Zylaxus: a dubious build thread

[boatgeek]

Another ping pong ball experiment… although tested on a little 2x2” canvas that i thought would be easier to work with. To some extent it is, although the bumpy canvas surface is a pain and makes brush-painting it somewhat different (I think) than a ping pong ball will be. So I might need to sacrifice one of my remaining ping pong balls for further experimenting.

These are neon UV-glowing acrylics, other than the black lines which are a black paint pen. The green is pretty bright (not showing so well in the photo, color is not accurate), the purple less so, at least under normal light. As expected this took many coats and I still couldn’t get even coverage. Maybe better on a smooth surface? I don’t know. I need to decide if this is a good enough look to even continue experimenting. Right now I'm torn between "hmm, maybe promising" and "awful, abandon ship".

View attachment 626247

What do you all think, is this worth trying on a ping pong ball? I also have some neon orange (from the Angled Invader build) that I could mix in as well.

Rough preview:
View attachment 626263

I think it's promising enough to be worth a try on a ping pong ball.

 

[neil_w]

I think it's promising enough to be worth a try on a ping pong ball.

Yeah I'm leaning that way too. Time to cut up another one.

Alternately, I think I can do a decent job of creating lightning patterns with the paint pen; I would just need a good background to go underneath it.

 

[boatgeek]

Yeah I'm leaning that way too. Time to cut up another one.

Alternately, I think I can do a decent job of creating lightning patterns with the paint pen; I would just need a good background to go underneath it.
View attachment 626268

Do you need to cut up a ball to do the test? Like could you just paint the ball and if you don't like it clean the paint off and try something else?

 

[neil_w]

Do you need to cut up a ball to do the test? Like could you just paint the ball and if you don't like it clean the paint off and try something else?

I just need to cut the hole for the body tube, as I did with the previous three I sent to @NTP2 .

 

[jqavins]

Maybe! I’ll have to try that sometime.

That said: for multi-piece fins like this, I don’t actually have a design for the different parts… I just have the whole fins then I cut the template into parts. I’d need to do some additional drawing work on the computer (not exactly my wheelhouse) to create printable patterns.

I'm late as usual, sorry. I'm assuming the fin templates are printed from OR. If you do the OR design with separate fins for each piece, fins that just happen to have coinciding edges, the the same process (I assume) you're using now gives you the templates for all the half fins.

 

[jqavins]

What do you all think, is this worth trying on a ping pong ball?

I don't love the look, but that's not important; it's not my rocket. As far as technique, is it worth committing a ball to test? Not yet. It's worth trying it on a smooth surface, as you already mentioned, like a piece of your card stock.

 

[BABAR]

Fins, part.... I don't know, I've lost count

Time for the fins I was most apprehensive about, the verticals which are blended with the cage pieces. These are by far the most fiddly fins I've ever been stupid enough to try to construct.

Here's the template, and here are my cut lines for the four-piece assembly. I was particularly nervous about the skinny joint between pieces 6 and 7.
View attachment 626164

After cutting piece 7, I cut piece 8 and went to check fit...
View attachment 626165
Well that is not good. My first thought was that I had cut a bad #8, but then I checked the template...
View attachment 626167

It turns out that my piece 8 matches the template quite closely... so it's my piece 7 that is apparently *way* off. But I had already invested some time into that piece, so I just cut another 8 specifically to fit that particular 7.
View attachment 626168
That's better.

I started by gluing 5 and 6 together, and 7 and 8. Double checked fit between 6 and 7...
View attachment 626169

Looked good, so I went and glued it all together., held against the straightedge and held down to ensure absolute flatness.
View attachment 626170

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that I actually swapped my 5 and 6 pieces... It actually fit better this way so that's what I did. Also not shown is that I did some shaping of the front half of the assembly to ensure consistency with the other cage pieces.

After the glue dried I decided I was afraid to even try to lift it off the wax paper. So I sanded the facing surface and applied my first layer of label paper without taking it off at all. Once the top label was on, it was strong *enough* to handle, although there was still some flex at the middle joint. Nonetheless, I was able to get the whole thing papered and trimmed and looking pretty good.
View attachment 626172

Note I applied a bit of wood filler in the middle joint area to create a smooth curve.

Final photo is apparently obligatory for this build:
View attachment 626173
Let me tell you it was not easy to get that fin to stand, but I didn't want to disappoint my loyal readers.

So that's the first vertical. Still one more to go.

trick to get the fin off the wax paper.

DON’T take the FIN off the PAPER.

