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tbzep
06-29-2005, 04:09 PM
This is my first post with pics...hopefully everything will work. My kids and I decided to launch a few rockets out in the pasture this afternoon. The weather was perfect if you don't mind temps in the 90's. I took some pictures, but they look hazy because my daughter got her little dirty fingers all over the lens. I couldn't tell out in the bright sun, so just pretend it's a really hazy day. :rolleyes:

The first pic is my daughter's Estes Pencil rocket on an A8-3...delay too short as usual.

Second and third are my son's Estes Paveway.

Fourth and fifth are my scratch built Spev on a B6-4. I turned my own cones and transitions, made the decals, and even made the centering rings out of cereal box cardboard. :D

Six and seven are my scratch built Citation Patriot with a C6-5. Tango Papa decals for this one.

Eight, nine and ten are my scratch built 1969 era Big Bertha on a C6-5 and its upscaled buddy on a D12-3...needed a D12-5.

We flew a few more, but it took me a few shots to get used to the digital camera shutter delay.

dtomko
06-29-2005, 04:25 PM
Tim,
Very nice shots - excellent launch photos. That orginal Bertha scheme is terrific. I never liked the SPEV or Patriot as a kid; now I can't wait to clone them.
The SkyWriter is my kids' favorite. I always take it when I go into their classes to talk and do a launch. It always gets the biggest reaction, plus you don't lose it in the schoolyard on a B.
Nice work.
Drew Tomko

Doug Sams
06-29-2005, 06:38 PM
Fourth and fifth are my scratch built Spev on a B6-4. I turned my own cones and transitions, made the decals, and even made the centering rings out of cereal box cardboard. :D
Nice work!


Eight, nine and ten are my scratch built 1969 era Big Bertha on a C6-5 and its upscaled buddy on a D12-3...needed a D12-5.
What's the main tube on the upscale? BT-70? BT-80? (ie, Super BB)

BTW, the next step for you is to build seven more BB's with the same decor but seven different scales :)


Doug

A Fish Named Wallyum
06-29-2005, 06:47 PM
Impressive! I've had a digital camera for three years and I'm not that used to the delay. You got more launch pics in one afternoon than I've managed in all of 2004-05. I'm in the middle of a Big Bertha project right now that I'm also planning to paint in this scheme. Was it difficult? Is your SPEV a clone or an original? That's a great launch shot.

tbzep
06-29-2005, 08:13 PM
Drew,

When I do school launches, the bigger the rocket, the bigger the reaction. They love my BT-80 upscale Goblin, but they really love the Mean Machine. I used to do larger rockets with AP motors, but the recovery area is so small now that I just can't do anything like that anymore.

Doug,

The upscale is actually an old Broadsword kit. I modified the motor mount to accept modern E9 motors and added two 13mm mounts for some extra kick to help the E9. I could have done a number of different motor combinations, but I wanted to be able to test the single E9/two A10 combination to see how much it would help an E9 on liftoff. If it works, I might use that combination on one of my Maxi V-2 reissues. With the boat tail, it might not have room for a 24mm mount and two 18mm mounts.

As far as seven more scale models, I doubt it! Maybe one or two, but that's it. I have a boat load of A10-3 motors that I got for 50 cents a pack at a Walmart clearance. I've been thinking about building a bunch of BT-50 sized downscales of various models to fly them in. BT-5 and BT-20 based models take off so quick I don't think I could take a picture of them, plus they fly pretty high. I'm not really into altitude performance, especially when flying in the pasture behind the house. If I were, I'd start making EX motors again.

Bill,

Painting was a bit tedious with all the masking and three colors. I primed, then painted the whole thing white. I'm sure you know the process, but I'll spell it out for the less experienced. I then masked off everything I wanted to keep white and painted the red. After that, I masked off all of the model except for the black stripes. I used Scotch magic tape to get a good edge. Paint always bleeds under masking tape when I use it.

It took a while to get the diagonal roll pattern to look right. I drew the spacing out on a piece of paper to get the proper widths all the way around, then drew complete roll patterns at various angles and wrapped them onto the model to find the look I wanted based on the 1969 catalog photo. Once that was done, I took measurements of the wrap I that I drew and masked up the roll pattern on the rocket. I was able to get the upscale to look like the little one just by measuring the wrap and upscaling the numbers.

My Spev is a total clone. I turned the nosecone, transitions, and CR's myself, and I also made the decals with some older Bel decal paper that actually worked ok. Seems like new Bel stock isn't worth a plugged nickel.

The digital camera is an Olympus C-2040 that was bought off ebay. It's been a workhorse on my motorcycle rides, and my 6 year old daughter fills the 128mb memory card about twice a week...she's got an artistic eye. It has a max shutter speed of 1/800, which should be enough to get a crisp shot of most rockets, but it just doesn't do it. My old Minolta X-700 SLR film camera made crisp liftoff shots at 1/500 time after time. I'd love to have a digital SLR. I could turn off the auto focus and get pretty much instantaneous shutter release for some super liftoff shots. Anybody want to donate the $$$ for one? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/happy/059.gif

A Fish Named Wallyum
06-29-2005, 11:23 PM
My Spev is a total clone. I turned the nosecone, transitions, and CR's myself, and I also made the decals with some older Bel decal paper that actually worked ok. Seems like new Bel stock isn't worth a plugged nickel.

