FlisKits ACME Spitfire... Steampunk-style

[barstoolmike]

That's for sure, I don't think I've ever seen Jim speechless.

[Queeg500]

Unreal! I--I-I-I hesitate to suggest anything in the face of such greatness - maybe add a few well place tufts of cotton ball - simulating steam/vapor discharge?

[FatBoy]

Thank you one and all! I truly didn't expect so many positive responses.

Amazing! Mine is in the now-boring Redstone skin. Can you tell us a little on how you made the details?

Thanks,
James.

James... I love the Restone skin, and that is how I wanted to finish my first Spitfire, but to tell you the truth, it actually scared me to try to get it right, so I backed off.

So, to answer your question about some about the details....

The straps that you see around the ends of each angled body tubes, the bottom of the shroud, and the bottom of the nose cone are cut from a manilla file folder. I used the geometry from the wraps on Jim's website to get the right curves, extrapolated them to make 1/4" strips using Adobe Illustrator, then ran a file folder through my printer. That way I could cut out the strips and just wrap them around to match the curves, and glued them on with Elmer's glue. Each body tube has a 1/4 wide strip going up one side that was also cut from the file folder.

The file folder was also used to make some of the panels covers, straps holding on the launch lug, piping flanges, and strips between the fins and shroud. All these were attached with Elmer's.

The aluminum exhaust screen at the top was made from some pliable lightweight screen material that I had from making paper mache sculptures, and the frame around it was also cut from the file folder.

A few pieces of half-round styrene strip were glued on with plastic cement to add more details. There are also two large bumps, one on the nose cone and one on the upper body tube that are just chunks of balsa glued on, filled with Elmer's wood filler (watered down quite a bit) and sanded smooth.

The housing for the pressure gauge is a short piece of one of those yellow thrust ring spacer tubes from a 24mm kit with a round piece of balsa attached to the end. The pipe running from the gauge to the shroud is a piece of 1/8" launch lug. The face of the pressure gauge is just something I made up in Illustrator, added the words "Minneapolis Steam Rocket Company" and printed it on photo paper. I cut it out in a circle and glued it on.

Two of the vent pipes are 1/8" launch lug material cut at angles and glued together. There is also a vent pipe made the same way from 3/16" launch lug material. There is one large vent pipe that was made from a piece of 1/2" launch lug material cut at an angle and sanded to fit the curve of the body tube.

There is some external piping on the top body tube made out of pieces of 1/4" dowel, cut at angles and all glued together.

The rocket's launch lug was one of the hardest elements to put together. I started with a 12" piece of 3/16" launch lug from Balsa Machining Service. I didn't want it to stand-off from the body as much as the stock kit does, so I made a shorter standoff from a piece of balsa. At each end of the standoff I added a piece of 3/16" launch lug material to make inlets from the pipe. I had to cut a slot in the fin shroud and the back centering ring for the launch lug to fit into, and it is sanded flush with the back end of the centering ring. At the top of the launch lug I cut some pieces of 1/4" dowel at different angles and glued them together to make the crooked pipe. Then I glued that to the top of the launch lug at an angle and cut the remaining launch lug material to match the angle.

There are 5 different types of rivets all over this rocket (totalling over 300). The two larger sizes that I used are these little round stickers I found at Micheals simply called "Epoxy Stickers" made by a company called "Recollections". Each package contains 89 little bumps in 4 various sizes. For this rocket I used the two smaller sized bumps to make the larger rivets on this rocket. It took quite a few packsges of these sticker to finish this project, and I have a bunch left over of the larger sizes. One of the body tubes has a panel cover that has a third size of rivet around them that were made from a different style of round sticker found at Micheals. These are flat and don't have the traditional mushroom shape as the other ones do. All of the sticker rivets mentioned above were attached with a small drop of Elmer's glue. The smaller rivets found around the rocket were just dabs of Elmer's glue put on in two different ways. One was just freehand touching the nozzle of the glue bottle to the rocket while squeezing a bit. The other smaller (and more precisely sized and spaced) rivets were made by drawing lines on the rocket and making evenly spaced marks with a pencil. Then I poured some Elmer's onto a piece of paper and I would stick the end of a pencil into the glue then dab it onto the rocket, back into the glue and so on until I had a line of rivets. This took a little practice to learn to get them all the right size, but wasn't too hard at all.

Whew - this is more typing than I have done in my entire life....

Now we are getting to the paint. I covered the whole rocket with Testors Metallic Gold (copper or brass may have been a better choice) from a rattle can. Then I painted the vents, the launch lug, the external piping and a few of the panels with Testors copper brush-on paint. And although it is hard to see in the pictures, a few other details (like the frame around the aluminum screen and the strips between the fins and shroud) are painted with Testors brush-on brass paint. The aluminum screen, insides of the vent tubes, and the bottom business end of the rocket got some flat black paint.

If all this hasn't totally put you to sleep yet, tell me about how your Redstone skins turned out and how you applied them. I would love to see some pictures of yours.

Thanks!

[FatBoy]

...maybe add a few well place tufts of cotton ball - simulating steam/vapor discharge?

ohhh - good call, Queeg!

[JAL3]

I love the artistry of the rocket but I suspect I am missing something.

Does "steampunk" have a special meaning?

[FatBoy]

Does "steampunk" have a special meaning?

It is pretty new to me too, and I am not sure of the origins of it all myself, John. But if you Google "steampunk" you will find that there is an entire other world out there.

