Estes Ninja 2.0 Upscale build.

[Back_at_it]

I've been a big fan of Estes Rockets over the years as I grew up with them. I liked a lot of their designs and have built hundreds of their kits over the years.

The one complaint I always had was that a lot of their rockets are just too small. While I have dabbled in upscaling a little here and there, I haven't really jumped in with both feet until now. I noticed that Estes has recently released their 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 Pro series body tubes and nose cones. I'm really hoping that some of the fantasy style nose cones become available but until then I can stay busy upscaling some of my favorite little rockets.

I took some time away from building to plan a large number of upscales and gather the required parts and it's finally time to get started. I'll post the build as it happens and post up the completed OR Sim file after everything is together and flown successfully.

For this build we're going to use the Estes 2.0 body tube and nose cone. While the Nose Cones isn't an exact upscale, it's close enough for me.

Some DIM's to get us started.

Lower tube. 13.5"
Upper Tube. 7.75"
Motor Tube. 29mm, 8.625"
Centering rings. 3/16" ply.
Fins. 1/8 Basswood.
Estes 29mm motor retainer.
Launch lugs. 1/4"
Tube Coupler with baffle plates. 4"
500# Kevlar
3/8" Elastic Shock Cord.

Below we have all of the materials cut and ready to go. I have already measured and cut the necessary slots in the lower tub for the TTW fins.



Here is another pic with some additional components that will be used as well as my stock BT20 Estes Ninja for size comparison.

 

[Antares JS]

Ninja was a pretty cool little rocket for a 3FNC. I have fond memories of that one myself. Now I want to see if I can dig out the one I still have and check if it's still flyable...

 

[Back_at_it]

Ninja was a pretty cool little rocket for a 3FNC. I have fond memories of that one myself. Now I want to see if I can dig out the one I still have and check if it's still flyable...

Agreed. While I generally gravitate toward the plane / starship designs, the Ninja is an interesting little 3FNC. It's unfortunate that so many have been damaged or lost due to the paper fins.

 

[Back_at_it]

Made a little progress last night on the Ninja.

First step in assembly is getting the motor mount together. The motor tube is 29mm and 8.625 long. The tube was sanded for a better bond with the adhesive. The upper ring is glued in place about 1/16 of an inch below the edge of the tube. This is to allow room for a fillet on both sides to the ring.

The lower ring was marked using the Estes Motor retainer as a spacer.



While the motor mount was drying I turned my attention to the coupler/baffle. The baffle is 4in long. The baffle plates are cut from 1/8" ply. and spaced about 1.25" apart inside the coupler. The upper plate has an additional piece of wood on the backside to ensure a solid mount for the screw eye.

During assembly, each of the plates as well as the inside of the coupler get a coating of wood glue to help with fire protection. A piece of 500# Kevlar was attached as a leader for the elastic shock cord.



With the upper ring of the motor mount dry, it's time to insert it into the lower tube. At this point is where I found that I had made my first mistake.
I cut the fin slots 3/4" too long. This can be seen in the photo below. Not a big deal, I used a 1" section of coupler to cover the issue. Bonus is that I now have a positive stop for the motor mount.

Here we see the motor tube along side the body tube for reference.



The motor mount was glued in place with the tube ends flush. The rear centering ring was used for alignment but will be left off for now to allow for internal fillets.



I decided to wrap it up last night by tapering the leading edge of the fins.



Tonight will be attaching the fins and starting on the fillets. The internal fillets might be tricky as the fins are set so high up the tube and there isn't a ton of room to work.

 

[Back_at_it]

Can't leave well enough alone. Working from home today so I decided to run down to the shop and get a fin installed.

Nothing fancy. Slotted tubes make life easy. Used TiteBond Thick and Quick on the root edge where it attaches to the inner motor tube since I figure it will be difficult to get in there for a fillet. Used TBII for the surface mount.

 

[Back_at_it]

A bit more work on the Ninja last night.

Managed to get the remaining fins attached and the first of the fillets on. Used Thick and Quick on the root edge where it attaches to the motor tube and TBII on the areas where it attached to the outer body tube. First fillet done with TBII as it is thinner an soaks into the materials a little better.



Next was inserting the Tube Coupler / Baffle. Sanded the outside of the coupler for better adhesion then coated the inside of the tube and the outside of the coupler with TBII and slid them together. Have a damp rag nearby as this is a bit messy.



Additional fillets both internal and external will be applied today and it's almost time to start the filler work

 

[mrwalsh85]

Wow, talk about throwback. Built one of these in '97 or so... Was a great flyer.

Build looks good! Keep at it!

 

[Adam3836]

Very cool idea …

 

[Back_at_it]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. Really appreciate it.

I made some more progress yesterday as I snuck down stairs to play in the shop a bit between meetings. I attached the upper body tube with a fair amount of TBII. Good coating on the coupler and inside the body tube allowed them to slide together without issue. Just be sure to have a damp rag near by for clean up.


I decided to go with split launch lugs. Used Estes 1/4 pieces and attached as shown.





Next it was on to the Fillets. I managed to get the external and internal fillets done. First coat of the externals were done using TBII as it's thin and I wanted it to soak into the materials. Second coat was done with Thick and Quick for a nice smooth finish.

Next was the internals. This proved to be a challenge as there isn't a ton of room between the motor tube and body tube. I decided to let gravity do the work for me. I mixed up about 2oz of TBII with a few drops of water to thin it out. I then poured that into a plastic syringe and pushed the glue into joint between the fin and the body tube. I let gravity drag it down then balanced the rocket so that the glue sat evenly in the joint and let it dry. This was a long process but it got the job done. Thankfully the joints where the fin connected to the motor tube looked good and didn't need anything extra.

