rharshberger
Well-Known Member
We're hoping you get the measurements that are stalling your work....[emoji3]
Nike Hercules CAD model build
- Thread starter vcp
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vcp
Well-Known Member
So I drove 1318 miles in my 30-year-old Oldsmobuick to attend the Nike Historical Society reunion at SF-88....
The car: Isn't as bad as it sounds. It's actually remarkably low-mileage and in good shape for it's age. It was just used as a period vehicle in the movie "The Sleepover" and a flash of it can be seen in the trailer here. It is far and away the most reliable and economical car I've ever owned.
The travelling: Easy drive except for the stretch of I-80 from Reno and through Sacramento. 55 mph trucks mixed with 80-90 mph idiots, rough, poorly marked lanes, bobsled runs. Coming back through Sacramento Saturday night was 5-lanes inching along, with the dim-witted lane changers unknowingly causing much of the slowdown. Early AM east of Sparks, NV, the GPS Nav unexpectedly told me to exit - wasn't sure why, but as I did I saw the sea of red taillights stopped ahead on I-80. It led me on 5 miles of barely paved roads, speedbumps, through a trailer park once, I think, and I'm sure through a fence that was marked "Private Property - No Trespassing". To wind up at the next freeway entrance, where it was also blocked off by police. At least I was ahead of the mass of cars still farther back on the Interstate. Sat there for over an hour before they let us go, fortunately ahead of the hundreds of cars that must have been further back by then. Later found out it was a fatal accident, but there was no trace of it when I went past. Later in the day, on Hwy 95 just South of Orovada I saw flashing lights ahead and people in vests on both sides of the road - I thought it was a crew picking up litter, but then saw it was police measuring skid marks across both lanes and leading to an overturned car about 50 feet off the road. Miles of nothing on 95 claims a lot of drowsy drivers.
The reunion: Had a great meal and spent a couple of hours Saturday morning talking to the Nike veterans at SF-88 before it was open to the public that afternoon. They've got some funding from the Parks Department for some major renovations, and there are plans to get it labeled as a National Historic Site. I wish I lived closer so I could do some volunteer work, but the thought of living in California... a weekend was enough.
The mission: I mentioned elsewhere that I only spent four hours measuring and photographing. I could have stayed longer but unfortunately that was all my legs could take - I was wiped out for the day. I got about 150 pictures, trying to take the shots that most people don't. I didn't get one single shot of a full missile, I've got hundreds of those - I was always in close for the details. I got measurements and shots of a launcher without the missile and handling rail in the way; I hope enough to make a decent dimensioned drawing of it. The rest of the time was in the pit with the missiles - I just stayed there and measured and photographed while the tour groups went through (they were really nice to leave me at it unsupervised), and crawled in places where most people don't go. I got shots of the missile where the sun don't shine.
First results:
Tons of work to do now. I need to retouch some of the 3D components I've done earlier, and then finish the Hercules sustainer. Then I can start on the launcher. Oh yeah, sleep first.
The car: Isn't as bad as it sounds. It's actually remarkably low-mileage and in good shape for it's age. It was just used as a period vehicle in the movie "The Sleepover" and a flash of it can be seen in the trailer here. It is far and away the most reliable and economical car I've ever owned.
The travelling: Easy drive except for the stretch of I-80 from Reno and through Sacramento. 55 mph trucks mixed with 80-90 mph idiots, rough, poorly marked lanes, bobsled runs. Coming back through Sacramento Saturday night was 5-lanes inching along, with the dim-witted lane changers unknowingly causing much of the slowdown. Early AM east of Sparks, NV, the GPS Nav unexpectedly told me to exit - wasn't sure why, but as I did I saw the sea of red taillights stopped ahead on I-80. It led me on 5 miles of barely paved roads, speedbumps, through a trailer park once, I think, and I'm sure through a fence that was marked "Private Property - No Trespassing". To wind up at the next freeway entrance, where it was also blocked off by police. At least I was ahead of the mass of cars still farther back on the Interstate. Sat there for over an hour before they let us go, fortunately ahead of the hundreds of cars that must have been further back by then. Later found out it was a fatal accident, but there was no trace of it when I went past. Later in the day, on Hwy 95 just South of Orovada I saw flashing lights ahead and people in vests on both sides of the road - I thought it was a crew picking up litter, but then saw it was police measuring skid marks across both lanes and leading to an overturned car about 50 feet off the road. Miles of nothing on 95 claims a lot of drowsy drivers.
