BlueTrane2028
Active Member
- Joined
- May 26, 2020
- Messages
- 31
- Reaction score
- 29
As part of my resurgence back into LPR flying, I grabbed a lot of rocket equipment off a guy on Facebook. Mostly for the engines, those alone were worth the money. Along with it came a couple models already built and flyable (Sky Writer, Dragonite and Amazon), an additional Amazon in kit, a Crossfire ISX and... a very botched 3 fin Viking.
The typical "a young child tried building this themselves and failed" story. Body tube crumpled at both ends, fins glued on poorly, colored on with markers. About the only thing remotely correct was the depth of the thrust ring for the motor mount... but i'm going to put in a doubler to be sure (motor is kind of hard to grab fully installed). Doesn't seem like the thing ever flew too, no powder residue inside. My one regret is I failed to take a before pic. I figured, it can't get any worse, if I try to fix it and it goes nowhere, I've lost nothing. I think it turned out great.
First, I removed the recovery system, fins and launch lug. Second, I wrapped the crushed upper and lower portions of the body tube with identical sized pieces of Titebond soaked paper, while using a spent engine as a form. Third, I cleaned up the fins best I could, mounted along with a new lug.
The body wraps gave it a segmented appearance, so I knew the paint scheme would have to involve those segments. First, I painted the whole rocket in an aluminum silver as a sort of primer (and the finish color for middle segment). Second, I painted the upper segment and NC red and then lowest segment white. I admittedly didn't take enough time to prep or even wait before masking up and shooting different colors, but again it was botched so badly to begin with that structurally sound and flyable is an epic win.
I'm waiting for some Kevlar line, once that arrives I'll rig up a recovery harness for it and it will be time to send into orbit on a C6-5 or 7.
I also posted a pic of my 5 fin Viking that I made in tech ed class in high school.
I think my next two builds will also be Vikings. Going to buy both kits at once, make one a 4 fin, probably forward swept, then the second kit will get six. 3 mounted as I have them on the two I already have built, 3 using the longest side as the fin root. I think that will be interesting to look at. That would give me 3,4,5 and 6 fin ones built.
Have a Viking you're proud of? Show it off here!
The typical "a young child tried building this themselves and failed" story. Body tube crumpled at both ends, fins glued on poorly, colored on with markers. About the only thing remotely correct was the depth of the thrust ring for the motor mount... but i'm going to put in a doubler to be sure (motor is kind of hard to grab fully installed). Doesn't seem like the thing ever flew too, no powder residue inside. My one regret is I failed to take a before pic. I figured, it can't get any worse, if I try to fix it and it goes nowhere, I've lost nothing. I think it turned out great.
First, I removed the recovery system, fins and launch lug. Second, I wrapped the crushed upper and lower portions of the body tube with identical sized pieces of Titebond soaked paper, while using a spent engine as a form. Third, I cleaned up the fins best I could, mounted along with a new lug.
The body wraps gave it a segmented appearance, so I knew the paint scheme would have to involve those segments. First, I painted the whole rocket in an aluminum silver as a sort of primer (and the finish color for middle segment). Second, I painted the upper segment and NC red and then lowest segment white. I admittedly didn't take enough time to prep or even wait before masking up and shooting different colors, but again it was botched so badly to begin with that structurally sound and flyable is an epic win.
I'm waiting for some Kevlar line, once that arrives I'll rig up a recovery harness for it and it will be time to send into orbit on a C6-5 or 7.
I also posted a pic of my 5 fin Viking that I made in tech ed class in high school.
I think my next two builds will also be Vikings. Going to buy both kits at once, make one a 4 fin, probably forward swept, then the second kit will get six. 3 mounted as I have them on the two I already have built, 3 using the longest side as the fin root. I think that will be interesting to look at. That would give me 3,4,5 and 6 fin ones built.
Have a Viking you're proud of? Show it off here!
