HPR "Tres" FlisKits Upscale

[g_boxwood]

Originally posted by eugenefl
I wonder if Carl's clone from Italy is watching.

Yes, I'm watching man...

Short after having 'flown' my Deuce I started upscaling the ACME Spitfire (LOC 3.90") which has to be completed yet... I'm working on my L2 project right now... so I won't take any other FlisKits upscales for the moment!!!

BTW I neither possess any of the originals...

I'm looking forward Your job, Carl!!! It will definitely be superb!!!!

Ciao,

Giacomo

 

[eugenefl]

Originally posted by g_boxwood
Yes, I'm watching man...

Short after having 'flown' my Deuce I started upscaling the ACME Spitfire (LOC 3.90") which has to be completed yet... I'm working on my L2 project right now... so I won't take any other FlisKits upscales for the moment!!!

BTW I neither possess any of the originals...

I'm looking forward Your job, Carl!!! It will definitely be superb!!!!

Ciao,

Giacomo

Sweet! That is incredible what you and Carl have done with these kits. I am in certain admiration of the time spent on accomplishing a rocket as big as these. Pardon my referring to you as a clone, but I hadn't anticipated someone else actually upscaling and building a Deuce as big as Carl's. Besides, you had appeared out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. I (We) have nothing but respect for you and Carl's work.

So, you have any pictures of that Spitfire upscale?

Glad you joined us on The Rocketry Forum. Welcome aboard. I'm sure you've seen for yourself that this is a very nice place to chat about rocketry.

 

[sandman]

Short after having 'flown' my Deuce I started upscaling the ACME Spitfire (LOC 3.90") which has to be completed yet

Giacomo,

We would like to see some pictures, please!

Also some pictures of your Deuce...especially with the "new" nose cone!


sandman

 

[jflis]

Giacomo, Greetings again and welcome to TRF. I would also be interested in the upscale of the ACME Spitfire and would love pix of both of your FlisKits upscales for our site.

It's wonderful that these are being done and it certainly humbles me no end

 

[g_boxwood]

So, you have any pictures of that Spitfire upscale?

BTW Thank You (Eugene, Jim and sandman) for the great welcome!!!

Now, I was able only to get these pitiful pictures this morning but I will probably getting a better DC in the next few days...

The upscaled ACME Spitfire consists of 3 BT sections that I cut using the original ACME skins (enlarged by the upscaling factor) as wrap-up templates; same as above for the fins.

I never touch'd the model again from the first days of September 2003 (when I put what You see together).

The tailskirt and the n/c will be probably made with balsa strips and I plan to glass it (even if with a light layer, 1-2 oz. dunno) as well.

The continuos 38 MMT which runs inside the whole length of the rocket still need to be trimmed...

Will probably use a Rowes cone engine-retainer.

I haven't already worked on the new fabolous DW nosecone You turned me sandman!!! Since the Spanish launch I just got the model painted (didn't have much ideas in that period) and planned to launch it at ALRS IV (Swiss meeting, end of September) on 2xI357T but didn't...

You can see the 'paint job' following this link:

https://www.rocketmedia.org/modules...ame=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

Again, sorry for the poor quality pictures and thank for Your interest; I'll post better ones ASA I get this better DC.

Ciao,

Giacomo

 

[n3tjm]

Wow. Nice Design. I like the way you did the through-the-wall fins on that.

 

[bsexton]

Who are you people and why do you make me feel so inadequate?

That is quite a collection of rocketeers and rockets! I am very impressed. It looks like a whole club of "Carl Tulankos". The attention to detail is superb!

And welcome to the forum...

 

[airforce]

Boxwood,
Thanks for the pictures, I went through all 68 of them!!
WOW!!! what a beautiful launch site you have. Makes me want to do something I thought I would never want to do, visit another country...

Fantastic rockets and launches.....I could imagine trying to transport a rocket of size on top of our car over here!!!!

 

[sandman]

Giacomo,

I especially love the paint job on your Deuce!

Very nice work.

sandman

 

[rstaff3]

Man this had turned into a super thread of upscales. I bet they can't rub the smile off Jim's face

Giacomo, I can't wait to see more of the spitfire. Great job, man!

