Halloween OddRoc

[brianc]

Last night I noticed this weekend's NEFAR launch is going to
have a Halloween OddRoc Contest...

So I stopped at the Dollar store during lunch and slapped this
together while watching Celebrity Poker tonight. It's a 3FP
(3 fins and a Pumpkin)

The Pumpkin NC is a ~3.5" plastic light (I won't be loading the
battery). I Gorilla glued a cardboard coupler to the bottom
to fit a spare BT-70 I had lying around.

I haven't added the recovery system yet, but it'll be a length
of elastic, trifold mounted at both ends.

The fins are BATS from a clip art pattern I found via Google.
I have no idea if they will remain attached under power.
Hopefully the opposing grain patterns of the wings and body
will add some strength. But I'm really concerned about the
minimal surface area at the BT.

The MMT is a section of 24mm tube and 1/4" foamboard
CRs. I'll friction fit a C11 or D12.

I'll probably paint the fincan area black and the rest of the BT
orange. Since this a quick-n-dirty build, I don't plan to spend
much time on the finishing- I doubt I'll even sand the fins.

Maybe I'll use a silver Sharpie to highlight the bat wings.

 

[brianc]

Here's a close-up of the fins...

 

[gerbs4me]

cool looking odd-roc
don't forget launch pics

 

[Micromeister]

It is October so the ghosts and ghouls should be out in force!
the dollar stores and letter marts are loaded with all manor of niffty neat stuff just begg'in to be turned into a Halloween Odd-Roc.

Very Cool Job there Brian! I really like the dimensional bat fins.. You may want to go another step with the Bat bodies by building up a couple more layers of balsa then sculpting them into semi-half rounds.. still somewhat areodynamic while adding depth and interest to the feature. Great job either way!

Heres a few of my Halloween Odd-roc collection and how I address BAT fins and such. Some of these are set up for Night illumination with on-board LED lighting, the pumpkin flashlight in the upper right has a cluster of 3 flashing orange leds in the pumpkin nose, the BAT&ball Scream in the center is set up so the ball lights up bright red at night, while the body has blue cylume and leds Illuminating the translucent painted blue Bat wing fins.
How fun is Halloween Mod Odd Rocking

 

[rstaff3]

The Halloweener and the skeleton rockets are my favs. I wonder if new one will crop up at their Oct launch?

 

[brianc]

Here's the paint job!

Not too bad for a Q&D build.

No sanding, one coat of Krylon grey primer, then about two-and-a-half coats
of WalMart gloss black and orange.

Ready for launch tomorrow!

 

[brianc]

Here's how the bats turned out. I used the Pentel White marker
I posted about in Techniques earlier this week.

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by Micromeister
Very Cool Job there Brian! I really like the dimensional bat fins.. You may want to go another step with the Bat bodies by building up a couple more layers of balsa then sculpting them into semi-half rounds..

Thanks. Maybe next time I'll put some effort into it. Like I metioned, I only noticed
on Wednesday that Saturday's launch was a Halloween OddRoc theme...

Amazing what can climb out of the scratch pile on short notice though!

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by brianc

The fins are BATS from a clip art pattern I found via Google.
I have no idea if they will remain attached under power.
Hopefully the opposing grain patterns of the wings and body
will add some strength. But I'm really concerned about the
minimal surface area at the BT.

The 3FP flew at NEFAR (see the Events section) today and
the fins held on just fine with a C11-3.

I had trouble getting this thing off the ground though- 3 trips
to the pad!

First, the ignitor broke at the clip... NEFAR has some pretty heavy
cables on the LPR rack. If you don't provide some slack and
tension relief, then these things happen (This wasn't my first time).

Then the delay after the second racking combined with the stong
breeze caused the launch lug to break away. (THANX again for
catching that eugenefl). A bit of CA, and I was ready for
the third trip to the pad...

Thankfully, this time everything worked out! The C11 was a bit
underpowered given the wind, but still did OK. Ejection was just past
apogee and I walked only about 30 yards to recover.

I didn't plan it, but I even had a color cordinated orange TopFlight
chute!

 

[eugenefl]

Originally posted by brianc
Thankfully, this time everything worked out! The C11 was a bit
underpowered given the wind, but still did OK. Ejection was just past
apogee and I walked only about 30 yards to recover.

I didn't plan it, but I even had a color cordinated orange TopFlight
chute!

Yeah, I was a ways back from the pad but it looked like it was begging for a D12. It was an interesting flight from what I observed. It kinda shot straight up to about 120ft and it appeared to fall on its tail end (I think) - laughter ensued. That was entertaining to watch. All in all it did quite well!