MicroMaxx Gallery

[Micromeister]

Another fun flying Scale model is the Atlantic Reasearch small sounding rocket Arcas.
This Rockets Tapered tail cone and nozzle ring lip made for a turning challange I just wanted to render correctly. It's display Color scheme was also fun. as was sanding the fins to proper taper and shape.
For such a large Micro it still flys quite well.

 

[Micromeister]

last Scale of this batch build was the Asp: I wanted to include this model as part of the Early sounding rocket history builds. it was also fun trying to decide on a way to add the tracking flares to the fin tips in a way that they would not be an on-going worry of breakage after each fight. My solution was to build the flares into the fin tip edge using hardwood dowel then sanding it all away fly except where the flare that was to remain round and projecting below the fins tailing edge. With over a dozen flights now it seems to have worked

 

[Micromeister]

sometime in 2003 Quest released 3 more LPB's. One was a tiny X15 in a starter set I never could find.
the others were the Critical Mass RTF LPB that flys quite well as long as you add a small piece of tape around the aft twistlok motor mount to keep everything together at ejection. This one was used to help set the tracking scopes for a club 2x1/8A cluster altitude competition with a 2 station Theodolite closed track of 82 feet. Not bad for a Stock LPB

The other was another special starter set containing the MM Little Joe-II, Alas this one wasn't so good, Unstable out of the box. had to add a few grams of nose weight to correct the flight path. which is OK for a big diameter really LPB LOL!!!

If any of you folks have the Quest tiny X15 LPB I'd sure like to hear how it flys.

 

[Micromeister]

Have you ever wondered just how long a model Rocket you could build and have actually fly?
That was exactly the reasoning behind what I came to call the "Extreme Length Experiment" ELE-1a for short.
Wanting to use "standard" building materials only we started with two full length 34" T2+ (.281") and one 34" length of T2 (.246") standard .013 wall craft body tubing. adding a tiny T2 x 1/2" long balsa Nosecone, 3- .010" thick waferglass fins, two 1/16" x 1/8" Launch lugs and 6 feet of 50lb kevlar shockline. the whole model tipped the scales at 17.3g with MMX-II motor lariet looped to the shockcord 18.5g. Knowing how most LONG Superrocs tend to Back slide glide during recovery I chose not to add any streamer mass to the model. with motor installed the overall length is 103.25" (8'-7-1/4").
This is one whippy whimpy model rocket LOL!!! I should have know I'd need a tower to hold it upright before launch but in my haste to get the model in the air the Better 2/3rds and I just grabbed my standard test launch pad and headed for the field. As it turned out the model would not stand unsupported on the .049" x 12" launch rod so I had to stand-by holding the model during count down to about T-2 then jump back out of the way.....1 launch! Up the javlin went..and up Wow popping apart at the upper T2 section 17 to 20feet up. then proceeded to backslide glide a very long distance from the launcher more then 100yds. LOL!!! it was sort of amazing I have swarn the thing actually caught some Air and ROSE a little along the way.
All the while my Camera gal was saying Too cool to cool watching the slender shaft gliding along.
We launched it again just to make sure it wasn't a fluke...sure enough just about the same 15-17feet flight and LONG backslide glide to the ground. Not quite as far this second flight but more the 50 yards. Very funny flyin!!!
ELE-1 now goes to most public displays and demo's to sit along side my 120" grumpy dog 2 stage D powered model.

 

[Micromeister]

Getting back to converting some 1:144th scale Plastic models for Micro powered flight one of my favorite aircraft subjects is the F-104 just about any varient will do. This tiny 144th model is an Airfix AX01106 model.
I believe the Kit depicts a German airforce varient but I totally ditched that scheme to convert it to one of the Orange and silver painted target drone markings.
flying with wheels down and sidewinders at the ready it's a pretty decant flying Micro PMC. Getting maybe 25-30 feet before popping the teflon wadding streamer. with 14 flights logged it's starting to show some flight and handling ware but hey it's a fun flyin little PMC

 

[Micromeister]

about the same time this F16xl 144th kit came out. with it's slightly strange wing arrangement I wondered if it would be possible to convert. At 12.5grams it's on the heavy side to start. but I wanted to try using the entire kit, wheels down and all stores.
This one was built and hand (brush) painted while I was on vacation at the beach. Since it's mostly flats and semi-gloss it turned out fairly well. flying well not so much... SHE's a heavy little beasty as such with any wind at all it weather cocks badly, only getting a few feet about the rod (8-10') before popping the streamer. 2nd flight in 12 -15mph winds wasn't as good weather cocking badly right away nosing to the ground. no damage all the weapons and landing gear remained intact. Still worth the time if you can still find the kit.

