FlisKits: 1:14 Sport Scale Thunderbird

[Stymye]

mine's finally at the last sand than paint stage, I'll post some pics in a couple days including a few build pics , it requires some effort but when done right this is one sweet looking rocket!

 

[Fred]

mine's finally at the last sand than paint stage, I'll post some pics in a couple days including a few build pics , it requires some effort but when done right this is one sweet looking rocket!

I am looking forward to that
Cheers
fred

 

[adrian]

Does anyone know if the Thunderbird (or any of the Bloodhound family) have ever been kitted? I have seen many scratch builds, but don't recall ever seeing a retail kit before...

There used to be one produced by a British company. The owner of the company was at International Rocket Week (one of our main annual flying events), where I had my scratch-built model along. He pointed out that mine was inaccurate because it has four large fins on the sustainer. I said it's supposed to have four. He said the one at East Fortune Museum of Flight only has three. I said the one at East Fortune is missing a fin.

Those main fins look a little iffy for something like that, considering the (seemingly) tiny attachment area or "root chord"....

Most of the fins on my scratch-built model are surface mount; the only ones which go through are the small aft sustainer fins, because they're level with a rolled paper cone. That model, at 1/8 scale, is powered by a D12-5 in the sustainer and C6-0's in the boosters, and hasn't lost a fin yet.

Here's a bit of detail which you can add to the model. The aft end of the sustainer is sealed by a circular plate with connections for the launcher. I photographed it and resized it to fit my model, printed it out, cut a hole for the motor, and glued it to a cardboard disc which then went onto the back of the model. If you resize it again to fit Jim's model, you can do likewise.

And here are some photos of the specimen at East Fortune, in case anyone wants to add more scale details.

 

[jflis]

Great set of pictures there, Adrian! Thank you

I need to build another, with detail like that, just because