Upscale Renegade

[stevem]

We lost our Estes Rengade sustainer the other day. It went too high, too fast and we lost sight of it.

So in memorium I have started a 1.6 upscale (BT80), trying to use stuff I have on hand. (saving money to buy motors )

Here's a pic of what I have together so far.

The NC is an Estes 2.6" ogive I just stuck on there for the picture.
I haven't decided if I want to turn a NC that is closer to the Renegade's NC profile or just use this one. In either case I will carve the cockpit canopy out of balsa.

The wingtip pods are made from BT50 NCs left over from my upscale Trident lawn-dart a couple years ago, that's why they have some black paint on them.

The booster pods are BT60. I lengthend them so I'd have plenty of room for a recovery system for the booster.

I looked around the 'net for some plastic BT60 ogive NCs for the booster pods but found none. The Estes Patriot NC looks to be about right. I may call Estes and see if I can buy a couple or I may just turn them out of balsa. Haven't decided.

The booster fins are made from 3/32" balsa core with 1/64" plywood laminated to each side. The balsa core grain is oriented normally (parallel to the leading edge) and the "grain" of the plywood runs perpendicular to the balsa grain.

I was surprised to see how sturdy and light these fins are.

There are 2 reasons I made the booster fins this way;

1. I have never tried this method before

2. I did not have enough 1/8" plywood or basswood to make all the fins needed for this rocket.

The sustainer fins are 1/8" basswood.

The booster main tube has a central 24mm MMT surrounded by 4 18mm MMTs. Each booster pod also contains a 24mm MMT.

The booster's main 24mm MMT gap stages to the single 24mm MMT in the sustainer.

As seen in this picture the entire rocket weighs about 11.5oz.

 

[stevem]

another shot

 

[stevem]

it's so hot around here there's not much to do but stay indoors and get caught up on rocket construction.

with several projects all going at once I often forget to get pictures as I go so today is also 'picture' day

here's the 1.6X Renegade with the sustainer painted and the booster still in gray primer.

I am using Rustoleum black on this rocket so I am overlaying my usual Kilz coat with the rustoleum gray primer just to ensure compatibility with the top coat.

I decided to use an Estes NC (same cone as used on Executioner and Canadian Arrow) instead of making one from scratch.

to my eye, the cone profile is not exactly the same as the Estes Renegade cone but with the cockpit canopy attached it is pretty darn close.

the booster nose cones are Estes Patriot style. I called estes and ordered up 6 of em for scratch building. so much for saving money for motors.

what's left of my original Renegade booster is shown for comparison.

 

[JBeau]

Very nice. Excellent work. My Renegade has been stranded on the bench for almost 8 months while I worked on other projects, I may soon have to finish it off. Inspiring!

 

[Reed Goodwin]

Wow, that's awesome. Good work. I assume you have some sort of recovery decive for the booster, right? You will deffinitely need to post pics of the finished beast as well as liftoff shots. Great rocket, again!
Reed

 

[stevem]

thanks guys!

Reed, yes those booster pods will carry chute(s).

After the first flight of my Estes Renegade I observed that the booster did not exactly tumble. It came like freakin' missile!
we had to duck and cover! I'm bettin those pointy pods would have left a mark!

I beleive this behavior had been discussed here before.

During repairs to the booster I lengthened the tubes so I could recovery. That worked much better and it was safer.

I was thinking about putting a chute in each booster tube but am worried about chute tangling. Not sure what would happen with chutes deploying out of each tube. Has anyone seen or done a set up similar that could comment?


here's a pic of my Estes Renegade booster after its first flight.

 

[stevem]

got some painting done on my big Renegade.

I had a tough time deciding on a paint scheme for this one.
I came up with a variation on some other Renegades I have seen posted.

here's what I decided to do....

 

[stevem]

the rocket as shown and empty weighs right at 16oz.

have to some testing before I'll know how much nose weight will be needed.

another view...

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Looks good Stevem!

What motors is it going to fly on? I'm considering upscaling the Renegade for my first high power staged rocket... I'm thinking 3" or 4"... hehehehe.... Let's see how my up powered 29mm single stage Renegade flies first...

 

[stevem]

thanks Punk!

the booster will have 1 central 24mm surrounded by 4 18mm (similar to my 2 stage Executioner) with 24mm in each booster pod.

the booster gap stages to a 24mm in the sustainer.

even with nose weight added I think this rocket will come in under 20oz for final weight.

I'm think going to try to paint the Renegade decal on the sustainer.

I'm going to try and mask off and paint the yellow background for the decal and then make inkjet decals to put on the yellow background.

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Originally posted by stevem

the booster will have 1 central 24mm surrounded by 4 18mm (similar to my 2 stage Executioner) with 24mm in each booster pod.

the booster gap stages to a 24mm in the sustainer.[/B]

Wow! That should be an impressive cluster! Hope to see pics of that contrail sometime!

 

[stevem]

have I ever mentioned that I LUV clusters!!

combining clusters with gap staging is even more fun!

 

[stevem]

put some finishing touches on the big renegade today.

I used a few of the original Renegade decals and then shot it with Krylon Clear #0500 - didn't turn out half bad!

IMO the Krylon 500 clear is much better than the 1301

 

[Delta-IV]

Looking good Steve.....speaking of Clusters (I love clusters too!!) How's the Delta III Re-build/flight?

I have about 3 more weeks of work on my 2nd Delta IV, a 1/74th scale Medium - 5 Meter with 4 SRMs (Main D12 or E9 and 4 B's or Cs) and and about a month left on the 1/74th Delta IV Heavy, 2 D12 and 1 E9 on that one.

 

[stevem]

thanks - the Delta III is all rebuilt and ready for action as soon as we can fly. Crops are too big now so we have to wait another month or so until they get the soybeans out.