 

[Micromeister]

Looking for an alternate to QCR's flying Umbrella Odd-roc and wanting to create a Mary Poppin's figure odd-roc with some sort of umbrella recovery. we started experimenting with tropical drink paper parpaols.
At the dollar store I found a gross package (144 pcs) with all kinds of colors in a 3-1/4" diameter tissue canopy. How the heck to activate it was the issue. The answer came from an old used up retractable ink pen. The internal spring is a very good fit for the toothpick stems of the parasols. but drilling a tiny hole where the relaxed spring rests on the stem and the use of a couple #2 Brass flat washers, one between the paper ribs and forward end of the spring, the other between the lower end of the spring and a .022" dia folded music wire clip the canopy can be compressed closed without damaging the delicate paper ribs but have enough force to open it when ejected. to attach it stem to a .448" model body which is just enough to contain the parasol while allowing it to eject. with a foam ejection plug by the way! Two 6+ inch Test bed models were quickly thrown together for flight testing.
With the use of an extra 1 inch long section of T4 tubing as a canopy compresser the model bodies are readied with 1/4 sheet of FP wadding below the blue SM styrofoam ejection plug and another 1/4 sheet on top pushed all the way to the motor mount. the remaining 30" of 70lb kevlar are coiled on top then the parasol is gently inserted about halfway serving as the nosecone.
HO man these things fly really well! getting very good 70-80foot altitude. the Pop and the little parasol gently brings the body back to the ground. Not sure if I'll ever get Mary done but these little powered parasols are a lot of fun by themselves

 

[JAL3]

Well Gee the BG worked so well I wonder if a Micro RG can work I Thought? I've always been absolutely AWFUL with gliders so maybe microing them might help a little???
I have a favorite RG design that changes the geometry by adding an elevator pitch so downscaleing the Mini-Nomad to a Micro Nomad RG was next on my list of attempts.
I'm pleased to say; it not only worked...it works pretty well

Who originally produced the Nomad this is based upon?

 

[JAL3]

It's kinda embarrassing to follow all these great models, but what the hey...

Dick,

What's the story on the blimp/dirigible?

 

[Micromeister]

Who originally produced the Nomad this is based upon?

John:
If memory serves me right the Nomad RG and later the mini-Nomad (13mm) RG were from North Coast Rocketry back when Matt Steel owned it.

I've won a couple open type BG and RG meets with the mini-nomad.. and I've told folks before i'm not very good with gliders The design is really Sweet once you get the wing airfoil down.

 

[Micromeister]

Dick,

What's the story on the blimp/dirigible?

it's a cardstock model but I believe Dick as said it's bulk overwhelmed the MMX motors power Not sure if the model mass or just the girth was the real killer. Hopefully Dick will comment on it again.

I've been eyeing a couple Blimp PMC subjects...but the frontal area drag concerns me more then the overall mass.

 

[Micromeister]

I think it was QCR the got me interested in Bi and Tri-Wing Gliders. Mr Brown used to have a whole line of various size Bi-wing and Tri-Wing B/G in his line.
The were not good contest gliders but were So KEWL to look at I still have an 18mm pod Fokker DR-1 Tri-wing that's lots of fun from 1990.

That said I wanted to try a multi-wing micro BG. I decided to start out easy with an old great flying favorite the Fying Jenny Bi-Wing. downscaling to use a T3 motor body with a T2++ (.316"od) ejectable motor pod and Streamer (to make it easier to see and recovery the motor casing..which also makes this model contest legal as well). At 7.3 grams it really Zzzzzips of the pad, does a huge arc at ejection, settling into a fast but really flat and level glide. Always gets lots of looks and usually buzz's the crowd at least once before landing.
I've been working on a micro version of the Red Baron varient Bi-wing. once it get it to fly right I'm gonna try downscaling the Fokker DR-1 Tri-wing and do another Jenny in classic British "Camel" WWI colors.

 

[Micromeister]

Standing guard in front of the Wallops island Visitors Center used to be an old Scout-B rocket display. it's now a Scout something but has a different payload section the the classic-B.
As the largest Rocket flown from that facility it's impressive in it's length. I decided to try to reproduce one in tiny T2+ body size.
At this size it's super quick off the pad and out of sight...

