LOC 4" Nike Zeus build thread (With mods)...

[mbeels]

That paint can lid trick is slick.

 

[Tim51]

Just great work. Picking up this thread is like the return of a favourite TV serial.

 

[Mugs914]

Wow Tim, that is very kind of you to say! Thanks!

 

[Mugs914]

Got a bit done over the weekend, and I believe I may have finished the off the last of fiddly details. I know, I know, can't be true! Well, may not be; There are a few other things I'm thinking about adding, but they are very minor things like bolt heads, rivets and panel lines. We'll see...

The last detail I wanted to add was the attachment tabs for the main fins, These kind of show up in a couple of pics of both the Zeus and Spartan, but unfortunately, not in any close detail. I guess that could be seen as a problem, but I decided that it was an opportunity: an opportunity to just make it up! Here's a pic of the real deal that shows the brackets:



It looks like the brackets are welded to the fin skins and bolt to the booster skirt, a lot like other missiles and rockets of the period.

I know that anyone who has followed this thread will be shocked, but I decided to make the brackets out of 1/64" plywood. Here are all of the pieces cut out and ready to glue to the fins. The strips on the right were going to be the base of the bracket that fits against the tube, but it proved to be too thin (I used 1/32" balsa instead):



I made a little tool to make sure that the main bracket parts were all glued in the right place.





The rear brackets were glued just about even with the fin trailing edge and the balsa base pieces added:



Everything was glued with medium thick CA. Any glue that oozed out was wiped with a paper towel to form a "weld seam" around the perimeter of the bracket.

When all was said and done I was pretty happy with the way they turned out. When everything is painted they will stand out a bit less than they do now, and I think they'll add a nice bit of interest to the thing. Just need a few bolt heads to finish them off!

As always, thanks for looking!

Mike

 

[Mugs914]

As I said above, I decided to make the bracket bases out of 1/32 balsa. After much deliberation I decided to make the bolt heads out of (you guessed it) 1/64 ply. I was looking for a real bolt that would actually look like a bolt, but in the end I used a hand punch to punch out a bunch of tiny little discs to represent the bolt heads.

Here are the balsa bases and bolt heads:



The bases were sanded to fit the and glued to the tube:



Doesn't look too bad...



No pics of the tediosity of gluing all of those stoopid discs to the balsa bases... Decided to go with four "bolts" on the main bracket and three on the aft. (The pics I have of the real birds seem to show three on the main and two on the aft, but I decided to use a bit of artistic license.) Here are a couple of pics of the finished brackets. I apologize that they don't show up that well in the pics, but you may be able to get an idea of what they look like:




A bit of sanding and cleaning and it will be time for the first primer coat on the booster. I must admit that I harbor a bit of fear over that proposition! Maybe it won't be quite as bad as I think, but there are an awful lot of fiddly surface details that will probably require a bit of clean up before final color. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for looking!

Mike

 

[Nateairman]

I am hopeful that the build is still going! I have a 4" Zues and this thread is an inspiration!

 

[Mugs914]

It is definitely still going! It is just at the "prime, swear, sand, prime, swear a bit less, prime again, sand - ad infinitum" stage. If you look at all of the surface details I put on the thing, you can imagine how involved some of the sanding can be.

That said, a lot of it was better than the first primer seemed to indicate, and some parts are ready for color. Some other bits are still in need of some work; the transition between the nose "guidance unit" and main tube is VERY rough (especially for a plastic part) and is going to need at least one thin coat of Bondo to get smoothed out.

Still making a few decisions about how I want to lay out the av-bay, though I have all of the ingredients lined up (RRC-3 with either a Stratlogger or RRC2 as backup, Lab Rat pull-pin switches and eyebolts). I just need to finalize placement and wiring on the board, then get it all screwed together.

So it is still well in progress, I guess I've just been lax in doing updates. I apologize for not keeping up, I just didn't think folks would be very interested in pics of dust!

