Well I haven't posted for quite some time now... thats because I have been busy priming, wet sanding, painting, wet sanding some more, masking, painting graphics, wet sanding some more... you get the idea!
In the past, I simply wore latex gloves, and held the parts with one hand while I sprayed them with the other.
Since this rocket is so much larger than anything I have built in the past, I spent about $20 in the Home Depot plumbing department and made this stand:
I was able to freely rotate the sections of airframe (Booster, Payload bays, etc) while spraying primer & paint.
After about 7 consecutive days of painting various parts and various colors, she is FINALLY done!!!
I went ahead and assembled my home-made launch pad, and installed the rocket onto the launch rail. Many modifications had to be made to my pad, in order to support the extra weight and the longer launch rail:
The first modification I made to my pad was to add another 4' section of 1515 rail. I used 4 aluminum plates, along with stainless steel cap head screws to secure the extension to the main (8') rail:
Now that the rail is so tall (12'), I noticed it was swaying about 6-8" side to side. So, I constructed an aluminum "T"-frame, and attached it to the top of the rail. This provides 3 points of attachment for some braided steel "stays" which hold the rail steady,even in strong wind like we had today:
The "T"-frame allows the rocket to launch without the fins striking the stays as it leavs the rail.
Each of the three stays is secured to a spiral-threaded tie-down stake, complete with turnbuckles for getting the stays nice and tight:
And finally, I reinforced the 1/4" plate steel blast deflector to handle the extra thrust of M and N motors:
Here are a couple more photos...
It came out pretty darn close to the original conceptual artwork:
Now its time to launch this baby!! The fateful day is this coming Saturday October 25th, @ Tripoli West Palm Beach. I have checked and re-checked everything 15 times, but I'm still so nervous! I can't wait till they hit the launch button =)
I will try to get some HD video footage, and post it on here after the launch. I don't want to take the video though, because I wan't to see the launch first-hand, not through an LCD screen! So I'll have to find a volunteer to take the footage, possibly my fiancee'.
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!!
Cris