Mini Nike X

[Bruiser]

Started a new build today. Forgot to take pictures along the way until now.

BT-20 body tube, 1/16th basswood fins, 13 inches tall, 13mm powered, streamer recovery. Open rocket is saying around 450 feet depending on A10-3T of A3-4T motor.

The build is very similar to my Black Brant build minus the fin can area unique to the BB Vc https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/black-brant-vc-for-mini-motors.179141/



-Bob

 

[mh9162013]

Those BT-20 rockets are kinda fun, aren't they?

 

[neil_w]

Started a new build today. Forgot to take pictures along the way until now.

Unforgivable. Please disassemble the rocket and start over.

 

[Bruiser]

They are fun for me because they are less stressful to build. They also take up much less room. Motors are also readily available locally. Being cheap to launch is certainly a bonus too

"Unforgivable. Please disassemble the rocket and start over."

I'll have to beg forgiveness for this horrible transgression. I'll promise to try to never let it happen again.

-Bob

 

[Bruiser]

I managed to remember to glue the launch lug on before spraying primer. It's a 50-50


This might be the last post on this one for awhile. I had been wanting to build something patriotic for the July launch and when I couldn't come up with anything I started this rocket. Well Saturday evening it came to me so a quick break with this one to build another mid-power.

-Bob

 

[Bruiser]

Wow, three months in limbo. Well I am happy and sad to say that I did not ghost you guys with this build. It hasn't progressed until yesterday. Happy that I didn't forget to update the thread, sorry I've been away that long.

Anyway, she is in primer now. It went on really well and after a light sanding the topcoat will go on. Then It'll be time to make decals


Wouldn't it look crazy cool in orange? Or olive drab? Oh, orange and olive drab. That would be something!

-Bob

 

[jackiboi_11]

Looks nice!

 

[ljwilley]

Nice build!

 

[Bruiser]

Hmmn, messed with Paint a little bit and came up with this:

I kinda like it but then I saw that I had to change the US ARMY to white letters so that won't work with home made decals. Darn! So much for a Psuedo Test Scheme

-Bob

 

[kuririn]

You can use white decal paper instead of clear. The tricky part will be matching the background color of the decal to the olive drab of the airframe. Most graphics editing programs have customizable palettes.
Here's a mini Exocet with white lettering. Black decal background on a black airframe. (Black is easy)
Used white laser decal paper.

 

[mh9162013]

Hmmn, messed with Paint a little bit and came up with this:
View attachment 606696
I kinda like it but then I saw that I had to change the US ARMY to white letters so that won't work with home made decals. Darn! So much for a Psuedo Test Scheme

-Bob

The decals for the Mini Honest John are white, with the main decal saying, "U.S. Military." It's not exactly what you need, but might be close enough? If so, I have extra decals I could send your way for free (assuming you're in the US).

 

[Bruiser]

I couldn't find any of my decal paper last night so the search continues

Anyway, I went back to the drawing board (ah, Paint) and came up with this rendering (sounds more impressive, right?).



I think I like the orange and olive drab better but I haven't dismissed this one yet...

I like the idea of the orange because It'll make it easier to see not that it's going to go real high.

-Bob

 

[Art Upton]

Hmmn, messed with Paint a little bit and came up with this:
View attachment 606696
I kinda like it but then I saw that I had to change the US ARMY to white letters so that won't work with home made decals. Darn! So much for a Psuedo Test Scheme

-Bob

Enerjet Colors if used in black

 

[Bruiser]

Feeling a little better and I think I am going to get back to work on this one. I took out the decals from the Nike X kit and scanned them. It was then that I noticed this decal sheet does not have the U.S. ARMY decal on it. The image I downloaded from Google must have been from an earlier release.

I think I am going with the orange and white scheme. I have the paint for it. I don't have any olive drab in a lacquer. I still need to find my decal paper.

I hope to get the white on this week. The temp is supposed to be 81 today and tomorrow before it drops again.

I'd like to have it ready for the Veterans Day launch in two weeks (ok, not really a veteran's day launch but the closest launch to Veterans Day)

Updates to come,
-Bob

 

[Bruiser]

She's all white now.


I also had some time to redraw the decals. I needed to change the sizing a bit and the fin outline of the larger fins was off. That was the hardest part of the redraw--to get the angle just right. I added enough so that all the fins will get a decal. Also added some lettering that was missing

Maybe tomorrow will be orange paint day

-Bob

 

[Bruiser]

I found the decal paper last night and was able to get them printed out. I was really happy with how dark they appeared and not at all splotchy looking. I gave them a couple of very light coats of clear last night and a nice cover coat this morning.

While they were drying I taped off the "booster" section of the rocket in prep for paint. The paint went on really well and I let it sit to dry until after lunch.

After lunch it was time for my least favorite part of building these small rockets--the decals. It turned out the decals for the lower fins were a little oversize but I was able to trim the excess off after they dried. The rest of the decals fit pretty well. The biggest problem I had was the ink rubbed off when I squeegeed the water out with a Q-Tip. The more squeegeed, the more lifted off so i tried to keep it to a minimum. Maybe I should have done one more clear coat over the decals. It also turned out the black wasn't as dark as it appeared but overall, I am happy with the way it came out. I do have a little lifting going on so I will attend to that with some micro sol and micro set as needed. Once the decals are all behaving I'll give it a clear coat which I think will darken up the black decals. We'll see



Thanks for reading,
-Bob

 

[SolarYellow]

Looks great. I wonder whether the white section would be stable with T motors in two-stage configuration.

 

[neil_w]

I found the decal paper last night and was able to get them printed out. I was really happy with how dark they appeared and not at all splotchy looking. I gave them a couple of very light coats of clear last night and a nice cover coat this morning.

While they were drying I taped off the "booster" section of the rocket in prep for paint. The paint went on really well and I let it sit to dry until after lunch.

After lunch it was time for my least favorite part of building these small rockets--the decals. It turned out the decals for the lower fins were a little oversize but I was able to trim the excess off after they dried. The rest of the decals fit pretty well. The biggest problem I had was the ink rubbed off when I squeegeed the water out with a Q-Tip. The more squeegeed, the more lifted off so i tried to keep it to a minimum. Maybe I should have done one more clear coat over the decals. It also turned out the black wasn't as dark as it appeared but overall, I am happy with the way it came out. I do have a little lifting going on so I will attend to that with some micro sol and micro set as needed. Once the decals are all behaving I'll give it a clear coat which I think will darken up the black decals. We'll see

View attachment 614158

Thanks for reading,
-Bob

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like you lost a lot of ink from those decals. More clear coat before application is probably the solution.

Glossing them up now won't blacken them significantly, I don't think. Best solution is another round of decals applied over the existing ones. Probably not the answer you're looking for.

 

[SolarYellow]

Were the decals inkjet or laser?

 

[Bruiser]

Decals were inkjet and clear coated, but probably not enough layers of clear coat

Neil, great god of decals, I am not very good at these things. There won't be another round of decals. They're not perfect but none of mine are. Only way I would do them again is if they fall off overnight. Don't laugh, it's happened to me. That's when I learned about micro sol and set

I had designed a two stage Nike X based on Estes Pro Series 2" body tubes. I did have to make the second set of fins slightly larger but it still looked great. Then Hobby Lobby stopped selling the 29mm motors so it did not get built.

Bob

 

[Bruiser]

First and second launch today using A3-4T motors. Flights were super and the second one landed close enough to the launch pad to win me a new Vagabond kit because they were having a "closest to the pad" contest today.



Super happy with this rocket.
-Bob