SD's RamJet Build

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Hey, if it's good enough for me...

MK

Well Mark, with all due respect it's 10:48pm...... Come back tommorow when you have had your coffee and say That :D :caffeine:

you should see my fleet sometime, most of them hasn't even reached the Primer stage!
 
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Hey, if it's good enough for me...

MK

I have a whole fleet in primer.

(Seriously. I can think of at least 6 rockets that I own right now that have been primered, have been flown, and have not been painted)
 
I almost lose sight of it on a B ( 400 feet, tops) but some how on an A8 I got around 60 feet tops, it was against the trees so I could make a very goo estemation. If I can expect exponentialy growth, I am NOT use a C
On a sunny, clear day you shouldn't have any trouble tracking it to 800'. (Especially with young eyes.) Mid-morning or mid-to late-afternoon (not too late) is best. At midday there is a good deal of glare, which can make tracking a bit more difficult.

MK
 
Maybe I should hold out until I paint it "florecent orange" (after seeing micro's build this could work)
 
I always use bright contrasting colors like orange/black or white/red if I think I might tlose sight of a rocket. Roll patterns can be useful to help spot the rocket too. They are time consuming to tape and paint, but the experience will make you a better modeler if you can accept a few mistakes early on.

By the way, very nice idea and build. I tend to bastardize store bought kits with what I have laying around to see what I can come up with, so I appreciate your sharing this build thread.
 
I always use bright contrasting colors like orange/black or white/red if I think I might tlose sight of a rocket. Roll patterns can be useful to help spot the rocket too. They are time consuming to tape and paint, but the experience will make you a better modeler if you can accept a few mistakes early on.

By the way, very nice idea and build. I tend to bastardize store bought kits with what I have laying around to see what I can come up with, so I appreciate your sharing this build thread.


Thank you for the kind words :) I do like Kit-Bashing, but this had got to be my best, don't ask what I'm planning next week.




BTW: this is blastphemy is the halls of BAR's but I have never been a fan of estes kits, their partS however are top notch :) and I owe estes the title of getting me started with the Moon Mutt
 
I have a whole fleet in primer.

(Seriously. I can think of at least 6 rockets that I own right now that have been primered, have been flown, and have not been painted)
Only 6? You haven't been trying! OK, how many do you fly with no paint at all on them?

I have 22 (at least) that are in primer (en dishabille) and ~18 or so that are wearing only smiles. ;) I have about 15 that are all tarted up. :D

MK
 
Dang your fleet is 3X mine! But I have one Very cool RamJet to make up for it :D
 
Only 6? You haven't been trying! OK, how many do you fly with no paint at all on them?

I have 22 (at least) that are in primer (en dishabille) and ~18 or so that are wearing only smiles. ;) I have about 15 that are all tarted up. :D

MK

I don't have the slightest idea. I have a whole stack at home though that is either naked or primered. I might get around to painting them this summer...
 
Back on topic here, I just finished sanding the primer, first coat of paint goes on tommorow!
 
BTW: this is blastphemy is the halls of BAR's but I have never been a fan of estes kits...
That's because you probably haven't seen the classics. You can avoid the Inquisition and excommunication, O Impious One, by going to this page, scrolling down to the Estes catalogs, clicking on the catalog links and contemplating the divine. :D (The 1967 catalog was my very first exposure to model rockets. I also had the 1968, '69 and '70 catalogs.) Also spend some time with the catalogs from the '70's and '80's - rocketry's first golden age. Check out the Centuri catalogs, too. Around here, we go for that old time religion. (It's good enough for me.) :D Son, you need to be "saved."

MK
 
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I'm not sure, I only use wet sanding with this stuff

Is the Krylon primer hard to sand? I haven't used it in years. I loved the old Krylon paints, but the primer was crap. Maybe the new formula is better. The old stuff would gum up sandpaper, even when it had dried for days. There are lots on inexpensive sandable primers, some for 99 cents a can, like Walmart's ColorPlace line of paint. I'm sure you are paying premium prices for the Krylon. I tend to use Duplicolor primers mostly, and they are premium priced, but work really well for me. Plus, being lacquer-based, they can be sanded in 30-60 minutes.

If you are wet sanding your primer coats, you are running the chance of going down to paper, and getting the tube wet. That can be disastrous, if the tube swells. I try to get most of the primer off a rocket, such that the primer is filling in imperfections, and not just building up the surface. You really don't want to build up thick coats. I've seen 5-10 coats of primer applied to a rocket, and the spirals in the tube still show.

I've used primer a lot just to fill spirals in a tube, but you have to sand down most of the way to the tube so the primer eventually fills the spirals only. I rarely go lower than 220 until a final coat to get the rocket all evenly coated, and then I go to 320 or 400. Then usually a few coats of white, under the top color, to enhance the color. Of course, if top color is black or really dark, no white undercoating is required. And metallics need an undercoat of silver, gold, or copper to really shine.

Have fun experimenting. Don't treat my comments as criticism, just something that has worked for me, and which you might want to try.
 
The primer still feels a bit soft, I'll try the stuff you are using, the thing with krylon is, if you put the paint on before the primer completly dries, you end up with a mess.
 
Woah!, does any Vender still make a full scale Astron Sprite of Astron Trident? And what was with the "Astron" designation?:confused:
 
It came out just when I was hanging up my igniter clips for awhile. Figures....

The 1969 Estes catalog wasn't too shabby, either.

MK

I think I am going to hang up my ignitor clips and my mouse until summer.


I think I still like the Semroc 2010 catalog the best still :)
 
It came out just when I was hanging up my igniter clips for awhile. Figures....

The 1969 Estes catalog wasn't too shabby, either.

