What did you do rocket wise today?

[jqavins]

It'll probaby work, but may take longer than a couple of days. When I put together my Frick-n-Frack, the panels didn't quite line up perfectly. I meant to pull them into line and Windex them. I taped them together but it took a couple of weeks to get arou d to buying the Windex. By the time I did, I didn't need it. Since you've flexed these beyond straight, be careful they don't take the new curve.

 

[neil_w]

It'll probaby work, but may take longer than a couple of days. When I put together my Frick-n-Frack, the panels didn't quite line up perfectly. I meant to pull them into line and Windex them. I taped them together but it took a couple of weeks to get arou d to buying the Windex. By the time I did, I didn't need it. Since you've flexed these beyond straight, be careful they don't take the new curve.

Then I'll just bend them back!

I tend to suspect more that what I'm doing won't help at all, in which case... windex and a stack of books, or something along those lines. Realistically, it probably doesn't even matter, but if I can get them a bit straighter I will.

 

[Funkworks]

Using that new Dremel, I made 1/4" thick O-rings out of balsa. That stack in front is what I'll put inside each one of the holes I drilled in the Smurf rocket's nose cone.

Sky-blue will be the main color, "protected" by an acrylic window, and when the rocket is on display, a disk of any other color can be inserted in the ring (on top of the window) for variety.

 

[Long_Gone]

Elevated lifestyle!!!! Some not complete yet. But they have a safe place to hang out.

 

[Funkworks]

...
Elevated lifestyle!!!! Some not complete yet. But they have a safe place to hang out.

I’ve seen those hooks somewhere. Do they usually have a specific purpose or are they for general use?

 

[Long_Gone]

I’ve seen those hooks somewhere. Do they usually have a specific purpose or are they for general use?

Got them from Lowes in the storage area. Just hooks.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Wet-sanded my bother-in-law's V2, except for the fins/tailcone, where I filed the epoxy on the fillets down flush with the fins an body tube and re-filleted where needed with the Tite-Bond fillet glue. Called it a day. No pics...it's still all gray!

 

[High Desert Rocketry]

Started machining the transition for our 5" to 2" twenty-pound dart to be launched this Saturday.

 

[OverTheTop]

More work on the VTS. Adding the wiring for feeding the battery and system voltages back to my TeleMega telemetry.. Almost done now.

Considering adding charger boards for the 1s, 2s and 3s batteries so I can support charging whilst on the pad. Measured the drain on a battery with my small charger boards (no feed) and found at 400uA their draw was too much. Will try to find better charger boards.

 

[kuririn]

Yesterday/last night:
Finished assembling the Estes Canadian Arrow.


Then started the Rocketarium Roland SAM 3.
Interesting kit. Two motor cluster in a 3D printed housing.


Comes with a ton of clay nose weight.


Marked the tapers on the fins and started sanding.
Rough sanded with the block.
Then fine sanded with an emery stick.

I cut out the areas where you are supposed to leave things square in the tapered area.
Will glue them back later on. Much easier than trying to sand around them.
Reminded how much I hate sanding.
One down, three more to go.
Laters.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Yesterday/last night:
Finished assembling the Estes Canadian Arrow.
View attachment 450717

Then started the Rocketarium Roland SAM 3.
Interesting kit. Two motor cluster in a 3D printed housing.
View attachment 450718

Comes with a ton of clay nose weight.
View attachment 450719

Marked the tapers on the fins and started sanding.
Rough sanded with the block.
Then fine sanded with an emery stick.
View attachment 450720
I cut out the areas where you are supposed to leave things square in the tapered area.
Will glue them back later on. Much easier than trying to sand around them.
Reminded how much I hate sanding.
One down, three more to go.
Laters.

Wow, that boat tail/nosecone looks startlingly like the V2... fins are different and it's taller, but am I ignorant of rocket history? Is the Canadian Arrow a derived design? Nice job on the fin sanding. You wanna talk about "I hate sanding...", Ickabod me used Elmer's plastic joiner epoxy for my fin to-boat tail fillets, and it looked awful with the primer on it - spent about an hour last night diddling around with files and sandpaper to smooth things up, then smoothed our remaining flaws with the Titebond thick stuff.

 

[kuririn]

Is the Canadian Arrow a derived design?

