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Doggonewild

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Not much info on this bird. I have only one very small picture, and it may be an artist's rendering. By zooming way in though, you can see some details, and I may be able to get some dimensions by counting pixels.

Contraves Italiana Indigo.jpg

Here's the content of the kit. Nice quality components I think for the price. The balsa is better quality than a couple other kits I have from TLP. It was nice to get a blue mylar parachute, to go with the spiffy blue and white paint job. (That I hope to apply in the future.)

011.jpg

My first step was to do a full scale drawing of the rear, so I could visualize what's going on back there. I'm going to do a TTW construction, as light as I think I can get away with. The fins don't have much of a contact point, but with some fin tabs glued to the exhaust tube with some balsa bracing, I'm hoping all will be well.

007.jpg

That's all for today folks.
 
Not much info on this bird. I have only one very small picture, and it may be an artist's rendering. By zooming way in though, you can see some details, and I may be able to get some dimensions by counting pixels.

View attachment 78683

Here's the content of the kit. Nice quality components I think for the price. The balsa is better quality than a couple other kits I have from TLP. It was nice to get a blue mylar parachute, to go with the spiffy blue and white paint job. (That I hope to apply in the future.)


My first step was to do a full scale drawing of the rear, so I could visualize what's going on back there. I'm going to do a TTW construction, as light as I think I can get away with. The fins don't have much of a contact point, but with some fin tabs glued to the exhaust tube with some balsa bracing, I'm hoping all will be well.


That's all for today folks.


I like the looks of the Indigo. To bad there aren't more pictures of it available.

Drawing out the model 1:1 is a good way to work out any mod's you may be thinking of. I've done the same thing a few times and it really helped out.
 

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I look forward to your build ,as this is one I have yet to purchase ,believe it or not ;)

The look of the missile is quite nice with those forward fins ,much like the sparrow missile.

There`s been a few TLP kits that I built and like you ,found very little information on the actual missile.A little creative lisence is always a goos option.

Take care

paul T
 
I have this kit and built it stock some years ago. It is very lightweight, but not light enough for a D12. It's one of those models that should be flown in no wind conditions as even a light breeze will knock it off course once it leaves the rod.

I was just starting into the hobby when I build it and if I were to build it now, I would put a wrap of 2-4 oz fiberglass on the tubes, do ttw fins and put in a 29mm mmt, upgrading the cr's to lite-ply.

indigo.jpg
 
Well, after two pictures of building the engine mount, my camera's battery went dead. It's taking forever to charge up again so I thought I'd do some text first, and some pictures later.

Pretty basic really, I sanded the exhaust and engine tubes with 220 sandpaper to make things stick better to them.

Installing the engine hook which I bent inward slightly, I used a small piece of Scotch tape to keep it in place while I wound three layers of tape on the engine tube. I used my knees to hold the tape dispenser in place.

I put a thin layer of Titebond II both on the inside edge of the centering rings and the engine tube 1/4" in from the ends and let it dry. I then used a popsicle stick to put a thin ring of Titebond in the right places to glue the rings on. I made a 1/4" mark on the other side of the popsicle stick to make sure the rings were on straight all the way around. I then added a drop of Titebond where the engine hook goes into the slot in the tube, and added thin CA to both ends of the tube for strength.

I added fillets to the rings with Titebond. The assembly comes in at 6.4 grams, and I think is plenty strong for it's task.

Camera is charged, here's the pictures. Wait, no pictures, it seems my uses of Office Picture Manager are used up. Umm, anyone know of a program I can use to reduce the sizes of pictures? Sorry for the delay.
 
Thanks for the interest though from those that have responded so far. Very talented observers I must say, I'm hoping the shaky start to this thread will mean smooooth sailing the rest of the way. Hey Rocketlady, do you happen to have an unloaded weight available for your Indigo? That would be very useful to know considering you built her stock. She looks beautiful and thanks for any info.
 
"Drawing out the model 1:1 is a good way to work out any mod's you may be thinking of. I've done the same thing a few times and it really helped out", said Bradycros.

I love making full size drawings of scratch builds. I used to have a big pad of newsprint you can get at an art store. It's cheap and you can draw to your heart's content. In this case I used a sketch pad, steel ruler, and a $.10 Bic pen. It's accurate enough to get the dimensions for the fin slots and fin tabs, that's all that matters.
 
