FlisKits Nomad Build Sequence - Hints/Cheats

[eugenefl]

Hello everyone!

I've been building feverishly lately. As you all know, the Tour de Deuce start is going to take place in about 2 weeks. I figured this would be a great time to start and finish my Nomad for an encore flight. <a href="https://www.nefar.net/">NEFAR</a> has an incredibly large sod farm field that is perfect for flying the Nomad fully stacked. Has anyone done that yet?

Anyways, this is a sequence of photos that outline my build progress. I decided to post everything up until the painting/finishing process so that there isn't a 2 week lag between updates.

1st Picture - Front cover art. Beautiful....ain't it?

 

[eugenefl]

The rear of the package showing the contents...

 

[eugenefl]

This kit has TONS of parts! I mean lots! See pic.

 

[eugenefl]

This picture is of the massive assortment of tubes, rings, and other MMT components. Wow...

 

[eugenefl]

To make life easier and to ensure the centering ring is 90 deg. to the surface of the motor tube, or in this case, a smaller piece of body tube, I used my nifty tube marking guide. A crooked ring can make for a difficult insertion of MMT into airframe.

 

[eugenefl]

Here's another view of my centered and vertical "ring cheat" method.

 

[eugenefl]

The Nomad features a faux transition. Instead of a traditional BT60/BT55 balsa piece, you have to actually construct your transition. For a perfect fit and ease of installation, one of the centering rings is left partially exposed. The partial exposure of the ring makes for a perfect snug surface mount for the paper transistion shroud. I discovered this accidentally BTW.

 

[eugenefl]

The FlisKits Nomad features a horizontal recovery. What this basically means is that per kit instructions, you have to permanently affix a piece of Kevlar to the coupler joint where the two parts of the body tube meet. I personally felt this a tad invasive as I was expecting complications during the painting process. Instead, I opted to install an external Kevlar loop. This mod serves as the perfect snap-swivel attachment point.

In this picture you will notice that I made 2 small holes in the tube coupler. I passed the Kevlar thread through both holes leaving a loop exposed. On the backside, a knot was tied and the excess Kevlar was CyAed to the inside of the coupler. See pic.

 

[eugenefl]

This image shows the Kevlar loop exposed once one half of the coupler is glued in place.

To avoid "bumps" in the airframe where the Kevlar would interfere with the coupler insertion, I carefully carved out 2 small channels for the threads to rest in. I also made 2 tiny notches at the end of the lower half of the body tube for the Kevlar to exit without interfering with the body tube joint.

 

[eugenefl]

This is what the loop looks like once the two halves of the tubes are joined.

 

[eugenefl]

Here is a picture of all stages with fins coated with Fill n Finish.

 

[eugenefl]

...and here is the Nomad, with lugs installed and fins sanded, posing naked and ready for the first few primer coats.

 

[Rocketmaniac]

Nice Pics.... You are quite the master rocket builder.........

 

[Austin]

Eugene...excellent pics bro! My son and I flew his nomad at NARAM 45 this year and it is one great flier. you should have fun with it.

Carl

 

[jflis]

Great pix, assembly and mods!

As for flying her full-up, i've done it several times and I know of a few others who have. The last nomad launch I saw was at CMASS and it was flown 2-stage.

great stuff! and I love how you did the kevlar attachement.

jim

 

[n3tjm]

I WANT A NOMAD!!!! :sob:

* Jim - I am hearing voices again... *

 

[wscarvie]

Me too, Doug, me too...the voices are so hard to ignore.

Hmm...I do need a few more parts too...

Hmm...

Nice job on the build, Eugene. I like the Kevlar loop a lot. Looking forward to seeing her painted up.

 

[airforce]

Eugene,
Is this your attempt to get your count up?????

 

[gerbs4me]

The Nomad looks good
can't wait to see launch pics

 

[eugenefl]

Originally posted by airforce
Eugene,
Is this your attempt to get your count up?????

Hey, so long as there is a picture attached to the post, I think I'm exempt! That goes for anyone else here!


Fill, prime, sand,....fill, prime, sand,....Fill, prime, sand,....fill, prime, sand,....Fill, prime, sand,....fill, prime, sand,....Fill, prime, sand,....fill, prime, sand,....Fill, prime, sand,....fill, prime, sand,....

