Wildman Jr 2.1 or Wildman intimidator

I have gotten back into rocketry due to my boys (6 and 4). As a teen I built quite a few (some scratch) and always wanted some mpr but money was tight. Now money is not a big issue but not growing on trees yet!

I am an avid RC plane guy, sail,ham radio, and shoot competively plus a full time job. So I time is semi precious to me and I would like a fiberglass airframe for display/transport/storage durability. None of my cardboard and balsa models have made it the 20 intervening years.

I was looking at a mad cow 2.6 dx3 DD but then saw a picture of a wildman punisher in red(unpainted) and was smitten.

So for the questions. Does wildman offer the JR 2.1 kit or the intimidator 2.6 kit in red? I found the website very lacking especially for the intimidator and its pic is computer generated I think.

Second question is I was originally thinking of custom building a similar rocket but boat tailed. I could obviously cut the main airframe and boattail the kit but how bad would it affect stabability if I mold a boat tail section aft of the fins and move the motor mount back in the essence of saving time/effort? I have extensive composite experience (prepregs in the military and epoxy/s glass for RC and sail boats, even have vacuum bagging equipment)

Third question, is the .5" difference worth it for the intimidator vs the wildman JR. Again no info on website but since length and mmt are the same that weights would be close. Which would you pick?

Forth question is how does wildman deal with the booster stage connection? Again no info or pic on their sight. Not a big deal as I don't know if I will go down that road.

Plan is egg timer quark altimeter for DD(possibly 2 for redundancy since they are so small) and a bigredbee rf ham beacon in the nose for tracking. Would also like a small keychain camera.

Probably I will fly a couple of times on F motors and then H for level 1. Field for the Lafayette In club has a 14k agl clearance and is just 4 miles down the road thankfully I have enough room for F flights in the back yard if the crops are out. I understand it's not your typical level one rocket.

Thank you for reading and comments are welcome.

You need to call Tim @ WM he will answer all your questions.

+1 for call Tim (Wildman) at (815) 638-3200 - sometimes Jackie (Tim's wife) will answer... she is very helpful too.
Explain what you are thinking - Tim will do his best to help you get what you want.

He can "hook-you-up" !

- except this one time when he unhooked my ignitor at a rocket contest - but that's another story for another time.

Wildman Jr on it's way to 5933 ft agl and mach .9 on a AT I-280 Dark Matter...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/48286172287

Firebrick43 said:

I have gotten back into rocketry due to my boys (6 and 4). As a teen I built quite a few (some scratch) and always wanted some mpr but money was tight. Now money is not a big issue but not growing on trees yet!

I am an avid RC plane guy, sail,ham radio, and shoot competively plus a full time job. So I time is semi precious to me and I would like a fiberglass airframe for display/transport/storage durability. None of my cardboard and balsa models have made it the 20 intervening years.

I was looking at a mad cow 2.6 dx3 DD but then saw a picture of a wildman punisher in red(unpainted) and was smitten.

So for the questions. Does wildman offer the JR 2.1 kit or the intimidator 2.6 kit in red? I found the website very lacking especially for the intimidator and its pic is computer generated I think.

Second question is I was originally thinking of custom building a similar rocket but boat tailed. I could obviously cut the main airframe and boattail the kit but how bad would it affect stabability if I mold a boat tail section aft of the fins and move the motor mount back in the essence of saving time/effort? I have extensive composite experience (prepregs in the military and epoxy/s glass for RC and sail boats, even have vacuum bagging equipment)

Third question, is the .5" difference worth it for the intimidator vs the wildman JR. Again no info on website but since length and mmt are the same that weights would be close. Which would you pick?

Forth question is how does wildman deal with the booster stage connection? Again no info or pic on their sight. Not a big deal as I don't know if I will go down that road.

Plan is egg timer quark altimeter for DD(possibly 2 for redundancy since they are so small) and a bigredbee rf ham beacon in the nose for tracking. Would also like a small keychain camera.

Probably I will fly a couple of times on F motors and then H for level 1. Field for the Lafayette In club has a 14k agl clearance and is just 4 miles down the road thankfully I have enough room for F flights in the back yard if the crops are out. I understand it's not your typical level one rocket.

Thank you for reading and comments are welcome.

Click to expand...

Wildman Sport on the left. I dyed the Rocketpoxy for the external fillets with the black dye that comes with the package. Sprayed on a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum satin clear coat. Ordered a Darkstar Jr a couple of months ago , came with the same red tubing. Just received a 3" Darkstar kit about 10 days ago, same red tubing.

dhkaiser said:

Wildman Jr on it's way to 5933 ft agl and mach .9 on a AT I-280 Dark Matter...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/48286172287

Click to expand...

Thank you for the pic!

tOD said:

Wildman Sport on the left. I dyed the Rocketpoxy for the external fillets with the black dye that comes with the package. Sprayed on a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum satin clear coat. Ordered a Darkstar Jr a couple of months agoView attachment 388590 , came with the same red tubing. Just received a 3" Darkstar kit about 10 days ago, same red tubing.

Click to expand...

Well it looks like getting a red airframe won't be an issue. I will call Tim probably Tuesday.

Red is only airframe color now being used by Wildman.Just spoke with him yesterday.
Nice thing about the JR. You Can move NC to fincan and fly it on G motors and when you are ready stick the payload /av-bay on, and fly on anything up to full J.

So you can sport fly on cheap G's then get you level 1 on H's and stick a J in and get your Level-2!

Darkstar Jr on an H130. I like the red tubing with just clear coat, but I decided to paint this one black. It doesn't show in the picture but I applied the fine looking decal set from Stickershock 23. This flight carried an Eggfinder Mini in the nose with a tracker bay from SMT Designs. Now I'm ready for those bigger "J" motors.

Well I recieved my wildman JR yesterday and indeed is red! Thank you. I am sure I will have questions on the build.

Firebrick43 said:

Well I recieved my wildman JR yesterday and indeed is red! Thank you. I am sure I will have questions on the build.

Click to expand...

The JR kits are a great size. Really versatile, relatively cheap to fly, and not difficult to build. I went for "easy" to outfit my AV bay; used a MissileWorks RRC2 and their 3D printed sled. I left out the switch and drilled an extra hole in the vent band to feed wire out for "twist and tape". For ejection charges I use 1.6g ffffg in glove fingers. I bought an extra nosecone and set it up with an SMT tracker bay and an Eggfinder Mini.