Thanks for the interest though from those that have responded so far. Very talented observers I must say, I'm hoping the shaky start to this thread will mean smooooth sailing the rest of the way. Hey Rocketlady, do you happen to have an unloaded weight available for your Indigo? That would be very useful to know considering you built her stock. She looks beautiful and thanks for any info.

Weight without motor is 9 ounces.
 
For reducing picture file size, download Photo Razor. It is free and I have been pretty happy with it. Easy to use. Good luck on your build. John.
 
I got curious about this missile and went looking for some pics of it. Here they are if anyone is interested.

-Z

SISTEL Indigo launch_1.jpg

SISTEL Indigo launch_2.jpg
 
Thanks John, I downloaded Photorazor, lets see what we have here.

m_002.jpg
The sanded tubes.

m_004.jpg
Tape applied.

m_005.jpg
Completed mount getting weighed.
 
Just a couple more thoughts before I start building tonight, after sanding the tubes I cleaned the dust off with a 'lil rubbing alcohol on a paper towel. I stuck a popsicle stick in between the engine tube and the hook when I CA'ed the end of the tube, so it wouldn't get stuck. I use my fingers a lot for fillets and stuff when working with Titebond, it's handy to have a wet paper towel nearby for periodic wipes. Oh yeah, I sanded down the inside of the engine mount where the CA is so the engine goes in nice and smooth.

OK, time to work on the tail cone.
 
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I cut out the tail cone with a scissors. I took some small pieces of Scotch tape and put my greasy paws all over the sticky side. Then I curled up the cone to match up the exhaust tube as best I could trying to keep the lines straight, and applied the less sticky tape. It fits nicely.

m_008.jpg

I then applied Titebond with a small stiff paint brush to the inside of the seam, very thinly. Obviously this pic is staged, and I don't think I'll take many more staged pictures as it's hard to avoid blurriness. I need three hands. I took the brush out of this package. I think I got it at Michael's. They were better quality than I thought they would be, and I've used some nice brushes in the past. I held on to the seam with my fingers, didn't take long to set. Then I removed the less sticky tape, but one piece I didn't get greasy enough and pulled up a bit of the paper. I glued it back down, and it won't make any difference in the long run.

m_009.jpgBrushes.jpg

I ran the end of the paint brush along the inner seam edge to make it indent and smoother on the outer side.

m_011.jpg

Now I come to a place where I don't like in the directions. The centering ring placed inside the wide end of the cone just doesnt make for a very strong joint. It goes too far into the cone, even though the wider edge of the cone fits perfectly to the main body tube. That ring has to be inside the MBT. I'm gonna take a break, sip a little beer, and think about things.

m_015.jpg
 
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Glad you found that useful. Carry on! Can't wait to see how this goes. :horse:

Very useful. I'm still saving things poorly, but that's mostly because of my camera. I'm getting the hang of it, and still can make the pics a little bigger. Thanks again much! I can't wait to see how this goes either, I hope he doesn't mess this up.
 
m_016.jpg

Here's the parts put together without glue over the drawing I made earlier. You can see that one ring needs to go to a better place.
 
How about just adding a third ring? Leave the stock one where it is at, inside the tailcone, and make a new middle ring out of thick, hard balsa. Thick enough so it could butt up against the aft ring and extend forward far enough to add support to the MBT. It would be easy enough to make by hand, just roughing out the ID with a knife, sanding to fit the motor tube using an old engine casing for a sanding block. Then slip it over the motor tube and trace around the forward ring to give you the outside dimension. You would probably have to taper the aft side of the OD a bit to match the taper on the tailcone. Of course you would have to do all this before glueing the aft ring into position.
 
Now I come to a place where I don't like in the directions. The centering ring placed inside the wide end of the cone just doesnt make for a very strong joint. It goes too far into the cone, even though the wider edge of the cone fits perfectly to the main body tube. That ring has to be inside the MBT. I'm gonna take a break, sip a little beer, and think about things.


You did a nice job on the tail cone. The chances of getting both ends of the tail cone to fit perfectly on both body tubes at the same time is really really small.

The last tail cone I made, the transistion tool available at www.payloadbay.com/index.php?page=Tools&action=TRANS was used. The length and the top of the tail cone (transistion) was made approx. 1/8" (.125 inches or 3.175mm) longer and wider. You may need to adjust those measurements to meet your needs.

