes they even work. The (slight) modifications I made don't significantly change the rocket, you could build one without them, and it would be fine.
 
I'm calling the first part of the build the "basic" Chicken. I discussed it with Krusty, and he was excited that I'm also adding a second (18mm) and third (24mm) stage (actually those are numbered exactly backwards, but you know what I mean...)

The Kit: The kit comes as two plastic bags (engine mount and parts, and gold mylar parachute), instruction sheets, body tube, sheet of laser cut plywood fins, and nose cone. The custom molded plastic nose cone is one of the things that makes this kit unique.

in the box:
in the box.jpg

nose cone:
nosecone.jpg

There were some extra goodies in the box, too:
extras.jpg
 
Getting started:

emount1.jpg

The instructions are clear and well written. First comes the engine mount. It's like almost every other engine mount, I guess there aren't a lot of variations on this theme. I varied slightly from the instructions in that I used fiberglass reenforced tape to wrap around the midsection of the mount to retain the engine clip. It doesn't add any weight, but makes a significant improvement in the life of the rocket. If the clip comes loose, there's no way to repair it without destroying the rocket.

emount2.jpg

As you can see, the aft centering ring is split to allow the engine clip to pass through. One important thing that's not in the instructions, is to insert the engine holder into the body while the glue on this ring sets up (do NOT glue it in place in the body!). The reason for this being the "spring-back" that causes the ring to open up once you've cut the section out of it. If you do not secure the ring while the glue sets up, it may open up to a diameter larger than the body tube, and will require extra work to make it fit later.
 
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Aside from nugget, it's the best kinda chicken there is! Tuned in for this one!
 
I went slightly out of order of the instructions. While the glue was drying on the engine mount, I built the parachute.

chute1.jpg

The kit includes a piece of Kevlar cord (yellow), a piece of woven elastic (black), a pre-cut gold mylar parachute with tape ring reenforcements, and a brass swivel

chute2.jpg

Construction is straightforward. I like to put a small drop of thin CA onto knots to help keep them from un-knotting.

chute3.jpg
 
Next, the body tube was marked for the fins and launch lug.

I discussed several mods with Krusty. This is one I think makes the rocket look a little better. The nosecone base is somewhat larger than the body tube. I think a slight transition below the nosecone to help it blend into the body tube is warranted.

taper1.jpg

It's made from 100# typing paper. It's 1 1/4" long, and is topped by a BT50-BT60 centering ring.

taper2.jpg

More on this later.
 
The finset is laser cut from a single sheet of 1/16 plywood.

finset.jpg

The instructions say to sand the fins before removing them from the sheet. I was going to prime and sand them before removing them from the sheet, but unfortunately, they got handled a bit too much, and got popped off of the sheet. I ended up papering them instead. I'm starting to do this with more rockets. I think it's a good alternative. We'll see...

fins.jpg

I've still got to detail sand the edges to remove the excess paper.
 
Well I hope it flies better than a chicken with its head cut off.

“As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly” (Arthur Carlson) “WKRP in Cincinnati”
 
How many thought of this scene from Hot Shots! Part Deux ? (no, not the lightsaber scene)

[video=youtube;qQxvSsVQkoU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQxvSsVQkoU[/video]
 
Well I hope it flies better than a chicken with its head cut off.

“As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly” (Arthur Carlson) “WKRP in Cincinnati”

The Turkeys we have around these Parts do fly.
What's really funny is that this Winter/Spring they were always covered in Burdocks, which made them quite the sight to behold whilst in Flight.
 
Construction is straightforward. I like to put a small drop of thin CA onto knots to help keep them from un-knotting.

View attachment 168718

My experience with fabric (cotton fiber or polyester) has shown me that CA and fibers don't mix well. The CA stiffens them up, they then crack, and holes form. I've lost many a shirt to thin CA drips on them. I've never had this problem with Elmer's Glue All.
 
No a whole lot done so far today, glue takes time to set up.

Cleaned up the paper on the fins. I'm still learning how to get good at this. Apparently you can put too much glue on, and the excess causes wrinkles (at least it did for me).

Got the engine mount assembly glued in.

Got the transition (centering ring, then cone) glued on.

Got the launch lug glued onto its extension. (the lug can't be glued directly to the body tube because the nosecone is larger diameter than the body tube).

Started work on the design and construction of the lower stages.

Sorry no pics. Most of this is dull stuff anyway. I'll take and post pics when I get ready to paint.
 
My experience with fabric (cotton fiber or polyester) has shown me that CA and fibers don't mix well. The CA stiffens them up, they then crack, and holes form. I've lost many a shirt to thin CA drips on them. I've never had this problem with Elmer's Glue All.

You're right. (the shroud lines are actually Kevlar, though) In fact, Krusty's instructions say to put a drop of white or yellow (whichever you're building the rocket with) glue on the knots. Truth be told, I put the parachute together a couple of months ago - I have no idea what glue I used...
 
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Still gluing. Got the fins and the launch lug on. The fins are somewhat heavy, being ply, and fairly long, from body tube to tip. This made gluing them in place a little difficult. They tend to fall over before the glue sets up. The instructions say to use tape to hold them in place, but then the fin root scoots off of the body tube. One of those days... With a lot of patience, I got the fins on, and the glue finally dried. Doing fillets now (yeah, go ahead and make more jokes). I think what I'll do for the fins on the boosters is to tack them in place with a small drop of thick CA, then run beads of glue once they're stuck down. The boosters are a lot more susceptible to fin damage, they may need epoxy fillets or a small fiberglass web across the root.
 
The boosters are a lot more susceptible to fin damage, they may need epoxy fillets or a small fiberglass web across the root.

Rooster Boosters? Damage?
Rocky_poster.jpg


I seem to remember this one was winged... :wink:
 
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Here it is in all its pluckedness. Paint will wait until boosters are complete.

barebird.jpg
 
After some thought, and more negotiation, two more fin sets arrived at my door. They are 1/16 ply, just like the originals. *This* time, I'm going to try and fill the grain and sand out the fins while they are still on the sheet.

finsets.jpg

The 18mm Booster (nominally the second stage), is a 2 1/4" piece of BT20 in a 2 1/2" piece of BT50. The engine and the inner tube will stick out a bit, to contact the engine in the top stage. The centering rings were made from 1/4" pieces of 100# paper. One full 11" wrap plus a 10" piece on top of that make a perfect BT20-BT50 adapter.

booster.jpg

The 24mm booster (the first stage), is little more than just a tube to hold fins. It, too, is 2 1/2" long. The engine telescopes over the upper stage engine.

As soon as the glue sets up good on the 18mm booster, I will couple all the pieces together and, using a long splint, will glue the fins onto the boosters. Doing it this way helps keep the fins on the stages aligned. Of course, the stages need some sort of indexing so that the proper rotation (fin1 to fin1, etc) is maintained.
 
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