4" Estes Photon Probe Upscale

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Finally after four or five cans (I lost count), I could not longer see any primer under the paint. I took my handy can of Ace Hardware pink and sprayed the center section. That took about four coats. After about a week I took some 400 grit sandpaper and wet sanded the little paint dams that had formed.

PP75.jpg
 
Following a thorough wipe-down I began to put on the vinyl decals from Stickershock23. These are high quality and high tack. Since I didn’t have a spray bottle handy I used a new paint brush to apply a mixture of one pint water, one drop dish soap as a pre-lubricant for the stickers. This is to keep the stickers from grabbing at first contact and allowing careful repositioning. You can see the detail he can do despite the glare of the flash.

PP76.jpg
 
Finally, and at long last, the Aeropack retainer! First I scuffed up the end of the motor mount tube with some 60 grit sandpaper. There is only 3/8” to work with so I was only going to be able to rough it up just slightly. The glassine coating had been removed so I’m hoping it’s not a big issue. I cleaned the ID of the retainer with acetone and a cotton swab. Next I squeezed out equal portions of JB weld on to some scrap cardboard. The tubes are foil so I ended up squeezing out more than I probably needed, but better too much than too little. It was around 60 degrees in the garage so I found the goo rather stiff, like cold molasses. Maybe that’s normal, I don’t know. Once completely mixed, I carefully spread it on both the motor mount tube and the inside of the retainer. The retainer then gets slipped onto the end of the mount tube and turned to spread the epoxy around. A bit more acetone to clean any unwanted drops and folks, it is finished! Curing takes 15 hours.

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PP78.jpg
 
A couple of shots of the builder, the builds, and the builder in training. Gawd I hate the grey! They were the only models I could get on short notice. From left to right are the just finished 4”, a BT-80 version, the original BT-55 version, and a BT-5 version. All are virgins. I should be able to fix all of that come spring.

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Looks like a great family photo, and the rockets are great too!
 
Launches are scheduled for 2/7/09. I've got Estes E's on hand for the BT 80 based and a G77 or G71 on order for the 4". I just don't remember which one I ordered.
 
Very nice :)

I love the tube cutting method - I may have to steal that for my next build.
 
<Ozzy Osbourne>

Steal away...

Steal away...

Steal away, the night!

<\Ozzy Osbourne>
 
Sweet build and VERY well documented thread.
Thanks for sharing...








*and I am stealing the tube cuttin idea too*
 
Here's another idea for tube cutting to throw in the mix. As some of you have already guessed, I am kind of a big fan of Red Arrow Hobbies so this should come as no surprise...lol. The RAH phexible phenolic is awesome stuff. I merely drew a line where I wanted the cut and used a fine-toothed hack-saw to cut my 5.38" tube yesterday. Going slowly, it was really easy to follow the line and make an awesome tube cut. I would never try this with regular phenolic.

Any more scrath builds for me and I am going to use RAH's stuff.

-DAllen
 
Second and final launch on an I195. It simmed to 1900'. Beautiful up but seemed to suffer from a bonus delay. The nose blew off a couple of hundred feet up by guess. The laundry never came out. I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

PP-Crash.jpg
 
Second and final launch on an I195. It simmed to 1900'. Beautiful up but seemed to suffer from a bonus delay. The nose blew off a couple of hundred feet up by guess. The laundry never came out. I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

Bad news... I hate to see a beauty like that go down..

GOOD NEWS your decals are covered under our crash protection warranty!!!!

Contact me and I will replace them for 1/2 price!!!
 
Second and final launch on an I195. It simmed to 1900'. Beautiful up but seemed to suffer from a bonus delay. The nose blew off a couple of hundred feet up by guess. The laundry never came out. I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

You know, it's really not that bad of a fix. Your fin can is in good shape. It's just cut out the bad tube, add a coupler and your good to go.
 
Sorry to see your beautiful rocket in that state ,very sad indeed !!!

I actually put your build in my favorites ,as a winter scratch build ,it`s such a great looking rocket ,and your upscale version is superb :handshake:

I bought the Estes kit awhile back to use as scale reference.

Hope you can repair it.

Cheers

Paul T
 
I think I'm just going to do a complete rebuild. The fin stock I used came out much heavier than I thought. What the heck else am I going to do with a 5' pink parachute?

The nose cone has the mother of all Estes dents. The body tube goughed a massive chunk out of the Sandman nosecone. It can be patched I think but will always have a scar.

Biggest pain in the neck will be salvaging the Aeropack retainer. I'll see how much 38mm motor tube I can save.

Maybe a rebuild thread.

Mark did the vinyl so 50% replacement costs there.
 
Sorry to see your beautiful rocket in that state ,very sad indeed !!!

I actually put your build in my favorites ,as a winter scratch build ,it`s such a great looking rocket ,and your upscale version is superb :handshake:

I bought the Estes kit awhile back to use as scale reference.

Hope you can repair it.

Cheers

Paul T

Thank you so very much. Salute!
 
Second and final launch on an I195. It simmed to 1900'. Beautiful up but seemed to suffer from a bonus delay. The nose blew off a couple of hundred feet up by guess. The laundry never came out. I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

Very sad ending !! :sad:


But you got a memorable priceless picture !!! :clap:

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Very sad ending !! :sad:


But you got a memorable priceless picture !!! :clap:

Thank you, Montaro. That's kind of you to say.

I wanted to get some of my daughter's friends to model them for me, but it never happened. One of them actually is a professionsl model, but she has tapioca for brains. If I used her, I'd have to pay her agency.
 
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