 

[Micromeister]

Like to experiment with Arts cardstock creations. I got the idea for a pair of fuzzy dice to hang on the rearview mirror of my Blue Van.
A couple cardstock micro Qubits some blue flocking and a black magic marker later I had the Dice. A short length of bow string nylon with a couple skewer toggles attached I had my hanging set.
They fly individually but alway hang together LOL!

The other two Qubit shapes are the Scimitar, and the Black painted Stealth Qubit.
Fun with cardstock.

 

[Micromeister]

While a Scoutmaster once a year the troop (which did a lot of Mod-Roc flying by the way) would decide on a special month end mosquito rocket launch usually in June or July...Major mosquito season. they'ed order a bulk order direct from Estes, and devote one or two weekly meeting to building and painting there..two, three or more Mosquitos. My Assistants and the Scouts would generally order A3-4T, A3-6T, and Lots of A10-3T's.
Troop 341 was a Naval District Washington sponsered troop with lots of Navy and Marine Youth members. Most of these guys painted the Mosquitos in some really interesting military Paint schemes...lots in full camouflage. Why? because most of them KNEW the models were NOT coming back on those big A motors LOL!!! in the 6 or 7 years the troop did this It was a rare thing for more the a handful to return with a single mosquito out of the 50-80 models we'ed start with.
NOT So with these converted Micro powered mosquitos. Built as usual with one exception. adding a 1-1/8" long T2+ power pod with two T2+ to BT5 centering rings, a 1/8" piece of BT-5 pod stop and 36" of 100lb kevlar shockline with a 1/2" x 12" Teflon plumbers tape streamer. these rear ejection pods really work well, propelling the Mosquito to 80-100 feet the bringing it back by streamer that we can SEE. Lots more fun the ONE & done.

These two Mosquitos are painted entirely with One-shot Metallic and Pearl Sign lettering enamels. While these paints contain a lot of lead and other stuff they sure flow out and flatten nicely. They almost look like they were sprayed.

 

[Micromeister]

Looking for the proper size for Micro Maxx powered Booster Gliders.
This one seemed like it would be good. perhaps I've made the pod stem to long or whatever but this very nifty hand tossing 5.6g glider just doesn't want to get out of it's own way under thrust with only 9.2grams of total liftoff weight. seems to struggle into the air if their is even the lightest of cross breezes. at ejection it settles into a perfectly flat gentle glide but the alitiude is only about 20 feet

Perhaps I've got the wings to broad for the span??? I'm just not sure Boo-Hoo! I haven't given up on the design...just don't know what more I can do to it.

 

[Micromeister]

Another Classic downscale of the 70's Centuri Vulcan.
a Great looking and flying T2+ Downscale. I have to say doing the Drawings for this model was as much fun as building and flying this little GEM of a model.
At only 4.8grams it's always a pleasure when in the air and it's hight contrast colors make it easy to spot on the ground with or without the addtional of a 1/2" x 10" yellow Teflon wadding/streamer.

 

[Micromeister]

Just for fun I wanted to downscale an Estes Competition style Classic from the OLD days. The Astron SPRINT.
Back in the Day this Kit model was used by many in NAR Streamer duration competitions and the design was very competitive. Not so much anymore but it's still a sleek, Good looking classic design.
To get the Boattail transition right I went with T4 (.448") outer body and added one of the super light weight Pratt vacuum formed .010" thich styrene nosecones. Tear drop sanded airfoiled 3/32" basswood fins and 50lb kevlar balance point external shockline mount to bring the body down sideways likee the original. Diverting from the super light weight materials I substituted a 1" x 10" red military grade teflon Wadding/streamer.

The other interesting feature on this model is the addition of a compeition style micro Pop-lug instead of the draggy permenate normal lug arrangements. Micro Pop lugs are a tiny bit harder to make the standard 1/8" pop lugs but not by much. I used .020" stainless music wire and a coffee stir-stick with 2-strand very thin kevlar thread wrappings. worked out pretty well and in practice the micro pop-lug performes as well as its full size counterpart.
Remember the Micro Motto "If it works in model rocketry...it can be done with MICROs"!