The reunion: Had a great meal and spent a couple of hours Saturday morning talking to the Nike veterans at SF-88 before it was open to the public that afternoon. They've got some funding from the Parks Department for some major renovations, and there are plans to get it labeled as a National Historic Site. I wish I lived closer so I could do some volunteer work, but the thought of living in California... a weekend was enough.
The mission: I mentioned elsewhere that I only spent four hours measuring and photographing. I could have stayed longer but unfortunately that was all my legs could take - I was wiped out for the day. I got about 150 pictures, trying to take the shots that most people don't. I didn't get one single shot of a full missile, I've got hundreds of those - I was always in close for the details. I got measurements and shots of a launcher without the missile and handling rail in the way; I hope enough to make a decent dimensioned drawing of it. The rest of the time was in the pit with the missiles - I just stayed there and measured and photographed while the tour groups went through (they were really nice to leave me at it unsupervised), and crawled in places where most people don't go. I got shots of the missile where the sun don't shine.
First results:
- The Hercules tail cone is a cone - there was some doubt as it appears to have a curve in some pictures and drawings. There were variations of missiles there from the prototype run to some of the last, so I've pretty sure there's no other version that isn't a cone.
- The Hercules nose cone is definitely not an ogive (as it's sometimes modeled), and it definitely does not have any conical sections (as it's sometimes modeled). I think one of the drawings I've collected actually has it pretty close, but none of the drawings have more than a couple station diameters. I measured diameters every 100 mm so I hope to have that nailed down.
- I've got some fastener patterns and some panel lines that differ from drawings - have to sort that out.
- There always seems to be some variation on models on how the elevons are positioned - I think I've got enough to figure that out.
- I was pleased that the overall shape of the interstage transition is exactly as I've CAD modeled it. And, the interior is almost correct too. Just a few tweaks and it will be perfect. It may sound pedantic, but I believe that knowledge of the underlying structure is important to getting the exterior correct.
- Likewise, I got measurements of the Nike nozzle mounting rings that are missing from the Biedron M5 drawings. The fins of every Nike-Anything are somehow attached to those rings. They're important.
- Got good shots between the Nike nozzles that gave me some entirely new information about the structure of the booster tail shroud.
- Got some good shots and measurement on the Ajax they have there too.
Inside the interstage shroud looking forward. The interior shroud doubler is on the left, flanged almost as I had pictured it, with the bend in the middle that gives the shroud its quad 'dimpled-in' shape. The forward support ring is cast, with ribs at 90 degree positions - did not know that. Shown on the tailcone of the Hercules are two of the centering bumpers that don't appear on any current drawing.
Also inside the interstage, one of the quad positions that bolts the shroud to the forward flange - this is a major feature on the exterior of the shroud. Likewise, I have great interior shots of the Hercules support ring, and the Nike ignitors.
Inside the booster tail shroud - great fun. Structure there that I was totally unaware of.
Cross-section view of the M5 forward flange (on the Ajax).- I regret that I didn't get over to the other missile pit (now machine shop) where the walls are painted red/white/blue for Nixon's visit. Hoping to get back again next year. I'm sure there will be more details to straighten out.
Tons of work to do now. I need to retouch some of the 3D components I've done earlier, and then finish the Hercules sustainer. Then I can start on the launcher. Oh yeah, sleep first.
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vcp
Well-Known Member
About six months ago I'd posted the link to my Dropbox folder with Nike-Hercules data that I'd gathered. Well, I've been working on that a bit more, adding in quite a few more photographs and identifying more locations. It's all now in a new shared Dropbox folder with the new link below. The total size is almost 4GB now, but a few pictures are duplicated where I've decided they should appear under more than one category. I still have a lot of work to do in organizing this, but overall it's in pretty good shape.
I'll probably drop a box of Nike-Ajax pretty soon.
The information collected has been scraped/acquired from many sources on the web and unfortunately, I usually have no idea of the attribution or provenance of that data. I'll gladly include that information if anyone wishes to provide it, or, I will remove anything upon request. I've changed a few of the original filenames to make them more descriptive and improve the organization.
If anyone has anything to add, I'll gratefully accept and include it.
MIM-14 Nike Hercules Scale Data Collection
I'll probably drop a box of Nike-Ajax pretty soon.
The information collected has been scraped/acquired from many sources on the web and unfortunately, I usually have no idea of the attribution or provenance of that data. I'll gladly include that information if anyone wishes to provide it, or, I will remove anything upon request. I've changed a few of the original filenames to make them more descriptive and improve the organization.
If anyone has anything to add, I'll gratefully accept and include it.
MIM-14 Nike Hercules Scale Data Collection
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What a wonderful resource. I really enjoyed your description. I’m not a scale modeler, but I’m a detail addict. Thank you!