Turn it over, fin down, paper up.

pull the paper sideways (almost like a 180 fold, but moving) back against the grain, holding the fin down both just before the paper comes off leading edge And then hold both free and covered edges down as you ease the paper back. far less vertical stress (perpendicular to fin and work surface) this way.

 

[mjennings]

Another ping pong ball experiment… although tested on a little 2x2” canvas that i thought would be easier to work with. To some extent it is, although the bumpy canvas surface is a pain and makes brush-painting it somewhat different (I think) than a ping pong ball will be. So I might need to sacrifice one of my remaining ping pong balls for further experimenting.

These are neon UV-glowing acrylics, other than the black lines which are a black paint pen. The green is pretty bright (not showing so well in the photo, color is not accurate), the purple less so, at least under normal light. As expected this took many coats and I still couldn’t get even coverage. Maybe better on a smooth surface? I don’t know. I need to decide if this is a good enough look to even continue experimenting. Right now I'm torn between "hmm, maybe promising" and "awful, abandon ship".

View attachment 626247

What do you all think, is this worth trying on a ping pong ball? I also have some neon orange (from the Angled Invader build) that I could mix in as well.

Rough preview:
View attachment 626263

Could be promising do you still have the scrap from the balls you already cut up? Those make good test pieces. I've done some glow in the dark paint craft projects on wood and have never been really happy with the coverage or amount of glow.

 

[neil_w]

Could be promising do you still have the scrap from the balls you already cut up? Those make good test pieces. I've done some glow in the dark paint craft projects on wood and have never been really happy with the coverage or amount of glow.

I tossed them all out, of course.

Note these are UV-glow paints (so they'll glow under blacklight), not glow-in-the-dark paints. Neither feature is useful for me, I'm just looking for fluorescent colors. In this case, the green fits the description whereas the purple is nice but not really fluorescent in any way I can see. I do like the sort of crazy look of the purple + green, though. I'll probably sacrifice one of my remaining ping pong balls for the experiment.

Note that I always say "ping pong balls" rather than just "balls" because, you know. Don't need to kick off that sort of pun thread.

 

[neil_w]

trick to get the fin off the wax paper.

DON’T take the FIN off the PAPER.

Turn it over, fin down, paper up.

This is what I do if it's at all delicate.

Even more so, if there's a good solid glue joint, I'll move the assembly to a clean area of wax paper while it's still wet, so it doesn't sit in the puddle of glue squeeze-out. This usually results in easy removal.

 

[jqavins]

Note that I always say "ping pong balls" rather than just "balls" because, you know. Don't need to kick off that sort of pun thread.

Why did you write that? You know what comes next.

 

[NTP2]

Why did you write that? You know what comes next.

You making puns?

 

[neil_w]

You making puns?

Hopefully not.

 

[Azamiryou]

Hopefully not.

Hopefully nut?

 

[neil_w]

Fins, the last part

One more vertical to go. For this one I decided to start by tracing the last one on cardstock, and then using that as the template for the new fin. It worked pretty well. There was some sanding to do to get them to match, but not bad.


I made the seam on the skinny part in the middle longer than last time, which was a good idea but then one of the points broke off during handling, leaving a seam exactly as long as before. Still, it worked out OK, and some wood filler in the area helped yield a nice smooth curve.


This picture took me way too long to set up. But I did it!


And so here is the finished set of fins:


Nice! But not finished. Especially since I have time to kill until various paint-related opportunities arise, I have decided to make another set of wings with TTW tabs. I think I know how to do it. If it doesn't work out, then I'll still have this set to fall back on.

 

[neil_w]

Plasmosphere Experiments
I prepped my last three ping pong balls. By the last one I really had the technique down pretty well.


My arsenal: an assortment of acrylic craft paints and a fine black paint pen (which I am really enjoying).

Experiment #1: the green and purple pattern I previously fiddled with:

This is neither great nor awful. I don't think it's really the look I want. If it doesn't work out for this rocket, I can always go into business on Etsy selling funky napkin rings.

Experiment #2: I had also fiddle around with something like this and wanted to see it fully realized:

I like this one quite a bit. However, it occurred to me that I didn't want to so something in straight green, since it will bear too much resemblance to Diamond Cutter's paint scheme (I mean, it already does). So I'm going to do my last ping pong ball with the same design except with neon orange instead of the green.

Here are three renderings for comparison (click for larger):


I didn't really capture the glow of the orange paint in the third render, we'll see how it looks in real life. I think there is some promise here. Of course, I'm still awaiting the results of @NTP2 's hydro-dipping adventure, so that may trump all of these. We'll see.

