Cloning the Centuri Jayhawk

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teflonrocketry1

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Bruce,

I'm interested in a Jayhawk myself. As of right now I'm trying to get some scale data created for the Orion 2 TRF project, but certainly will follow this thread and see how it comes along.

*drool..Jayhawk..ummmmmm*
 
This was an easy build I finished one in about two hours yesterday. The unbuilt one will even be better because I can fix the problems I encountered in the first one. All parts are from Balsa Machining Service. I cut the fins from 0.050 inch thick picture matting board. The shroud was cut from a file folder. The centering rings were pealed down from BT-50 size, the nose cone was reshaped to be 4.6 inches long.

I had to order the decal from Tango Papa Decals since I can not print the white areas on my deskjet printer.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055
 
Bruce,

Wow, that was quick, and looks excellent. 8)

I take it the CR's had to be done that way - given the lack of available parts ?

I always overlook scratchbuilding CR's but your solution is very sound.

Looking forward to a launch report.

Cheers,
 
I have an original that's seen the wars. If I was going to be building a clone of it, I think I'd be tempted to go with thin basswood over the fibre fins. They're just too delicate to withstand repeated launchings. You may have to add a little nose weight, but the strength you'd gain would be worth it. (IMHO)
 
The Jayhawk clones I made are just sport scale. Exact scale comes next, but not as big as GBR!

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055
 
I finished painting my Centuri Jayhawk clone (see attached Pic). It was spray painted with Krylon pumpkin orange gloss and gloss black. The tip of the nose cone was masked off with Parafilm M; the paint transition came out great, sharp with no reside or seepage.

I got the decals from Tango Papa Decals, it only took them about two weeks after I sent in the order. I have several issues with the colors on the decals:

1. What was the color of the stripes on the Jayhawk decals? I thought several of them were blue and the ones I have are all black.
2. What was the color of the middle bar on the stars and bars emblem on this model? I remember them being clear and the ones I have are yellow.

These issues are minor and won't prevent me from using the decals, however I would like to know what the actual decal colors were on the original model. You really can't tell the original colors from the scan's at JimZ's site or the Ye Old Rocket Shoppe site.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055
 
I don't know the correct answer as I never had a Jayhawk. Looking at the profile image of the Jayhawk on the top of the plans page, it does, indeed look like blue stripes. I downloaded the decal scan, that was very yellowed and opened it in Photoshop. I took yellow and red out of the highlights, until the background went clear (or white or neutral), and the stripes and stars and Bars ALL turned Navy Blue. I dunno if this is correct but I attached my color "corrected" version.
I had similar results with a copy of the scissor wing transport decal scan from Jim. When I took out the yellow, the Tomato red/orange parts turned to a nice fire engine red that I remember.





BTW Nice rocket!!:D
 
I just dug out my Original Jayhawk kit. Even though it is a little yellowed, the colors are deffinately the dark blue. This is the actual kit that Jim had scanned, as I had shipped it to him for that purpose. The scan on his site does look more yellowed than my decals do though. Hope this helps! Keep Flying!
 
Thank you mikeyd and SwingWing for the scans! I think the decals should be dark blue not black, so I will have to get another set of decals made. Oh well, I haven't been able to work on rocketry much lately.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055
 
Ahh. Centuri Jayhawk. My first rocket I ever launched, (second one I ever built)

I don't know what ever became of it but my sister found this photo circa 1977-ish. I think I weighed less than half what I do now.
 
The Jayhawk was on of my favorite rockets as a kid. The last I saw of the original was as it drifted out of sight on a windless day about 30 years ago. So I have to build another one. Here is the rocket almost ready for paint. The nose cone tube and engine mount came from Semroc.
I might build another one so I can improve on my mistakes. Now I need to get the decals as I can't print white.
 
you can use white decal paper to make the insignias on an inkjet
the trick is cutting them out nice and clean... obviously for some decals(letters ,numbers) it's too much trouble .. but general shapes like insignias are not hard at all...
 
Jayhawk waiting for decals. I just got some white decal paper and am going to try to print them myself.
 
This looks great!!

Shamelesss plug: I have just about finished a set of Centuri Jayhawk decals... They should be available in 1-2 days, and will cost $6.00.

Phred
 
I just finished my Centuri Jayhawk clone. I got the decal set from Astronboy at www.excelsiorrocketry.com.

The color and detail are great. I attached a picture I took with a indoor flash and the colors look washed out. In real light it looks great. I will try to take a picture in the sunlight later. I do recomend the decals from Astronboy. It made this clone look perfect!
 
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