Your enthusiasm is returned with our admiration! Thanks for doing this and putting it out for everyone to access 
.
.
Steve,
Scale modelers ARE "detail addicts" . . .
When you open the PDF below in Adobe Acrobat, select "VIEW" . . . "SHOW / HIDE" . . . "RULERS & GRIDS" . . . Un-check "LINE WEIGHTS" and start ZOOMING-IN !
You'll LOVE the DETAILS . . . Welcome to SCALE !
Dave F.
vcp
Well-Known Member
It's been pointed out that the link to my Nike-Hercules data from earlier in this thread is out of date. Not surprising since I've been moving things around in Dropbox. Anyway, here is the current link and I hope it should be stable for a while: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qbts25mtz7ascej/AAC_1lvHMoLmewxIbZoYmAI5a?dl=0 I've continued to add to that so there should be some new stuff there.
As for this thread, I promise I will get back to this. Right now I'm making good progress on my Nike Ajax CAD build thread.
As for this thread, I promise I will get back to this. Right now I'm making good progress on my Nike Ajax CAD build thread.
Thank you Gary Your the best.
vcp
Well-Known Member
Still not back to working on the NH yet, but I quite accidentally ran across this that I thought was interesting.
The short film here,
MGS Philanthropy - Part 2 Preview
... and the 'making of' film here:
The short film here,
MGS Philanthropy - Part 2 Preview
... and the 'making of' film here:
0011001100
A Person
vcp
Well-Known Member
Sure. The deal is, that last year I had a deal on a Terabyte Dropbox, but that has since expired and it's too expensive to keep up at the list price. What I have now is just the free 2GB. Unfortunately, that's only large enough to hold about one-third the NH data and photos I have. So at the moment, with what I have, I can put the stuff up there in stages. Right now it holds all of the NH diagrams and data, but only a few of the photos. There is also the Nike Ajax data there, which is only a few hundred MB. The following links should work for download. In a week or two, I'll swap this with a batch of photos.
Nike Hercules Data
Nike Ajax Data
Yeah, I need to shop for a new cloud storage provider. I know that there are others with larger free areas and reasonably cheap paid plans. I need to look again and I'm open to suggestions.
Nike Hercules Data
Nike Ajax Data
Yeah, I need to shop for a new cloud storage provider. I know that there are others with larger free areas and reasonably cheap paid plans. I need to look again and I'm open to suggestions.
0011001100
A Person
What about Google Drive?
vcp
Well-Known Member
Well, dagnebbit, you're right of course. Minor problem is that my free Google Drive space is nearly filled up, mostly with many years of old emails, I fear. I could take the time to clean that out; enough anyway to fit the Herc data. Or I could take the time to search for the cheapest cloud storage. Or, I could just pay Google some money. I figure they have enough money, but oh well, I did that. It's currently uploading all of my scale data. That's gonna take a day or so, and I'll post links after.
vcp
Well-Known Member
I could really dislike cloud storage. So it was almost done uploading, and I managed to unplug the disk drive that it was uploading from. That's on me. So I'm thinking, I'll just re-upload the same folder, it'll merge, just uploading the files/folders it missed. Nope, it's still missing folders; no way to know which/how many. Ok, so I'll delete the whole thing and start over to be sure. Delete. Empty trash. Upload. Nope, out of space. It seems that it takes up to 48 hours to empty the trash. I suppose that's a good thing, sort of. Anywhay, whenever that catches up, I'll upload again; could be several days.
vcp
Well-Known Member
After much thrashing about, it looks like my Nike data is on Google Drive. The following links should work:
Nike Hercules Scale Data
Nike Ajax Scale Data
While I may still update the data under those links, the folder links should be stable at least for the next year.
Nike Hercules Scale Data
Nike Ajax Scale Data
While I may still update the data under those links, the folder links should be stable at least for the next year.
vcp
Well-Known Member
Playing with the new printer - it's not really calibrated or upgraded as I want yet, but I thought I'd go for broke with a print of the Nike Hercules interstage shroud that I'd done up a couple of years ago (see much earlier in this thread). That model is not really ready to print - it really needs to be properly segmented and I know there are some updates to be made, so this was really just a hail Mary see what happens. Mostly I was really pleased with how it came out. This model is not intended to be flyable; mods would need to be made for that. (Sorry for the pinkish color - virtue of the printer LED's.) Also, this was printed in PLA; a more practical model would need to be printed in ABS or PETG. This is 1/10 scale. It could be split such that the whole thing would fit on a small SLA printer.
And yeah, it's sitting on a NH booster fin unit. But that was done on an old printer, so it's pretty ugly.
