Gallery - Tube Finned Rockets

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Here is my LOC Cyclotron with an alphabet theme. If the field dries in time it will have it's first flight this weekend.

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Here is my LOC Cyclotron with an alphabet theme. If the field dries in time it will have it's first flight this weekend.

That looks nice. Did you paint the letters or are they some kind of decal/sticker?
 
Here is my scratch built Pipe Dream, the ugliest rocket I've ever made. It does fly well, though. One of the fins broke off during its last flight, I still need to repair it.

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Youse guys have a bunch of great looking models there!

Here are my tubers (L-to-R):

1. AquaBottleBat - A 29mm mailing tube rocket inspired by Larry Brand's EMRR reviews. Nose cone is a foam-filled AquaPod water bottle. I found that, if you build the fin can using the inner telescoping tube, the fins are flush with the body. Make lugs/rail buttons easier, uses up all the extra inside tubing from projects that only needed couplers and the fin can is easily removable in case a replacement is needed (held in with the screw from the rail button and pop rivets).
2. El Tubo Loco - A 29mm, 4" dia, mailing tube rocket using the same fin can concept.
3. Mini-Toobah - A 13mm version of Dave Webber's Toober, an HPR rocket that is pushing 300 flights. Can't believe I recovered it.
4. Never Say Never - Build from leftovers and 5 Folgers coffee bins. Details here: https://rocketdungeon.blogspot.com/2011/07/launch-report-2011-x.html

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Thought I would share my FSI Viking. I love the way it looks and flies. One of my first kits too.

-Z

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Thought I would share my FSI Viking. I love the way it looks and flies. One of my first kits too.

-Z

That looks great and belongs here. With your permission, I'd like to copy it to start an FSI Viking Gallery.

May I?

Which Viking is it? I'm not familiar with the various permutations and only know that there were at least 5.
 
I actually had to look it up. It is the Viking 1 BMS clone. You may copy this anywhere you like. You guys are great :)

-Z
 
Here's a great shot of my tube daddy going up on three C6 motors in adapters (It is designed to fly on three E9 motors, but it was too windy for anything beyond the Cs).

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My just-finished Centuri Groove Tube BT-56 upscale. I was incredibly proud of this one because I did everything myself, decals included. (It seemed like a big deal at the time.:wink:)

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Launch sequence at VOA. One second it was there, then it weren't. I searched for an hour and since it landed near the road, I really thought someone had driven off with it.:mad:

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The next spring when I showed up for a launch, another QUARKer gave me this.

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I rebuilt it, flew it at NARAM 47, and this time the field got to keep it.:eek:
 
Here's my latest tube fin model - a kit bash of the Estes Firehawk (short build thread in the Scratchbuild section). Briefly, I carved the fins off the fin can and glued six 1-1/8" BT-20 tube fins to the plastic motor mount (I'm using the retainer as is). I glued a launch lug to the silver tube and painted all the red parts with red Tamiya acrylic. Can't wait to fly it!
 

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Here's my Kraken inspired 3 inch tube fin.

Blue Tube, 54mm motor.

Suffered a major zipper on my first L2 attempt with motor based ejection, but came good following a rebuild anti-zipper style and with electronic deployment.
 

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A prototype/work-in-progress that I posted in another thread:

First off, please excuse the build/finish quality on this - this is just a prototype. I did not put a lot of time/energy into quality on this, it was just to test out how this might work. I plan to build a nicer version of this at some point.

Basically, the tube fins pierce the airframe. There are no centering rings, as the internal portions of the tube fins anchor the motor tube. As well the airframe itself tapers down (sort of a boat-tail) along the length of the fins. And finally, I heavily tapered the leading/trailing edges of the tubes.

btw - the prototype worked; I test fired this just a short time ago and it flew great.


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Nice one stealth. I had wanted to try this idea out but wasn't sure how it would turn out.

In the 4th photo from the rear I thought I'd be able to see the section of the tube fin that pierces the body. Perhaps by the end of the taper the entire tube is on the outside?
 
This is a scratch build I did with parts from 3 crashed or retired birds from our fleet. Turned it really nice and flies straight as an arrow. Going up on a Kosdon I145 Dirty Harry.

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FSI Viking 4, BT-70 upscale.:cool:

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Flight was very cool. A nice, slow liftoff and big, curving windcock to the east. Looking forward to flying this one in zero wind. :rolleyes:

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Recovery was eventful as the 12" chute brought the Viking 4 in a little hot. It stuck the landing at an angle. :D

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FSI Viking 3. Pretty much a 1:1 clone, but with Estes parts.

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Even with a C6-7 this was an impressive flight. Followed the same flight path as all of the E9 flights, but lower and at a steeper angle. The streamer brought it almost straight down and it wound up as my longest walk and toughest find of the day.

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FSI Viking 3. Pretty much a 1:1 clone, but with Estes parts.

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Even with a C6-7 this was an impressive flight. Followed the same flight path as all of the E9 flights, but lower and at a steeper angle. The streamer brought it almost straight down and it wound up as my longest walk and toughest find of the day.

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I'd sure like to copy these Vikings to the Viking gallery.

May I?
 
Sure.
Sorry. I didn't realize they had their own gallery. I thought they got grouped under tube fins.

Not a problem.

Generally, everything has its own gallery section. Then there are things like "Tube Fin" that serve as catch alls and include both production models and scratch builds.
 
Not a problem.

Generally, everything has its own gallery section. Then there are things like "Tube Fin" that serve as catch alls and include both production models and scratch builds.

Well, all of my other Vikings are in the Viking section, but I chose to put this batch in the tube finned section. How dumb is that?:blush::eyeroll::D
Heavy sigh. Heavy, heavy sigh.:confused2:
 
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