Wart / Stang

[Johnnie]

Rained all day yesterday...and I had the day off too!

I made the best of it as I decided to dust off two kits that have been on my build list for 2 and a 1/2 years; The Aerotech Mustang and the Warthog. The mustang was built in an hour or less. The Warthog takes a little longer because of the fin "tunnels"

Is it just me, or do those fin-lock rings get tougher and tougher to install???

I have built the Aerreaux (my favorite), the G-Force (extreme least favorite), The Astrobee Dee (poetry in motion), and now the "Stang" and "Hog" and those little rings are tough as heck to install.

One of these rockets will be used to run the beta test on a Skies The Limit Rocketry parachute. A very nice parachute made by Edward W. (that will have be another thread )

anyway, I will try to post some pics of the two new additions...no build pics though, these rockets build too fast to take pics.

 

[BlueNinja]

You'll love the Mustang. Fly it on E30s! I don't think they get harder, as time goes by, the madder you get the harder they get

 

[Stymye]

Johnnie,your right about the rings
after destroying the mmt on my mustang

I measured the rings I.D. and mmt tube O.D. on my Warthog kit and there was a .028" difference... !

thats simply too much and would only crush the tube
sanding the ring I.D. is necessary..it only takes mabey.002-.003 difference to obtain a press fit with those materials...
.028 is way overboard and I'm convinced it's a mistake

 

[Johnnie]

Amen B_N150 and Stymye,

They did get me frustrated...The 1st ring was installed on the lead side of my Warthog's MMT, and it deformed the tube all the way to it's mark. I sanded the aft ring for a good while before installation, and it worked a bit better.

Since the Mustang will soar to some very respectable heights, I opted not to paint it white, instead the little "horsey" is orange! Ugly color, but I had a full can at the time of the painting. Should look nice with the supplied sticker set.

The Warthog will sport the Patriot missile test patern...Aerotech ought to put out the Patriot missile using one of LOC Precisions shorter nosecones and the same fins used on thre Warthog...that would be sweet.

E30's cost too much...I have an F24 or E18 waiting on this one.

 

[BlueNinja]

Aw, they're only 8 bucks each...

Once I get a scanner hooked up I'll post a launch pic. For now, here's how I painted mine.

 

[billeblurzz]

Wow, by coincidence, my only two Aerotech kits are the Warthog and Mustang. I got them on BIG discounts at two different Hobby Lobbies, so that's why I have them. Since they have never been launched, I thought today was as good as any (no apparent winds) to try to launch my first composite motor from my small field. Both were built with 30 min. epoxies as that is what I mainly use for all my rockets now. Nearly everything I build now I guess would be classified as "overbuilt", I rarely ever have any failures structurally. I had one E30-4 and since my Mustang came out to 13+ oz. I thought this would be okay at this weight instead of the listed E30-7. I had launched only one E30-7 in a LAUNCH PAD RAPIER before at Huntsville Ala., so I knew what a kick they are capable of. I just hoped I would not lose it on my small field at home. I put a 24" estes nylon chute in and loaded up! Having never relied on the baffle system, I still put 3 sheets of wadding, some dog barf, and hoped I did not overdo it!

 

[billeblurzz]

LIFTOFF!!!....WOW, using my same picture techniques which usually result in shots just a little EARLY, I was LUCKY to even get the 'stang in the frame!!! I have never had a rocket leave the pad as quickly....suprisingly at that weight too! It was just a high-pitched SHRIEK and as you can see....hardly any FLAME or SMOKE!!!

 

[billeblurzz]

The E30-4 motor was just right for the 13oz. Mustang and it probably got every bit of 1000'+ height. At this point, I was thinking it was going to be lost as there must have been some upper level winds as it was drifting off pretty good toward where I have lost rockets before....across the road and out in the wilderness!

 

[BlueNinja]

Cool. The 24" chute may have been a little big IMHO.

 

[billeblurzz]

But about 1/3 of the way down, it must have dropped out of the slipstream!!! It began falling like a ROCK!!! I began to think we might get it BACK!!!

 

[billeblurzz]

The 24" nylon chute and the E30-4 motor and the spot picked to set up to launch all turned out to be PERFECT!!!! The mustang cleared this first line of trees....the road that is just behind them... and came down just inside the second line of trees you can see in the distance which is the beginning of the rocket graveyard WILDERNESS!!! It doesn't get ANY better than this!!!! I don't think I will try the Wart-Hog here!

