MikeyDSlagle
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2013
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I got this Tembo some time back from Secret Santa. It has been in primer for some time now waiting on me to decide what to do with the finish.
I started off wanting to make it HED. But when I bought the JLCR, it was just too easy not to use that. It does have a nose cone bay that will house a RRC2+ and Eggfinder. It's built to fly on one grain 54's. I hope to fly it Saturday on the I170G. It is simming to around 3600 feet on that motor so I need to get that tracker in there. That will be just at the edge of my ability to see it. JLCR along for the ride as well of course.
This rocket has had a slew of problems from the get go. One fin slot was out of alignment, it was off by about 1/8"; and the nose cone is ridiculously loose. I still have to address that issue but I have to use sheer pins. It has 8 ounces of lead in the nose so drag separation is a real possibility...I think.
At first it was going to be a canvas for me to practice airbrushing. I attempted to cut me some stencils, watched videos, asked around and finally took so much time doing that, my ideas about what I wanted changed.
I was going to do a peeled paint effect, so it would look like the paint was peeling and another color was underneath.
Then it was going have a smiley. I played around with various nose art patterns but just didn't like it. Tried using a Jack Skellington tip nose are for a smiley but it ended up looking like Spy vs Spy from MAD Magazine.
After that I went to wanting it to look like a large tear in the side revealing something underneath. I wanted that something to look like steel ribs or fuselage infrastructure. Couldn't really find what I was looking for so I settled on a reactor. I got to messing around in Photoshop. This is where Mark Hayes comes into the picture. I emailed him pictures and ideas about what I had going on. He would give me feedback and guidance. I could never get the rips looking good enough. On the computer and in OR it looked good enough, but when it got to Mark, the pictures were just way too small. When blown up, they got grainy and trashy looking.
So finally I settled on none of the above. I just started drawing and what not in PS and came up with this:
Just a thrown together rocket. Made with plates and rivets. Had to add a few sponsors and warning labels. As well as contact info. The sponsors are companies from the Fallout games. Keeping with the Fallout theme of my Cowabunga - Wastelander.
In Open Rocket:
And the real thing:
This being my first wrap, I made a few boo-boos and have a few wrinkles; and some "plates" are misaligned. This has nothing to do with the vinyl, but with my ability to lay the vinyl. The process is tedious and I am not known for my patience. You can probably spot the misaligned areas but it really isn't that bad. I wish I would've watched Mark's video on how to lay the wrap before I drew it and I would have allowed for easy to align areas where the cuts would be made. Mark offered to make me another at a discount, but I am satisfied with this one and the reprint would have the same design flaws as this one. My design flaws, not Mark's. You can probably see the slop in the nose cone as well. Just laying down like it is caused a gap between the airframe and the nose cone.
Pancake bay in the nose cone shoulder:
Bay in the nose actually has two compartments. The Eggfinder will be mounted in the cone itself while the RRC2+ controlling apogee deployment will ride in the shoulder.
I started off wanting to make it HED. But when I bought the JLCR, it was just too easy not to use that. It does have a nose cone bay that will house a RRC2+ and Eggfinder. It's built to fly on one grain 54's. I hope to fly it Saturday on the I170G. It is simming to around 3600 feet on that motor so I need to get that tracker in there. That will be just at the edge of my ability to see it. JLCR along for the ride as well of course.
This rocket has had a slew of problems from the get go. One fin slot was out of alignment, it was off by about 1/8"; and the nose cone is ridiculously loose. I still have to address that issue but I have to use sheer pins. It has 8 ounces of lead in the nose so drag separation is a real possibility...I think.
At first it was going to be a canvas for me to practice airbrushing. I attempted to cut me some stencils, watched videos, asked around and finally took so much time doing that, my ideas about what I wanted changed.
I was going to do a peeled paint effect, so it would look like the paint was peeling and another color was underneath.
Then it was going have a smiley. I played around with various nose art patterns but just didn't like it. Tried using a Jack Skellington tip nose are for a smiley but it ended up looking like Spy vs Spy from MAD Magazine.
After that I went to wanting it to look like a large tear in the side revealing something underneath. I wanted that something to look like steel ribs or fuselage infrastructure. Couldn't really find what I was looking for so I settled on a reactor. I got to messing around in Photoshop. This is where Mark Hayes comes into the picture. I emailed him pictures and ideas about what I had going on. He would give me feedback and guidance. I could never get the rips looking good enough. On the computer and in OR it looked good enough, but when it got to Mark, the pictures were just way too small. When blown up, they got grainy and trashy looking.
So finally I settled on none of the above. I just started drawing and what not in PS and came up with this:
Just a thrown together rocket. Made with plates and rivets. Had to add a few sponsors and warning labels. As well as contact info. The sponsors are companies from the Fallout games. Keeping with the Fallout theme of my Cowabunga - Wastelander.
In Open Rocket:
And the real thing:
This being my first wrap, I made a few boo-boos and have a few wrinkles; and some "plates" are misaligned. This has nothing to do with the vinyl, but with my ability to lay the vinyl. The process is tedious and I am not known for my patience. You can probably spot the misaligned areas but it really isn't that bad. I wish I would've watched Mark's video on how to lay the wrap before I drew it and I would have allowed for easy to align areas where the cuts would be made. Mark offered to make me another at a discount, but I am satisfied with this one and the reprint would have the same design flaws as this one. My design flaws, not Mark's. You can probably see the slop in the nose cone as well. Just laying down like it is caused a gap between the airframe and the nose cone.
Pancake bay in the nose cone shoulder:
Bay in the nose actually has two compartments. The Eggfinder will be mounted in the cone itself while the RRC2+ controlling apogee deployment will ride in the shoulder.