Wildman 2.6" Jayhawk kit - build thread

SMR said:

No, sorry, I don't. None of mine are perfectly accurate scale models, (lack of wire tunnel on the back side, the length of taper in tailcone, etc. The black radome should actually extend down mid-canard, which is difficult.) If I made one look too good, I wouldn't want to fly it. But since I do fly them, they get scratched and need touch-ups on occasion. So I just use rattle cans, in this case Valspar from Lowes. The two rockets in the previous post are actually the same paint color, but variations in lots and humidity/temperature when applied make subtle variations. Original Jayhawks appear to have a little more red in them, so I have a few painted in Chevrolet Orange engine paint. The finest example of a correct Jayhawk that I have seen is Marty Vrstal's 4" version, which was featured on the cover of the Sept/Oct 2009 Sport Rocketry.

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SMR - Two questions? How do you like the Valspar paint? I never used it so this is why I ask and is that your rocket on display on the table cloth. That is beautiful. Also nice job on the WM 2.6 Jayhawk. You did an outstanding job! I just love a nicely painted rocket that is clean. Just an awesome job!! Makes me want to buy the kit or the 4" one that Polecat sells?

I have a sickness for liking rockets that need nose weight(Exocets, Saabs, and now Jayhawks)

The Jayhawk's CP is at the very front of the motor mount, 14 inches from the tail end. You'd need a long 38mm J motor to help move the CG forward of the CP. It has just over 1 caliber of stability with 22oz. in the nose and an H135 in the MMT.

Handeman said:

Looking good!!!

Wow! 22 oz of nose weight! That seemed like a lot of weight and my first thought was it was more then needed. But looking at the canards and long fins, I figure you have it right.

I don't know where the CP is, but I've found that some rockets will handle a variety of motors with little or no adjustment for larger motors because the larger motors put more weight forward and don't affect the CP/CG balance that much. This rocket looks to have a CP pretty far forward, so all bets are off.

Good luck and let us know how it works.

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We flew the Jayhawk yesterday at TCC's October Skies. I let Jacob picked a H195T DMS motor from the BAR trailer. It flew pretty straight and only weathercocked about 5 degrees in the windy conditions. Now we need to get it painted.

Adding to Sather's build thread.

I was over at Tim's a couple weeks before Airfest and Tim wanted a painted Jayhawk to show down there. He was kiting the Jayhawks and wanted an example of the completed and painted model. So I volunteered. I built the one he gave me, fresh off the slotting machine (I had to slot the tube myself) and built the model pretty much as Sather did. I wanted the motor retainer less visible so I mounted the wooden centering ring more up in the boat tail. I was going to mount the retainer higher but Tim wanted to be able to get to the ring easier so I compromised a bit. (I should of put it up higher but it was Tim's rocket so I listened sorta).

I left the tail cone off (I was going to try a different way of injecting fillets, but it was applicable to this build) and glued centering rings, shock cord and retainer on the motor tube. To make sure everything was aligned I used a scrap piece of body tube. Once everything was dry, I glued the tail cone on and inserted the whole assembly into the body tube. Everything from there pretty much followed Sather's build.

Mike Smeltzer

Tim handed me a set of Stickershock's Jayhawk lettering and told me to paint the rocket and to use these decals. Mark makes several sizes for the Jayhawk and these were for the 2.6 sized body tube. Mark if your reading this, please scale your 4in size set down to the 2.6 size as the bigger set has all the labels, placards and proper sized NAVY wording for the 2.6 size. Not a bash, Marks decals went on beautiful, just needed the bigger set scaled down to complete the lettering on this kit. Well anyway, the rocket was primed with Krylon primer (my go to primer for almost all my rockets). After an internet search the recommended color was Testors Competition Orange. Down side is that this only comes in either a tiny bottle or small rattle can. I elected to go with the rattle can. Rocket was painted in the competition orange and I had just enough paint to do the whole rocket. The nose cone was masked off and Krylon gloss black was painted on. Once everything was dry, I went to work on the decals.

