Vethen
Rocketry Obsessed
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2016
- Messages
- 128
- Reaction score
- 0
After very (im)patiently waiting for my package to arrive via UPS, I very quickly ripped open the box and dry fitted the parts to get a glimpse of this awesome rocket. I had some extra tubing sitting around, which means I couldn't resist adding it on top for a few seconds just to carry a huge rocket around the house until I was tired of hitting the ceiling with the nose cone..
SuperSmoke! :bangbang:
To start off, I measured the alignment of the centering rings for the motor mount tube. Decided to use the fins to trace the placement of the center-centering ring since its placement needed to be exact otherwise I'd have a bad day tomorrow when I attempt to attach the fins.
While the epoxy (unnecessary I am aware, but quite pleased with how all this practice is making me comfortable with using it) was in the leathery stage, I pushed in the fins to make an indent in the fillets around the tabbed centering ring that holds the fins.
When the motor assembly was dry enough, I prepared the surfaces to be bonded and slid it in and epoxied it in place. I'll put some epoxy down on top centering ring tomorrow when everything is dry, and I need to tape two dowel rods together to reach down to the ring.
After setting aside the airframe to finish drying, I turned my attention to the fins. The instructions asked for CA, and I recall reading somewhere recently that someone thought the type of plastic used didn't take CA well. So I opted to use a (very) small amount of epoxy after roughening up the inside of the plastic fins.
They were then pressed together and any excess that squeezed out was dealt with like the problems of a drunk, some alcohol. I just wiped if off with some isopropyl alcohol, and then pinched the edges together to get rid of the gap between the two halves. A little sanding before primer and she'll be at her prime!
And that is all that I have done so far on my first ever Nike Smoke, I can already tell this won't be by any means be my last. More to come, and feel free to make requests/suggestions on what you'd like to see in the build thread. (more pictures or less, it's up to you) I'd welcome any feedback on my building methods, as I aim to only improve. Cheers!