Rocket Inspiration

[rokitflite]

So, after the great and way overdue cleaning my house received last week, Kevin Johnson (Kjohnson) came over for a visit. Whist looking through the vast amounts of crap I still have laying around we found a comic book featuring a certain female character that I had had since the mid 80s. Kevin looked at the picture on the back and stated that it would make a good rocket decal. Sigh… He was right. So, we spent the next 2 ½ hours at the computer and the Alps taking the little lady OFF of the back of the book, INTO the computer and ONTO some decal paper. Once it printed out it became a challenge to us to make simple 3/4FNC THEMED rockets for 24 and 29mm engines. Estes had some simple classic kits that were only 3/4FNC, but they were great because of the decal layout and paint patterns. Think Red Max, Patriot, Cherokee-D, Goblin, Blue Bird Zero Etc… Kevin’s ideas for his sounded great, so I started thinking on mine. Originally we were going to use the same image to base our models on then see what we each came up with. I ended up excavating the rest of the issues of the comic I had and found ANOTHER great image. So I will be basing mine off of a different picture. Once we get done with our first builds (if we get the time) we will swap subjects for the next build and hopefully end up with 2 impressive looking sport models… Feel free to chime in Kev!

 

[kjohnson]

Yes, I've been working on getting the parts together for my rocket and have been taking photos along the way. Once I'm further along, I'll start posting the build pictures.

With the exception of being from the same source material, the rockets are thematically very different. It should be an interesting project.

kj

 

[rokitflite]

Got some pictures... Here are the parts so far. The tube is a 31" long 3" diameter tube from BMS and the nose is from the Big Daddy. Fins are 3/16" hard as rock balsa wood... I actually had to use a scroll saw to cut them out as I kept breaking Xacto blades! I decided to use Quest 30mm tubing for the motor mount because this will be flying with the new E & F motors from them. The decal scheme is tricky so I needed minimal fillets. As a result I had to do the dreaded through the wall fin mounting. I put balsa tracks on the motor mount that I can drizzle full of glue through the slot and press the fins into the little troft full of glue. It should give it a nice strong bond to the motor mount so I can go with very thin epoxy fillets on the outer tube. Not very elaborate, but the goal here was to make the decals do the talking. I'll spill the beans on mine early... It is a Pirate theme

 

[kjohnson]

My rocket is based on BT-101 tubing and uses the nose cone from the maxi V-2.

Here is the tubing being cut to length and the cone. The one on the right witht he unpainted cone is the rocket under construction.

 

[kjohnson]

Then I started working on the fins and the centering ring.

The fins are 3/16" balsa and are loosely based on Der Red Max fins with an extra strake added.

The CR's are made of 1/8" microlite ply, and are sized for the Quest 30mm tube to allow for many motor choices. I used my handy compass cutter which wasn't as much of a pain in the rump on the 2nd ring.

 

[rosko_racer]

where did u get that tool? That could come in handy for my next project...

 

[zog139]

Raul the circle cutter ( I think that is what your asking ) is available at hobby stores and at craft stores. I dont own one, but lots of people do. I believe you can get them at Michaels and if you get one of their 40 or 50% coupons they are a deal.

 

[MarkII]

They aren't terribly expensive even without the discount. Look in the scrapbooking tools section at Michael's.

MarkII

 

[rokitflite]

where did u get that tool? That could come in handy for my next project...

We sell them at my store Raul.

 

[rokitflite]

Back to the original topic...

Got the fins glued on last night, thin little epoxy fillets done this evening. Tomorrow will be "primer-fest"!

 

[CharlaineC]

nice.. does semroc sell the maxibrute v2 nose and tail cones?

 

[kjohnson]

Not that I'm aware of Charlaine. These are both from the Estes reissues.

And here's some more photos of the progress.

We have the motor mount featuring the 30mm motor tube and lite ply rings, plus a wiper blade insert motor hook.

Then I started putting the fins on.

The last one is a bad angle, looking down on the motor end.

Not pictured is the shock cord mounting- the 3/8" elastic was passed through a hole in the forward CR and a knot was tied. Glue was added to keep things in place.

kj

 

[rosko_racer]

These are turning out very nicely guys!

Scott: I noticed that the TTW tabs on the fins look a little thinner than the rest of the fins. Am I right? Those are going to be some very strong fins.

Kevin: I like the fin design on yours. I am going to get the circle cutter this after noon after work. Hope to see these fly this spring. It is too cold for the rican to fly rockets..

 

[rosko_racer]

nice.. does semroc sell the maxibrute v2 nose and tail cones?

I just checked on the Semroc website and they are not available. Here is the link if you want to see what they have.

 

[rokitflite]

These are turning out very nicely guys!

Scott: I noticed that the TTW tabs on the fins look a little thinner than the rest of the fins. Am I right? Those are going to be some very strong fins.