MK

MarkII,

Me too, I missed some of the great years of Estes. My first catalog was a 1964, and I visited Estes Industries in 1966 with some rocket buddies (we were all ~ 13 years old). But by high school, and then thru college into the mid 70s, I missed some of the coolest kits and catalogs. A good friend of mine, a few years younger than me, first discovered Estes rockets via the 1971 catalog. He said he and his younger brother practically wore it out thumbing thru it. I bought a couple of 1971 catalogs on eBay two years ago, and gave him one for Christmas. He was so shocked, I thought he had tears in his eyes looking thru it. I could relate, imagining what it would be like to thumb thru a 1964 catalog like I first discovered. (I did land a 1966 last year in great condition, and those are cool, being the first color catalog.)

Those were the glory days ...
 
A good friend of mine, a few years younger than me, first discovered Estes rockets via the 1971 catalog. He said he and his younger brother practically wore it out thumbing thru it. I bought a couple of 1971 catalogs on eBay two years ago, and gave him one for Christmas. He was so shocked, I thought he had tears in his eyes looking thru it. I could relate, imagining what it would be like to thumb thru a 1964 catalog like I first discovered. (I did land a 1966 last year in great condition, and those are cool, being the first color catalog.)

Those were the glory days ...
I had the same reaction as your friend when I discovered the Ninfinger site after reactivating as a BAR in 2004. There it was: my cherished 1967 Estes Industries catalog fully reproduced and in full color just as I remembered it. For four years I didn't go anywhere without my stack of Estes catalogs. The '67 catalog was my introduction to model rocketry; I had never seen a model rocket or a launch until I received it. Those color photos on the inside back cover showing the WAC Corporal and the Big Bertha lifting off on their thin orange flame jets really did it for me, as did the group photo on the back cover. It was also sheer genius of Estes to put a color photo of the Saturn 1 lifting off on the cover (and liftoff photos of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn V on the '68 and '69 covers). Those were the only three catalogs from any model rocket company that used such photos. (The concept drawing of the MOL on the covers of the '65 and '67 Centuri catalogs was cool, but it doesn't look as vivid as the richly saturated photos of real launch vehicle liftoffs.) Those covers were another great thing about those three catalogs. I would gaze at them and daydream about launching rockets whenever I got the chance. My catalogs, like all my other rocketry stuff, were put into the trash as soon as I was out the door and off to college, and over the years I never thought that I would ever see them again. The thrill of finding them on Ninfinger after all those years was electrifying.

MK
 
Just a heads up for you guys, i will have another launch tomorrow,maybe 3 flights. Wish me luck with the videos
 
I finished the rocket, check it out!
Backstory: You see when i told you guys that it was ramjet powered, i lied, its actually Rocket-Powered :D And that big Pointy nose thingy ma-bob? Well you see, it is actually a huge Hi-Tech radar that picks up signs of life. :y: and the chrome paint? Well, you see we found out that aliens are unable to see Chrome, therefore, it would be best to paint your ship that color to keep under the radar (like that pun?)

SD :D
 

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It looks great... for now. *hears the evil laugh of chrome paint*

Be wary of fingerprints, because I'm sure that aliens can see those, and if they do your screwed.
 
It looks great... for now. *hears the evil laugh of chrome paint*

Be wary of fingerprints, because I'm sure that aliens can see those, and if they do your screwed.


I hate you!!!! I was sealing the bottom of the NC to protect against the weather.... And I spilled wood hardener on the paint job! It diolved the paint but not the primer...... One coat and she's good :)
 
I hate you!!!! I was sealing the bottom of the NC to protect against the weather.... And I spilled wood hardener on the paint job! It diolved the paint but not the primer...... One coat and she's good :)

Oh, Brian wasn't cursing your paint job, he was foreshadowing the cruel joke that is "Chrome Paint."

*dramatic music*

No chrome paint I have used has EVER completely harden, and that includes an original Space Ark painted over six years ago. It shows every finger print, turns milky and will mar at the slightest provocation.
True story....
Back in 06' I was going to L1 on a Space Ark at NSL that year. The Ark was a beauty, smooth and flawless enough to make you wanna slap someone. AT the time I thought that chrome was the only way to replicate that way cool 50's metallic sheen, seen in so many movies. Well, after the third coat covering prints, scratches, and that eerie ability to stick to fabric I decided the only way to get this thing all the way to Illinois in decent condition was to levitate it during the ~12 hour drive. This was accomplished by shoving a broomstick up its tail pipe and suspending the Ark in mid-air, as not to touch anything. By gumby it worked. The first fingerprint was when I picked her up to load the motor and walk to the field.
Ahhhh...
She was purdy...
But remind me never to try that again.
 
very High on the cool scale. Nice job.

I got one problem with a few of you... flying naked rockets... geeezz LOL
 
Oh, Brian wasn't cursing your paint job, he was foreshadowing the cruel joke that is "Chrome Paint."

*dramatic music*

No chrome paint I have used has EVER completely harden, and that includes an original Space Ark painted over six years ago. It shows every finger print, turns milky and will mar at the slightest provocation.
True story....
Back in 06' I was going to L1 on a Space Ark at NSL that year. The Ark was a beauty, smooth and flawless enough to make you wanna slap someone. AT the time I thought that chrome was the only way to replicate that way cool 50's metallic sheen, seen in so many movies. Well, after the third coat covering prints, scratches, and that eerie ability to stick to fabric I decided the only way to get this thing all the way to Illinois in decent condition was to levitate it during the ~12 hour drive. This was accomplished by shoving a broomstick up its tail pipe and suspending the Ark in mid-air, as not to touch anything. By gumby it worked. The first fingerprint was when I picked her up to load the motor and walk to the field.
Ahhhh...
She was purdy...
But remind me never to try that again.

Then what did you paint the 3FNC with?
 
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