Estes Vapor

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I have been working on the Vapor. I painted the top of the rocket yellow on Wednesday last week and let it sit.

I made a paint mask over the holiday weekend and I sprayed the black yesterday. I had to do a little touch up on the black in "masked off" areas because of paint leakage. I find the Cricut vinyl does not like to lay down flat. I get ripples that just won't stay down in the larger or detailed masks. You can push on the ripples and wiggle the vinyl and they'll seem to stick but they pop back up moments later. Anyway, that is where I am at now in painting the rocket.

I did have a few areas in the black paint that I need to address. I'll work on them Wednesday. Hopefully that will take care of the black.

I hope to paint on the decals Friday. There are only two yellow decals for the fins. You can see how they are positioned for the "money shot"

Vapor Card.jpg

Since I am painting them on I am thinking about putting them on both sides of the three fins.

-Bob
 
"I had to do a little touch up on the black in the "masked off" areas because of paint leakage" was referring to the stipple pattern. I had to break it down into two masks. One for spraying black over the yellow and another for spraying yellow over the black. Even still, the mask was too large and complex to get it on without ripples so I had areas to touch up.

I took some pics but my computer is not cooperating. I sent the pics to it this morning but the emails haven't arrived yet. I think they are being blocked by uncle :(

Oh, the nose cone has been painted too but those pics haven't arrived either.

-Bob
 
Pics finally came

Here is the yellow.
Vapor Yellow Front.jpg


After it had sat for 4 days I went ahead and wet sanded the overspray off in prep for a nice coat of black. I applied my paint mask like I mentioned earlier. I meant to get a picture but before I knew it I was spraying. I peeled the mask off after about ten minutes and found I had a few areas to fix. I broke out my little brush and sprayed some black paint into a paper funnel and touched those areas up. This is where I am at now.
Vapor Black Splatter.jpg


I had a flaw show up around the launch lug and a few by the fins. I'll wait a little while, wet sand the areas and respray the affected areas again. I still need to mask off the black and spray the yellow part of the splatter and the other markings.

-Bob
 
Looks great Bob. Could you explain your masking technique?
 
I don't think I can explain it without pictures so when I do the next area I will be sure to take a few. Then I'll do a post with the process.

Thanks for the compliments. I think it coming out pretty well. I did notice that my pattern is vertical while it is horizontal on the packaging. You know, visualized with the rocket on the launch pad :)

-Bob
 
Step one in my process was to paint the front half yellow
Vapor Yellow Front.jpg

Step two was to let it dry for several days then I applied the mask for the black paint and I sprayed it. After letting it sit for several minutes I pulled the mask off and this was the result.
Vapor Yellow Splatter.jpg

Step three was to let is sit again for several days. I made the mask for the yellow splatter. It looked like this
Vapor Yellow Paint Mask.jpg

Step 4 was to put the mask on. Here you can see the ripples and where the vinyl doesn't stick too well
Vapor Yellow Splatter Mask.jpg

Step 5 is to burnish down the mask and spray yellow real quick before the mask starts lifting. Here is the result
Vapor Yellow Splatter.jpg

Here is a fin with the paint mask on. I did use some cricut transfer tape on these masks. The masks did lay down better but it was real tough pulling it off the cricut stencil vinyl. The adhesive on it was stronger than the adhesive on the stencil vinyl. The end result was better though.
Vapor Fin Mask.jpg


And with the mask off
Vapor Fin Swirls.jpg


BTW, Rustoleum 2x paints.


-Bob
 

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  • Vapor Black Splatter.jpg
    Vapor Black Splatter.jpg
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On the Cricut Maker machine. It's the only thing I know how to do on it :)

I've used it on several builds like on my Tempest.

I am looking forward to trying some different brands of mask material and transfer tape. The cricut stencil vinyl is to thick and there is a reaction with the paint at the edges. Id you try to pull it off to early, the paint will stretch like bubble gum and make a mess.