The digital camera is an Olympus C-2040 that was bought off ebay. It's been a workhorse on my motorcycle rides, and my 6 year old daughter fills the 128mb memory card about twice a week...she's got an artistic eye. It has a max shutter speed of 1/800, which should be enough to get a crisp shot of most rockets, but it just doesn't do it. My old Minolta X-700 SLR film camera made crisp liftoff shots at 1/500 time after time. I'd love to have a digital SLR. I could turn off the auto focus and get pretty much instantaneous shutter release for some super liftoff shots. Anybody want to donate the $$$ for one? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/happy/059.gif


Got any close-up shots of the SPEV? It looks pretty close to my BMS-based model.

A Fish Named Wallyum
06-29-2005, 11:27 PM
Painting was a bit tedious with all the masking and three colors. I primed, then painted the whole thing white. I'm sure you know the process, but I'll spell it out for the less experienced. I then masked off everything I wanted to keep white and painted the red. After that, I masked off all of the model except for the black stripes. I used Scotch magic tape to get a good edge. Paint always bleeds under masking tape when I use it.


I've been using the blue masking tape lately. It combines the best features of cellophane tape, the ability to make sharp lines without bleeding under, with tradition masking tape's ease of removal. Costs a little more, but I've had problems getting Scotch tape off on occasion.
I did the masking on the Semroc Taurus with this tape if you want to see how it works.

tbzep
06-29-2005, 11:33 PM
I'll give the blue tape a try on my next project!

Nuke Rocketeer
06-30-2005, 06:15 AM
It works great when painting walls too! Thats where I first found out about it and it's what I started using on rockets when I got back in a couple of years ago.

EchoVictor
06-30-2005, 09:03 AM
Another endorsement of 3M blue painter's tape here...

It pulls of easily, it doesn't bleed under (unless you have a textured surface), and comes in various widths.

http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/home_leisure/-/node_RZ4KHSHMJMbe/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_GSHCV1ZFXKge/gvel_HJZKR0VRGDgl/theme_us_homeleisure_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html

It's great for masking of specific size stripes. It also can be left on for a while and doesn't leave residue when pulled off.

Later,
EV

tbzep
06-30-2005, 10:25 AM
Got any close-up shots of the SPEV? It looks pretty close to my BMS-based model.

Here's one. I used a thick walled tube from an Estes AGM-57X Heatseeker E2X for the Agena body. I didn't have any good photos of the nosecone from an Estes model, so I used the numbers from Peter Alway's book on a Thor Agena. I've seen pics of the original fairly recently and I obviously missed it a little. Plus, I forgot to leave the tip white. :rolleyes:

Ltvscout
06-30-2005, 12:11 PM
A great masking tape to use that doesn't allow bleed through and doesn't pull up the paint underneath it is the stuff from Tamiya. You can get it in a lot of hobby shops. Here's a link to check it out:

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam87030.htm

Maniac BAR
06-30-2005, 01:24 PM
Has anyone had the problem of the blue masking tape messing up the paint underneath it? The two times I tried this tape the fresh color I masked over had tape print on it and the finish was now dull. I taped for the second color a few hours after the first dried the first time and over night the second time with the same results. :mad: The overall results came out fine because I lightly sand with 400 or 600 when all the painting is done to remove any fine dirt, hairs, etc and parting lines. After finishing the decal work, the clear Krylon or Future Polish give the entire rocket a wonderful shine. :) It is just extra work to smooth out the paint marks and sometimes I just don't want to clear coat. :o Is it the tape or something I am doing wrong? :confused:

dtomko
06-30-2005, 01:33 PM
Has anyone had the problem of the blue masking tape messing up the paint underneath it? The two times I tried this tape the fresh color I masked over had tape print on it and the finish was now dull. I taped for the second color a few hours after the first dried the first time and over night the second timed:

Geoffrey,
You probably need to wait longer for the first coat to cure. Several people have suggested that if you can smell it, it's not dry enough. I would wait at least a couple of days, longer if the humidity is up.
Drew Tomko

A Fish Named Wallyum
06-30-2005, 02:03 PM
Here's one. I used a thick walled tube from an Estes AGM-57X Heatseeker E2X for the Agena body. I didn't have any good photos of the nosecone from an Estes model, so I used the numbers from Peter Alway's book on a Thor Agena. I've seen pics of the original fairly recently and I obviously missed it a little. Plus, I forgot to leave the tip white. :rolleyes:

The white tip was the most difficult part. I'd never know yours wasn't a BMS product like mine. You nailed it. :cool:

Phred
07-03-2005, 08:33 AM
Those are some awsome rockets... and some nice pics!! It is always inspiring to see someone build a 'real' scratch model, including turning their own balsa. Great job!!

Phred