The Canadian Arrow was an Ansari X Prize contender, the design was undoubtedly derived from the V2.
The Estes model uses the same plastic boat tail as their V2 kit.
I'm hoping that Hi Fill Auto Primer will smooth out the ridges in the Roland motor can.
Otherwise more sanding is in my future.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

The Canadian Arrow was an Ansari X Prize contender, the design was undoubtedly derived from the V2.
The Estes model uses the same plastic boat tail as their V2 kit.
I'm hoping that Hi Fill Auto Primer will smooth out the ridges in the Roland motor can.
Otherwise more sanding is in my future.

Thanks! For what it's worth, I've used high-fill primer (Rustoleum) on mine and wet-sanded with 600 grit and it's a smooth as a baby's rear end!

 

[Mugs914]

Actually a couple of days ago, but I finally got the black painted on my Semroc 1/10 scale WAC Corporal. I used Vallejo model acrylics for both colors, sprayed with an airbrush. Came out pretty good! The tape lifted a small chunk of the yellow right adjacent to the conduit, but it will touch up easily with a brush.

I'm going to use Vallejo's dark aluminum metallic for the two bare metal fins. I'm messing with different techniques to get that brushed effect that makes it look like the WAC had beveled fins in the old photos.

The old WAC is one of my all-time favorites and this one is getting the scale treatment. Maybe not every rivet, but there will be a lot of them!

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Beautiful Work!

 

[Mugs914]

It was a freeze-in day so I started a few SPEV projects yesterday...

The first is a ramjet drone-type thing. Fuselage and ramjet are BT-55 with a 24mm mount in the fuse and 13mm in the ramjet. The fin design is still in flux, but will either be smallish delta wings similar to the SLAM missile or stubby wings and tail like the Lockheed X-7. Either way, the name will be "Follow-On to X-7"; FOX-7





The next is a Gemini based space lab thing. BT-55, Semroc Gemini nosecone, 18mm motor mount. Ring-fin and solar panels for stability. I worked up something like this one in OR a while back. You'll get the idea from the pics. OR file attached below... Should be fun. Lotsa little fiddly details, aluminum tape wraps, etc.







I think I'll start separate threads for these in the scratch-build section...

 

[kuririn]

Surprise delivery from USPS on President's Day!
Loc-1 kits. This will complete my Loc mini missiles collection after I build them.
Maybe in about five years.


And I guess they have a new motto now, "Find Your Airspace" instead of "Get Up There!".
Or is it "Fly Higher Fly LOC"?
Heh.

 

[Mugs914]

Surprise delivery from USPS on President's Day!
Loc-1 kits. This will complete my Loc mini missiles collection after I build them.
Maybe in about five years.

Nah, I know you; end of next week at the latest!!!

 

[Mugs914]

The third project I started yesterday involves this little glider I built a few weeks ago. It was built just to be a fun little chuck/catapult glider, but after at proved to fly quite well I decided it needed a booster.


Taking a que from some old designs for hypersonic vehicles and shuttle proposals that involved large external fuel tanks wrapped around a delta vehicle, I came up with this idea.





BT-20 tubes, Semroc nosecones, 13mm mount in both tubes angled appropriately, dual streamer recovery. Planning some dummy engines in the middle and a few fiddly details.

I started a thread for this one over in the boost glider section: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/hypersonic-glider.164662/

 

[BrendanH69]

Did a bit more searching in the interweb for Starstreak missile related info. Posted a few more videos I cam across onto the Starstreak build thread. Was impressed by the sheer acceleration in the live firing films.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Peeled the paint masks on the dark star jr 2-stage. Two fin faces need redone because I botched the mask removal doing it too soon, but otherwise good. Gloss clear on the payload tube came out good too.

How long are you waiting to pull your mask? I typically remove mine right after I spray the final color layer (with Rustoleum rattle cans). That seems to work well, unless you let the mask or your fingers touch the wet paint.

 

[neil_w]

How long are you waiting to pull your mask? I typically remove mine right after I spray the final color layer (with Rustoleum rattle cans). That seems to work well, unless you let the mask or your fingers touch the wet paint.

I find this to be impossible for complex masking jobs, that take a good bit of time and effort to remove. I don't see how you can avoid touching the wet paint. How do you do it?