-Bob
 
Looks great Bob! Thanks for sharing your masking techniques.

John
 
I just need to do a little touch up with some black and then clear coat.

BTW, I did paint the swirls on both sides of all the fins.

I had an ork file for this but I went to open it and it was blank. Gonna have to make another so I can decide what motor to fly it on at the December club launch. Maybe a D12 (in an adapter) first and if my chute opens on that flight I can press my luck and fly it again with an F15. Got to run the numbers first though

Oh, I guess I need a parachute in it too although with my record of non-deploys it might not matter :)

-Bob
 
I checked the weight and cg today because once I fixed my ork sim I was having trouble with the Estes F15 motors. My actual cg was at 28 without a motor and the weight was 7.16 ounces.

Before I did the check my ork file showed these numbers with the F15 motor
CG 33.169 CP34.139 Cal .592

After the actual weight and CG check
CG 33.018 CP same Cal .685

So the actual measurements did help slightly but not enough to make a difference.

Here's the question though... I went back into OR and tried to add weight to the nose cone and OR did not change anything. Would that be because I overrode the weight ad CG? If so, what is the work around?

-Bob
 
Yes, once you override the weight and CG of the entire rocket, the individual components don't matter anymore. Want to play with nose weight? Here's what you do:

1) Make note of the total rocket mass and CG locations you've already entered as overrides.
2) Disabled the overrides.
3) Calculate the additional mass you need to add to the rocket to equal you're previously measured mass (as noted in step 1).
4) Add a new mass object using the value from #3, and adjust its position forward/backward until the CG matches the location noted in step 1.

Now you can add additional mass objects (e.g. nose weight) and their effects will be shown as desired.

I should probably post this in the Software forum as a helpful tip. I have used it many times.
 
I just went back to the original OR calculations since it was not that much of a difference and .4 ounce will do the trick. That's about the weight of an Estes altimeter so maybe I'll swing by Hobby Lobby and pick one up. I wonder if it's an item I can use the coupon on...

I'll go back in and edit the sim like you wrote and make sure everything will be good to go. Thanks Neil.

-Bob
 
That did the trick. If I toss an altimeter in there connected to the nose cone I get 1.16 cal.

-Bob
 
One further note: the Vapor/Star Orbiter qualify as long skinny rockets. Normally you're looking for a larger static margin for this kind of rocket. @Nytrunner usually talks about 10% of the length of the rocket, which in this case would be something like 2.8 caliber. I'm not saying that's the number you should use, just that in general you may want somewhat more than your measured 1.16 for this rocket.
 
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Hmmn, I think you are trying to get me to go over to the dark side. Like a Aerotech composite F44 or something :)

-Bob
 
Some would call that the light side. :)

Anyway, the composites certainly do weigh a lot less. Not sure if that would be enough to give you desired margin or not.
 
With the altimeter and a D12 I get 2.61 cal and 467 feet.

With the altimeter and a E12 I get 2.14 cal and 890 feet

Same with the F15 I get 1.16 cal and 1642.

Same with an f44W I get 2.43 cal and 1294 feet

I just realized the weights with the 24mm motors don't factor in the adapter so that'll change those numbers :(

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory

Vapor Finished.jpg

-Bob
 
That looks really good!

Initial though says the adapter won't kill your stability. Go ahead and fit it up to see!
 
With the altimeter and a D12 I g
With the altimeter and a D12 I get 2.61 cal and 467 feet.

With the altimeter and a E12 I get 2.14 cal and 890 feet

Same with the F15 I get 1.16 cal and 1642.

Same with an f44W I get 2.43 cal and 1294 feet

I just realized the weights with the 24mm motors don't factor in the adapter so that'll change those numbers :(

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory

View attachment 400619

-Bob

Your OR estimates pretty much jive with how my Star Orbiter performs on E/D 24mm motors with the adapter - a bit higher maybe but close enough. The different fin shape isn’t quite enough incentive to buy one but if I could get as nice a finish as you did that’d be enough!
 

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