Those widgets at the top are the elevon latches that are very prominent on the prototype. They lock the Hercules elevons in place until the stages separate. The Nike boost phase is totally unguided ballistic. I was very surprised at the detail that came out in FDM printing. In a final model, I'd separate these and print them via SLA. In a flying model they'd probably break off every flight.
Scale launch lugs, and the shroud mounting bracket. Again, I was very happy with the print detail.
View of the fully scale shroud interior through the shroud access. You can see one of the feet of the sustainer support ring, and the ignitor head of one of the Nike boosters.
Interior view from the top. More of the sustainer support ring. Ignitor connectors are there, but none of the ignitor cabling. Center is the cover plate over the center aperture of the Nike mounting forward plate. Also visible are the interior flanges of the shroud doubler panels that are at the seams of the curved shroud panels (the faintly seen triangular shape).
And yeah, it's sitting on a NH booster fin unit. But that was done on an old printer, so it's pretty ugly.
Those widgets at the top are the elevon latches that are very prominent on the prototype. They lock the Hercules elevons in place until the stages separate. The Nike boost phase is totally unguided ballistic. I was very surprised at the detail that came out in FDM printing. In a final model, I'd separate these and print them via SLA. In a flying model they'd probably break off every flight.
Scale launch lugs, and the shroud mounting bracket. Again, I was very happy with the print detail.
View of the fully scale shroud interior through the shroud access. You can see one of the feet of the sustainer support ring, and the ignitor head of one of the Nike boosters.
Interior view from the top. More of the sustainer support ring. Ignitor connectors are there, but none of the ignitor cabling. Center is the cover plate over the center aperture of the Nike mounting forward plate. Also visible are the interior flanges of the shroud doubler panels that are at the seams of the curved shroud panels (the faintly seen triangular shape).
vcp
Well-Known Member
Found this youtube vid. It's Italian, mostly stills, about the Nike Hercules, but it has a spectacular night launch at the end. Also, it has the only view I've ever seen of the sustainer ignition lanyard, and a nice view of the Nike head-end ignitor.
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Here is another great Nike-Herc videos:
I just discovered this project. I'd like to get the CAD drawings. Where can I find them? I'd like to see how your CAD drawings compare to the N-H blueprints I obtained from Redstone Arsenal.
The weld seam on the MIM-14A was specified to be rotated out at about 60-deg. I assume this was to allow easy visual inspection. On the MIM-14C (and maybe the MIM-14B) the weld seam should face the center Axis all according to Redstone Arsenal drawings. I have no idea if this was the actual practice.
When I can dig into my drawing collection, I can help with your questions about the nozzle mounting rings and the forward flange lip,
Did you get this printed on an SLA printer?
Would you be willing to share those Redstone Arsenal drawings ? I would be will ing to supply ALL of my NIKE-HERCULES ( a LARGE amount of data ) in exchange. Send me a PM !
Dave F.
It is my goal to share the Redstone Arsenal, Nike-Herc drawing info. (It's not doing any good setting in the corner of my room.) The drawings I have are 24" x 36" copies made from microfiche of the original blueprints. The drawings are too big for my scanner, and some drawings are too faint for scanning anyway. So, I need to transfer the info into CAD and produce something shareable like JPG or PDF files. It's just going to take time to get it done.
rharshberger
Well-Known Member
Some Office reproduction services will scan them to a file for you, usually the charge isnt too expensive. And PDF is the better route if possible, since they scale better than jpg.
I love all things Nike.... Have been an avid fan since I first saw the Colby book on the Nike series.
I would like to acquire as much of the archive as possible, and am thinking about a solution to put the archive on a NAS that I can then stack a webserver on top of to place and retrieve files....
I would like to acquire as much of the archive as possible, and am thinking about a solution to put the archive on a NAS that I can then stack a webserver on top of to place and retrieve files....
vcp
Well-Known Member
As usual, as I move stuff around, I see that the above link to my NH data is out-of-date. Current link is:
Nike Hercules Data
And of course, mee too; I like to see the Redstone Arsenal NH data available in any form, and willing to pay any reproduction costs.
Nike Hercules Data
And of course, mee too; I like to see the Redstone Arsenal NH data available in any form, and willing to pay any reproduction costs.
vcp
Well-Known Member
That print of the NH interstage was done on my FDM printer. I don't think it really looks that good in person, I intend to fiddle with my printer some more, but I really haven't touched anything in many months now. In a slightly smaller scale or sliced up it could be done on the common SLA type printer. What I think I'd rather do is split out the components individually for SLA printing to make it sort of a kit assembly. None of that suitable for a flying model of course.
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