cbutler
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2004
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Although I have been lurking in this forum for almost two years, and have been a registered member for a little more than two months, this is actually my first post. It shouldn't have taken me this long to give something back to a forum full of people that have (unknowingly) been such great resource for me over that amount of time.
Also, the subject of this post has a 38mm motor mount, but has yet to fly on anything other than 29mm G impulse, so I am putting it into the Mid-powered forum. Admins - feel free to relocate as appropriate. Thanks.
I'm not an old-timer by any means, but I have been flying rockets since 1977. I don't consider myself a true BAR as I have been somewhat consistently in the hobby since that time. A couple of years ago my oldest daughter, who was almost three at the time, came across a rocket kit in a toy store. She was intrigued to say the least, and I thought that, despite her young age, it might be fun to do together. She is now four and we have been building and flying rockets together since.
She is a big fan of Barbie and the color pink. Last year, she decided that she wanted a Barbie rocket. I had recently picked up several Estes kits on clearance at Meijer so I thought we could kitbash something together. She kept asking me and asking me, "when can we build the Barbie rocket?" So one night I think we opened up a Sizzler kit or somesuch to get started. I handed her the body tube. She looked at it, looked at me, wrinked her nose and said, "It's too small!" I asked what she had in mind. She said, "I want it to be as big as me."
I had recently built a couple Aerotech kits and that must be where she got the idea. So, that weekend we trundled off to Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhurst to look for a kit. "We" are not high power certified yet, so I showed her on the wall what kits we could pick from. She took about 15 minutes or so holding all the bags up to determine if the finished product would be taller than she was. She finally settled on a LOC Forte. Interesting thing was, although everything LOC says, including the card in the kit says this is a 29mm, the kit we got has a 38mm mount. (we might use this for a certification flight, so I built it 38mm and got a 29mm adapter).
I spent last winter working on this thing. The only thing I wish I'd done different was build a baffle. It came out stunning. Even my fillets were flawless. I used a combination of paint to get what I needed. I used some Krylon Pink for the body. The nose cone and fin can are metal flake automotive (which I would've used for the body too, but I couldn't find any pink, the crucial color). The entire rocket was then finished in a metal flake clear gloss.
The decals were a lucky find. I was shopping at Menard's one night and happened across these giant sticker sets for kids' rooms. One set was Barbie. What luck. You can see the giant Barbie in the picture. The rest is covered in Barbie hearts and flowers. I even got the Barbie logo.
Last month at what was supposed to be MRFF 2004 (but turned out to be non-MRFF 2004, I don't know why... also, that's Midwest Regional Fun Fly for you non Midwesterners.) on Father's Day was our most recent flight. (The maiden voyage was at an NIRA club launch in May, but I didn't get any pictures, just bad video my wife was ashamed to lay claim to.)
Anyway, I wanted to share this story and these photos with all of you. As I said, I've been in this hobby for almost 25 years, and I have gotten so much more out of the last 2 because of you all. One of the key lessons I learned on this one project is that, as cool as it may be to build some big bad rocket that as a man I can thump my chest about, it really is more important to share my long time hobby with my daughter. It also has built a good foundation and bond in my relationship with my child.
Grace and I posing with Barbie's Dream Rocket:
Barbie's Dream Rocket flying on an Aerotech RMS G64:
![DCP_1370[1].jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/048/0482de0bcb98d3448b5d1f2b127c3d9f.jpg)
Also, the subject of this post has a 38mm motor mount, but has yet to fly on anything other than 29mm G impulse, so I am putting it into the Mid-powered forum. Admins - feel free to relocate as appropriate. Thanks.
I'm not an old-timer by any means, but I have been flying rockets since 1977. I don't consider myself a true BAR as I have been somewhat consistently in the hobby since that time. A couple of years ago my oldest daughter, who was almost three at the time, came across a rocket kit in a toy store. She was intrigued to say the least, and I thought that, despite her young age, it might be fun to do together. She is now four and we have been building and flying rockets together since.
She is a big fan of Barbie and the color pink. Last year, she decided that she wanted a Barbie rocket. I had recently picked up several Estes kits on clearance at Meijer so I thought we could kitbash something together. She kept asking me and asking me, "when can we build the Barbie rocket?" So one night I think we opened up a Sizzler kit or somesuch to get started. I handed her the body tube. She looked at it, looked at me, wrinked her nose and said, "It's too small!" I asked what she had in mind. She said, "I want it to be as big as me."
I had recently built a couple Aerotech kits and that must be where she got the idea. So, that weekend we trundled off to Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhurst to look for a kit. "We" are not high power certified yet, so I showed her on the wall what kits we could pick from. She took about 15 minutes or so holding all the bags up to determine if the finished product would be taller than she was. She finally settled on a LOC Forte. Interesting thing was, although everything LOC says, including the card in the kit says this is a 29mm, the kit we got has a 38mm mount. (we might use this for a certification flight, so I built it 38mm and got a 29mm adapter).
I spent last winter working on this thing. The only thing I wish I'd done different was build a baffle. It came out stunning. Even my fillets were flawless. I used a combination of paint to get what I needed. I used some Krylon Pink for the body. The nose cone and fin can are metal flake automotive (which I would've used for the body too, but I couldn't find any pink, the crucial color). The entire rocket was then finished in a metal flake clear gloss.
The decals were a lucky find. I was shopping at Menard's one night and happened across these giant sticker sets for kids' rooms. One set was Barbie. What luck. You can see the giant Barbie in the picture. The rest is covered in Barbie hearts and flowers. I even got the Barbie logo.
Last month at what was supposed to be MRFF 2004 (but turned out to be non-MRFF 2004, I don't know why... also, that's Midwest Regional Fun Fly for you non Midwesterners.) on Father's Day was our most recent flight. (The maiden voyage was at an NIRA club launch in May, but I didn't get any pictures, just bad video my wife was ashamed to lay claim to.)
Anyway, I wanted to share this story and these photos with all of you. As I said, I've been in this hobby for almost 25 years, and I have gotten so much more out of the last 2 because of you all. One of the key lessons I learned on this one project is that, as cool as it may be to build some big bad rocket that as a man I can thump my chest about, it really is more important to share my long time hobby with my daughter. It also has built a good foundation and bond in my relationship with my child.
Grace and I posing with Barbie's Dream Rocket:
Barbie's Dream Rocket flying on an Aerotech RMS G64:
