Skybolt missile...

[Mugs914]

Anyone who ever wondered about where the concept of profanity originated should try building a rocket. Somewhere along the way the need for colorful verbiage will become evident...

I was shooting the last primer coat (I hope) on my Estes K-11 WAC Corporal clone when the painting stick slipped out of my hand. The rocket landed tip-first on the concrete and snapped over a quarter inch off of that uber-pointy WAC nose cone.

:bang::rant:

Fortunately, I had ordered three WAC nose cones from Erockets so there was another ready to be sealed and painted.

I figured I would sand the damaged tip of the original nose cone round and use it on something else. As soon as I got the tip rounded it was evident what it had to go on; a semi-pseudo scale Skybolt missile.



The Skybolt was an air-launched ballistic nuke that was to be carried by the B-52s and the RAFs Vulcan bombers. The tail cone in the pic was jettisoned once the missile was dropped from the carrier plane. I always thought it was a cool looking thing...

A few hours later the damaged WAC nose cone was installed in a length of BT-20 and had all those fins glued in place. It isn't really scale; a few measurements were made, but it is mostly TLAR scale. It will have a 13mm motor mount and streamer recovery. Still need to get centering rings for the motor mount.

A few pics:



Of course, being a bit of a scale junkie, I've started looking for data to do an actual scale MPR version...

(Edit to apologize for the crummy cell phone pics.)

Thanks for looking!

Mike

 

[rharshberger]

Interesting and neat choice.

 

[Mugs914]

Got the first primer coat sprayed this morning.

These things were all white, as best as I can tell, but some of the protoypes had different roll patterns and alternating black and white fins. The "production" versions were white overall with either USAF or RAF insignia. Haven't decided which I want to do, but I think I'm leaning toward the one in the pic in the first post.

I tried to hide the launch lug a bit by tucking it up against one of the fins, but I think I might have made it stand out even more that way...

 

[BABAR]

When life gives you lemons..........,

I think your "recovery" may give you more satisfaction than if the accident hadn't happened!

Very cool

 

[Mugs914]

When life gives you lemons..........,

I think your "recovery" may give you more satisfaction than if the accident hadn't happened!

Very cool

You are absolutely right BABAR, this one was a real bonus. So much so that the original WAC Corporal project has taken a back seat to the "recovery"!

I have been out of town for a little while, but I finally had some time to get the Skybolt finished up.

Due to the small size (and laziness) I simplified the roll pattern from the one in the pic. One of these days I'll figure out how to print decals properly, but this one is painted and I decided not to fiddle with trying to mask those tiny bits.

Once the paint dried I added some panel lines, hatches and bolts with a drafting pencil. I didn't try to duplicate the actual panels on the missile, just tried to give it "the look" that it has in the pic. A few decals from the parts box finished it off. Again, no specific marks, just wanted it to look the part.

Giving it a couple of days for everything to dry then it will get a coat of flat clear to seal everything up.

Here are a few pics (Please pardon the messy bench...):

 

[rharshberger]

Nice work, looks good enough to fly!

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

Still need to get centering rings for the motor mount.

For BT-5 in BT-20 I've used masking tape wrapped around the motor mount as a thick CR. Any reason that wouldn't work?

If you already have it figured out, there's no reason to change. That's just what I would do.

 

[modeltrains]

(Please pardon the messy bench

Why? It's clearly a place where someone is actually living life - do people really live in those house and home magazine cover photos?
Going for semi-scale is a different ballgame from random freelance and the-model-is-the-prototype rockets; on the hiding the launch lug thing I quit trying long ago and started painting it with diagonal black and yellow hazard stripes. (functional outcome is like a barber pole) Makes it easy to find too.

 

[TangoJuliet]

That turned out great Mugs! Nice work! :clap:

 

[Mugs914]

For BT-5 in BT-20 I've used masking tape wrapped around the motor mount as a thick CR. Any reason that wouldn't work?

If you already have it figured out, there's no reason to change. That's just what I would do.

I have done that before and it works very well. I went with "real" centering rings on this little guy because I was concerned with weight aft of the CG.. There are eight fins, but they are awful small!

 

[Mugs914]

A couple of pics (last ones, I promise!) after Tamiya flat clear.

Recovery installed as well. 24" of kevlar thread with 12" of elastic and a big, bright orange streamer. Nothing left but to fly it!

Thanks for following along guys, and for all the kind words!

Mike

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

I have done that before and it works very well. I went with "real" centering rings on this little guy because I was concerned with weight aft of the CG.. There are eight fins, but they are awful small!

OK, that makes sense.

It's looking pretty nice! I would never have the patience to mask off all of those tiny stripes...

 

[snrkl]

That's a good looking rocket there!