Madcow, Stickshock, Secret Santa, and Me. Tembo long time coming.

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MikeyDSlagle

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I got this Tembo some time back from Secret Santa. It has been in primer for some time now waiting on me to decide what to do with the finish.
I started off wanting to make it HED. But when I bought the JLCR, it was just too easy not to use that. It does have a nose cone bay that will house a RRC2+ and Eggfinder. It's built to fly on one grain 54's. I hope to fly it Saturday on the I170G. It is simming to around 3600 feet on that motor so I need to get that tracker in there. That will be just at the edge of my ability to see it. JLCR along for the ride as well of course.

This rocket has had a slew of problems from the get go. One fin slot was out of alignment, it was off by about 1/8"; and the nose cone is ridiculously loose. I still have to address that issue but I have to use sheer pins. It has 8 ounces of lead in the nose so drag separation is a real possibility...I think.

At first it was going to be a canvas for me to practice airbrushing. I attempted to cut me some stencils, watched videos, asked around and finally took so much time doing that, my ideas about what I wanted changed.
I was going to do a peeled paint effect, so it would look like the paint was peeling and another color was underneath.
Then it was going have a smiley. I played around with various nose art patterns but just didn't like it. Tried using a Jack Skellington tip nose are for a smiley but it ended up looking like Spy vs Spy from MAD Magazine.
After that I went to wanting it to look like a large tear in the side revealing something underneath. I wanted that something to look like steel ribs or fuselage infrastructure. Couldn't really find what I was looking for so I settled on a reactor. I got to messing around in Photoshop. This is where Mark Hayes comes into the picture. I emailed him pictures and ideas about what I had going on. He would give me feedback and guidance. I could never get the rips looking good enough. On the computer and in OR it looked good enough, but when it got to Mark, the pictures were just way too small. When blown up, they got grainy and trashy looking.
So finally I settled on none of the above. I just started drawing and what not in PS and came up with this:

1.jpg

Just a thrown together rocket. Made with plates and rivets. Had to add a few sponsors and warning labels. As well as contact info. The sponsors are companies from the Fallout games. Keeping with the Fallout theme of my Cowabunga - Wastelander.

In Open Rocket:
Tembo 4.jpg

And the real thing:
Tembo 1.jpg Tembo 2.jpg Tembo 3.jpg
This being my first wrap, I made a few boo-boos and have a few wrinkles; and some "plates" are misaligned. This has nothing to do with the vinyl, but with my ability to lay the vinyl. The process is tedious and I am not known for my patience. You can probably spot the misaligned areas but it really isn't that bad. I wish I would've watched Mark's video on how to lay the wrap before I drew it and I would have allowed for easy to align areas where the cuts would be made. Mark offered to make me another at a discount, but I am satisfied with this one and the reprint would have the same design flaws as this one. My design flaws, not Mark's. You can probably see the slop in the nose cone as well. Just laying down like it is caused a gap between the airframe and the nose cone.

Pancake bay in the nose cone shoulder:
Pancake bay 3.jpg Pancake bay 2.jpg Pancake bay 1.jpg

Bay in the nose actually has two compartments. The Eggfinder will be mounted in the cone itself while the RRC2+ controlling apogee deployment will ride in the shoulder.
 
I've had had one of these in primer for a year. Mark made chrome wave checkers for the fins, but I have yet to find the initiative to finish it. I like your Jules Vern look. That is our of the box thinking, Hope to see a flight post soon. Where will you launch?
 
It'll fly at Goldmine Plantation in Winnsboro, Louisiana. So far it is the only place I've flown. Hope the weather holds.
A 54mm J will get me close to a mile.

Oh. I need to name it. Any suggestions?
 
It'll fly at Goldmine Plantation in Winnsboro, Louisiana. So far it is the only place I've flown. Hope the weather holds.
A 54mm J will get me close to a mile.

Oh. I need to name it. Any suggestions?

....Lost, naked and afraid ?
....Swamp Rat ?
....Hard Steel ?
....Real Steel l?
 
