shanejohnson2002
BT60 Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2019
- Messages
- 193
- Reaction score
- 156
Started this build thread since my new kit will be delivered on Tuesday. Now that I have a functioning camera again (phone was just replaced, and I was able to pry the Canon T6 back from my wife) I plan on documenting as many steps as I can.
I picked the Indicator because it's not a super-complicated build, and when my wife saw it, even she said it looked awesome. It's definitely one of the nicer kits Estes has produced recently.
I'm calling it the "Indicator +" because I'm modding it to use standard motors vs minis. I also plan on putting some over-engineering into it...TTW fins, ejection baffle, etc. Mostly for testing / learning new techniques, but also because those fins are quite large compared to the BT and I'd like to protect them as much as I can. Yeah, it's overkill...so sue me.
I modeled it in OR with the new components, and it appears to be plenty stable even with the larger motors. The altitude range widens quite a bit too....from the 200ft advertised max to between 700-800 on C-size motors.
List of goals:
- Replace 2-piece fins with 1-piece tabbed fins. This will require building a single forward and rear fin, tracing them, and re-cutting them with added tabs on a new piece of balsa / basswood / whatever.
- Airfoil shaping and papering the fins properly.
- Upgrade motor mount as previously described.
- Take my time and try to nail the paint job. Looking at using Metallics / Pearls instead of gloss (or glitter this time...holy cow that's a mess). ESEPCAILLY around the fillets, since I've never painted fins with fillets a separate color. Measure, mask, re-measure, etc.
Pictures starting Tuesday, comments/critiques welcome until then.
I picked the Indicator because it's not a super-complicated build, and when my wife saw it, even she said it looked awesome. It's definitely one of the nicer kits Estes has produced recently.
I'm calling it the "Indicator +" because I'm modding it to use standard motors vs minis. I also plan on putting some over-engineering into it...TTW fins, ejection baffle, etc. Mostly for testing / learning new techniques, but also because those fins are quite large compared to the BT and I'd like to protect them as much as I can. Yeah, it's overkill...so sue me.
I modeled it in OR with the new components, and it appears to be plenty stable even with the larger motors. The altitude range widens quite a bit too....from the 200ft advertised max to between 700-800 on C-size motors.
List of goals:
- Replace 2-piece fins with 1-piece tabbed fins. This will require building a single forward and rear fin, tracing them, and re-cutting them with added tabs on a new piece of balsa / basswood / whatever.
- Airfoil shaping and papering the fins properly.
- Upgrade motor mount as previously described.
- Take my time and try to nail the paint job. Looking at using Metallics / Pearls instead of gloss (or glitter this time...holy cow that's a mess). ESEPCAILLY around the fillets, since I've never painted fins with fillets a separate color. Measure, mask, re-measure, etc.
Pictures starting Tuesday, comments/critiques welcome until then.