I guess maybe I'm doing this: Goony Apollo

[Steven]

I believe it was made and released by Estes themselves. Back in the 70's you could order this video on VHS of course. It makes sense since Estes and Paramount Pictures got together for the Starship Enterprise and Klingon Battle Cruiser models.

 

[Vitruvius]

AWESOME Sauce!

 

[Retrospace101]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

Goony 1B is my favorite out of these

 

[Vitruvius]

Yes, I agree with Retrospace101; the "Gooney 1B" is my favorite, also. How about a short Tutorial on the 1B. please? Thanks!

 

[Retrospace101]

In fact this could become a kit as well!

 

[Vitruvius]

Works for me!!!!!!!!; ;-))

 

[SCooke123]

Like all 3! Thanks for the plans on the Gooney Module.

 

[Vitruvius]

Yes, Thanks. I think that I speak for most all of us by saying that we look forward to Your other "Gooney" plans to come!

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

I flew the Loon Lander today. Good news and bad news...

Good news: It flies straight and stable, no problems going up.
Bad News:
1. I suck at taking cellphone video while launching, so no pictures.
2. ejection charge broke the engine mount loose from the body, so it needs at least a glue joint repair before flying again.

I'm not sure if the joint failure was just a sign that I didn't assemble it well, or whether this represents a fundamental defect in the design of the ejection system. It's possible I also need to do some sanding to loosen up the fit of the ball nose so there's less stress when it pops.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

I'm starting work on the two Saturns. Made my first parts order ever from Balsa Machining (they seem awesome). Picked up an Estes Mini Fat Boy and a NC-80B nose from the local hobby shoppe (I know Mini Berthas are traditional for kit bashing Goonies but they didn't have one and the Fat Boy is the same nose and body so close enough).

The first and second stages of the Saturn V are built on a BT-80 (it's bigger than a normal BT-60 because it's a super heavy lift goony). The tip of the nose gets cut down to make it a transition to the third stage:

Then a centering ring and section of BT-60 coupler tube is glued to the top to make a stable mount for the third stage:


The centering ring is there to act as a base of the parachute compartment, otherwise the chute would be flopping around in the big interior of the NC-80.

I'm planning to try making a printed wrap and clear coating it instead of doing paint and decals. Here's a mockup of the artwork, even though I don't have the body tube to wrap yet:

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

I picked the tube sizes for these based on what standard sizes would fit and what looked reasonably good. I was surprised when I ran the numbers and discovered that BT-50/BT-60/BT-80 tubes are within 5% of the correct diameters for a 1:150 scale Saturn V. Since I've spent the last thirty-five years or so thinking it would be cool to have a good Saturn V model and I've never quite gotten around to doing it, I ordered some extra length of tubing on the theory my next build is a sport scale scratch build.

The trickiest tube issue for this project is the tanks for the Saturn 1b. BT-5 is just a little too big, and would require some weird trimming and shimming to get everything to work with a BT-60 main body. So I'm getting some T4 (0.448in diameter) which fits nicely. For the record, T4 is 4% below scale size for a 1:150 Saturn 1b, so I got some extra length in case I go crazy and decide to do a sport scale 1b as well.

So I guess I'm saying if you only look in the horizontal direction these are actually scale models.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

More parts have arrived.
Cutting lots of fiddly little tubes for the 1B:


And a test fit of the full SV stack:

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Here's the recovery setup for the Saturn 5. The shock cord is tied off between the second and third nose cones. Ejection gas goes through the preexisting hole in the bottom of the NC-80 through the cutout at the top into the third stage tube. The disk on the shock cord is a sort of mini-piston that's part of my quest to never use recovery wadding again.

The short tube and the big shoulder tenon on the NC-60 mean there's barely enough space to pack the chute. Somehow no matter how big the rocket I always end up with too little space for recovery stuff.

 

[Cape Byron]

For the record, T4 is 4% below scale size for a 1:150 Saturn 1b,

And this in a Goonie thread makes me

Great thread, BTW. Lovin' it.

 

[Alan15578]

I stopped at TLHS, checking for new C5-3 and Q-Jet motors. Nothing yet, but I noticed a plastic model kit of a Goonie Saturn.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Made the engine fairings for the Saturn 5. These are the same balsa nose cone used for the command module, but split in half and finished with a bit of BT-50. They need a bit of sanding to shape the flat edge to match the curve of the body tube.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

This is the point in a typical Saturn 5 build where the designer includes some fine print about how the fins are slightly out of scale to improve stability. So here it goes...

These fins are GIGANTIC, partly for stability, but mostly because this is a Goonybird and big chunky fins are AWESOME.

 

[DAllen]

Wow what a cool idea!

*subscribed*

 

[Daddyisabar]

Goonybird on my shoulder makes me happy.
Goonybird in my eyes can make me cry,
Goonybird on the launchpad looks so lovely,
Goonybirds almost always make me high...

 

[modeltrains]

because sometimes really bad ideas seem interesting

This thread might just win the Exhibit A award!

And actually, the models have a documentable "friendly cartoon" look and feel to them.

 

[Daddyisabar]

This thread might just win the Exhibit A award!

And actually, the models have a documentable "friendly cartoon" look and feel to them.

Really bad ideas are my yardstick. Every oddroc I've ever built I have taken before our head RSO and simply said "good idea?" and the answer has always been no; like the Hatter always asking Alice if he is Mad. How is the Goony like a writing desk?

Yes, the little darlings do have a Bandersnatch type of cuteness. Now all you must do is press the button to face the Jabberwocky!

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Incidentally, there's nothing new under the sun. Some time after I started working on this, I discovered that David Qualman has built some Goony Saturns as well. There's pics in the Goony Gallery thread here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/goony-gallery.29022/

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Sooooo many fins...

I kind of want to know what happened in the design meeting for the Saturn 1b. They've realized they need to redesign the fins, and they're trying to decide on a configuration. Then someone's like "Well, we've got 8 engines, and 9 tanks, so what the Hell, how about 8 fins..."

It's easy not to notice until you look at the details how _strange_ the Saturn 1b really is.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

And I had to make my own centering rings out of papered balsa for the Saturn V engine mount. Somehow the act of cutting out the rings suddenly made this whole build feel like an upscale Fat Boy (which, all right, it basically is).

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

The command service module is the same for both Saturns. It's mounted by gluing a piece of BT-50 coupler to the NC-60 nose.


Test fitting the CSM to the mount:

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Gluing up the Saturn 1B body. The core is a BT-20 acting as the engine mount. There's a couple of centering rings and a bit of BT-60 forming the base where the fins will be mounted.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Paint day. I'm one of those people who tend to wait until everything else is done before thinking about painting. But for the Saturn 1B that's clearly not going to work, pieces need to be painted before assembly. So everything gets painted now, except I'm expecting a final clear coat on the Saturn V at the end.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Assembly of the Saturn 1B first stage is a bit tricky, all the tanks have to get aligned and glued in, then a centering ring and coupler section caps them off as the attachment point for the second stage. I'm tying the shock cord to some slots set into this centering ring.

 

[OverTheTop]

Looking good Jeff. Your pics are really low contrast. You may want to wipe the lens on your camera phone.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

The complete set



And a picture with the Giant Space Cat as a scale reference:
https://www.savagechickens.com/wp-content/uploads/chickenspacecatbird.jpg