Art Applewhite Cinco 13mm

[TheAviator]

I just finished up my Statics final, and figured, "What better way to blow of steam than building a rocket!" I'm considered a nerd at a stereotypically nerd school. This is why.

Anyways, I caught the saucer bug and printed out an Art Applewhite 13mm Cinco. I used 65# card stock, a neon orange I picked up at a craft store with the intention of using it for rockets. It helps when you're trying to find the thing at a night launch.

The first step is to cut out the two parts: the airframe and the motor tube. I'm sure you could use scissors, but I think that because of the straight lines and sharp corners, a hobby knife and straight edge are the way to go.

 

[TheAviator]

Next I scored and folded over the tabs on the motor mount to make a motor block. I really like this touch because it removes the need for a separate block. This was placed underneath my Statics book while the glue set to keep the tabs from lifting.

While the glue on that was drying, I got to work on the saucer. All of the dashed lines were lightly scored with the aforementioned hobby knife and then all of the folds were lightly bent until they folded on their own. I got nice, sharp folds doing this. The top and bottom tabs were glued, and set aside to dry. This didn't take long underneath my desk lamp, maybe three or four minutes.

Construction note: Glue was applied with a Q-tip to avoid getting excess glue on the card stock and warping it. Glue was applied to BOTH sides of the joint before pressing it together, basically making a double joint.

 

[TheAviator]

Finally, the bottom was folded up into the main airframe and glued. I used a thin layer of glue, so working time was short. Everything was pressed in and pinched together to get a good bond. It was again placed under my desk lamp to speed the drying process, although it wouldn't have taken long anyways.

The last step is to glue the motor tube in. It was a tight fit, but with a little manipulation, it went in just fine. It was glued in with white glue fillets around the top and bottom, and placed under the desk lamp one last time to dry.

Total build time: about 30 minutes. It's a quick build, and I didn't even use CA! I'm so proud of myself.

I'm planning on flying it this weekend at GLRMR if I'm not too busy with the competition. I'll have flight reports then.

 

[r3tic]

Nice build, I recently spent a couple of hours building all of the rockets Art offers as downloads. They are a lot of fun to build and fly. I am planning on giving them out to my scout den when we do our rocket build.

 

[TheAviator]

They fly really nicely too. Here's the proof! About 50 feet on an A3 and 35 feet on an A10. The photo is the A3, taken courtesy of my girlfriend, the novice rocket photographer.