The holidays were fairly whirlwind around here, with my son Nick coming back for a visit from L.A. and the nippy weather we've had here in (sunny?) Florida, but I have been a good BAR and working on a few projects...

Image 1 shows my original Agent Orange prototype, which flew well enough, but after some incidents with those big fins breaking I remade the fins smaller (Image 2) and it now awaits its next test launch. I'm betting these smaller fins are going to make this thing rip.

Image 3 shows a bird I'm calling the Gryphon SDV (Satellite Delivery Vehicle), which speaks for itself. The main body tube is totally off-spec, a cardboard tube my wife handed me. The nose piece is the cardboard tube from an Ace bandage, and the NC is a paper shroud (Bristol board). The lower nose transition is cannibalized from my earlier (failed) Bonestell attempt. There's a BT-20 tube and Estes 20-to-50 transition below - which obviously fits.

I used sheets of corrugated packing cardboard to simulate the ribbing you see on Saturn V's (low-tech, but workable), and the lower pods are Nerf darts! I had to use Duco Cement to get the Nerf material to stick to the body tube (Elmer's or CA wasn't makin' it) and it seems to be a good bond. It only needs recovery equipment and it's ready for its first go.

A while back I had attempted a more scale version of the old Buck Rogers El Dorado Spaceship of Gold, which totally failed its first (and only) flight. I finally cannibalized the airframe and came up with the Nomad (Cuzzin' Mike's moniker), which looks like it might be a good flyer. I'll let you know, of course.

Image 5 shows yet another little project, the Evergold. It's a BT-20 tube with three fins sporting more of the Nerf darts! Again, the Duco Cement was necessary for the balsa, but it seems to be tight. WIP...

I've also been working on an Estes Patriot (you can see it in the Evergold pic) and a Viking.

So, there!

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__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Outstanding....

A man after my own heart!

A designer!

Good stuff and KUTGW!

Thanks!
I'm in one of those phases where this all I think about, and it helps that others like my work.
It looks like I also have the bare bones of an Estes Menace kit to bash into something... and I have yet another off-spec cardboard tube that with a little sanding a BT-55 NC fits into (I have a tall conical PNC to play with), so I'm working on an idea for that as well.

Stay tuned...

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Are these the "whistling" Nerf Darts? Will it literally scream aloft?

__________________
Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."

You too? I feel a lot better.