No Raul, they are the same thickness... I think you are seeing the pencil line I drew on them as a "step", but its not. I basically have today to prime and prep, and tomorrow to do all of the painting if I want to take advantage of the only good weather for a while.

 

[JRThro]

...to take advantage of the only good weather for a while.

Move to Houston, guys! It's going to be in the 80's today and tomorrow, and was in the 60's and 70's all this week.

Also, the economy's still in decent shape and housing prices never did get all that high in the first place.

 

[rokitflite]

Move to Houston, guys! It's going to be in the 80's today and tomorrow, and was in the 60's and 70's all this week.

Also, the economy's still in decent shape and housing prices never did get all that high in the first place.

I'll mail it to you and you can finish it for me... OK?

 

[InFlight]

Two build threads for the price of one.... priceless

Looking cool guys!

 

[Peartree]

Move to Houston, guys! It's going to be in the 80's today and tomorrow, and was in the 60's and 70's all this week.

Also, the economy's still in decent shape and housing prices never did get all that high in the first place.

Yeah sure. And then in July we'll have pleasant temps in the 70's and 80's and you'll be trapped indoors in the air conditioning.

 

[JRThro]

I'll mail it to you and you can finish it for me... OK?

Sure, but you won't like the way it looks when I finish it.


You probably also won't like how long it'll take me.


And don't even *think* about having me make decals.

 

[JRThro]

Yeah sure. And then in July we'll have pleasant temps in the 70's and 80's and you'll be trapped indoors in the air conditioning.

Ohio and Maryland have daytime temps in the 70's and 80's in July?

It's only in the 90's in Houston in July, not much different from, say, St. Louis or Washington, DC.

 

[rokitflite]

Well... I got it primered and sanded as promised last night. I went to paint it this morning with the old formula Krylon can of Gloss Almond I purchased in June... A brand new, never used can. The old formula that you can't get any more. The only can I had... Do you see where this is going? I shook the can for about 5 minutes and went outside to give the model its base color coat. The paint was a bit thin, but nothing too bad. About 1/3rd of the way through the can, it sputtered out some brown/slate colored chunks. I did not realize it came from the can at first because there were 25 mile per hour wind gusts going on while I was trying to paint and I assumed it came from the outside air. Then, on one of the full length passes, the paint went from almond, to an orangish tan then back to almond again! CRAP!!! I made a couple more passes to try and even it out and the spray color kept changing and the brown/slate chunks spattered all over the model. Sigh. I drove to a couple of shops that I had bought Krylon months ago to see if by chance they had the Gloss Almond I was looking for. No luck at two of them, then I said "what the heck?" and tried Wal-Mart... And there, on the shelf with the other 500 cans of new formula were 2 cans of Gloss Almond... The ONLY cans of old formula left! So, after using up my luck for the year, I went home, wet sanded the rocket and repainted it with the much better behaved "new" can of paint. WHEW!!!

Here are the primered pics!

 

[mjennings]

Nice work guys! can't wiat to see the finished products!

Well traditionally the aerospace industry has had an issue with unobtainium, usually it is a very strong and extremely light weight material. For our corner it has become Old Formula Krylon, who would have guessed? Congrats on the find Scott!

 

[Peartree]

Ohio and Maryland have daytime temps in the 70's and 80's in July?

It's only in the 90's in Houston in July, not much different from, say, St. Louis or Washington, DC.

Yup.

Say what you want about global warming, the last few summers have been MUCH cooler. There really are only about two weeks each year when AC is really necessary. (But many of us wimps use it more often)

 

[kjohnson]

This is the point in the build threads where Scott will pull ahead of me. He is a finishing machine.

I'm working on fillets and will prolly start priming tonight, but that's no promise.

kj

 

[rokitflite]

Well, despite the mishaps, a good paint job was salvaged and the model is waiting for decals... The fun thing about this "theme" build is that I got to use colors I never would have considered for a model rocket. The next week or so is going to be spent blowing up the Alps trying to get all of the decals made... Oh yes, there will be pictures.

 

[JAL3]

Yup.

Say what you want about global warming, the last few summers have been MUCH cooler. There really are only about two weeks each year when AC is really necessary. (But many of us wimps use it more often)

Many of us in Texas are AC wimps because we depend on it. Many times I have been up in Canada, particularly in the maritimes and could not sleep because the place I stayed did not have AC. It wasn't "hot"; just hotter than I was used to being inside.

put me firmly in the MEGA-WIMP category.

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

We have decent rocket-building weather here in MI at the moment. I think it's in the 20s outside.

 

[rokitflite]

We COULD start a thread in the watering hole about the weather...

 

[JRThro]

We COULD start a thread in the watering hole about the weather...

I can't wait to see the decals for your rocket, Scott.