Estes Trade Federation Battleship

[JAL3]

The Trade Federation Battleship is an almost ready to fly adaptation of a ship from Star Wars episode 1. In order to have a hope of stability, a long "flight probe" must be fitted to the movie version of the ship and that require weight and the addition of some clear plastic fins. The ship itself is built. All that needs building is the probe section and I had some time to kill waiting on other projects so I decided to give it a try.

 

[JAL3]

Construction starts out with the plastic nose cone. The base is not installed because to pats of the Estes weight clay have to be pressed into the cavity.

 

[JAL3]

The base of the nose cone was then put into place with plastic cement.

 

[JAL3]

The kit came with a piece of sewing elastic instead of the glorified rubber band I have come to expect from Estes. They get points for that but not for it being too short. The elastic was supposed to be knotted and fitted through a hole in the plastic reducer section. I've played that game before and decided that I did not want to play it again. Instead, I knotted a piece of Kevlar and fitted that through the hole. I did not rely on the knot to keep it in place and instead fastened it with a few drops of 5 min. epoxy.

 

[JAL3]

A bit of the same batch of epoxy was used to mount the parachute tube to the reducer.

 

[Pem Tech]

Dang John, you are a building machine!

 

[Donaldsrockets]

I had one of these and it was WAY underpowered on the C6-3. That and the lexan fins were prone to cracking too.

I would highly recommend an AT 18mm D motor for this. I'd say either the D10-3W SU or D13-4W RMS would do you fine.

But the D21T and D24T might be rather hard on the fins and possibly snap them off under thrust.

 

[JAL3]

Dang John, you are a building machine!

You're setting the criterion for "build" rather low, are you not?

 

[JAL3]

I had one of these and it was WAY underpowered on the C6-3. That and the lexan fins were prone to cracking too.

I would highly recommend an AT 18mm D motor for this. I'd say either the D10-3W SU or D13-4W RMS would do you fine.

But the D21T and D24T might be rather hard on the fins and possibly snap them off under thrust.

I had worried about that. If I get time tomorrow, I'm going to hit some of the LHS,s and see if I can find some 18mm Ds. If I don't find any, do you think I should wait till next month and not even try the Cs?

 

[Donaldsrockets]

I had worried about that. If I get time tomorrow, I'm going to hit some of the LHS,s and see if I can find some 18mm Ds. If I don't find any, do you think I should wait till next month and not even try the Cs?

I would wait to see if there is any wind. If not, it might work but it will be very slow off the pad. If it's windy, forget about it!!!

 

[JAL3]

I would wait to see if there is any wind. If not, it might work but it will be very slow off the pad. If it's windy, forget about it!!!

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Fred22]

Cant wait to see the finished product John have you built the estes sat V kit yet?
Cheers
fred

 

[JAL3]

Cant wait to see the finished product John have you built the estes sat V kit yet?
Cheers
fred

The Estes Sat V sits in my garage. I have no immediate plans to work on it because I would want to make some modifications and I just don't think I have the skills for that yet. Some day, though, some day.

 

[JAL3]

The lower part of the probe consists of 2 pieces joined by a coupler. The rearmost piece has a plastic flange to lock into the body of the actual battleship. The coupler was marked at the halfway point and joined to the two tubes with white glue. A bit of epoxy was then used to join the rear tubes to the reducer section.

 

[JAL3]

As the probe was drying, I took a closer look at the ship itself. It looked nice and was prefinished with stickers. They don't look like they will be very durable but they looked nice out of the package.

 

[JAL3]

To make the rocket stable, a pair of clear Lexan fins are provided. They are flexible and snap into slots on the body of the ship.

 

[JAL3]

To mount the probe onto the ship, a molded plastic plug has to be removed. It is provided for display purposes and removes by twisting it to disengage the lugs and then punching it out. I poked it out with a rod pushed through the motor mount. The probe was then inserted into the hole and twisted to engage the plastic lugs on the collar. A previous EMRR review indicated some problems with the alignment but I had no problems.

 

[JAL3]

At this point, all that was left to do was to tie the sewing elastic to the Kevlar and nose cone and the rocket was done.

 

[mikshan]

Make sure you call for a heads up flight on this one. I flew this model twice and both resulted in near horizontal flights right off the pad.

Mine is now a display model.

 

[JAL3]

Make sure you call for a heads up flight on this one. I flew this model twice and both resulted in near horizontal flights right off the pad.

Mine is now a display model.

I do appreciate the waring and it will be heads up.

 

[JAL3]

I had heard nothing but bad things about the performance of this rocket so I wanted to be careful for its first flight. I loaded it up with a C6-3 for the maiden flight while only one other person was present. He too had heard nothing but bad stuff about this rocket.

 

[JAL3]

I called heads up, announced the flight and Tim pressed the magic button. From that point on we were both amazed as it took off straight as an arrow.

 

[JAL3]

A bit after apogee, the chute ejected and deployed perfectly and it began to swing its way down.

 

[JAL3]

It landed pretty close by and I was already to fly it again until I noticed that the 2 piece plastic nose cone had separated and the forward end was lost. I will have to replace it and fly this one again.

 

[JAL3]

Person wishing to follow the progress of this rocket can do so here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/collections/72157621259021298/

 

[Donaldsrockets]

Glad to hear the flight worked out for you and it looked like a good one too. Sorry the NC separated though.

Next time you might want to use CA to glue the two NC pieces together.

 

[JAL3]

Glad to hear the flight worked out for you and it looked like a good one too. Sorry the NC separated though.

Next time you might want to use CA to glue the two NC pieces together.

I think I was very fortunate based on the bad reputation this rocket has. I also think that rep is probably justified.

I'm not too worried about the NC or using CA next time. I'll probably replace it with balsa. I'm long to order some Apogee 18mm D's as well

 

[Fred22]

Nice photos. i suspect you created your own luck John by building it well and flying it under the right conditions
Good Job
fred

 

[rokitflite]

I remember the saying "Black is beautiful"... Its funny how Estes produces these movie "scale" models with a huge probe on the front for stability going with the altered phrase "Black is invisible".

Nice build report though John!

 

[JAL3]

Nice photos. i suspect you created your own luck John by building it well and flying it under the right conditions
Good Job
fred

According to the only other guy out there when this one was flown, "the right conditions" meant he had his hardhat. He was amazed at the performance too.