 

[Micromeister]

I have to admit most of the "goony craze" just never appealed to me. With one exception.
Not really sure why but the Missile Toe just struck me as very funny and being the Odd-Roc lover I am I just had to attempt to downscale this old time favorite.
BT-5 its a little beasty and was a bear to get trimmed for stable flight but it works. with the micro I even went so far as to use real gauze to wrap the injury LOL!
Only an OK flying model.. it does get a lot of laughs on the table and pad.

 

[Micromeister]

This was just a challange I wanted to see if there was any way to pull off.
I've always liked the scissor wing BGs. My standard fleet still has an original Scissor Wing from back in the 80s as well as a Crusader Swing-wing both are really fun flying even if they are not the greatest gliders.
When the Scissor Wing as re-released I decided it was time to try to Micronize it knowing full well that sometimes downsizing doesn't work all that well with some things...gliders in particular.
Decided to go with T3 as the outside body to reduce as much as possible the overall mass allowing a T2+ internal ejectable fin pod with a teflon streamer instead of chute recovery. Basswood was chosen over balsa just for a little extra strength in the wing and tail assembly. the pivot and saddle assembly are also mostly basswood with the top retainer nut of 1/16" liteply. Tiny hair bands and elastic thread turn the wing and pop up the elevator whe the pod ejects.
Still keeping the finishing to a minimum the lift off weight is 12.3g with a MMX-II motor. she does glide nicely tho from a pretty short 30-35feet altitute. I'm toying with a couple different Booster ideas to attempt to get a little better deployment altitude including staging but that project is on the back burner with lots of other staged options as I try to move forward with lots of other Scale and Classic creations
Still its worth flying as is on calm days... I even tried flying it off a floating head piston without much luck as the motor retainer hook caught the lip of the piston body making the model that much heavier. Still got a tiny glide anyway.

 

[Micromeister]

Having Robert Edmonds as a club member has given us a lot of very FUN flying Glider creations.
One of my favorite designs was the Ecee-18 an 18mm motor RG with forward canard and huge rear wing/tail assembly. the Box design airframe houses the canard lockdown making a very sleek looking glider.
I just had to try downscaling this desing as have been very pleased with it's flight performance. No it is not a contest winner by any means but it's fun to fly, almost always doest a complete loop just before ejection giving a varing glide length depending on where it transitions into glide mode. at 6.3g or 7.4g lowt it's not at all hard to get some very nice flights out of this model provided the breeze is down that day.

 

[Micromeister]

Not everything works as we'ed like it to!
such is the tail of this poor ill conceived alteration of a pretty nice flying 1/4A Slide pod RG.
In my quest for different Micro flying Gliders I decided to swap out the 13mm slide pod on this really nice flying RG for a brand new slide pod made up of T2+ motor slide pod, moving in a brand new custom designed tube that I dubbed T2++ (.290" ID/.316"OD). All was going well in hand toss and rubberband spring tests but As is almost always true...Haste makes waste!
I got to the test field early one saturday morning wanting to test fly the configuration at least 2 or 3 times before anyone else showed up. Trouble was the Breeze was already blowing over 10mph gusting to 19. Undaunted I set up the model on an extra long 15" x .049" stainless launch rod. waited for what I though was a lull and pushed the button. the combination of binding on the longer rod and gusts hitting the model as it exited the rod made for a very short nose dive into the ground flight. when the ejection charge poped it crimped the motor tube in the slider tube as well as damaged one wing tip.
Upset with myself I picked up the glider and went back to the truck to quickly repair the blunder. crimping the motor tube must have also stretched the pod slide tube a bit which made everything kind of sloppy fitting. Darn it I wanted to see if the thing could fly so I pressed on, readying for another MMX-II flight. this time I shortened the rod to 12" and added a couple wing support rods to keep it from twisting in the breeze. the Breeze was now a steady wind at 8-10 with gusts topping 20. I should have just stopped.
While I got the pod and slide to act correctly for hand toss and rubber band snaps in flight it seemed to stop about an inch or so short of it's intended location causing the model to be tail heavy and do the big leaf swish finally diving again into the ground.
I had to put the thing away it was just out of control.... I'll try again at some point prehaps downsizing the glider by 10 or so percent.

 

[Micromeister]

At some point our good friend Peter Alway designed a Rabbit Rocket the Zvezdotchka ACM. It's looked like something I'd like to build but never got around to.

Our club was having a Easter launch so it seemed like a good fit. so I decided to downscale the Rabbit. I'm never satisfied to just make things like they are so I started looking for ways to enhance our little furry friend and came up with some brown fur flocking, goggly eyes and paint brush wiskers.

