LOC Magnum 3E Blue Tube Clone Build

Do you use regular car bondo?

Banzai88 said:

Do you use regular car bondo?

Click to expand...

The single tube Bondo, no mixing. Great for filling in small blemishes and very easy to sand.

neond7 said:

The single tube Bondo, no mixing. Great for filling in small blemishes and very easy to sand.

Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. I've just completed my first 3 fin lay up following your threads and methods. Learned a lot, now it's on to the sanding.

Finally getting back to this build.

First I foamed the fin can.



Next I epoxied in the rear centering ring. The aluminum thrust ring and Aeropack flange retainer attach via the three holes you see in the centering ring.



I also did the first round of sanding on all three on my current builds using a finishing sander (120 grit pad) and then dabbed Bondo on any blemishes.

neond7 said:

I'll be shooting primer this week. Normally I use Duplicolor high build primer as a base coat, but I'll be trying VHT high build primer this time. I bought both grey and white primer.

View attachment 299065

Click to expand...

Jeff how do you like the VHT primer - better, worse, same than Duplicolor?

I haven't actually used it yet. I'm currently using Duplicolor gray primer on my Bruiser build and will do next coat in white (top color for most of fin section will be white). The rocket will have Rustoleum white and black top colors. I know Rustoleum paint plays nice with Duplicolor primer.

The LOC Big Nuke and Magnum clone will be color coated using VHT paint, so I'll be using the VHT primers under that. I figure using the same brands might help things from going wonky.

After sanding the initial Bondo application, I shot the first coat of VHT filler primer on the Magnum clone and Big Nuke 3e.

This is my first time using the VHT filler primer, and will stick with Duplicolor in the future. The VHT applies thin, runs, and has horrible coverage per can. I suspect it will sand very poorly as it seems a bit "tacky" vs the way Duplicolor dries.

Sry to hear that but thanks for sharing - I almost bought some but have been very happy with Duplicolor grey filler. Duplicolor White primer however not very happy with - takes many coats to get a white primer coverage to form a white base for the base coat (if you will be painting it a light color)

The VHT primer has truly been a huge pain to work with so I sanded most of it off and went back to Duplicolor.

Today has been productive. The rear fin section of the Magnum clone was painted VHT metallic gold. There will be a silver band and the rest of the body tube will be black.



I applied a coat of gold on the upper body tube the other day so today I wet sanded it and shot a second coat. The results were excellent.





The LOC Big Nuke also got lots of sanding and priming. I'll start the color coat later this week.

Nick@JET said:

Sry to hear that but thanks for sharing - I almost bought some but have been very happy with Duplicolor grey filler. Duplicolor White primer however not very happy with - takes many coats to get a white primer coverage to form a white base for the base coat (if you will be painting it a light color)

Click to expand...

Totally agree - the white primer is very thin and takes a few coats to form a base for light colors. It takes a minimum of two cycles of white with sanding in between.

The Magnum clone got the upper part of the fin section painted black.



Came out great!



I also wet sanded and painted the first coat of both LOC Big Nuke sections.





The second coat will be really nice after these cure for a few days so I can wet sand them.

I realized I've been slacking on the avionics bays!

Using my handy dandy Binder Design fin marking guide, I marked off four equal spots on the switch bands to drill the vent holes and two marks for the dual switches.







Tomorrow I'll mask off the vent bands and shoot them with primer.

I also removed masking tape from the painting I did last night.

And the switch bands are now primed. I'll sand and shoot a second coat of primer tomorrow.

This weekend I will wet sand and shoot first color coat.

I love the colors - these are going to be awesome!

Oh man.... almost forgot about the nose cones!

Ok, honestly this is one of my least favorite parts - installing nose cone shear pin shims.

So here we are with three freshly washed nose cones. I had measured out the brass shims already.



Next I marked the nose cone shoulder where the shims will go and cut out the shims.



Here is a shim about to get epoxied in.



First shim is now complete on all three cones.

Lots of work done today - love the holidays!

First I wet sanded the entire rocket with 600 grit. Then I masked off the body tube leaving the fins exposed. Then I shot the second and final coat of gold. Hope to shoot the final coat of black tomorrow.





After that I epoxied in the rest of the brass nose cone shims.



After that, i wet sanded the LOC Big Nuke and shot a third coat of red as it got damaged in the garage.



The switch bands for both rockets also got the first color coat.

Next I will primer the nose cones. With any luck I'll have at least one of these rockets ready for flight next month.

Black paint is now finished.



Avionics bay switch bands painted.



Nose cones in primer.



The SCP aluminum thrust plate is looking good on the aft end.

Tonight is vinyl time for the LOC Big Nuke.

Mark from Stickershock did a fantastic job of capturing my idea and turning it into a reality.



I actually managed to get it on straight this time.







Hopefully I'll have the electronics and nose cone done this weekend with a launch opportunity on December 10th.

Very cool, great work.
Where will you be launching?

Nick@JET said:

Very cool, great work.
Where will you be launching?

Click to expand...

I usually fly up in Bunnell with the NEFAR club. Great field, it's a sod farm.

Another awesome vinyl job from Stickershock!





You will notice I decided the 4" silver band needed to be reduced to 2". Glad I did it.









I'll be working on nosecones and avionics bays this weekend.

I added the stripes to the upper body tube.

After a lengthy pause in construction, yesterday I was able to wet sand the grey primer and shoot white primer on both nose cones. The white is needed to prevent the metallic paints from looking too dark.



I also started wiring up the Magnum avionics bay, I soldered/shrink wrapped the switches and then soldered and shrink wrapped the power wires on the battery holders. The dual altimeter wiring kits from doghouse rocketry make life so much easier....





Once I drill a few holes in the bulkheads and install the ejection charge wells and terminal blocks, the avionics bay will be complete.

The avionics bay is now finished, I installed the ejection charge wells and the rest of the wiring.



The nose cone also got a second coat of paint.



Tonight I'll drill the holes for the shear pins and install the recovery harnesses and parachute.

First flight should be this weekend up in Bunnell, weather permitting.

First flight was a success! Despite it being a windy day, the rocket came off the pad and leaned a little into the wind before apogee. The wind then brought it right back towards the pad on the descent for a nice short walk for recovery.











I used an Aerotech 75mm K1000NT motor. It was my first time using this propellant, it did a very fast burn with almost no smoke and a faint blue flame. I'll probably stick with white and red propellant in the future for more "wow" factor.

I'm happy this project was a success, it took me a LONG time to build. This is the last time I'll ever have three large projects in work at the same time.

Glad to hear it went well, beautiful work for sure. Now I'm looking at my Magnum thinking I need to do a better paint job!

Wow, great build thread! It was like 3 for the price of one!

I have to say, as good as the build thread was, the painting/finishing of the rocket was even better!