 

[Johnnie]

Well I finaly found my junky little keychain digi-cam, so here are a couple of pics of the birds in progress...

1st up is the "stang" in primer coat.

 

[Johnnie]

Here is the "wart" with the spot glazing putty on the cone

 

[Johnnie]

billEblurz and B_N150,

nice pics. I may actually try the E15 as I am a white lightning fan...too bad Aerotech does not make the Redline in smaller loads.

 

[Johnnie]

ok, I need a suggestion (help)

I painted half of the mustang Walmart brand "Sun Yellow" (Rattlecan), and it got even uglier. The original orange paint was Wallyworld brand also, sprayed over grey primer...turned out burnt orange...

What do you think??

yet another yucky key-chain digi-cam pic, and off center to boot

 

[Johnnie]

In the above pic there, you could see the warthog, drying from it's 2nd coat of primer...

here it is close up. Nothing speacial, just a flat grey coat.

 

[Initiator001]

Originally posted by Johnnierkt


The Warthog will sport the Patriot missile test patern...Aerotech ought to put out the Patriot missile using one of LOC Precisions shorter nosecones and the same fins used on thre Warthog...that would be sweet.

My original design for the WartHog was to look something like the Hellfire anti-tank missle.

AeroTech didn't have the money for a new nose cone mold so I went with the one we had.

Attached is a picture of me with a WartHog which I converted to look like my original design.

 

[Stymye]

now thats cool...!
love the way the strakes blend into the nosecone!

 

[Johnnie]

Very nice mod Initiator001, I can picture it in the red, white, and black test roll pattern as well.

The nosecone that the hog has is the only nosecone I like for the 2.6" tube, it has alot of length to it. Vaughn Brothers used this one as well for the Javelin.

 

[RevKeith]

Hey Blue_Ninja_150,

Looks like we had the same idea for paint on our AT Mustangs. Orange is beautiful!

Keith

 

[Johnnie]

My two best girls say they like the color of my "stang"

My 5 year daughter says it looks like a Tylenol pill, and my wife says it looks like the wrapper of a Reese cup candy bar...whatever, my two bestest girls like it, then I like it...it grows on ya.

Nice one Revkeith. Next time try some of the Wallyworld primer and orange paint, and you'll have a "burnt" orange color.

 

[astrowolf67]

That Stang looks pretty good Johnny! Mine is in the stock color scheme, and has only flown on E30's. I've got some E16's that should make for a nice grand or so. I'm a White Lightening fan also. At Southern Thunder, I picked up a large streamer from Chuck, and I've got a special motor set aside for mine. Just waiting for the right conditions to put it up on a G80. Maybe this weekend if we make it down, and if these dang storms don't blow us away!!

 

[Johnnie]

astrowolf67,

Streamer is what I was thinking on for the G64-10. That is a wopping 3200ft per Aerotechs motor matrix if I remember correctly.

Storms hit us pretty good too, our power went out at mid-night Sunday when the storms hit, and just came on at 2AM this morning.

I have completed the bird with stickers, and will post a pic later.

 

[Johnnie]

The "stang" is completed. The final colors are walnut brown nosecone tip, burnt orange, and sun yellow. All these colors made possible at $.98 a rattlecan at Wallyworld. Of course, stickers provided by Aerotech in Black and grey.

Jace, my 10 year old opted to model the "Reece Cup" colored Aerotech Mustang.

 

[Initiator001]

Originally posted by Johnnierkt

...Aerotech ought to put out the Patriot missile using one of LOC Precisions shorter nosecones and the same fins used on thre Warthog...that would be sweet.

When the first RMS products were released (29mm cases), they were released under the Industrial Solid Propulsion (ISP) label so it would appear that the motors were 'professional' products as opposed to 'hobby' products.

ISP for a very brief period of time had kits for the RMS-29 motors. These were just AeroTech kit parts sold in bags with 'modified' AeroTech kit instruction sheets.

In the Spring of 1992, I took the ISP Stormbringer-SR kit and painted it up like a MIM-104 Patriot missile. The Stormbringer kit was basically a three fin HV Arcas model.

Here's the picture:

 

[Johnnie]

Very nice roll pattern. Makes the rocket look even longer that way.

I will start on the Hog today, getting it sanded and prepped for a roll pattern PJ...lot of sanding to do first, as the primer I sprayed on shows how messy I was with the glue

So today I will start to put the pretty pretty on my W. hog.