Charizard, a Pokemon Rocket

[boatgeek]

When the students in the local high school rocketry club are doing Student Launch, I've built the project manager a personal rocket to reward them for the ridiculous amounts of work that the PM has to do in herding cats to get everything done. Last year, it was a spinning rocket with canted fins. This year, the PM is super into Pokemon, and Charizard is one of his favorites. This isn't much of a build thread, more of a "hey, look what I built" thread.

The inspiration:


I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep those wings on as fins since there just wasn't enough root length. So I cut them off just inside the first wing joint from the tip so I could keep the forward-pointing spine. The tube was a mailing tube I saved from a vendor sending a wall calendar. Fins and centering rings were all laser cut on a buddy's machine.

The paint job on the fins was a lot more complicated than I planned, but we got it done with rattle can paint and some clear coat.



The nose cone was 3-D printed in 3 parts to fit in the printer, glued together, filled and sanded mostly smooth. The orange is all rattle can paint, but the details of the eyes and claws are all handpainted by my lovely and talented wife.



It flew really nicely on a CTI G54R motor. It was a little challenging to find a CTI motor that had enough thrust for takeoff but not so much to require an L1 cert, but it all worked out well.

 

[Nytrunner]

That's a cute rocket ya got there

 

[rstaff3]

That's nice!

 

[dhbarr]

Very nice!

 

[KenECoyote]

Awesome! You can also do a version in black and call it "Night Fury" (from "How to Train Your Dragon").

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

It flew really nicely on a CTI G54R motor.

Where did you find that G54? I WANNA G54!

(I have a 38mm rocket w/ 29mm mount that hits 4K on a G54... Or a G33 mellow for that matter I just can't seem to find anywhere with them in stock.)

 

[boatgeek]

Where did you find that G54? I WANNA G54!

(I have a 38mm rocket w/ 29mm mount that hits 4K on a G54... Or a G33 mellow for that matter I just can't seem to find anywhere with them in stock.)

The G54 came from the team's L2 mentor for SL, who had 2 or 3 in stock. He maintains a far larger motor stockpile than I do and is very generous to the students. As one of the students said, they rolled a natural 20 when he decided to become a mentor.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! Also, the photos don't really show it but the eyes are slightly recessed into the nose cone.

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

Ahh... I guess I'll just keep looking. My Pro29 case will just have to handle being lonely for a little longer

 

[boatgeek]

I also have a special place in my heart for the G54, since I did my L1 cert on it sometime in the 3 months or so that it was an H and not a G.

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

I also have a special place in my heart for the G54, since I did my L1 cert on it sometime in the 3 months or so that it was an H and not a G.

Isn't CTI's 3G redline (not longburn) also an H54? Or is that out of production and people are just selling off their stock?

 

[boatgeek]

Isn't CTI's 3G redline (not longburn) also an H54? Or is that out of production and people are just selling off their stock?

There's a G54 Red Lightning at 159 N-s that is definitely red and has an offset core. There's also an H54 White Longburn with about 9 N-s more impulse. I just checked that both are on CTI's website, so presumably not OOP. When I flew my cert, it was definitely on a red motor with an offset core. I don't think the white was on the market then, but I could be wrong. It would have been nice to re-name the white to H55 or something to avoid confusion.

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

OK, the Wh LB must have been what I was remebering.

In retrospect, it makes absolutely no sense that a longburn and standard of the same propellant would have the same average thrust.
Looking forward, I now know what I want to do for my Jr L1 - my 4K rocket on an H54... oint:

 

[boatgeek]

OK, the Wh LB must have been what I was remebering.

In retrospect, it makes absolutely no sense that a longburn and standard of the same propellant would have the same average thrust.
Looking forward, I now know what I want to do for my Jr L1 - my 4K rocket on an H54... oint:

I was told in another thread where I asked just this question that the longburns are made that way with the core geometry, which is why you could have the G54 and G125 both in the same propellant (red). I'm a total sucker for longburns, so I wholeheartedly endorse the H54 for an L1 cert. Or you could go all Mellow and use the H42 or H53 (4 and 5 grains, respectively) with 4.4 second burn times.

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

Sadly, I don't have a 6G case and probably won't fly a lot of big stuff (Jr cert. -> Jr budget) , so the Mellows are out... A G33 is likely in my future, though.

Sent from my LGL34C using Rocketry Forum mobile app

 

[BABAR]

When the students in the local high school rocketry club are doing Student Launch, I've built the project manager a personal rocket to reward them for the ridiculous amounts of work that the PM has to do in herding cats to get everything done. Last year, it was a spinning rocket with canted fins. This year, the PM is super into Pokemon, and Charizard is one of his favorites. This isn't much of a build thread, more of a "hey, look what I built" thread.

The inspiration:
View attachment 322108

I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep those wings on as fins since there just wasn't enough root length. So I cut them off just inside the first wing joint from the tip so I could keep the forward-pointing spine. The tube was a mailing tube I saved from a vendor sending a wall calendar. Fins and centering rings were all laser cut on a buddy's machine.

The paint job on the fins was a lot more complicated than I planned, but we got it done with rattle can paint and some clear coat.

View attachment 322114

The nose cone was 3-D printed in 3 parts to fit in the printer, glued together, filled and sanded mostly smooth. The orange is all rattle can paint, but the details of the eyes and claws are all handpainted by my lovely and talented wife.

View attachment 322115View attachment 322116View attachment 322117

It flew really nicely on a CTI G54R motor. It was a little challenging to find a CTI motor that had enough thrust for takeoff but not so much to require an L1 cert, but it all worked out well.

Really nice bird! Congrats