What did you do rocket wise today?

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So I decided Saturday after repeatedly referring back to the recent post on finishing the little John with createx paint that I wanted to try it out and never use rattle can again to finish a rocket . Takes forever and so many things can go wrong. Got an HVLP gun Saturday and scored the paints with the required reducer and intercoat from createx. Since the subject was the Estes MRDM, and I was actually going classic finish (ish) for once, easy...red and black. Nose cone wicked jet black under a black sealer and the body would be wicked red pearl with some blood red candy In it under a silver sealer base, two coats of wicked aluminum. Even with some mistakes being made due to it being my first time, I found it wildly successful and I can tell you now that I won’t ever be using spray paint again. I’ll trade 5 mins of clean up and mixing paint to never have to take weeks to do a multi color paint job and the runs, wet sanding blah blah blah. The color is unreal and the pictures don’t do it justice, and the clear isn’t even on yet!006940A2-49F9-4AB2-AB70-5E1E460D699C.jpeg8A0B53E3-08CD-4EDF-87F4-512CAC9D195F.jpeg5E2FD34A-4104-48B4-B56F-80B9F0B406B6.jpeg6877272F-5F60-4CFF-A23D-BDE2043DBC07.jpeg6DB568DE-B399-4100-B049-AE31F27C5D74.jpeg
 
Spent a good two hours putting the final touches on the “snuffer shockcord mount” (SCM) of my LaserLOC 2.23.

Now have the SCM completely to my liking, have the reach-inside epoxy application tools marked for the appropriate depth, and a 2” diameter dowel set aside for pushing the SCM to its hopefully permanent location.

In the past I have simply drilled a hole in the body tube, run the shockcord through the hole, epoxied it in place, and streamlined the bulge with a split BT20 nosecone and epoxy. Very stylish. End of story.

The SCM is similar in construction to a 54 to 38mm motor adapter that has a shockcord wrapped/epoxied around the motor tube and is to be permanently epoxied about 16-17” from the aft end (ass end) of the body tube. Forever. No shockcord replacement possible.

I went with a braided kevlar harness just long enough to reach the lip of the body tube where I can attach the recovery train with a quick link.

Here’s hoping the final installation tomorrow goes smoothly.
 
Recovered a 'mini arreaux' (bt-55 custom) from this tree yesterday. Tried to get video of the process, but SD card filled up too fast.
 

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Rolled the first tube on my new diy lathe. Absolute dream compared to turning the mandrel by hand on a stick. Mandrel is a 29mm Ratworks motor.
 

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I was hoping you would say that one!

I have to go to HD to pick up a turkey fryer for the weekend. (All sorts of reasons for this, some of them even rocketry related!) I'll be grabbing one of those HVLP kits, as well!
 
I was gong to ask the same thing.

How about the createx paint/reducer? I’d love to start working towards a great looking finish like you just pulled off.

Nose cone has primer, then 3 coats auto air black sealer, then three coats wicked jet black.

Rocket has primer, then auto air silver sealer, then three coats wicked aluminum, and then three coats of a 1.5/1 mix of wicked red pearl and blood red candy2 O. I was unsure of what the ratio would do and if I did it again I would have done 2/1 ratio of the pearl and candy as I wish I was a little more translucent. I was going for a transitional color MDRM with a twist, and that was my attempt at a candy apple red.

Needed for all of these is either 4012 or 4020 reducer depending on the weather/temp and 4030 balancing intermix.

On the way and should be here tomorrow is the 4050 uvls gloss .

Photos don’t show how sparkly the red is and the gloss should really enhance it.

Mixing createx instructions

https://createxcolors.com/pdf/2017-Createx-Hard-Surface-Application-Guide.pdf
 
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I was gong to ask the same thing.

How about the createx paint/reducer? I’d love to start working towards a great looking finish like you just pulled off.

Thanks...totally surprised on the outcome for the first attempt...but if this is where things go up from here then I won’t always be irritated with painting anymore !
 
Took delivery of my LaserLOC 1.614 today and started assembling the motor mount. In this case it’s actually a 38 to 29mm adapter. Don’t know why but that’s always the first thing I start on.

All the parts are present and there was no damage in shipping.

I”m debating whether to make it dual deploy (I have an SMT BT60 av bay) or to build it single deploy with a baffle between the two motor tube sections. Either way it will need a nose cone bay for the GPS if it’s going to “go fast” or “go high”.