Here is the assembled rocket with fillets done and ready for filler.



Now the fun begins. It's Miller, Err... Filler Time. For this I decided to use DAP brand wood filler. You can see the tub of it in the back ground. It's super smooth to apply, dries really quickly and sands really easy. You can almost sand it off with your bare hand. It does have one down side. Unlike Elmers filler that crates a kind of heavy thick dust, this stuff creates a very fine, almost talc like dust that gets in the air. SAND THIS STUFF OUTSIDE...

Here the first coat is applied to the fins and tube joint. These new Estes Pro Series tubes have almost no spirals so I'm not going to bother with them. I feel that primer will hide 90% of them.



After one more coat of Filler on the fins I decided to attach the rear centering ring and motor retainer. For this I used BSI 30 min Epoxy. This is the only epoxy on the entire rocket. The rear of the motor mount tube was sanded to get any glue off that might have gotten on it during assembly. The inside of the motor retainer was then sanded with 60 grit to give it a really rough surface for the epoxy to get into.

Epoxy was applied to the outside of the motor tube as well as the inside of the retainer and installed. Again, this makes a little mess and the epoxy squeezes out so be ready with a rag soaked in alcohol for clean up. You might want to consider wearing rubber gloves for this as well. Epoxy will undoubtedly get into the motor tube so you will want to use a finger soaked in alcohol to smooth that out and you should limit the amount of epoxy you allow to touch your skin.



Today will be sanding, sanding sealer and hopefully primer. It's nice and sunny here today so I can take advantage of that to speed up my curing time.

Thanks again.

 

[Antares JS]

Nice, simple build that looks super cool.

I actually did go and dig my old one out to fly with MDRA tomorrow. I was 10 or 11 when I built it so it's not my best work but it should be perfectly flyable.

 

[Back_at_it]

Nice, simple build that looks super cool.

I actually did go and dig my old one out to fly with MDRA tomorrow. I was 10 or 11 when I built it so it's not my best work but it should be perfectly flyable.

View attachment 472088

That is super cool. A little drop of thin super glue on the fin tips will fix those up good as new.

Might be time to build yourself an upscale.

 

[Woody's Workshop]

I like! Great Job upscaling the Ninja. Flight video available?

I built one the same size as what Estes released, except I made it to fly on D's.
I haven't decided on the name, but have narrowed it down to 2.
Ninja-D, or the Disappearing Ninja.

 

[Back_at_it]

I like! Great Job upscaling the Ninja. Flight video available?

I built one the same size as what Estes released, except I made it to fly on D's.
I haven't decided on the name, but have narrowed it down to 2.
Ninja-D, or the Disappearing Ninja.

I’m kicking around names for the one. Thinking Ninja-29 because of the motor tube. Will need to figure out how to do the decals.

 

[Woody's Workshop]

I’m kicking around names for the one. Thinking Ninja-29 because of the motor tube. Will need to figure out how to do the decals.

Whatever mine turns out to be, it will be StickerShock's job to get them to me.

 

[Back_at_it]

Back with an update.

I'm happy to say that I only needed to do one coat of wood filler on the fins and body seam. I then coded the fins with two coats of minwax sanding sealer and let that cure for a day before sanding. The fins were then wet sanded with 400 and 600 grit and the rocket was wiped down with alcohol just prior to priming.




Next it was time for two codes of SEM high build primer. I let that cure for a day and sanded with 400 and 600 grit.



If the weather cooperates I should be able to get paint on this today.

 

[Back_at_it]

Getting close to the end of this one..

The weather cooperated long enough for me to get some paint on the ninja. Knowing that the ninja came with two different paint jobs, I was really torn on which way to go. I like the solid black look but I also liked the red and black with the shredded type graphics. In the end I decided to combine the two.

The body tube received three coats of Krylon gloss black. The nose cone and motor retainer were painted with duplicolor bright red.

During final assembly I found one small issue with Fitment of the parachute and shock cord. With the baffle in place the room for the laundry was a little tight so I decided to cut the end off nosecone and insert a Bulkhead. This gave me the necessary room for the parachute and Shock cord.

If I was building this rocket again, I would shorten the Fin tabs by 1 inch to allow the top of the motor mount To sit lower as well as shorten the baffle from 4 inches to 3 inches. These two changes would allow 2 inches of additional space in the upper tube for the laundry. Lesson learned.

Here you see the nosecone with the bulkhead inserted. I need to do some sanding the cleanup the edge.



Here are a few photos including a couple with the The original ninja.




I need to get around to cutting the Vinyl for this one and heading out for a test Flight.

 

[Back_at_it]

Sorry for the delay in posting guys. I let other projects get in the way but I finally wrapped this one up.

I decided to cut my own vinyl and stick with the Estes naming convention so I went with Maxi Ninja As it seemed fitting. And of course it leaves the door open for a mega ninja in the future. Hint...



Applied the vinyl.



Installed all of the recovery equipment and did a final Weigh in. Total weight is 9.6 ounces without motor.



Pretty close to my initial estimate in OR. My initial build in OR showed 9.8 0Z.

I've gone back and adjusted the total weight and rerun the flight simulations. I plan to fly this primarily on E30 and F44 motors. But even the Estes F15 will provide excellent altitude. The relatively mild F67 will put it up almost 2000 feet.



Thanks for following along. I've been working on Putting the parts together for a few other builds Over the last couple of weeks so I'll have another build thread starting later Today.

 

[messedupryan]

Beautiful!