The idea is to get the body tube to fit inside the top of the tail cone. The tail cone you've already made can be soaked with thin CA and nested and thin CA'd inside the new one to add strength. After the tail cones are glued up, placement adjusted and the epoxy is cured, the excess paper and any stray glue can be sanded down or off to get the desired look.

With this method, the placement of the centering ring will be fine were it is.

Then use filler to make it look like it was machine made.
 
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It's an interesting read, but the actual missile pics are the same as Zetoyoc posted.

Yes it is, I learned some stuff from reading it. I registered on the forum, but I need to get approved and they haven't done that yet. How do they decide who's in and who's not? So anyway, I guess it's good to know I already have the pictures. Thanks for the info.

Off to work I go, I'll respond to the other posts tonight.
 
How about just adding a third ring? Leave the stock one where it is at, inside the tailcone, and make a new middle ring out of thick, hard balsa. Thick enough so it could butt up against the aft ring and extend forward far enough to add support to the MBT. It would be easy enough to make by hand, just roughing out the ID with a knife, sanding to fit the motor tube using an old engine casing for a sanding block. Then slip it over the motor tube and trace around the forward ring to give you the outside dimension. You would probably have to taper the aft side of the OD a bit to match the taper on the tailcone. Of course you would have to do all this before glueing the aft ring into position.

After sleeping on it and thinking about it while making croutons today at work, A third ring will be involved. Close but not quite to what you are suggesting. Thanks for your help and interest.
 
You did a nice job on the tail cone. The chances of getting both ends of the tail cone to fit perfectly on both body tubes at the same time is really really small.

The last tail cone I made, the transistion tool available at www.payloadbay.com/index.php?page=Tools&action=TRANS was used. The length and the top of the tail cone (transistion) was made approx. 1/8" (.125 inches or 3.175mm) longer and wider. You may need to adjust those measurements to meet your needs.

The idea is to get the body tube to fit inside the top of the tail cone. The tail cone you've already made can be soaked with thin CA and nested and thin CA'd inside the new one to add strength. After the tail cones are glued up, placement adjusted and the epoxy is cured, the excess paper and any stray glue can be sanded down or off to get the desired look.

With this method, the placement of the centering ring will be fine were it is.

Then use filler to make it look like it was machine made.

Thank you for your kind words. I like making cones for some reason. In the past I've made some gap staged rockets with two or three transitions. This one fits nicely on both ends, just a slight overhang on the body tube dry-fitting.

Your idea is interesting, but I think my easiest solution is to make a ring just slightly bigger than the one provided. My plan is to glue the kit provided ring as close as I can to the rear edge, inside the body tube. The home-made ring is glued to that, to support the bigger end of the cone. I'm going to get on that now if I can find some good cardboard laying around.

That transition tool is very cool, but I don't have a printer. I know, I know, I've been meaning to get one for about 15 years, but just never got to it:) It seems like I only need one about twice a year, and I always find a way to get around it.
 
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on my wac, I used a standard ring(1/4") inside the bt backed up by an 1/8" ring that was beveled to match a) the tail cone and b) the wider side was just a touch larger than the bt inner dia. (to support the cone). seems to work( of course I was using Loc 3" tube for the bt)
 
on my wac, I used a standard ring(1/4") inside the bt backed up by an 1/8" ring that was beveled to match a) the tail cone and b) the wider side was just a touch larger than the bt inner dia. (to support the cone). seems to work( of course I was using Loc 3" tube for the bt)

The way it sounds, that's about what I'm doing. I found some good cardboard and pictures coming soon. (Like anyone is reading this this time of night.) I need to get down and launch with you guys sometime this year.
 
As promised to you late night viewers, here's the ring cut out of a pretty heavy duty garbage bag box. I traced around the inside of the kit's ring as close as I could with a very sharp pencil, and around the outside not so close. I used a #11 blade freehand to cut it out.
m_a3.jpg
I eye'd up the rings and clamped them together with hobby ratchet clamps. If you don't have some, get some! I got these at Menard's.
m_a2.jpg
I then used some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a D12 casing to sand the inside edge, and no time at all it fit onto the exhaust tube.
m_a4.jpg
I just used my hand to sand the outer edge. It fits right where I want it to, just needs a little touch up with some 400 grit.
m_a1.jpg
The new part comes in at .8 grams.
 
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