 

[Austin]

Giacomo,

Great job on the Deuce...the paint looks awesome! As far as the Spitfire goes, it looks really cool and I too like the design of the fin can...well done.

Carl

 

[Austin]

I did some more work on the Tres the last couple days and am continuing today. Friday was a long day for me as I drove up to PML in Michigan to pick up a very large order and I wound up meeting Sandman there. We had a good time, shot the bull for over an hour, then spent another couple hours at the local Ruby Tuesday's for lunch. A quick hop to Michaels and HD (Rocket Depot) to pick up some supplies and we returned to PML to pick up the rest of my order that wasn't going to be finished unitil 2pm. I said my goodby's to Sand-da-man, after leaving him with some cash and scrap BT's to build the Transition for the Tres and he went on his merry little way...it was a great time bro!

When I returned home, I actually did a little building. The CR's and bulkhead for the lower Booster Section were built and all were drilled for alignment rods. Yesterday was spent on shaping the upper cluster CR , then I turned to the lower fins. All three fins were cut from 1/4" aircraft ply, then bolted together and sanded. I did the same to the strakes, which were shaped to fit the leading edge of the fins.

Finally, I spent some time at the hardware store, Lowes, and picked up some stainless hardware for the Booster Altimeter bay , along with some craft wood to build a "Fin Beveling Jig." I will start on this stuff today, but need to get a few things done around the house first. I will post an update tonite on how we managed.

Here are a few more pics:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?display=tres/Tres 102.jpg

Carl

 

[jflis]

Gawd, I love yer photo essays

great to see it coming together! by the way, are you going to make it to NARCON? WOuld love to see you and chat about what you've been up to!

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by CTulanko
Giacomo,

Great job on the Deuce...the paint looks awesome! As far as the Spitfire goes, it looks really cool and I too like the design of the fin can...well done.

Carl

call me loopy, but I can't find the pix of the upscale ACME Spitfire... can anyone help? I checked the photo album link and went through it front to back...

jim
maybe i'm just too tired and can't see the forest through the trees... LOL

 

[eugenefl]

Originally posted by jflis
call me loopy, but I can't find the pix of the upscale ACME Spitfire... can anyone help? I checked the photo album link and went through it front to back...

jim
maybe i'm just too tired and can't see the forest through the trees... LOL

LOL...Jim, the picture of the ACME is attached to the post. It's a collage of a few build pics.

 

[Weekends]

It's looking really great.
*sigh*, to not live in an apartment and have power tools. hehe

Weekends

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by eugenefl
LOL...Jim, the picture of the ACME is attached to the post. It's a collage of a few build pics.

sheesh!

well, at least you didn't call me "loopy"...

ever feel like yer going a million miles an hour then the turtle passes ya??



by the way, it looks GREAT.

Giacomo, if your interested and need the help, I could blow up the download skins to fit your upscale if you want that package art look. let me know!

jim

 

[loopy]

Originally posted by jflis
sheesh!

well, at least you didn't call me "loopy"...

Hey - quit trying to take my name...lol

Carl - that looks awesome! You continue to amaze us all. How did you like Chesterfield/New Baltimore? I lived there until I was around 14...

Giacomo - welcome to the forum! It will be interesting to hear a European perspective on this addiction we call rocketry!

Loopy

 

[Austin]

Thanks guys, we are still having fun.

I made some good progress last night on the Sustainer section. Some detail work was completed and is now out of the way. I marked the Fin Can Bodytube for the Sustainer for fin slots, making sure they were even. The slots were cut out, then the fins were fitted to the slots. A small file helped me get the fit right. I next turned my attention to the fins. I knew they were a bit wide as I wanted more than enough extra for the TTW (thru-the-wall) fin mounting. I removed about 1/8" of the root on the fins and they all fit fine now.

With the fin slotting of the bodytube and depth trimming of the G12 fins out of the way, I took a few pics of the asembly "dry fitted" together just to see what it will look like, but did not post the pics yet. I will do that tonite.

Carl

 

[Austin]

Did some more building tonite. I made the Booster Altimeter Bay using a piece of PML 2.1" Coupler tube and made the bay 7" long. This should be big enough for any altimeter I may wish to use. Next I made a Timer Bay for the Sustainer from the same material; the bay is 3" long and uses Ply bulkheads on each end, which I cut tonite for both the Alt and Timer bays.