[JAL3]

It is pretty new to me too, and I am not sure of the origins of it all myself, John. But if you Google "steampunk" you will find that there is an entire other world out there.

That's just...strange.

I guess I could not find it before because I typed stream instead of steam.

[green dragon]

ABSOLUTELY KICK A !!!

As a longtime Steampunk afficianado myself - all I can say is you NAILED IT .

would look great next to my brass keyboard ..

thanks for sharing.

~ AL

[WillMarchant]

Very cool! What's the next steampunk project?

[jflis]

Thank you one and all! I truly didn't expect so many positive responses.

No. Thank YOU! Seriously, this is simply wonderful

jim

[FatBoy]

...would look great next to my brass keyboard ...

Pictures??

[FatBoy]

What's the next steampunk project?

Well, I had a steampunked Golden Scout, until I launched it on Saturday and lost it in the Minnesota snow.

I have an Estes Canadian Arrow that is in need of being remodeled, so I was thinking of doing that. I also have a Pemberton Little Bucky Jones that might have to get punked.

[WillMarchant]

Well, I had a steampunked Golden Scout, until I launched it on Saturday and lost it in the Minnesota snow.

I have an Estes Canadian Arrow that is in need of being remodeled, so I was thinking of doing that. I also have a Pemberton Little Bucky Jones that might have to get punked.

Yeah, the "V2 look" would lend itself. And any of Layne's stuff.

I enjoyed the steampunk look of the "Warehouse 13" series, so thanks for bringing that to rocketry!

[falingtrea]

I love the artistry of the rocket but I suspect I am missing something.

Does "steampunk" have a special meaning?

Here is a link to a comic I like that has a steampunk style theme.

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php

The genre is basically 17th century scientific capability creating more modern day techonlogy. Some of Jules' Vernes writing fits into that style, for instance.

[evil ed]

Here is a link to a comic I like that has a steampunk style theme.

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php

The genre is basically 17th century scientific capability creating more modern day techonlogy. Some of Jules' Vernes writing fits into that style, for instance.

This is a wonderfully done online comic. A "must read" from begining to end.

[Mikus]

Excellent job. Too pretty to fly, that one is.

Jeez, ya knocked me into Yoda-speak there....

[kullas]

WoW this is Very Very nice

[RocketT.Coyote]

May get one of these kits eventually. Already have a Fliskits Thunderbird and Saturn 1b (unbuilt).

[Neutron95]

I wish my rockets looked a tenth as good as yours.

[FatBoy]

Excellent job. Too pretty to fly, that one is.

Jeez, ya knocked me into Yoda-speak there....

By the end of April, I hope to launch this rocket.

[MattieShoes]

That is unbelievably awesome! :-)

I don't know how others define it, but to me, steampunk is like sci-fi before the internal combustion engine (hence steam). HG Wells type stuff, only visual -- Usually characterized by needless complexity involving complex brass gears and levers.

[FatBoy]

...Usually characterized by needless complexity involving complex brass gears and levers....

Exactly. The picture below is my Spitfire with a Fat Boy that another member of my club steampunked and calls it "Steam Boy". It isn't shown in the picture but the other side of Steam Boy has some actual gears on the side of it (very cool). Steam Boy was the inspiration for my Spitfire.

[MattieShoes]

Dang, one of these days I think I'll have to build me a steampunk rocket! :-) Hmmm...

[jflis]

Great news to everyone attending NARCON this weekend...

I've made arrangements with Jeff to have the Steampunked ACME shipped to Worcester and it will be on display at the FlisKits booth all weekend!

Kewl!

[FatBoy]

Great news to everyone attending NARCON this weekend...

I've made arrangements with Jeff to have the Steampunked ACME shipped to Worcester and it will be on display at the FlisKits booth all weekend!

Kewl!

It left Minneapolis yesterday and is in Boston as of this morning. Speaking of NARCON.... I am wondering if the Goddard Nell would make a good steampunk project.....

[mperdue]

I don't know how I missed this thread before now but...

Damn, that's a great looking rocket. Nice job.

[rokitflite]

Exactly. The picture below is my Spitfire with a Fat Boy that another member of my club steampunked and calls it "Steam Boy". It isn't shown in the picture but the other side of Steam Boy has some actual gears on the side of it (very cool). Steam Boy was the inspiration for my Spitfire.

More pictures of the Fat Boy please...

Thank you.

[jflis]

It left Minneapolis yesterday and is in Boston as of this morning. Speaking of NARCON.... I am wondering if the Goddard Nell would make a good steampunk project.....

Very likely Another would be the Frick-n-Frack and I think the Nantucket Sound is just begging... Make it look like someone took a *real* light house and modified it for flight back in the 19th century... LOL

[chanstevens]

I'm going to have to put Jeff on some sort of blocked list so I don't get depressed at how big a gap there still is between how I'm finishing and how I want to be able to finish.

No sooner had I gotten done cussing myself out for trying to do a Semroc Space Shuttle "sort of as nice as Jeff's NARCON special" (not even close to his beauty), but now he's gone and blown away the standard of excellence for what has to be one of my all-time favorite models.

That's the most beautiful job of building an ugly rocket I've ever seen. Magnificent.

[FatBoy]

...That's the most beautiful job of building an ugly rocket I've ever seen. Magnificent.

Thanks, Chan! That means a lot coming from you.

Jim... I think he just called your kid ugly!