I'll try to get some up to date pics posted a little later. Thanks for prodding me on this one, I'll try to do better with updates!

Mike

 

[Nateairman]

@Mugs914 glad to hear. I opened up the bags lastnight after reading the entire thread. I have dry fit pieces and really appreciate the level of detail you have gone to for the sake of detail. Great job, thank you for taking the extra time required to make a thread!

 

[Grog6]

I'm using the sprint fuel mix, and it's nice!.
I found a vid of a real one; that's a ceramic body cooled with freon!

 

[user 35280]

Subscribed.
My fuzzy memories seem to recall a plastic Nike Zeus I had as a kid. Maybe Cox?
Wish I kept that one.
Hmmm, This would look good next to a Sprint ABM.

Gary,
Was it a 2-stager?
I know Boyce has a reproduction kit, but it’s just a single stage.
https://boyceaerospacehobbies.com/collections/all-plastic/products/nike-zeus-kit-1-24th-scale-24mm

 

[Grog6]

Open the silo doors with explosive charges, 100G's out of the hole, and a 1.5 MT warhead; what's not to love.


By accident a few years ago I bought a book about the Anti-missile Sprint-Spartan Nike setups, as well as other options.It was scary as hell:

https://www.amazon.com/Ballistic-Mi...llistic+missile+defense&qid=1630009757&sr=8-2

 

[jmasterj]

@Mugs914 how's this rocket looking these days? I read this thread over the course of the day and really enjoyed it. I learned a lot too!

 

[Relative Dimensions]

Had to go look it up. I had forgotten the Cox Nike Zeus until you mentioned it!

View attachment 404024

 

[Mugs914]

Well guys, it's time to necro this thread!!!

The last couple of years have been pretty busy for me leaving little time for rocketry related projects (Other than hanging out here on the forum!). Well things change and I find myself with a bit of time to spend finishing some of these projects! May even be able to make it to a launch or two!!

Now to the matter at hand...

The Zeus/Spartan has emerged from under the sheet and been dusted off, sanded a bit and had another coat of primer applied to the forward and mid sections. This revealed that a bit of remedial spiral filling was needed in a few places and there were a few places requiring filler.

Speaking of filler, I discovered a new product that I highly recommend! It is made by a company called Deluxe and is called Perfect Plastic Putty. It is meant for the plastic scale model crowd. It is water-based, so it can easily be thinned and it sands amazingly easily. Imagine a VERY fine grained CWF and you'll have the idea. Not something I would use to fill balsa grain, but I've never found anything better for filling spirals or filling dings. You can get it at Amazon or just about any plastic model outlet.



I'll try to get a few pics to post up of recent progress. There isn't much that really looks like progress when you are at this stage, but pics are always fun to see, I reckon...

Feels good to be back at it!

As always, thanks for looking!

 

[Mugs914]

I guess there are a few things to show that weren't in any of the previous posts!

One thing I forgot is that I added a "witches hat" to the tip of the nose cone to give it a little more of a point. I've got it all faired in and ready for paint, but I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Doesn't really look that different... It did punch a couple of holes in my hand while I was sanding it!



I don't think I have posted any pics of it all one color yet. Well, except for the main fins, they will stay in gray primer until final color coats. (Please pardon the messy yard.)





I'm thinking I should be able to have the final white color coats on by next week. I'll probably use Tamiya white primer for that. It is very fine and goes down incredibly smoothly. I've used it on a lot of rockets that are base white with great results. The black patterns and all of the markings and stencils will go over that, and a matte finish clear coat will seal it all up nicely.

After that I suppose it's just a matter of finishing the av-bay and getting the chutes and harnesses ordered up.

I guess I'm closer to finished than I thought!

Okay, back to sanding...

Mike

 

[Theory]

Great to have you back!!!

 

[Mugs914]

Thanks so much...

 

[Bruiser]

Good to see the build is back on! Still very impressive

-Bob

 

[Tim51]

Great to see this thread revived! I kept wondering how you were doing and hoping you'd pick it up again.