V2 American Style

[Stymye]

I like the V2 , and I like Patriotic paint schemes
so I combinrd the two on my Msh(Mountainside Hobbies)4"-V2
I lucked out on a Ver.1 with the solid ply 1/8 fins ,for 25.00 online
this is the first finish I have done completely with an airbrush
I used Createx brand airbrush paints.

there are no decals involved ,the stars were masked off

 

[Stymye]

I trimed off the nosecone base and installed an adjustable nose weight system..I drop the necessary weight in and install the bulkhead so I can fly a wide range of motors

 

[Stymye]

this pic shows the block that the rail buttons screw into , you can also see the aluminum shockcord mount

the motor mount is a 38mm flex phenolic mmt with 4) 1/8 ply centering rings
you can see the top of the pro38 motor halfway down

 

[Stymye]

First flight will be on a Pro38 2 grain H load

 

[Stymye]

I painted the nosecone white than cut stars out of adhesive shelf paper
once applied ,I sprayed a light coat of Krylon clear to seal the stars and than airbrushed the Blue on

I found plastic stars in a clearance store toy aisle and just copied and cut them out of the shelf paper. initally spraying the nosecone with clear coat kept the blue paint from leaking under the stars..

 

[Stymye]

ready to weigh and Sim, so far Rocksim calculates 2300' on the H128 2 grain...

 

[Stymye]

one more
If I were to compare rockets to Hot Rods
I see the V2 as the "57 chevy"

Lol....Excuse the Dorky slippers and socks post, I'm all for comfort when I'm hanging around the house.

 

[BlueNinja]

Where did you get yours from?

 

[Rocketman35]

Thing of Beauty! nice job

 

[Stymye]

I got it from someone who posted on TRF that he was selling a few rockets.. it's funny,no one made him an offer for it untill I did a week later...so every once in a while I get lucky.

this is the older version with the solid fins and blunt cone
I made a hardwood tip and cut the old end than epoxied it to the cone for better scale.

 

[Stymye]

I used pinstripe to add a little sparkle between the different colors

 

[Missileman]

OMG Andy, that is sooo nice.
Cant wait to see some flight pics.

 

[Stymye]

I epoxied a threaded rod into the nosecone for the nose weight system the weights (0.5 oz) drop on the threaded rod and a 1/4" diameter length of arrowshaft is used for a spacer...I didn't want the chute jamming inside the cone during ejection so I made a slip-fit bulkhead to block that from happening.

 

[n3tjm]

Originally posted by stymye
ready to weigh and Sim, so far Rocksim calculates 2300' on the H128 2 grain...

Do you mean the Pro38 2 Grain H153? Because 2300 sounds kinda high for a H128 (which is three grains). :

 

[Stymye]

good catch Doug , I meant the H, 2 grain from Pro38

 

[Stymye]

Moderators-I should have put this in the high power forum, the smallest motor will be an H for this one.my bad

after a few days drying time I sprayed the clear coat today.
again thru the airbrush, it will adjust to spray like a spraycan (and beyond) with the #4 needle at 35 psi.

this is my first fully airbrush paint job(except for duplicolor primer)
and I'm thrilled with the results!

the createx paint is $4.00 for a small bottle , but the paint is so rich that it compares to 2 cans of krylon.and it sprays fine with no reduction necessary. it is far superior to the " general craft" acrylics as the pigment is ground much finer and requires no reduction wich can lead to problems when spraying

I am sure the Craft acrylics would work just fine for rocketry
I have not tried them(applebarn ect..) it's just what I have read in airbrush forums ,so I will try them as well

the benefits are so many I'll never go back to a can!
there is very little oder ,recoat anytime, cleans up with water
can be dried with a hair dryer in minutes so theres very little waiting between colors. the colors can be mixed ,layered, they have opaque,kandys ,pearls,irredesant, translucent,flourescent...ect
the cured paint is supposed to be very strong and resists cracking,chipping

