I'll call this the September batch of 3. All 3 of these kits are from my club's stash, the kits came from people cleaning out garages/closets/attics/etc. and the kits are usually not in very good condition. At least all 3 of these had mostly usable components, sometimes the tubes and balsa are warped and/or water damaged. One of the reasons I like to build several at a time is because I do a lot of glue fillets and they take a long time to dry. This way I can do operations on multiple rockets at the same time.
First I have the Estes Army Hawk, second the Estes Rainmaker, and third the Quest Striker AGM. None of them are built completely per the kit- the Striker is built without the tail cone, the Hawk will have a 24mm engine mount, the Rainmaker will have new fins styled after a Nike-Apache. It won't be a perfect scale model of a Nike Apache because the tubes won't be the correct lengths and the nose cone profile and stage transition are not correct but it will mostly look the part.
I've built older kits with balsa transitions and newer kits with plastic transitions. The Rainmaker has a transition constructed from a couple of centering rings, a and a piece of cardstock to roll and form a cone. I had thought about doing this myself but never needed to, so I was interested in seeing how this came out. It was easy to make, just took a little time to do the glue fillets and attach a loop of kevlar to use for attaching the shock cord. I cut the cardstock a little oversize and test fit it then carefully cut it down until I got the shape I wanted. The cone has to overhang the coupler a bit to provide a shoulder to rest against the front of the main body tube. Estes cones of this type are intended for one end to overlap and glue at the other end. I didn't want the offset so I cut off this tab and instead cut a separate strip to go on the inside. After gluing the cone I glued 8 small strips of balsa on the inside to stiffen the cone against big dents due to handling. The cone came out pretty good but not perfect.
I decided to put a 24mm mount in the Hawk. I think BT-60 rockets of this length and fin size are too heavy to fly on 18mm B and C black powder motors, but fly real well on C11 motors. I cut new centering rings out of carrdboard from cereal boxes. I have a strip of cardboard with different holes in it that I use as a compass, putting a push pin in the pivot hole and .5mm mechanical pencil in the appropriate other hole. I cut out the inner hole with a hobby knife and the outside with scissors. Then I glue 2 of these rings together to form one final ring. I cut out enough to 2 rings for the motor mount and one extra ring. I cut a strip of scrap BT and wrap around the motor mount right under where the hook goes through to strengthen the tube against the motor pulling the hook out due to ejection charges. The motor hook can't go forward because it would be pushing against the internal thrust block. I cut 2 more strips of scrap BT and glue around the motor hook to hold it against the motor tube.
I paper all of my fins. I prefer to build 3FNC rockets to reduce the amount of labor but for some reason I frequently end up with rocket designs that take a lot more fins. These 3 rockets combined required 20 fin pieces. I paper all of my fins these days, I'm going to create a separate thread on papering fins. Papering the fins, finishing the edges, sanding, gluing on the airframe, and then 2 coats of fillets all takes a long time. Everything is complete now except for fillets on the Apache part then I'll be ready to start with priming and more sanding.
Here is the thread on fin papering:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/my-method-of-papering-fins.188658/
I think aesthetically speaking I need to shorten the Apache tube from 9" to about 7". This will negatively affect stability because the kit comes with clay nose weight that would go in the little nose cone. I oversized the booster fins just a bit to help with stability. Once I've finished painting I will check CG of the rocket and determine if a bit more nose weight is needed.
First I have the Estes Army Hawk, second the Estes Rainmaker, and third the Quest Striker AGM. None of them are built completely per the kit- the Striker is built without the tail cone, the Hawk will have a 24mm engine mount, the Rainmaker will have new fins styled after a Nike-Apache. It won't be a perfect scale model of a Nike Apache because the tubes won't be the correct lengths and the nose cone profile and stage transition are not correct but it will mostly look the part.
I've built older kits with balsa transitions and newer kits with plastic transitions. The Rainmaker has a transition constructed from a couple of centering rings, a and a piece of cardstock to roll and form a cone. I had thought about doing this myself but never needed to, so I was interested in seeing how this came out. It was easy to make, just took a little time to do the glue fillets and attach a loop of kevlar to use for attaching the shock cord. I cut the cardstock a little oversize and test fit it then carefully cut it down until I got the shape I wanted. The cone has to overhang the coupler a bit to provide a shoulder to rest against the front of the main body tube. Estes cones of this type are intended for one end to overlap and glue at the other end. I didn't want the offset so I cut off this tab and instead cut a separate strip to go on the inside. After gluing the cone I glued 8 small strips of balsa on the inside to stiffen the cone against big dents due to handling. The cone came out pretty good but not perfect.
I decided to put a 24mm mount in the Hawk. I think BT-60 rockets of this length and fin size are too heavy to fly on 18mm B and C black powder motors, but fly real well on C11 motors. I cut new centering rings out of carrdboard from cereal boxes. I have a strip of cardboard with different holes in it that I use as a compass, putting a push pin in the pivot hole and .5mm mechanical pencil in the appropriate other hole. I cut out the inner hole with a hobby knife and the outside with scissors. Then I glue 2 of these rings together to form one final ring. I cut out enough to 2 rings for the motor mount and one extra ring. I cut a strip of scrap BT and wrap around the motor mount right under where the hook goes through to strengthen the tube against the motor pulling the hook out due to ejection charges. The motor hook can't go forward because it would be pushing against the internal thrust block. I cut 2 more strips of scrap BT and glue around the motor hook to hold it against the motor tube.
I paper all of my fins. I prefer to build 3FNC rockets to reduce the amount of labor but for some reason I frequently end up with rocket designs that take a lot more fins. These 3 rockets combined required 20 fin pieces. I paper all of my fins these days, I'm going to create a separate thread on papering fins. Papering the fins, finishing the edges, sanding, gluing on the airframe, and then 2 coats of fillets all takes a long time. Everything is complete now except for fillets on the Apache part then I'll be ready to start with priming and more sanding.
Here is the thread on fin papering:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/my-method-of-papering-fins.188658/
I think aesthetically speaking I need to shorten the Apache tube from 9" to about 7". This will negatively affect stability because the kit comes with clay nose weight that would go in the little nose cone. I oversized the booster fins just a bit to help with stability. Once I've finished painting I will check CG of the rocket and determine if a bit more nose weight is needed.
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