...and when you think it's enough or you're nearly done, Fill, prime, sand,....

:kill:

Tonight the Nomad received extra special attention to detail. Most of my rockets are in this state. They are either primed or sanded. I truly despise the finishing process since it is a long process. Being a self-critic can really do you in. I am big stickler when it comes to detail, so this thing might take a while. Either that or some more long nighters and she'll be done soon! So far the 1st and 2nd stages are nearly complete. All gaps and burs have been filled and cleaned. One more coat of white primer and it's ready for gloss coat. The 3rd stage is in primer phase. It will require minimal work to get it just right.

 

[eugenefl]

Having never grown up around balsa nosecones, I am taking precaution so not to mangle my Nomad nosecone on its first flight or during transit.

In this step, I coated the nosecone in 30min finishing epoxy. I give full credit to Jason (jetra2) for this mod. The Nomad nosecone resembles the Estes Black Brant cone, except this one is a bit shorter. (FlisKits plug - pick one up in the parts section at www.fliskits.com and build yourself a WAC Corporal clone!) Once sanded, I will give it a light Fill 'n Finish coat to smoothen any gaps. You'll also notice that I covered the base of the cone with a light 1.5oz glass. Hey, there was a piece laying on the table along with some extra mixed epoxy. Why not use it right? Actually, we employed this method on both Tour de Deuce rockets in the hopes that shoulder splintering or fragmenting doesn't occur. Once dry, I will bore out a 1/4" hole and insert a 1/2" length of dowel to strengthen the screweye mount.

Now let's just hope I get this rocket back after a long fully stacked flight!

(ok, 2:30am...time for bed now...REALLY!)

 

[eugenefl]

Round 1 of painting is complete. I will be painting my Nomad to the kit original colors. The nosecone is bright red, main body is bright yellow, and 1st stage is glossy black. I still have some work to do on the red sections. As you can see, as it stands, it is only 3 primary colors with no detail. Additionally, the Florida humidity made a cloudy dull color in my yellow. I'm going to have to wait 'til it's a bit less humid out and give the yellow part another go.

As an added bonus, I've even made myself a waterslide decal of the Nomad logo. More on that later. For now, here are the painting pics.

The staging sections.....

 

[eugenefl]

Here is a view from the nosecone down. From this vantage point, you can see the Kevlar loop and barely see the launch lugs.

 

[eugenefl]

...and here is the Nomad, after one round of paint, standing upright. Almost there folks! First flight is scheduled for the NEFAR Bunnell Blast weekend coming up in less than a week.

 

[jflis]

looking great eugenio!

You did a **fine** job on the 3rd stage/2nd stage fin alignment. One of the design features of the Nomad is that it *looks* like a 2-stage model on the pad...

I also notice that you have the 1st stage rotated 60 degrees, it's a personal preference, but that is the way I like it as well. Just looks so much cooler that way

For what it's worth, I painted mine with a *flat* black 1st stage.

OH! When you launch it, I volunteer to watch the **bottom** stage...

jim

 

[jetra2]

Dibs on stage 2!

Wow...I am impressed! Looks good Eugene!

Jason

 

[jflis]

Well, Eugene, I guess that leaves the *top* stage for you...


...we'll keep the coffee hot...

 

[eugenefl]

Originally posted by jflis
Well, Eugene, I guess that leaves the *top* stage for you...


...we'll keep the coffee hot...

Thanks! Hey, Jason and I have tracked ChrisVG's Comanche 3 twice now - fully loaded! He recovered it both times too...well, kinda. The first time he flew it the 3rd stage landed in a road and was run over, but hey, that wasn't his fault.

Chris and I talked and we're actually thinking of drag racing the Nomad vs. the Comanche 3 fully stacked! I don't know of any other companies aside from Estes and FlisKits that have a 3-stager. This could make for an interesting showdown!

 

[eugenefl]

All done! The Nomad is finally finished. If the weather ever dries out some, I will go back out and clearcoat it. Otherwise, this is a good as it gets.

Here's a picture of the tail section with all stages painted to the cover art appearance.

 

[eugenefl]

This was my first attempt at making waterslide decals. It's still not up to par with the Estes variety, but it worked nonetheless. The decal slide off the backing and applied to the model well. I had to use a laser printer from work. This paper isn't the inkjet compatible variety.