 

[lakeroadster]

Can you spot the "5"

​

 

[boatgeek]

Plasmosphere Experiments
I prepped my last three ping pong balls. By the last one I really had the technique down pretty well.
View attachment 628172

My arsenal: an assortment of acrylic craft paints and a fine black paint pen (which I am really enjoying).

Experiment #1: the green and purple pattern I previously fiddled with:
View attachment 628176
This is neither great nor awful. I don't think it's really the look I want. If it doesn't work out for this rocket, I can always go into business on Etsy selling funky napkin rings.

Experiment #2: I had also fiddle around with something like this and wanted to see it fully realized:
View attachment 628175
I like this one quite a bit. However, it occurred to me that I didn't want to so something in straight green, since it will bear too much resemblance to Diamond Cutter's paint scheme (I mean, it already does). So I'm going to do my last ping pong ball with the same design except with neon orange instead of the green.

Here are three renderings for comparison (click for larger):
View attachment 628177

I didn't really capture the glow of the orange paint in the third render, we'll see how it looks in real life. I think there is some promise here. Of course, I'm still awaiting the results of @NTP2 's hydro-dipping adventure, so that may trump all of these. We'll see.

I vote for the orange. Not that this is a democracy or anything.

 

[NTP2]

Of course, I'm still awaiting the results of @NTP2 's hydro-dipping adventure, so that may trump all of these. We'll see.

It’s on the list for tomorrow!! It’ll be interesting even if it looks horrible…

 

[Raythain]

I vote for the orange. Not that this is a democracy or anything.

This is an Ankh-Morporkian democracy. Neil is the man, and he the vote.

 

[neil_w]

Well, from among those three, I also like the orange best... at least, in the renders. I'll need to paint up a ping pong ball and see what it looks like in real life. I think the basic design looks decent.

(above renders also show some decal designs I'm monkeying around with.)

 

[neil_w]

Can you spot the "5"

View attachment 628197​

You win the prize!


Which is... one of these:

 

[jqavins]

Can you spot the "5"

View attachment 628197​

First I looked. Then I realized you were just making a joke about those color blindness tests. Then I spotted the 5.

Anyway, count another vote for the orange one. Sort of. I actually think the first one is a better design, the two color scheme is good, but I personally don't like purple and green together. I don't like juxtaposition of the secondary colors (orange, purple, and green) yet the same sort of thing using two adjacent colors would be great.

 

[BABAR]

I’m in the green purple camp. Then again, I build square rockets…..so I am a bit off plumb.

 

[jqavins]

First I looked. Then I realized you were just making a joke about those color blindness tests. Then I spotted the 5.

Anyway, count another vote for the orange one. Sort of. I actually think the first one is a better design, the two color scheme is good, but I personally don't like purple and green together. I don't like juxtaposition of the secondary colors (orange, purple, and green) yet the same sort of thing using two adjacent colors would be great.

The next day that seems a bit unclear. By "adjacent" I meant on a color wheel: red and purple, purple and blue, blue and green, etc.

 

[neil_w]

The next day that seems a bit unclear. By "adjacent" I meant on a color wheel: red and purple, purple and blue, blue and green, etc.

The orange is looking good so far. I could, possibly, get some yellow to fill in the white areas, but I'm nervous about messing with it (it's my last ping pong ball). My problem with the purple/green ball was that the border areas between the green and purple looked really bad, which is why I went back and used the black pen to cover them all. Maybe yellow (or red) next to orange wouldn't suffer the same problem. I'll have to test.

 

[jqavins]

You might test on some of the discs that were removed from the balls, if you have them or can fish them out of the trash.

 

[neil_w]

You might test on some of the discs that were removed from the balls, if you have them or can fish them out of the trash.

Nah, they're too small (and buried in garbage). I have some small squares of foamcore that I'm using for test right now. I'll have to see if I can scare up some red or yellow neon to go with the orange (I guess the yellow probably doesn't have to be neon, necessarily, but red would be.)

I'm accumulating a nice collection of craft paints that I have almost no use for.

 

[mbeels]

Experiment #1: the green and purple pattern I previously fiddled with:

Experiment #2: I had also fiddle around with something like this and wanted to see it fully realized:

I think that they look pretty good, personally I like the colors of one, with the pattern of #2. Especially considering that this will be behind the cage o'fins on the actual rocket, so it just needs to be a bold splash of spherical plasma voltage juice (or whatever).

Here are three renderings for comparison (click for larger):

Personally, I like the 3rd one there!

 

[BigMacDaddy]

It was around the time I was cutting round/organic fins for my Luna rocket that I decided to get a cheap CNC... so glad I did. It makes cutting fins so much less of a hassle.