As stated the 2.6 set was missing some of the lettering etc. I have a set of hatches and rivets/screws from a vendor that was at Airfest the previous year. I also cut some of Mark's decals and made stripes and seam lines and such to match the picture of a real one. After everything was down, I clear coated the whole rocket with Testers gloss out a rattle can. I also found a picture of a Jayhawk painted white. OH TIM, do you need another Jayhawk???

Here is the finished results. (now if I could figure out how to spin these imagines)

Mike Smeltzer

Nice job Mike. I thought about mounting the retainer cap recessed into the end of the tail cone, but it does make taking the cap off a PITA. That's why we compromised and mounted it so that only the cap protrudes behind the cone.

ChrisAttebery said:

Nice job Mike. I thought about mounting the retainer cap recessed into the end of the tail cone, but it does make taking the cap off a PITA. That's why we compromised and mounted it so that only the cap protrudes behind the cone.

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Thanks Chris. That's what I ended up doing with the retainer cap a bit also. Sticks out a little over half way, so you can still get a good grip on it...

Mike Smeltzer

BTW: That paint is perfect. I'll have to stop by the hobby shop and pick some up.

I never quite got around to painting Jacob's Jayhawk. It's funny how time slips by. First I was busy with my L3 (early deployment). Then I was busy with my second L3 (detached shock cord). Then I got busy doing a bunch of home improvement projects. This week I wrapped up painting the replacement booster for my Punisher 4. I was going to use the same paint on the Jayhawk so I decided I should get it down from the ceiling and finally get it painted. Then I remembered that it cracked one of the tip fins where it attaches to the wing. I had used the provided Proline 4500 epoxy to attach the fins to the wings. I used a popsicle stick to make a fillet (~3/16" radius). Apparently the fillets should have been bigger. I sanded the primer off the fillets and started adding a 1/2" radius fillet with Rocketpoxy to the wing/fin joints. I've got two out of the four done now. I'll try to get the other two done tonight.

Once the fillets are done I'll get the paint and graphics done. Hopefully. :blush:

ChrisAttebery said:

We flew the Jayhawk yesterday at TCC's October Skies. I let Jacob picked a H195T DMS motor from the BAR trailer. It flew pretty straight and only weathercocked about 5 degrees in the windy conditions. Now we need to get it painted.

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Mike - You did a really nice job on this build.

Getting ready for the paint very soon. I've always liked the design of this kit. Very unique. Thanks for sharing!

SMR said:

Thank you, Jim. That's a good question, I had to go count them. The answer is, including this one, 22. Most are small, a couple are group efforts.

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Fantastic build here, may I ask which tube sizes are the bigger ones in the pictures above?

I'm contemplating a couple of them myself.

Thank you and keep up the good work,

Giacomo

I know this is an old thread, but I'm building one of these now and was wondering if and how folks did internal fillets between motor mount and wings? It looks like everyone glues the forward and aft centering rings and boat tail before installing into the body and mounting the wings, which sounds like it would make internal fillets not possible in a direct way. I was going to leave the rear centering ring unglued and remove it to do internal fillets, but because the wings taper around the boat tail, I think if I did that it wouldn't be possible to install the boat tail afterwards!

plkap74 said:

I know this is an old thread, but I'm building one of these now and was wondering if and how folks did internal fillets between motor mount and wings? It looks like everyone glues the forward and aft centering rings and boat tail before installing into the body and mounting the wings, which sounds like it would make internal fillets not possible in a direct way. I was going to leave the rear centering ring unglued and remove it to do internal fillets, but because the wings taper around the boat tail, I think if I did that it wouldn't be possible to install the boat tail afterwards!

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I built a 5" recently, I opted to let the internal fillets pool against the body tube. I should order a 2.6" I enjoyed going over this thread again.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/wildman-5-jayhawk-build-thread.183406/page-4#post-2523345

I just ordered the 2.6 from Wildman so this resurrected thread is very timely.
Thanks