The advantage of the dual deploy setup is that I can fly it using only the booster and a small motor for MPR launches.

Thinking about a Rocketman 15’x6” streamer for visibility as well as recovery. Has anyone used one?
 
Took delivery of my LaserLOC 1.614 today and started assembling the motor mount. In this case it’s actually a 38 to 29mm adapter. Don’t know why but that’s always the first thing I start on.

All the parts are present and there was no damage in shipping.

I”m debating whether to make it dual deploy (I have an SMT BT60 av bay) or to build it single deploy with a baffle between the two motor tube sections. Either way it will need a nose cone bay for the GPS if it’s going to “go fast” or “go high”.

The advantage of the dual deploy setup is that I can fly it using only the booster and a small motor for MPR launches.

Thinking about a Rocketman 15’x6” streamer for visibility as well as recovery. Has anyone used one?
I've been looking at them, but have yet to use one.
 
I have long wondered exactly what is meant by the Ruso 2X directions on the can that say to recoat within one hour or after 48. I could recoat after 30 seconds and that would be "withing one hour" but I doubted that's what is intended. Monday I read here that people much better at painting than I am use the one hour as a total window for building up the "multiple light passes" I read so much about, ten minutes apart. I took that to mean at least ten minutes, as long as all the passes are within the hour window.

Yesterday I tried it that way. I have a black nose cone that had needed flash whittled away then sanding all around (so was now frosted), and I used gloss black in the prescribed method. Three light coats at 20 minute intervals. I checked the results this morning. No runs, mostly a good surface finish. A little bit of wrinkling in a couple of stripes, probably where my light passes were not quite light enough. Over the weekend I'll sand those out and go again, probably just one or two passes, this time in better light.

It's like "Wow, I've finally learned how to do this!"
 
I have long wondered exactly what is meant by the Ruso 2X directions on the can that say to recoat within one hour or after 48. I could recoat after 30 seconds and that would be "withing one hour" but I doubted that's what is intended. Monday I read here that people much better at painting than I am use the one hour as a total window for building up the "multiple light passes" I read so much about, ten minutes apart. I took that to mean at least ten minutes, as long as all the passes are within the hour window.
The optimal interval between coats is a bit of a mystery. Like you, I started with something like 20 minutes, but I have since whittled it down to something like 10 minutes, sometimes even a bit shorter. So applying a full color coat takes about 20-30 minutes.

I don't know what the shortest acceptable time would be. If the coats are very light, I wouldn't be surprised if 5 minutes is OK. But I don't have much motivation to try to push it.

Yesterday I tried it that way. I have a black nose cone that had needed flash whittled away then sanding all around (so was now frosted), and I used gloss black in the prescribed method. Three light coats at 20 minute intervals. I checked the results this morning. No runs, mostly a good surface finish. A little bit of wrinkling in a couple of stripes, probably where my light passes were not quite light enough. Over the weekend I'll sand those out and go again, probably just one or two passes, this time in better light.
In my experience, if I do a light sanding to smooth out the surface, and after sanding the rocket still has full coverage (no bare spots where I sanded through), then I finish with one good heavy coat and done. My best paint jobs were done that way.

It's like "Wow, I've finally learned how to do this!"
Be sure to post some pics. :)
 
Spent part of the evening reaming out a 4 motor cluster mount, when the builder (not me) originally built the rocket some paint got down in the motor tubes making inserting motors impossible, so after a hours worth of reaming using a dowel in a drill with sandpaper wrapped around the dowel, easy peasy its fixed.....
Then the casings wont fit because of the upper ends of the motor hooks, another easy fix which only took about 2 mins per hook, put a 3/8" diameter stone in the dremel flex shaft, mark the hand piece with a bit of tape to get 2.75" and reach down in and grind them off, now its ready to fly or will be once I add noseweight tomorrow night.
Unmodified hook visible in center lower mmt of center photo, modified hook visible in first photo lower right mmt, the hook tip was ground down flush with the thrust ring.
PS Patriot modify 1.jpg PS Patriot modify3 .jpg PS Patriot modify5.jpg
I also finally have acquired enough Hobbyline case to fly several of my cluster rockets, a Fliskits 18mm Tres, the Estes ProSeries Patriot (built stock) 4x24mm, and my scale Nike Hercules 2 stage 4x29mm to 1x29.
MC1 Hobbyline.jpg
 
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