I read on annother furum that the white basecoat will stick to plastic cones very well, I will have to try this next time

now I did make an exception with the clear coat,the best clearcoat for this situation is automotive urethane.krylon will work but will not yeild any better gloss than it normally does

I stopped at a local auto paint supplier and he furnished me with a quart w/activator (matrix brand) for $30

the quart will last me far longer than $30 worth of krylon clear
it requires no reduction, just mix 4 to 1 and spray thru the airbrush at the same settings...heres the results

( I tried but,my camera does not come close to doing the finish justice)

 

[Stones]

Excellent finish Andy! You did it proud!
Btw... the slippers...I've got a couple pair that I use...one for in the house and another for outside projects. Like you said, it's all about comfort.

 

[dragonshiprider]

Nice job Stymye! You and I are birds of a feather.I too am just finishing a Mountainside 4" V-2.I bought mine several years back from Ken at Performance Hobbies.He had it at the Battlepark launch,I saw it and snatched it up.All of this was at the old field so anyone who knows knows it was a while ago.It took me quite a while to get to building it.
I pretty much built mine straight up with the addition of a third centering ring about 4-5" from the rear of the body tube.I also,of course,ran a bit of extra stuffer tube just past this ring.Another trick I pulled was to "groove" my forward two centering rings in order to run a strip of half inch kevlar strap down the full length of the motor tube to the rear most centering ring.This was done in order to attach a piston ejection system which I scratch built from a LOC tube coupler and bulkhead.
One other technique that I used was to drill 7 holes(can't remember the size) in the tailcone parallel to each fin.I then taped them from the other side so that each fin fillet would have 7 epoxy "rivets" helping it to adhere to the tailcone.
My paint scheme started with solid Krylon Sun Yellow.After that I went with a simple Krylon black bumbblebee stripe deal for the body tube and nose cone.The fin areas where alternated black/yellow/black/yellow with each color running from the edge of a fin all the way across to the other fin on that quarter.I'll be putting up pics of this as well as some of my other stuff soon.
One last note;I really liked the idea for the adjustable nose weight.Since I haven't added any to mine yet I may have to come up with one of those.Can you believe how heavy these things are?
Well,good luck flyin' yours!

 

[Stymye]

good luck with your v2 as well ! and definately post some pics
thats sounds like a unique paint scheme...I need to get on the ball and order a chute and get a finished weight...

I'll post a launch pic too ,I hope my luck changes , usually my best finished rockets are the first to crash or lose to the wilderness outside of the launch range.

 

[astrowolf67]

Stymye,

Awesome job!! Hopefully, I can be there for it's first flight. The urethane clear you used, will it work over regular krylon paint? What was the drying time on it?

 

[Stymye]

David , I sprayed some over krylon Gloss white that had dried for a week and it worked fine.

the clearcoat dries to the touch after 2- 4 hrs but I wouldn't recomend handeling it for 24 hrs
after 3-4 days it can be wetsanded and buffed if you want to go all out "wet look" with it. I didn't do that on the v2

also it's not a one coat process, you spray a light coat -wait 15min, annother light coat ,wait-15min than you spray a wet coat
if thats not enough you can again wait 15 min and spray annother wet coat.

 

[Bowhunter]

Originally posted by stymye
Moderators-I should have put this in the high power forum, the smallest motor will be an H for this one.my bad

No Prob

 

[tnrocketman]

wow, to think I gave you advice when you wanted to cert!
Boy, that seems like a lifetime ago. Great project and some really creative ideas for construction!
Will this go for a flight this weekend, perhaps?

 

[Stymye]

I plan to fly it this weekend Eric,
I'll never forget all the help getting motors and advice you gave me for my L1,
I think there were mabey a dozen people at the MC2 launches back than and we parked at the other side of the field
come to think of it, I'm flying the V2 on the same Pro38 motor that I certed on!