 

[Adam3836]

Got in from a recent eBay purchase 1983 Estes
Airborne surveillance missile original un opened only in production from 83 to 85

 

[Cl(VII)]

How long are you waiting to pull your mask? I typically remove mine right after I spray the final color layer (with Rustoleum rattle cans). That seems to work well, unless you let the mask or your fingers touch the wet paint.

That is what I did, maybe 30 min after spraying, but two of them were destroyed by it. Paint was lifting along tape edges too. I got pissed and walked away after 2 fins. Tried the rest after about a week, and they peeled up perfectly. Maybe it is because I was using satin paint this time, I just don’t know why.

 

[arconhi]

You are correct. Next time F motor for sure. After I fix it. Not much damage.

And to say , with a little wind again , I think it still should come back to us. Not going to be afraid of flying Mid Power motors. The Mid and High power motors are so impressive to watch. Its about time.

 

[arconhi]

Got in from a recent eBay purchase 1983 Estes
Airborne surveillance missile original un opened only in production from 83 to 85
View attachment 450804

Wow !! I wouldn't know wether to open it or keep it un opened or have two. One to fly and one to keep in the bag. This is a great find that you have. Over 35 years old. Very impressive Adam.

 

[arconhi]

Wow !! I wouldn't know wether to open it or keep it un opened or have two. One to fly and one to keep in the bag. This is a great find that you have. Over 35 years old. Very impressive Adam.

I have a Semroc "Aerobee Hi" Retro kit I bought brand new in 2006 from Semroc online. Its still in the plastic bag unopened in mint condition. And recently bought online a Launchpad rocket "Gabriel III "that was made about 10 years ago. Im in the painting process now with it.

 

[Adam3836]

Wow !! I wouldn't know wether to open it or keep it un opened or have two. One to fly and one to keep in the bag. This is a great find that you have. Over 35 years old. Very impressive Adam.

Thanks arconhi
I was excited to find this one.
cool design in my opinion and it’s from the decade I was born so even cooler lol
I want to build it so bad but I think with it being this old and never opened I should probably keep her sealed for now that is lol

 

[arconhi]

Thanks arconhi
I was excited to find this one.
cool design in my opinion and it’s from the decade I was born so even cooler lol
I want to build it so bad but I think with it being this old and never opened I should probably keep her sealed for now that is lol

I know how you feel. Look for another one then you can build it. lol

 

[GrouchoDuke]

I find this to be impossible for complex masking jobs, that take a good bit of time and effort to remove. I don't see how you can avoid touching the wet paint. How do you do it?

For me, getting a complex mask off a freshly painted rocket is the toughest part of the whole process. It's the best way I've found to get good edges though (no tearing & the edge "bump" seems to flow a tiny bit to smooth things out). I'm certainly not a pro & only really shoot for "5 to 10 foot paint jobs." For me, I really like having a rocket that looks good in pictures, but I also realize they're going to get banged up & don't want to be afraid of flying them. So, when you look at my rockets up close they're not perfect by any stretch. "Good enough."

For the mask peeling, I use a fresh #11 xacto knife, a pair of wide (~3-4mm) tweezers I originally got for electronics use, gloved hands and acetone to keep things clean during the process. If I get paint on the gloves, I replace them. When I peel the mask, I try to pick sections that will "flow" as I peel so that I can get as big of a chunk at a time off the rocket. For each new corner I peel, I use the xacto knife to lift the edge, then grab the vinyl with a small hole poked in it with the knife or switch to the tweezers. Sometimes a finger works best after lifting the edge, so I'll do that section then swap for new gloves. When a piece I'm peeling gets too big, I slice it with the xacto knife to keep it manageable. Keeping the mask from curling back & touching the wet paint is tough to do, so I go slow & deliberate with it.

This is a Hi-Flier XL I recently did (BT-60/38mm rocket). Quickie, low prep paintjob, but a fairly complex mask.

That is what I did, maybe 30 min after spraying, but two of them were destroyed by it. Paint was lifting along tape edges too. I got pissed and walked away after 2 fins. Tried the rest after about a week, and they peeled up perfectly. Maybe it is because I was using satin paint this time, I just don’t know why.

Hmm, that lifting sounds odd. Yeah, I wonder if it was a paint compatibility problem? I had really bad edge lifting on my Broken Arrow 54 when I used a metallic faded with a gloss. Repainting it without the metallic fixed that problem.