....Lost, naked and afraid ?
....Swamp Rat ?
....Hard Steel ?
....Real Steel l?

Hmm.. Steel or Iron should probably be in the name somewhere.

A name? Hmmmm....

How about Colossus, a.k.a Pyotr Nikolayevich Rasputin? He's a Russian mutant and a member of the X-Men.

LOL. I know who Colossus is. Not bad, resembles his plates in a way.

Frankendiller (Frankenstein + Armadillo) LOL

Der' Plated Gator
 
Looks great, Mikey.

I like stubby rockets, too.

Yessir!

Big Daddy
Cowabunga
Tembo

Waiting on a Madcow/Polecat 4 or 5 inch Goblin. When I saw Wildmans had a 5" Goblin on Black Friday I got all excited, then saw it was the Estes variant, not Polecat. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I was after.
 
I've had had one of these in primer for a year. Mark made chrome wave checkers for the fins, but I have yet to find the initiative to finish it. I like your Jules Vern look. That is our of the box thinking, Hope to see a flight post soon. Where will you launch?

Never got back to this thread. Near successful flight. JLCR didn't release. Came down hard but no damage. Had flight planned last launch but scrubbed due to mishaps with some electronics that hurt my pride, and a faulty 1 grain CTI that tried it's darnedest to destroy Wastelander.

So nearly 2 years later (wow time flies) here is the flight video. Well the up part anyway. Video courtesy of DeepOvertone

 
How did you secure the AV bay in the NC shoulder? Can you share a pic?

Thanks!
Erik
 
There is a centering ring epoxied above the shoulder in the nose cone. The ring holds 2 1/4" threaded rods, 1/4" is overkill BTW. The stepped plate caps and seals the nose cone coupler and is secured with lock nuts. I originally planned to use aluminum tubing as spacers and added in the larger elongated cutouts to accommodate them but scratched that idea, the spacers weren't necessary.

I'll get a few pictures this weekend.
 
How did you secure the AV bay in the NC shoulder? Can you share a pic?

Thanks!
Erik

Here are a few pictures.
The centering ring has a 54mm hole in it... I think. It sits above the shoulder and is epoxied in place.
What you can't see very well are the six T-nuts on the other side of the ring. The threaded rods are threaded into 1/4" T-nuts (you can see their tabs in the hole). I put epoxy on the threads, JB Weld I think, and threaded in the rods. Then a nut on this side that holds the rods securely. The washers you see go on top of the stepped plate when the bay is mounted. I used Rocketpoxy first but the T-nuts kept coming loose. That stuff went in the trash.
The other four T-nuts are #6 and hold a plate that does both seal off the altimeter bay and holds the sled with the tracker. I mentioned before that the tracker sled connects directly to the bottom of the bay in those pictures, I misspoke. It goes on the sled that connects to the plate that in turn is held in place using those four T-nuts. I can't seem to find that sled and plate. I am in the middle of a mini remodel and my stuff is boxed up and in several different places here at the house.
Way down in there is the slug of lead shot, Cabosil and epoxy that makes up the ballast. I drilled two holes through the nose cone close to the tip and put some dowels through them. That holds the slug. 8oz of lead shot doesn't take up a whole lot of room.

nose 2.jpg

Here it is all sealed up. The nose cone was so loose I had to do a wrap of fiberglass to make it fit. The sampling ports go right through the shoulder and body tube. The larger hole is to access the Missileworks screw switch. That is a 25-06 casing with the neck cut off for the charge well. No, the sharp thin brass does not cut my ematch leads.
You can see the paint flaking off, good ole plastic nose cones. Harness is 2' of 3/8" kevlar (overkill) made by Gary back when he owned topflight.
I am gonna put her up on an I229T on the 29th. Well I hope to anyway. Not quite brave enough to fly it on a J just yet.

nose 3.jpg nose 4.jpg
 
Thanks for the details!

Engineering and integrating AV bays may well be the bane of my rocketry existence, so I always appreciate seeing how other folks have accomplished the same.

Best of luck on the flight!
Erik
 
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