Estes Viking Build

[JERRYR708]

Been busy so Havent got much more done on mine, just some primer and more body work. Will hopefully have her finished up end of this weekend.

Take your time on the prep work before painting and it will turn out nice. If you don't want your rockets to look like Christmas paper tubes with wood grain fins glued on, then lots of priming, sanding and filling is in the works.

 

[JERRYR708]

I made a 43" X 3 1/2" green crepe paper streamer and folded it like an accordion. My viking was able to get a 36 second duration flight with this.

 

[Cody Webster]

I chose metallic turqoise for the body and bright white for the nosecone. The turqoise is laid over gray primer, and it has a very retro feel that Im kinda digging!

 

[gerbs4me]

Looks great!

 

[JERRYR708]

Looking good. Have you thought about painting one of the fins white? You could cut out the fin stickers and paint them white to complement the nose cone. I like how you trimmed the ends of the launch lug at an angle, something that I will start doing to.

 

[Amsterdam]

It's Turning out awesome!

what brand paint? That color is freaking sweet

 

[Cody Webster]

Looking good. Have you thought about painting one of the fins white? You could cut out the fin stickers and paint them white to complement the nose cone. I like how you trimmed the ends of the launch lug at an angle, something that I will start doing to.

That is a great idea, I will have to paint the fin opposite of the launch lug white. Amserdam, it is Model Masters Metallic Turqoise.

 

[Cody Webster]

 

[JERRYR708]

Hey Trooper, hows the Viking build coming along? Have you painted the forward fin white or added any decals or graphics? Have you flown it yet?

I lost my primer gray viking on a booster and never recovered it. I should have put the streamer on instead of the parachute. I looked for hours on the dry lake bed with no trees, no houses nothing. Where could it have gone..must have been a homing Viking and went back to China where it was made?

So, I made another one and just completed it today, this time with paint so that I can find it easier.

 

[Cody Webster]

Hey Trooper, hows the Viking build coming along? Have you painted the forward fin white or added any decals or graphics? Have you flown it yet?

I lost my primer gray viking on a booster and never recovered it. I should have put the streamer on instead of the parachute. I looked for hours on the dry lake bed with no trees, no houses nothing. Where could it have gone..must have been a homing Viking and went back to China where it was made?

So, I made another one and just completed it today, this time with paint so that I can find it easier.
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Road block after road block lately. Had rain and tornadoes throughout last week. Now I have got a sinus infection or something and feeling terrible. Hopefully will be able to get back to it soon, Im down for the count right now tho.

 

[JERRYR708]

Sorry to hear that. We had lots of rain and high mile per hour winds to. I was bored being barricaded in the house and went to work on a Viking. Thank God for build piles, they come in handy on days like this. Hope you get lots of rest and get better soon.

 

[GlenP]

Mine also has stickers, not decals, sorry. I guess if they were decals, they may not have slid off easily due the the paint. This viking is my shelf queen. I will upload my viking warrior that I used for my duration flyer.

I think that water slide decals can also be painted just fine, when I print my own on Testors paper I spray over them with clear gloss laquer, but you could just as easily paint a color. THe darker shade of green really looks great on this rocket.

I had some leftover decals from a Snipe Hunter and added them to this Viking that my son just built.

 

[JERRYR708]

I think that water slide decals can also be painted just fine, when I print my own on Testors paper I spray over them with clear gloss laquer, but you could just as easily paint a color. THe darker shade of green really looks great on this rocket.

I had some leftover decals from a Snipe Hunter and added them to this Viking that my son just built.

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On smaller rockets, I like to paint the stickers because that way I don't have to worry about masking and paint bleeding under the tape. Nice custom fins on your rocket. The color and shape of them kinda reminds me of the old Shoguns and Micronauts toys I used to have. I wanted to apply a checkered roll pattern on mine, but didn't have confidence for it yet.

Here is a picture of the Viking I had drawn while at work of what I wanted to do:

 

[JERRYR708]

I decided to build a couple of boosters for my Viking. The pattern on the rocket will continue throughout the 2 boosters to give it a consistent and sleek look. I cut out the stickers and stuck them to scotch tape to a piece of cardboard. This way when I paint them, the air from the can wont blow them around and flip them over which has happened before.

 

[JERRYR708]

I made a couple of boosters for my Viking.

These should send this Viking up high!

