Rocketry4Life
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- Mar 29, 2013
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These are my scratch builds. I know they aren't super pretty, or big, they are just low powered, but I enjoy scratch building no matter how big. I just don't have the money for high powered rockets. The tall silver one is made from 2 BT-80 Estes body tubes coupled together. I found a 24mm tube in a throw out bucket at a local launch, so that became the engine mount. I had an engine hook I tore out of a unrepairable rocket that crashed, the centering rings are thick card stock. The fins I based on the big Bertha fin design because I like the look and they are stable fins, I cut them from sheets of balsa. The launch lugs are bic pens without the end cap and writing tips. The nose one was given to me by a fellow rocketeer. It flies a little bit angled, but slow and realistic. I'm going to remove the engine hook and install motor retainers. I'm going to start flying it on Aerotech composite E's. I named it Silver Surfer.
The yellow one has a body tube I rolled myself out if 2 sheets of construction paper then the ends were glued. The fins are just cardboard I reinforced with super glue. It does not have an engine mount, the engine mount is the body tube, I just rolled an engine block from cardboard and glued it in. The nose cone I rolled with the same construction paper and used a small nail and super glue to add weight in the tip. It was just nose separation recovery but that wasn't working, so I'm going to add a long engine hook to it, and see if the shape works well for tumble recovery. Flies a little wobbly but straight still, also very fast. I was not expecting it to fly well, since I did not do a Rocksim test on it. I used water proofing tape and taped the nose one on because for now I'm just doing ballistic recovery in my yard. I named it zipper
The one with the black bands is pretty odd. I taped 3 sheets of printer paper together than rolled it into an airframe, I glued the ends and originally was only using the electrical tape to keep it together as it dried, but I decided to keep it as decoration. It also has just an engine block and no motor mount, the fins are cut and shaped from credit cards. I took and glued in a dime coin roll at the top, then taped around it to simulate a reducer. I did this because I didn't have a big enough nose cone. The nose cone I found in my range box. Hasn't flown. I named it frankenroc.
The sounding rocket looking one is the oldest one. I used a fin design based on a custom rocket kit design. I just cut them from some sheets of balsa from a model plane kit that a friend of mine botched and decided not to try and fix. The body is from a quest Astra kit, I decided to just use it and keep the parts as spare parts since I had 3 of the kits. I took a nose cone I found in the toss out box at the launches, and decided to roll a sheet of construction paper around it into a cone and glued it onto the nose cone. I added a nail in the tip plus glue just like I did with zipper, the engine mount I made from penny coin rolls and I used the centering rings from the Astra kit. The upper fins are cardboard and I also rolled the launch lugs from coin rolls. I named it Nike SB. (Scratch built) and I used the name nike because it resembles a nike type sounding rocket. Has not flown
The last one I used a clear tube from a mini marshmallow shooter lol, I cut the fins from card stock, and the nose cone is from a cheap rtf kit from Estes called the firehawk. The motor mount is it's airframe with a motor block made out of a bit of an Estes c engine. I named it I'm outta here, because of how fast it flies.
Hope you like these, they aren't eye candy but they are all projects I put effort into, I'll be posting flight videos soon. Once I have the funds I will be starting a rocket for 29mm motors.
