My just completed Estes Black Brant XII

[rkoenn]

I've been working on this Estes Black Brant XII for about 3 weeks and completed it a couple of days ago. I had bought it a few months back but was putting off building it because of the nasty first and second stage fins. I've done plenty of balsa fins over my 50+ years of rocketry but have gotten tired of doing them. And these took them to the extremes with layers and significant sanding to get the wedge shape of sounding rocket fins. I asked Alex at Boyce some 4 months back about printing fins and he didn't have time then. But maybe 5 weeks ago he dropped me a note that he had gone ahead and came up with the STL file and printed them. So I picked up a set as well as a couple of kits and they were great. They are maybe a little rough because of the printing process but really don't require much effort to make them completely presentable. I then built the kit basically to instructions except I did use Plastruct half round rod for the instrumentation tunnel. I wish I had mentioned to him the tunnel, but Plastruct works great, as well as the four instrumentation housings as he could probably have thrown those into his sets. If you are building this pick up a set from Boyce Aerospace, great products. It is a fairly good effort build but very straight forward and turns out nicely. Now I need to fly it and a number of other never flown kits in my fleet.

 

[Glasspack]

Very Nice !!

 

[WizardOfBoz]

The same kit is next on my build list. Yours is a terrific job - inspiring!

 

[NOLA_BAR]

Nice rocket garden you have there! Astrobee 1500!

 

[rkoenn]

Nice rocket garden you have there! Astrobee 1500!

Thanks, it is mostly 3D printed parts I bought from Shapeways, haven't been able to justify a printer yet. It is extremely detailed but I built an even larger one years back from scratch, it won a first at NARAM 48, and although smaller it is really nice. I have yet to fly it. This was my winning flight at NARAM in Phoenix, the first place model crashed so I slipped into first.

 

[DocSeuss]

Thanks, it is mostly 3D printed parts I bought from Shapeways, haven't been able to justify a printer yet. It is extremely detailed but I built an even larger one years back from scratch, it won a first at NARAM 48, and although smaller it is really nice. I have yet to fly it. This was my winning flight at NARAM in Phoenix, the first place model crashed so I slipped into first.

I'd always wanted to build one of the Alway kits, but every time I try to get one, it gets sold before I can grab it.

And now I find that Shapeways shut down a couple months ago and isn't back online.

Any chance you got those files? I'd love to build a flying Astrobee 1500.

 

[NOLA_BAR]

Thanks, it is mostly 3D printed parts I bought from Shapeways, haven't been able to justify a printer yet. It is extremely detailed but I built an even larger one years back from scratch, it won a first at NARAM 48, and although smaller it is really nice. I have yet to fly it. This was my winning flight at NARAM in Phoenix, the first place model crashed so I slipped into first.

Just noticed you are in Brandon, FL! Hope you did ok?

 

[rkoenn]

I'd always wanted to build one of the Alway kits, but every time I try to get one, it gets sold before I can grab it.

And now I find that Shapeways shut down a couple months ago and isn't back online.

Any chance you got those files? I'd love to build a flying Astrobee 1500.

I have almost zero background with 3D printing, just an end user of parts so I don't the print files for it. It was from a guy's shop on Shapeways. Off the top of my head I can't recall his name, he's on FB, or what he called his designs. I bought a half dozen other parts from him back then mostly based on old Estes kits. The guy's name is Kevin Cespedes and his shop was Aerobotix. Of course he would have the files for all his designs but I don't know how to contact him. I believe he might live in Boston. A number of my rockets in the picture were from his shop. I built an Alway Astrobee many years ago and flew it a couple of times before selling it. For a traditional kit it was very good and different. I also built one from scratch back in 2006, a large scale one which stood about 3' tall or so. It won 1st at NARAM 48 in Phoenix after the judging 1st place entry failed in flight. Here are pics of my old Alway build and of the large one. I detailed the large one extensively using Plastruct hex rod for bolts and modeling about everything I could on it. I ended up selling it too.

 

[rkoenn]

Just noticed you are in Brandon, FL! Hope you did ok?

Thanks, we had no damage to our house which probably experienced 100 mph gusts and loads of rain. When we bought it we made sure it wouldn't flood. We were without power for about 6.3 days but fortunately the weather had cooled a bit and was nicely cool at night so we survived without the AC.

 

[NOLA_BAR]

Thanks, we had no damage to our house which probably experienced 100 mph gusts and loads of rain. When we bought it we made sure it wouldn't flood. We were without power for about 6.3 days but fortunately the weather had cooled a bit and was nicely cool at night so we survived without the AC.

Good to hear! We have had a couple nice cool fronts as well, so I'm hoping we are done for this season. Crossed fingers.

 

[DocSeuss]

I have almost zero background with 3D printing, just an end user of parts so I don't the print files for it. It was from a guy's shop on Shapeways. Off the top of my head I can't recall his name, he's on FB, or what he called his designs. I bought a half dozen other parts from him back then mostly based on old Estes kits. The guy's name is Kevin Cespedes and his shop was Aerobotix. Of course he would have the files for all his designs but I don't know how to contact him. I believe he might live in Boston. A number of my rockets in the picture were from his shop. I built an Alway Astrobee many years ago and flew it a couple of times before selling it. For a traditional kit it was very good and different. I also built one from scratch back in 2006, a large scale one which stood about 3' tall or so. It won 1st at NARAM 48 in Phoenix after the judging 1st place entry failed in flight. Here are pics of my old Alway build and of the large one. I detailed the large one extensively using Plastruct hex rod for bolts and modeling about everything I could on it. I ended up selling it too.

Aww, that's a bummer; Shapeways went down suddenly a while ago and I wasn't able to get that guy's parts built!

 

[Lord Rory Gin]

I'm doing some repairs on my BB XII. The tube split open where the parachute was stuffed in. I think my fault was that the parachute wrapped with a JLCR fitted too tightly in the BT-60 and the overpressure of the ejection charge caused the tube to split open.
I installed 2 BT-60 couplers on the inside and coarse sanded the exterior then applied C/A to the joints. Next I will fine sand the tube, apply wood filler, and clean it up before repainting that section. For future flights I will make sure the parachute isn't fitting that tightly again. She will get cleaned up and look almost as good as new!