 

[Cody Webster]

I made a couple of boosters for my Viking.
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These should send this Viking up high!

Very cool Jerry! I bet she will really rip!!!

 

[GlenP]

Just launched a Viking with an altimeter One, jolly logic, on a C6-5 it went to 1508', a B6-4 to 672', and on an A8-5 to 314'.

 

[JERRYR708]

Just launched a Viking with an altimeter One, jolly logic, on a C6-5 it went to 1508', a B6-4 to 672', and on an A8-5 to 314'.

1508' is really high and that's with the added weight of the altimeter on such a small rocket. We need pictures on this forum or it never happened..so we have been told in the past on TRF.
I just got the Jolly Logic Altimeter 1 and launched it twice and I love it. My Estes altimeter ejected out of my Magician's payload bay which wasn't supposed to separate and I didn't tie it down. It fell 1400 ft. and stopped working.

 

[Viking]

Not entirely unreasonable. OR gives me the following with an AltimeterOne (10grams)

 

[JERRYR708]

Not entirely unreasonable. OR gives me the following with an AltimeterOne (10grams)
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How did you get the chart? I want one.

 

[dhbarr]

That's motors added to OR, then simmed.

 

[JERRYR708]

That's motors added to OR, then simmed.

Don't laugh, but I had to type OR and O.R. online a few times just to find out what it was. Open Rocket! I'm going to check that out right now. If it's free, I'm joining. Thanks.

 

[dhbarr]

Don't laugh, but I had to type OR and O.R. online a few times just to find out what it was. Open Rocket! I'm going to check that out right now. If it's free, I'm joining. Thanks.

No laughing, no judgement. OR is a great way to forecast how you'll be spending money, but itself costs nothing 😂

 

[Viking]

...If it's free, I'm joining. Thanks.

Sure is!
There's a moderate learning curve at first but once you get used to it you can fly through a new design.

 

[JERRYR708]

Sure is!
There's a moderate learning curve at first but once you get used to it you can fly through a new design.

My wife says: "you have rockets in the closet, under the bed, in the office and in the garage still in packages. Why would you need a rocket program to design new rockets? You have enough that there is little room for the imagination, let alone this house, JIMINY CHRISTMAS! "

 

[Viking]

Hah, yes well, let's not go there. My wife doesn't know the half of it!
Actually, OR (and Rocksim) are probably used more often for checking rocket ballpark stability and for aiding motor selection more than anything. (and optimum delay length, last column in that chart)

 

[JERRYR708]

The 'classic' look is the way to go
Teabag with elastic cord has never failed me for these small birds. I do use twice as long elastic as supplied by estes though.

Like you, I've not only teabagged all of my small rockets with success, but even the bigger ones with elastic cord. I also change out the Estes shock cords with longer ones, almost doubling the lengths.

 

[GlenP]

We need pictures on this forum or it never happened...

This happened: with an 808 keychain camera we launched the Viking on an A8-3, it was just taped on at the front end of the body tube near the nose cone. It spun around like crazy, the video does not look that great, but I extracted a few decent screenshots from it.

 

[JERRYR708]

This happened: with an 808 keychain camera we launched the Viking on an A8-3, it was just taped on at the front end of the body tube near the nose cone. It spun around like crazy, the video does not look that great, but I extracted a few decent screenshots from it.

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The smallest diameter rocket I've put my 808 key chain camera on was the SkyWriter with a .98 or BT-50. I didn't think a Viking would have enough surface area to velcro onto or big enough to not be affected by the camera protruding away causing imbalance. Looks like you have a fish eye lense or wide angle on yours unlike the one I have. Your pictures came out nice.
Did the rocket return safely? What type of recovery did you use? I see a school so I know you didn't want to loose your camera on a bigger engine. If you went streamer, the weight of the payload would take a hard landing, but the grass below helps.

 

[GlenP]

I just used the stock streamer, the body did fall top end first, but onto soft grass. The lens is not fisheye, the rocket was spinning so fast it caused the images to distort and appear like that. I would guess it is roughly like a wide angle lens, maybe 24mm or 35mm SLR equivalent? No detailed specs on it, it is the 808 keychain pinhole camera. Fun stuff, I am going to try it on a larger dia rocket with a fairing to keep it from spinning so much, and maybe on a multi stage rocket, I just got it and the Wizard flight was my first attempt at on rocket video.