Dr. Zooch Ares 1 "The Stick" build

[hcmbanjo]

I finished up my Dr. Zooch Ares 1 build yesterday.
This is my third Zooch kit. This one wasn't as tough to put together as the Saturn 1B, but still had a few challenges to it. These are great kits, something you're actually proud of when finished.
It sports the smallest parachute I've ever seen, only 6 1/4" across.
I'm looking forward to flying it at our next section launch. (NAR ROCK Section in Orlando, FL)

 

[luke strawwalker]

Cool! I thought about starting on this one this week, but had a few other things going on and been reading more-- done a lot of building over the past few weeks and I'm a little burned out for the moment. Probably do it next week!

I like your flame fins! Cool fade job! Great job on the SRB bands as well! Those really make it POP! One question though?? What happened to your 'party hat' and stuff that adapts the LAS escape rocket to the top of the Orion BPC?? That was one of the things that I REALLY thought was cool looking about the Orion BPC before they went to the 'Kaiser helmet' BPC, which is oversized and ogive shaped, totally concealing the conical Orion inside of it... (too much like Soyuz, which it totally enshrouded in a BPC payload fairing, but they needed to wring every drop of performance out of Ares I and aerodynamic analysis showed the drag was much lower on the ogive BPC than the conical one). Since switching, the BPC adapter to the escape rocket is actually a simple steep cone instead of the 'party hat' type adapter they started with.

Great looking build though! Later! OL JR

 

[JAL3]

I agree with OL JR, especially about the flame fins. They are the best looking I have seen. Would you mind sharing how you painted them?

 

[brianc]

"It looks like a stick...."




Can't wait to see that fly Chris!

 

[hcmbanjo]

Hi Luke,
You are more up on all the escape tower and boost protective covers than I am. I was just building a kit! I'd better study up more at the NASA website.
The Zooch instuctions do have illustrations showing some of the Launch Abort System changes over time. This kit seems to be based on the September 2006 version. I haven't added the small canted nozzles under the "party hat" shroud, I probably will. They'll be small, but do-able.

To JAL3,
And I thought I'd built a lot of rockets! You're the king of build threads.
For the flame fins - I searched some shuttle launch photos to check out the engine flame colors.
From the nozzle, the flame went from bright white to yellow. I practiced before painting the model's fins. I cut out some flame fin copies out of scrap cardstock. I taped them flat on a cardboard piece and practiced with my spray cans. I don't have an airbrush.
The fins were first sprayed white overall. Just below the lower half, I changed to yellow spray and misted from a distance. This allowed the colors to "meld' together. If there is any spattering of the second color it just adds to the effect.
While it looked okay, it did need the orange to set it off. Again from a distance, I aimed the orange just at the rear edges of the fins.
I like the white, yellow and orange better than my first try at flame fins. I used white, yellow and red on the Space Shuttle, it's still under construction.

And to Brian -
Well, yes it does. But then again, most of my rockets look like sticks.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Well, you can find SOME stuff at nasa.gov, but the best stuff on spaceflight is to be found here:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=5.0

There are a lot of VERY smart people who post here, and they usually link to a TON of helpful pictures, facts, studies, proposals, baseball cards listing information about various rockets, etc. Be sure you check out the Ares I development thread in the forum, and over in the "exploration alternatives" forum there's several threads dedicated to the Direct "Jupiter" vehicles using the shuttle stack, and in the "general spaceflight" forum there's the "NASA model building thread" which has some AMAZING paper, static plastic, and model rocket builds in there and some GOOD resources. I've been reading over there for two years and it's absolutely AMAZING the stuff you can learn over there from folks, many of whom are from varied space backgrounds, contractor and NASA insiders, engineers, etc. VERY smart folks there!

Here's another great site specifically about Constellation...

https://www.tallgeorge.com/projectconstellation.php

Lot's of neat pics and stuff there, and links...

Later! OL JR

 

[brianc]

And to Brian -
Well, yes it does. But then again, most of my rockets look like sticks.

Did you click the link? I was quoting a recent Klydemorris comic.

 

[phantomphuler]

i built my stick last week. i love the dr zooch kits, they are different. painting the fins like that is easy!!!!!! experiment with a spray can and your results will look like his.

 

[Brent]

What diameter is the main body tube?

 

[hcmbanjo]

To BrianC,
Sure, I clicked on the link. I was just trying return a smart response.

To Brent,
I don't know what you mean by the main tube. The two (main) tubes in the kit are a BT-20 at the bottom and a BT-50 on the top transitioned by the shroud.
The finished model stands about 19" tall with the Flame Fins glued in.

 

[hcmbanjo]

To BrianC,
Sure, I clicked on the link. I was just trying return a smart response.

To Brent,
I don't know what you mean by the main tube. The two (main) tubes in the kit are a BT-20 at the bottom and a BT-50 on the top transitioned by the shroud.
The finished model stands about 19" tall with the Flame Fins glued in.

 

[Dr.Zooch]

The Ares I and I-X kits have changed rapidly over the past two years as NASA has altered the preposed design. The Party hat LAS was added recently and the upper stage tube was shortened. So- for some folks who bought the kit many months ago and have had it in their "to-build" pile, you may find yours a bit different from one recently obtained. In fact, I just altered the roll stripe on the I-X kit last Thursday, because the NASA artwork on the I-X showed the stripe only going 2/3s around the SRB, but the first photos of the real stack show the stripe going all the way around. I've also gone with a 10.25 inch chute as a standard.

I have yet to alter the BPC on the Ares I to the "new" shape.

 

[luke strawwalker]

The Ares I and I-X kits have changed rapidly over the past two years as NASA has altered the preposed design. The Party hat LAS was added recently and the upper stage tube was shortened. So- for some folks who bought the kit many months ago and have had it in their "to-build" pile, you may find yours a bit different from one recently obtained. In fact, I just altered the roll stripe on the I-X kit last Thursday, because the NASA artwork on the I-X showed the stripe only going 2/3s around the SRB, but the first photos of the real stack show the stripe going all the way around. I've also gone with a 10.25 inch chute as a standard.

I have yet to alter the BPC on the Ares I to the "new" shape.

Ares I has changed more times than a coal miner's underwear! It's about like trying to nail jello to the wall....

Anyway, changing the BPC would require a whole new cone wouldn't it Wes?? They're still using the "Kaiser hat" ogive BPC are they not??

Anyway, it's a cool looking kit.

Later! OL JR

 

[Dr.Zooch]

Nailing Jello to the wall is a good way to put it.

Yes- doing the latest BPC would require a new, custom, cone. I talked with BMS about it at NARAM this past weekend- it is unlikely that I'll invest in that until after the commission turns in its results.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Nailing Jello to the wall is a good way to put it.

Yes- doing the latest BPC would require a new, custom, cone. I talked with BMS about it at NARAM this past weekend- it is unlikely that I'll invest in that until after the commission turns in its results.

Sounds like you have a win-win scenario there...

If the commission recommends keeping Ares I (assuming the gov't goes along with the recommendations) then you upgrade and advertise "Get the new NASA rocket ASAP!"

If the commission torpedoes Ares I, then you sell what you have advertising it as "get the latest NASA rocket that'll never fly before they're gone".

We like win-win scenarios... OL JR

 

[Dr.Zooch]

And don't forget the "NASA launch vehicle that could have been" aspect. I can't lose on the Ares I.

 

[Peartree]

And so the commission said (and I paraphrase),

"Going to the moon is stupid and we can't afford it."

Now what?