Event Horizon
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2019
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- 976
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I've gone out of my mind. I decided to jump into a larger size rocket than I've done before. Years back I scratch built an Estes Starship Excalibur. A few decades later I built an Estes Sentinel and immediately felt it was the most awesome looking rocket design I'd ever seen. I packed that rocket away in a tub container and had almost forgotten it. I opened the container and found this great rocket that I knew immediately I had to build another. Low and behold, this kit is not so easy to find, and when it was found it sold for a fairly handsome sum of money. Apparently it has become a collectors item and is somewhat being hoarded these days. What to do, pay a small fortune for a Sentinel kit or kit bash another kit into a Sentinel. Ah, that's it ! Exactly what I did. I learned that an Estes Vagabond has all the correct parts except the tail fins and strake fins to clone a Sentinel from. So I did that. I cut fins from a sheet of 3/32" balsa, put it all together and painted it gloss white. Then I ordered a set of vinyl transfers from Stickershock. When the transfers arrived it was apparent to see that I had received transfers for a much larger version of the Sentinel than I was building. I contacted stickershock and he promptly sent out transfers for the correct sized Sentinel. I finished the clone. It has the Vagabond engine mount which I believe uses D and E motors. If a little thrust is good, more thrust should be better correct? The Vagabond isn't that much longer or heavier than a Sentinel. So I did it. I can always put in a motor adapter tube and use the B and C motors as well. See photo (Estes kit on left side, clone on right side).
Well, what to do with the larger transfers soon hit me as an afterthought. Easy enough answer. Build a bigger Sentinel, heck why not build two as stickershock had sent two sets of transfers. I took on the challenge without blinking another time. I contacted the guys at Erockets and they laser cut tail fins with TTW tabs and strake fins from 1/8 plywood for me. I ordered the Aerotech 11261 nose cone which has the same 5.1 ogive shape as the Estes Sentinel kit's nose cone, 2.6 inch body tubes and a coupler. An E motor mount kit seemed appropriate, I am thinking the higher thrust E motors should easily take the rocket to a sufficient altitude for spectator enjoyment. The parts arrived. The fins are absolutely awesome. The slotted lower airframe is absolutely awesome as well. The motor mount is topnotch, except I like the Estes motor retainer clip much better and may find a couple of them somewhere or bend my own from the appropriate material. That nose cone is so awesome. It's over 13 inches long and just beautifully blow molded.
Well, that didn't satisfy my building curiosity, (haven't started on the Erockets version yet but I've been drooling over it) nor my materials curiosity. I went to the Rocketarium e store and bought everything similar, or so I thought. MOre on that in a bit. I decided to cut my own fins, so bought a sheet of 1/8 basswood to cut the strake fins and will get two sheets of 1/8 Midwest Products ply from Menards to cut the tail fins from. I hope to employ the same TTW tabs as the Erocket fins. The Rocketarium 2.6 body tubes do not have the same wall thickness as the Erockets sourced body tubes. They gotta be different manufacturers or something. I was disappointed by that. I think the thin wall tubes will be more problematic to achieve a pretty paint job on because they flex so easily and will be more difficult to prep for final paint. I'll probably have to install bulkheads to stiffen it up. Which led me to thinking I better get a few ejection baffle kits as well, along with a few bulkheads I can enlarge the holes in and cord to get the connection out of the airframe where I can connect a parachute to it. The baffle kits and bulkheads should help stiffen the thin wall tubes. I cut the strake fins out of the basswood with little fan fare and am happy with the result. The plan is to get the ply from Menards this weekend and then figure out how to cut it with the home tools I have on hand, ie, no table saw, a jig saw, razor saw and coping saw. I do have a Dewalt power miter box which I may be able to use for part of the fin cutting somehow. I think the ply won't cut very efficiently with an Exacto type blade...
I could use suggestions on cutting fins from ply using stone knives and bear skins for tools. I certainly wish I could find a laser cutter locally or buy one. Wouldn't that be nice.
I hope to get a couple pictures posted soon of what the two orders of parts looks like. I think it may generate some interest from others to contact Erockets and order similar parts, especially know that Erockets has a program for laser cutting the fins.
I'll be back with more. Meanwhile feast your eyes on the pair in the photo.
Well, what to do with the larger transfers soon hit me as an afterthought. Easy enough answer. Build a bigger Sentinel, heck why not build two as stickershock had sent two sets of transfers. I took on the challenge without blinking another time. I contacted the guys at Erockets and they laser cut tail fins with TTW tabs and strake fins from 1/8 plywood for me. I ordered the Aerotech 11261 nose cone which has the same 5.1 ogive shape as the Estes Sentinel kit's nose cone, 2.6 inch body tubes and a coupler. An E motor mount kit seemed appropriate, I am thinking the higher thrust E motors should easily take the rocket to a sufficient altitude for spectator enjoyment. The parts arrived. The fins are absolutely awesome. The slotted lower airframe is absolutely awesome as well. The motor mount is topnotch, except I like the Estes motor retainer clip much better and may find a couple of them somewhere or bend my own from the appropriate material. That nose cone is so awesome. It's over 13 inches long and just beautifully blow molded.
Well, that didn't satisfy my building curiosity, (haven't started on the Erockets version yet but I've been drooling over it) nor my materials curiosity. I went to the Rocketarium e store and bought everything similar, or so I thought. MOre on that in a bit. I decided to cut my own fins, so bought a sheet of 1/8 basswood to cut the strake fins and will get two sheets of 1/8 Midwest Products ply from Menards to cut the tail fins from. I hope to employ the same TTW tabs as the Erocket fins. The Rocketarium 2.6 body tubes do not have the same wall thickness as the Erockets sourced body tubes. They gotta be different manufacturers or something. I was disappointed by that. I think the thin wall tubes will be more problematic to achieve a pretty paint job on because they flex so easily and will be more difficult to prep for final paint. I'll probably have to install bulkheads to stiffen it up. Which led me to thinking I better get a few ejection baffle kits as well, along with a few bulkheads I can enlarge the holes in and cord to get the connection out of the airframe where I can connect a parachute to it. The baffle kits and bulkheads should help stiffen the thin wall tubes. I cut the strake fins out of the basswood with little fan fare and am happy with the result. The plan is to get the ply from Menards this weekend and then figure out how to cut it with the home tools I have on hand, ie, no table saw, a jig saw, razor saw and coping saw. I do have a Dewalt power miter box which I may be able to use for part of the fin cutting somehow. I think the ply won't cut very efficiently with an Exacto type blade...
I could use suggestions on cutting fins from ply using stone knives and bear skins for tools. I certainly wish I could find a laser cutter locally or buy one. Wouldn't that be nice.
I hope to get a couple pictures posted soon of what the two orders of parts looks like. I think it may generate some interest from others to contact Erockets and order similar parts, especially know that Erockets has a program for laser cutting the fins.
I'll be back with more. Meanwhile feast your eyes on the pair in the photo.