Yet he fly's pretty good, getting about 60feet each flight. He's a really fun fly'in rabbit.

 

[Micromeister]

Well if I have the bunny I guess he needs the object of his existance.
So the Micro Carrot Odd-Roc was invented.
it's really just a bunch of oddly aligned various size body tubes with a core T2+ tube with epoxy and CA should I call them details? Clear .030" lexan fins with green vinly hand painted greens. Goos whoosh very nicely, and looks fun next to the Rabbit

 

[Micromeister]

Just a cool looking Red,White & Blue little model. Fun to build and fly

Sorry no flight pics, flys alot but I never seem to get a decent on pad or can catch the little bugger at liftoff.

 

[Micromeister]

Another older time classic good looking almost super roc. At 11.6" long it more then qualifies as a 1/8A superroc. Tis a head jurker for it's size. Also tried a different type of decal material and printing method that didn't work out as well as I would have liked.

 

[Micromeister]

This is a real Moldy Oldie from way back in the dark ages.
this downscale was done in 10.5mm just so I could use a Pratt Hobbies .010" vacuum formed super light nosecone to sort of offset the carved balsa cockit canopy. Contrary to my normal bent NOT to use the kit panel colors this one was done in the classic Red,white & blue color scheme from back in the day. As large as it is I managed to keep the LOWt. down to 9.0g so it's a pretty fair flyer as well.
Again my photographer skills suck, so no liftoff pics.

 

[Micromeister]

Yes I know the kit name is just Star Blazer as if there were never any other model by the same name but as we've seen there sure was. So I added the suffix -I and -II to my micro T4 downscales.
The two designs are so different I don't know why Estes didn't come up with another name for this one...We'll just deal with it LOL!!!
Between the two this one is the better flyer but not by much. Again my photo On the field skills just seem to never get any better with these darn digital cameras.....See this fuzzy shot is typical of many

 

[Micromeister]

Cruising the Dollar stores one saturday afternoon the better 2/3rds ran acrosss a string of Crayon party garland. Made up of a gross (144) of these tiny .320" dia. x 1.625" what turned out to be solid plastic crayon shapes in 5 colors.
For a buck she said...I'm sure you can do Something with them!
Well when we got home I took the string apart, bagged the little crayons by color and set them aside. About a week later the misses ask what was going on with the Teeny Weeny Crayons... that was it! I just had to try converting one into the smallest Flying Crayon I've ever seen.
As mentioned they turned out to be some sort of very cheapy acrylic mix that smelled to high heaven while I was trying to hollow one out. ended up melting the first couple in the process. the OD of these are only .320" while I needed to pass AT LEAST a .250" od motor. That only leaves about .035" of wall...
My second attempt with a little larger end cutter did the trick after about an hour of very delicate plastic remover I had a sort of hollow plastic tube that will just fit a MMX-I or II motor. Nose cone was cut off first then a tiny piece of styrene tube was added as a shoulder. fins are .020" Styrene made to resemble Mosquito fins. The tiny NC had to be hollowed slightly to allow room for 4 #9 Lead shot nose weight. because of the extremely limited space only 24" of 50lb kevlar shockline was used anchored externally in a fin/body joint fillet and a tiny 1/4" x 10" teflon yellow streamer added to TRY to give use a prayer of seeing this thing on the way down.
total Ewt= 2.0g LOWt: 3.1g.

When I presented this with the flight card at check-in the check-in guy couldn't find the model...it had disapeared under some other papers on the table. RSO give me a lot of grief about Nano rockets and such LOL!!!
Launch officer's count down went something like 5-4-3-2-1-Wow! It was teleported to about 130feet where we heard the faint Pop and someone yelled I've got it! sure enough that little streamer came fluttering down about 50feet from the launcher! I've only flown it twice since... as I just know one of these launches it's gonna get lost.

Still I think it is in fact the smallest Crayon Rocket I've every seen and the second smallest Micro rocket in my fleet.

 

[Micromeister]

the Next two models 309a & 309b are downscales of I believe a Dick Stafford Odd-Roc design.
Sort of a helicopter Up and down these Bodytube beams with offset canted Spin fins and either a single or Two 30° canted motor MMX-II motors make these Whirlygigs truely Odd-Rocs.
I prefer the twin clustered version which is Super quick off the pad. with a very very short launch rod required.
Just Plain Funny to watch is about the only thing I can say about these motor burners