MMWW - MMX Centuri Vulcan

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JAL3

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This is a downscale of the venerable Centuri Vulcan done by John McCoy, also known in some circles as Micromeister. These plans and many more are available from the MicroMaxx Yahoo Group which can be found here: https://groups.yahoo.com/group/MicroMaxRockets/

As a kid, the Vulcan was my favorite but I could never get it to fly. As an adult, I finally managed to do so and have built 2 original size versions, a BT60 upscale and a BT70 upscale. I decided it was time to move in the other direction. Cheaper too.

All that was needed was a piece of 65# cardstock, a nosecone, a short piece of BT2.5, a launch lug and access to a color printer. The plan prints out on a single A sized sheet and has room for 2 rockets

MMX-Vulc-plan-1.jpg
 
The body shroud was cut out with a pair of scissors and then had its edges cleaned up a bit with a razor knife.

MMX-Vulc-shroud-1.jpg
 
The shroud was then given a bit of curl by drawing it over the edge of some scissors. Glueing was started from the aft end and done in short segments with white glue. The whole tab was aligned but only the aftermost part was glued. It was held together to dry with a small plastic clamp.

MMX-Vulc-shroud-2.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shroud-3.jpg
 
The aft bulkhead was cut out and also cleaned up with a razor.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-1.jpg
 
Instead of being glued to a piece of balsa or plywood like in bigger Vulcans, this bulkhead was simply glued to another piece of cardstock.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-2.jpg
 
This assembly was glued in turn to a third piece of cardstock.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-3.jpg
 
The entire bulkhead sheet was then clamped as it dried.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-4.jpg
 
Lookin Great so far John:

I've had a blast flying both a full size clone and Micro of the Valcan. Bad thing was on the maiden flight of my full size clone I put it in the top of a Huge tree so I'm back to only the micro's. Which get some pretty good altitude themselves.
Hope you enjoy building and flying it as much as I have:)

You probly should try another of the Centrui all paper down-scales the Micro Point as well. It flys Just like the full size version, recovering as a "rigid body chute" dangling the motor casing below on the decent. It's a hoot?
 
Lookin Great so far John:

I've had a blast flying both a full size clone and Micro of the Valcan. Bad thing was on the maiden flight of my full size clone I put it in the top of a Huge tree so I'm back to only the micro's. Which get some pretty good altitude themselves.
Hope you enjoy building and flying it as much as I have:)

You probly should try another of the Centrui all paper down-scales the Micro Point as well. It flys Just like the full size version, recovering as a "rigid body chute" dangling the motor casing below on the decent. It's a hoot?

I have that one saved as well. Its just a matter of time.
 
When the rear of the shroud had dried, I applied some more white glue along the seam line and tacked down the front. Getting the front to stay in place was not a problem. Holding down the center of the shroud was. I found that using the shaft of a paddle bit, passed through the front and clamped at the rear did the trick.

MMX-Vulc-shroud-4.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shroud-5.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shroud-6.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shroud-7.jpg
 
The next opportunity I found to work on this rocket was not at home, where it had started, but in the shop. I remembered that the BT2.5 was supposed to be 3.125" long, found some material, made a mandrel and cut the tube to length.

MMX-Vulc-BT-1.jpg

MMX-Vulc-BT-2.jpg
 
Returning home, I unclamped the aft bulkhead and used a razor knife to cut out the outline. This accomplished the rough work and then some sandpaper was used to smooth up the rough edges.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-5.jpg
 
The bulkhead was then test fitted, without glue, into the shroud to give it its distinctive shape.

MMX-Vulc-shroud-9.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shroud-10.jpg
 
The fins of this beastie are as fine and delicate as everything else. I cut out one of them with a razor and then used the jaws of a small clamp to give and edge against which the fold lines could be pre-creased.

MMX-Vulc-fins-1.jpg
 
A small amount of white glue was then used to affix one side of a single fin along the alignment marks. It was then left in peace to dry.

MMX-Vulc-fins-2.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-3.jpg
 
A day later, the fin was folded over and the other side was glued into place.

MMX-Vulc-fins-4.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-5.jpg
 
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A day after that, the result was promising enough that I cut out the other fin and the tail and proceeded to mount them in the same manner. So too was the airscoop applied.

MMX-Vulc-fins-6.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-7.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-8.jpg
 
While the other fins were setting up, I took a look at the canopies. I decided that my eyes and big fingers were not up to the task of the more rounded one and instead chose the easy one. I could barely see the cut and fold lines but managed to estimate my way through the cutting and folding process. It was glued together and set aside to dry.

MMX-Vulc-canopy-1.jpg
 
It took me a while to get back to this project but when I did, I glued the other sides of the fins and scoop into place with white glue. Looking closely, you can see the terrible looking cracks from where the paper was bent and the cracks show through the black. In real life, they are hardly noticeable.

MMX-Vulc-fins-9.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-10.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-11.jpg

MMX-Vulc-fins-12.jpg
 
It took me a while to get back to this project but when I did, I glued the other sides of the fins and scoop into place with white glue. Looking closely, you can see the terrible looking cracks from where the paper was bent and the cracks show through the black. In real life, they are hardly noticeable.

Hit the cracks with a black magic marker...
 
The balsa nose cone for this project came from Fliskits. Since I didn't want to make something up custom, I needed to look for what most looked like the original. The NC2.5V parabolic looked like the best bet to me.

MMX-Vulc-NC-1.jpg
 
I did not bother with any filler except to apply a healthy coating of Kilz. I figured it had enough solids to do the job. I sprayed it down and let it dry for a couple of days before going back to sand it.

MMX-Vulc-NC-2.jpg

MMX-Vulc-NC-3.jpg
 
Painting was done with a light purple spray. It turned out that I had an open can that had been recently used on another project and that pretty closely matched the color on the shroud.

MMX-Vulc-NC-4.jpg

MMX-Vulc-NC-5.jpg
 
On my other Vulcans, I had mounted the launch lug alongside the body tube. I was not going to try that with this one since doing small scale work is not my forte to begin with. I roughed up a lug with a bit of sandpaper and then glued it into the crook between the shroud and a fin.

MMX-Vulc-lug-1.jpg
 
After languishing for a very long time, I picked this project back up again when I got some ultra light Kevlar thread from Fliskits to use for the shock cord. Then I just had to get motivated to work on something my fingers can barely handle. Having some free time on my hands helped as well.

Something that needed to be done was to cut the hole out of the aft bulkhead. I originally intended to drill it but I realized that if I waited for that, I would wait indefinitely. Instead, I put a fresh blade in the X-acto and started cutting. It actually went easier than I thought it would.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-6.jpg

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-7.jpg
 
A test fitting of the BT revealed that things were still too tight so I spent some time reaming the hole with the blade until it fit. Eventually, I got a snug fit.

MMX-Vulc-bulkhead-8.jpg
 
For noseweight, the plans described dropping a few small pieces of lead shot into a cavity in the nose cone. Not having any shot or a hollow nose cone, I devised another plan. I used a 12mm brass screw to drive a hole in the back end of the cone. I then backed the screw out and filled the hole with white glue. The screw was then driven almost all the way back in. A long piece of Kevlar thread was then tied around the base of the screw and some more glue was applied to fix it in place. The excess was then cut away.

MMX-Vulc-shock-cord-1.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shock-cord-2.jpg

MMX-Vulc-shock-cord-3.jpg
 
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