New life for an old friend. An SLS Hustler Clone.

[gdjsky01]

The earliest I can find this rocket in a picture is 2001.

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It's been a great rocket with one flaw. The fins break off. Yep I could put a bigger chute in. Maybe I shoulda. It is a hugely fun rocket. I should have used through the wall fins. Last year after an unfortunate ejection, I rebuilt the payload section... and we flew together another year.

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Big 70 has flown on as little as a C11-3 and much as a F21 and F24. She loved E28s. But all rockets have their time and Big-70s was up. After folding a fin one more time, I came up with a plan. A plan Initiated by Mr Initiator001 hiz self. A transformation. Something wonderful... :lol:


And so the hacking began... hack hack hack...

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And with payload section donation from the Custom Rockets Equinox... and a little bit of ROCSim template...

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[gdjsky01]

Here are the fin pieceslaid out on basswood. I went with a two piece tab as the zig zag would have been a pain to cut and mate.

 

[qquake2k]

There's a lot goin' on with them thar fins...

 

[Scotty Dog]

A little puzzling at first..:wink: but I sees it now.
Ha..my oldest is maybe 3-4 years now...:lol:
Guess Im an old dog with new tricks.

 

[gdjsky01]

Yep. My own rendition of an SLS Hustler. Normally I would of course buy not copy. But this rocket is being rebuilt anyway, the balsa nose code and transition are about right (ish), and the fin pattern is pretty basic. After seeing Initiator001's fly last weekend, I was just enamored with the idea. :roll:

I am working on cutting all that bassword... a head-cold has me somewhat down and out this weekend.

 

[gdjsky01]

Well cutting those by hand was fun... not... waiting on the personal laser cutter...

Thirty minute epoxy in the joints.

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Covered with plastic wrap and weighted down while they dry.

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Ready for sanding, sanding together, rounding, and filling.

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[qquake2k]

Those fins turned out great, Jeff. They don't even look hand cut.

 

[gdjsky01]

Thanks Captain!

Close up they don't fit hand-in-glove and I admit I did not spend as much time sanding tabs to get them as tight as I could have. I'll sand them smooth once the epoxy is completely set and then paper them with label material.

Assuming I am on the downside of this head-cold, I'll work on sanding them smooth, and then uniform in size, tomorrow. Then we'll see about cutting out those TTW slots.

Dude, I see you are building another scratcher! Wow. You NEED to start coming south to launch or you are gonna have built more rockets than you have launches to launch them!! :lol:

:wink:

 

[qquake2k]

Hand-in-glove or not, that's still a really good fit!

 

[gdjsky01]

Cut two pieces of scrap basswood. Each is about 2/3rds of a full circle ala BT-60 sized. I pushed one well down the bottom body tube. I pushed it with a full size piece of BT-55 tubing. Because they are A) 2/3rds a full circle and B) tight, they did not fall over when being pushed. Once one was down there, I doused it with some wood glues and let it cover the disc. I cleaned the body tube of any drips on the sidewall using a scrap dowel as there is more to get pushed down there...

When it was kinda dry... not running all over the place, I did the very same thing again, with this disk 180 degrees from the other and pushed within 1.5 inches of the previous. Here, as best as a little P and S can do, is a picture before I cleaned that sidewall up again.

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The zoom makes it look closer than it is... it's about 10 to 11 inches down the tube.

My rendition of a baffle when its the weekend and you don't have any JT-60 couplers... :eyeroll: :shock:

 

[qquake2k]

I've made lots of half moon baffles. They work well.

 

[gdjsky01]

I sure had you in mind when I made them!

 

[qquake2k]

I sure had you in mind when I made them!

I'm glad I could be your inspiration! :tongue:

 

[gdjsky01]

Adding 3 of the four finnages :wink:

The motor mount's front centering ring is glued onto the MMT and is flush with the front of the TTW slots. The rear centering ring is just slid on with masking tape tabs to pull it back out so I can pour internal fillets when the fin TTW tabs are dry. Not worried about the painted tube. A) its pretty roughed up as I will be repainting the entire rocket and B) I expect the strength to come from the fin to MMT joint. Time will tell and YMMV.









Amazing how crappy things can look and with a little filler and primer it looks just dandy... at least for the first flight. :tongue:

 

[gdjsky01]

Fins on and filleted
Tubes joined
Body rough sanded
Obvious gouges and scratches spot putty'ed

Time for some primer.

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[sodmeister]

Hey Jeff ,I saw looked here and saw those fins you made/cut......WOW !

Now that`s some fine craftsmanship old chum ,hell I`m not sure I would even attempt all those cuts ,and the fit looks quite accurate ,glove or not !!

Nice work !:handshake:

Sincerely


Paul T

 

[qquake2k]

Looking great, Jeff!

 

[gdjsky01]

Primer

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then a gloss white coat

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Now we'll let it sit for a few days to cure and outgas before we put the black and orange on. Besides I have a star party to get to. :wink:

 

[Scotty Dog]

Looks wicked good. I know you have it covered..but..from the picture,it doesnt look like the LLs are out past the payload section.
Black and Orange..oooooooooohh that should do the trick!!!!

 

[gdjsky01]

Thanks Scotty... probably should not call it a hustler... it's not quite the same size and nose shape... Maybe simply Big-70 reborn.... the standoffs are there... just perspective.

Getting some pigment on her... looking ok...

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[Madison Alum]

This one is looking great as well. Orange has been a lucky color for me. Haven't had one of my orange rockets bite the dust yet. (Probably lose them all next week, now)

 

[gdjsky01]

Thanks

The hard part is, because I did the black first I have to mask both ends. Which means I have to wait days and days for the black to completely cure lest I lift it off with the tape... oh well...

OR!!! I could wrap the payload area in Orange vinyl.... hmm....

And I still have to create the roll pattern (also of vinyl)... I don't think I'll 'clone' that... might as well go my own way...

 

[qquake2k]

Looking mighty fine, Jeff!

 

[gdjsky01]

Looking mighty fine, Jeff!

Why thank you my friend!
- Jeff

 

[gdjsky01]

More pigment... this got a little sloppy. Nothing that some trim stripes and a sharpie (oh and 10 or 15 feet) won't hide... :wink:

 

[o1d_dude]

Nice work, Jeff.

I'd rather build a new bird than rebuild but you've done swell on this one.

 

[qquake2k]

Looks great from here, Jeff!

 

[gdjsky01]

Nice work, Jeff.

I'd rather build a new bird than rebuild but you've done swell on this one.

Yeah I know. I have such a large kit backlog is seems ridiculous to even scratch build. As well as ridiculous to have that large a backlog. But then there is all that lovely balsa tied up in the nose cone and transition. Just couldn't let it go to waste. I should have made it a 29mm. But 24's will have to do.

 

[Scotty Dog]

I did my Semroc "Snipe Hunter" in those colors..
Very Nice Job!!!!!!

 

[gdjsky01]

Thank you all.


Now I am gonna cut the vinyl roll pattern (maybe patterns). Seems like there were several paint schemes. At least according to Uncle Google's image archives. As you can see, the nose on mine is not accurate though I painted down the payload section to help with the illusion. And the nose cone itself is not 'pointy' enough.

Hopefully a little vinyl/decals will make the finishing touch.