What did you do rocket wise today?

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After doing internal and external fillets, I glued the aft centering ring onto the Fat Boy. I moved it out to the 90 degree garage so the glue would set up quicker. I started repairs on a 24mm-powered spool (glued kevlar recovery harness in, glued top disk back on). It's ugly, but it will fly.

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Big Bertha build. Anyone know where I can get replacement Big Bertha decals?

All I'm doing is tearing the paper apart...I can not get the decal separated from the paper and this point I've ruined all of the corners :(


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Ordered, for the first time ever, some stuff from BMS. Needed some BT55 and some odds and ends. Figured a pair of cluster lite-ply CRs at $1.25 each was way easier than cutting them myself! Grabbed a balsa BT60 conical nosecone to work on a scratch scale that I can't say I've ever seen done; probably a fall/winter project.
 
Put another layer of lightweight body filler on TLP Indigo kit. Anyone making a kit that uses copy paper for a NC tip and tailcone needs to be hung from a tall tree. The dam#*ed stuff only has a 3 minute working time 🤬 My wife went to the Dollar Tree store and bought some spatulas to apply the body filler, The filler comes right off the slick plastic after hardening and is flexible too. Sanded it, now have to put a third coat on it. I'm glad that guy quit making cheap A$$ kits.
 
Put another layer of lightweight body filler on TLP Indigo kit. Anyone making a kit that uses copy paper for a NC tip and tailcone needs to be hung from a tall tree. The dam#*ed stuff only has a 3 minute working time 🤬 My wife went to the Dollar Tree store and bought some spatulas to apply the body filler, The filler comes right off the slick plastic after hardening and is flexible too. Sanded it, now have to put a third coat on it. I'm glad that guy quit making cheap A$$ kits.
Was it the Dr. Zooch kits that required you to roll body tubes? You'd probably really hate those.
 
...pain in the butt , just trying to save$$ ?
I go with easy, aka : keep it simple stupid !! lol
Instead of rolling the 4 booster tubes on my Nike Herc TLP PP, I used BMS T-204 as its almost exactly the right size and BT80 is close enough for the sustainer iirc.
 
Put another layer of lightweight body filler on TLP Indigo kit. Anyone making a kit that uses copy paper for a NC tip and tailcone needs to be hung from a tall tree. The dam#*ed stuff only has a 3 minute working time 🤬 My wife went to the Dollar Tree store and bought some spatulas to apply the body filler, The filler comes right off the slick plastic after hardening and is flexible too. Sanded it, now have to put a third coat on it. I'm glad that guy quit making cheap A$$ kits.
The TLP kits were designed to be midpower kits at best, most were meant to be built light enough to fly on D motors yet also be of fairly impressive size so building light was a must, iirc they were around back in the 90's when mid power motors while available were not as prevalent as today.
 
Put another layer of lightweight body filler on TLP Indigo kit. Anyone making a kit that uses copy paper for a NC tip and tailcone needs to be hung from a tall tree. The dam#*ed stuff only has a 3 minute working time 🤬 My wife went to the Dollar Tree store and bought some spatulas to apply the body filler, The filler comes right off the slick plastic after hardening and is flexible too. Sanded it, now have to put a third coat on it. I'm glad that guy quit making cheap A$$ kits.
If you want to avoid that level of fabrication in your future kit builds, by all means do so. Don't propose hanging anyone else who enjoys it.
 
Was it the Dr. Zooch kits that required you to roll body tubes? You'd probably really hate those.
Estes produces one, the Tech-Pak Scratch Build. Erroneously marked as a Beginner kit on their website and absent from the 2022 catalog.

https://estesrockets.com/product/002126-tech-pak-scratch-build/
If you want to avoid that level of fabrication in your future kit builds, by all means do so. Don't propose hanging anyone else who enjoys it.
Seconded.

Making rockets needs not be that level of frustrating. Errors are just the signal to either try again or try something different. Same as when one gets lost to the rocket-eating trees; no need to rage, just apply the lesson.
 
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I'm calling the Fat Boy "done for now". I made a nosecone bulkhead from 1/4" ply, tied a kevlar loop and stuck it through center hole, and glued everything in place with Gor. Glu poly. I shot a single coat of primer, then one coat of black. It's not perfect, but it's good enough to launch on Sunday! Next week, I'll shoot more primer and sand it all smooth before more black. The "Hey! Braz!" is back!

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Got some sanding and painting done today:
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Can barely tell the fin can and nose are 3d printed. After these cure for a few days, I’ll mask the fin can so I can paint the fins blue.


(And I know the images are rotated. That’s what happens when I post straight from my phone.)
 
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