I'm jealous of your skills... and patience... way outside my wheelhouse.
Build thread: Plasma Dart
- Thread starter neil_w
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Good reason to find something to use for a background. A big towel or a blanked or a table cloth, for example. A little rumpled; not all balled up, but also not too flat. Not black or white or too close to either. middling intensity of nearly any hue, or highly saturated in a hue that is near the compliment of the rocket's "average" color; anything in medium blue, purple, or green, or a forest green. Scrounge around the house for what you've got, and give it a shot.
That's my 2¢.
Yeah, I've tried a few things but they're all bad so far. Will keep at it.
And onto the (now pretty much full) rocket wall she goes...
Those are some mighty fine looking rockets...
Thanks. I hope I get to see some of them in the air again one day.
I know the feeling... I was hoping for a December launch locally, but just found out that all launches have been cancelled indefinitely. I may have to travel to Nevada to launch with Tripoli Las Vegas.
Are those floor joists above the rockets?
You know, if you put hooks into those joists you could build a lot more rockets.
Just sayin'.
You know, if you put hooks into those joists you could build a lot more rockets.
Just sayin'.
No joke, that’s probably where they’re going next.Are those floor joists above the rockets?
You know, if you put hooks into those joists you could build a lot more rockets.
Just sayin'.
I just like seeing that giant pencil on there. Or is it a regular pencil with a bunch of tiny rockets?
LOL. I admit that's one of my favorite rockets to look at on the wall.
I just finally remembered to measure weight and CG... came out quite surprisingly worse than my extremely detailed ORK file predicted: about 5 oz total (.85 oz heavy), and CG .5" further back than estimated. That puts stability in the .9 - .95 range with an Aerotech E15 or E30. Will probably have to fly with an altimeter, or else strap a bit of weight into the payload section.
Wonder where so much extra weight came from.
Wonder where so much extra weight came from.
BCOF?
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Your imagination and skills are second to none....
Another fantastic build!
Another fantastic build!
I was waiting for that.
Here's a new set of pics, with (slightly!) better lighting and much less retouching (just white balance and de-noising). They look a bit more natural, for what it's worth. Which are more appealing, these or the previous set? Trying to decide how to approach this in the future.
Oh, I think I definitely like these better. They look more real. Did you find some good white backgrounds? The lighting looks good as well, just enough shadow to show shape, but nothing is hidden. And the glare is much better as well, just the right amount for accents.
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Neil,
Really amazing work on the Plasma Dart. I am humbled by your skill & craftsmanship. Congrats!
Really amazing work on the Plasma Dart. I am humbled by your skill & craftsmanship. Congrats!
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Still like the nighttime outdoor flash with sky or distant background, although for THIS ROCKET may be suboptimal because of all the black on the rocket. Plus you can photoshop in a few stars or Saturn or Jupiter or the moon real easy on the black background.
Cheapest background you will ever find.
Which , of course, increases the weight even more. Extra weight in the tail sucks.
Don't you mean weighting for that? (And maybe you were waiting for that, too.)I was waiting for that.
I like the second set of pictures better as well. I think it's mainly the shadows that make them look more real.
Fortunately, total weight is in a comfortable range for 24mm motors, so I'm not hanging on the edge or anything. Drag tends to be a bigger issue with my designs than weight.
The diffuseness of the shadows looks really good, although it was a happy accident. It made me realize that the I could have put some kind of gradient background behind the previous set (rather than solid gray) and it would have looked a lot better.
I won't have to worry about it again for a few months at least.
If anyone ever wants to build one of these things, I might just have a few spare decals...
Plasma Dart finally few yesterday at GSSS.
On a small field with steady 10 mph winds, I was flying very cautiously, and started with a C11-3 that simmed to about 275', and not very fast off the rod. Normally I would be reluctant to fly that combination but it was already working well for me with other rockets, so up it went. I reefed the 15" nylon chute a bit (soft landing field) and the flight was nominal. Arrow-straight, perfect ejection timing, easy recovery, no damage. See brief video at end of this post.
Toward the end of the day, I was having such good success that I decided to push my luck and stick in a D12-5, which simmed to 575'. It seemed doable. So I pointed the rod into the wind (away from the trees/river) and crossed my fingers.
I did remember this time to get a picture beforehand:
The motor ignited and up it went... almost straight up. Again, perfectly straight and nominal deployment, but I was really not looking for a perfectly vertical ascent there. The parachute opened and the drift begin. I was outwardly confident but inwardly holding my breath. The result:
It landed maybe 30' from the trees. WHEW.
Ultimately very successful, good flyer, no damage except a bit of chipping of the white paint at the tip of the nose cone. One day I hope to put an E in it when I have a bigger field.
View attachment pd_launch.mov
On a small field with steady 10 mph winds, I was flying very cautiously, and started with a C11-3 that simmed to about 275', and not very fast off the rod. Normally I would be reluctant to fly that combination but it was already working well for me with other rockets, so up it went. I reefed the 15" nylon chute a bit (soft landing field) and the flight was nominal. Arrow-straight, perfect ejection timing, easy recovery, no damage. See brief video at end of this post.
Toward the end of the day, I was having such good success that I decided to push my luck and stick in a D12-5, which simmed to 575'. It seemed doable. So I pointed the rod into the wind (away from the trees/river) and crossed my fingers.
I did remember this time to get a picture beforehand:
The motor ignited and up it went... almost straight up. Again, perfectly straight and nominal deployment, but I was really not looking for a perfectly vertical ascent there. The parachute opened and the drift begin. I was outwardly confident but inwardly holding my breath. The result:
It landed maybe 30' from the trees. WHEW.
Ultimately very successful, good flyer, no damage except a bit of chipping of the white paint at the tip of the nose cone. One day I hope to put an E in it when I have a bigger field.
View attachment pd_launch.mov
Nice…
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I'm loving these slo-mo launch vids for all your thread updates.
I'm glad, because it's the only thing I've decided I can reliably do with my phone while I'm also trying to watch the launch. Still haven't come up with a strategy to get all the photos and footage I want....
The best thing to do with your phone for flight videos, imo, is to hand it off to someone else.
It's great to see this (and the others) finally in the air.
It's great to see this (and the others) finally in the air.
