Something a little different (for me anyways) I'm working on

[Bill S]

I am working on a 5-finned rocket, with forward leaning "fingers", 24" long, can use C11s, C-composite up to E12 black powder engines (not sure I want to lose it on E-composites).

 

[Bill S]

Making progress... body tube spirals filled and sanded, engine mount installed with a 4" inner liner (has aluminum duct tape inside it to reduce chance of the hibachi effect), 2 fins installed, should have all 5 fins and launch lugs on by the end of the day.

 

[Bill S]

I did have one glitch; in an attempt to save time, I glued the launch lugs on the body, only to realize that the foamboard alignment gauge wouldn't come off. Fixed that though.

 

[Cl(VII)]

I like it. You clearly are taunting the rocket gods in charge of parachutes snags though, bold move!

 

[Bill S]

Well that certainly is possible. We'll see how it goes.

 

[CoachSteve]

looks great - I like this one a lot - I have a 5 fin spiked rocket that has snagged a chute 1 out of the 3 times it has gone up - still came down ok - for the cool factor of that look, its worth the risk
I will be following this build for sure

 

[Bill S]

CoachSteve, that's pretty neat. I'd be worried about the fins below the body tube taking damage. How has it flown so far?

 

[CoachSteve]

3 flights so far - all good - slightly larger than needed parachute sizing helps a lot

 

[Bill S]

Wow, that seems like a lot of scorching there, but being as its a cluster rocket...

 

[CoachSteve]

lol, sorry for the small thread hi-jack Bill, the intent was to give you confidence in your design - its going to be so cool.- the first time i sent it up my rail stop slid down a bit, the base was a little too close to the blast deflector, that and 3 D12s give off a bit of heat
Great performer though, one flight only 2 of the 3 lit - still went great. On all 3 it gets about 900ft, according to Jolly Logic.

 

[Bill S]

No, I appreciate the comments.

 

[Bill S]

Construction is done, next up is puttying and sanding, etc. I now have more accurate Rocksim stability numbers, etc, and it appears that I'll have to add a tad of noseweight (.2 oz) to the inside of the nose to keep the stability up to par (1.6 or so).

 

[Bill S]

And its finally done - the delay was due to weather not allowing me to paint, then painted the fins and had to let them dry a week so I could mask and do the body, etc.

 

[CoachSteve]

great looking rocket - nicely done

 

[Sandy H.]

Nice! I like the subtle color change with the purple and blue. I usually end up with white/other, but this design really works with the two similar colors.

Hope it flies as nice as it looks!

Sandy.

 

[Bill S]

Oh I will be sure to report back on its flight.

 

[Aeronerd]

Spectacular! Really like the rad design and cool paint job.

 

[AtomicStorm]

I like how the fin lines fallow the nose cone lines, nice paint too!

 

[Bill S]

I have built an upscaled version of this rocket that is nearly double the size of the original. It is 47" long vs 24" for the original, and uses an BT-80 body tube instead of an BT-55, and weighs in at nearly 24oz.

I did run into some issues with the fins, requiring me to paper them with cardstock and add the fin tip assemblies to give it more strength. Its always something.

Also, I did change the paintjob, as masking the fins on the original was such a pain in the butt.

 

[Bill S]

Got in 2 flights last weekend for the upscaled Big Talon, on an F44-4, and F67-6.

In flight:

 

[Hobie1dog]

Thanks for the pictures

 

[Jeremy Sim]

Love the look of this rocket!!!

 

[fyrwrxz]

Got in 2 flights last weekend for the upscaled Big Talon, on an F44-4, and F67-6.

In flight:

OMG! That is a cool bird! Love the paint, love the design, love the flight pics. You plain rocked it! P.s.-might have to poach this for a build, I love this bird! Maybe 3". G, H and I's? Sorry, too cool not to. Lots 'o' glass in the future. Those fin will eat a lot!

 

[Bill S]

Thanks guys. I'll be happy to help. If you'd like the Rocksim file, I can send it to you. The original rocket was an BT-55 tube, the upscale is BT-80.

Note the problem I had, in this thread. Here Purely self-inflicted. The fin top assemblies do look better with the add-on piece for strength. The need for "papering" with cardstock was purely my mess-up.