Oh yeah, I just realized what had me so busy. Seeing movies adapted from comic books. And I think it's influenced my rocket building as much as it's impeded it.
So here you see the construction what will either be the Credible Hulk or the Inedible Hulk (I haven't decided yet, it might be another awful Tourettic tribute).
And Hellboy. I think that's what I'm going to call my second Estes Big Daddy. This is to replace BeBop, the Big Daddy who fell in love with a tree at Shawnee Mission Park.
I have a Rock-It in the works as well, and I haven't come up with a stupid comic book tie-in to name it. Yet. It's got a dimpled nose cone made to create the impression of something hewn from rock. It has three uniquely lumpy fins, too. I think this is going to be one of those kits I find myself wanting to build my own version of but do it right. With this one, I'm almost following Estes' instructions. Except for that Kevlar shock chord mounted to a plywood ring and making the thrust ring deep enough to allow E motors.
In other comic book news, I have a rocket much like Mr. Creosote, but with laser-cut G10 fiberglass fins I had made by Balsa Machining last time I ordered from them.
They can only laser-cut very thin G10, but the stuff is so strong it's worth using. These fins are maybe two or three points thick, tops. But rigid as all get out. G10 fiberglass fins are favored by the people doing big boy rockets you have to have an FAA waiver and a launch site like the Black Rock Desert to fly. Tough stuff.
Anyway, with through the wall fins, you want to make sure they stay perpendicular to the body tube while they set up and with these skinny fins, I don't know if I can trust the epoxy to get tacky fast enough. So I have an idea. It's either brilliant or stupid, and I'll have to try it to let you know.
Before inserting the motor tube assembly, I'm going to make a couple of rings of epoxy putty around it. This is for the fins to set in. But after the motor tube is in the body, I'll put the fins in to create slits in the putty, then retract them and let the putty set. Then I can squirt epoxy in the fin slots and coat the fin tabs and know they've got something true to grab hold of in there.
I figure it's 50/50: it'll either work or it won't.
And to continue the comic book thing, I was thinking The Joker for this one...
1 comment:
There's always Stone Boy. he was in the Legion Of Substitute heroes.
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