A few pics were taken and I processed those I took last nite:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?display=tres/Tres 115.jpg

Carl

 

[KermieD]

Carl, every time I think I grasp the magnitude of your insanity, you do something else to freak the snot out of me. I absolutely LOVE keeping track of this!



P.S. Whassup with the HARM?

 

[sandman]

Well, between being too sick to work outside in the shop and it being too darn cold!

I finally got Carl's transition finished!

WHEW!! THAT was hard!

Well the transition part was easy...the 3" in diameter by 3" deep flat bottomed hole in the small end THAT was friggin" hard!

Anybody got a 3" drill bit??? Oh wait, I do!!! hehehe!

sandman

 

[sandman]

Here it is with the center coupler in the top and some small sections of body tube.

The top part gets a 6" coupler inserted...that's why I had to drill the 3" hole...so it can attach to the "second stage"

The blue paint...well, it was just a piece of scrap tube Carl gave me.

sandman

P.S. Now that I have everybody's stuff done I can build something for ME!!

 

[jflis]

oh, *that* is SWEET!

You do grade A+++ work, guy! Carl's gonna love it!

 

[g_boxwood]

Originally posted by jflis


Giacomo, if your interested and need the help, I could blow up the download skins to fit your upscale if you want that package art look. let me know!

jim

Thank You Jim but I think that I'll go either with a simple glossy red or I'll weather it heavily with scratches and ... I was willing to finish it with some kind of riveting and paneling (same techniques used on R/C scale airplanes) as well... The time will tell!

You guys should know that the Acme Spitfire represents 'something more' for us in Italy because it shares the name with our only national rocketry club: ACME stands for
European Missiles Builders Association (where 'Builders' starts with letter 'C' in Italian and the words are in different order).

You can check the logo out at

www.razzimodellismo.org

BTW I got a new camera but still needs to use it...

Ciao,

Giacomo

 

[Austin]

Some more work was done on the Tres this weekend. I did all the detail oriented work on the Booster CR, bulkhead, altimeter bay and timer bay by countersinking holes, drilling, cutting, designing, etc... It is now at the point where all the parts are cut out and most are drilled/fitted. I need to glass the Bodytubes next, then it will be time for assembly.

A few more pics: https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?display=tres/Tres 125.jpg

That is all,

Carl

 

[jflis]

Carl,

don't be a stranger! Seems like a coon's age since you've posted here (in TRF)

One thing i noticed... ...if you ever need a job, save these photo albums and you could land a good job as a machinist man! Great stuff!

keep it coming!
jim

 

[Austin]

Jim,

Yea I know...it's been gong on two weeks. Rocket parts pickup in Detroit, followed by holiday, kids, out of town funeral, kids again, then the flu that I got last Saturday have kept me out of it for what seems like a month. Oh wait, that is about a month of activities...

This is the first day back to the office from having it bad...I dropped 18 pounds in 5 days...one hell of a diet huh? It's called the flu I guess and this one sucked for 5 days...nuf said there. Last nite I actually had the strength to prep the Bodytubes for glassing, but that was about it. I am doing better today and am slowly getting back into it, so the build should pick up it's pace. I did post a few pics on last nites work and we'll see how we feel tonite as far as adding the cloth. Still having fun though...glad to be at it again.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?display=tres/Tres 133.jpg

Carl

 

[Austin]

Sustainer bodytubes were glassed tonite and are setting up overnite. A few pics:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?dir=tres/&startpic=140

Carl

 

[eugenefl]

Carl, I think everyone is going to agree with me here on this one, but I believe the best picture in this documentary has got to be the one of you putting baby powder on your hand. Wait, no no...the one of the masking tape showing the frayed ends of the cut glass! You kill me with your photo documentary! LOL!

I am actually looking to see how you apply your resin. Every tube I've attempted to glass comes out somewhat bumpy or requires fill n finish and heavy sanding. If you could, be sure to take a picture of your hand holding the roller for us.

Dang nice work with that transition sandman! Very nice!