El Cheapo
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Here are two birds that were previously built and crashed due improper staging or recovery failure. Both are named w/a "P" in them, short for Poop since they're made out of paper towel tubes and toilet paper tubes. Just want to keep it clean from here on out, this being a family friendly site and all.
The first is the P-Tube Extreme. I built this two years ago (first picture) for my son. It was modeled after the "Y-wing". It flies on a single 24mm motor or stages on three 18mm motors w/two being in the side-pods. First flight was perfect. Second flight as shown in the picture below only lit two of the 18mm motors. You can guess what happened when it staged to a D-12 heading in a horizontal direction.
The original nose cone was trashed as well as the upper body tube consisting the baffle. The only other damage was a clean break on one set of tube fins.
The repair consisted of re-attaching the set of tube fins, easy fix. The upper body tube was matched as closely as possible. Not so easy considering I don't remember what brand of paper towels I was using at that time. I built a new cold air baffle this time instead of using the three-moon style so often used. The cold air baffle consists of four 13mm tubes (two in and two out). It's positioned approximately 2" from the top of the upper BT. This way it moves the CG as far forward as possible. There is also ample room for recovery in the new (handmade from tp tube) conical nose cone.
Unfortunately I couldn't remember if I used Krylon or Rustoleum FL. I picked the wrong one (Krylon) and ended up with a color that was way off. I then dusted over the Krylon w/some rustoleum and came up with a pretty close match as you can see.
The trim is aluminum tape I had leftover from when we were racing sports cars and needed to seal up any air leaks out of the ducting system.
The second I'm going to call the Palien. This rocket originally flew on three 18mm motors but wrecked due to a laundry failure trying to eject dual parachutes.
The motor mount was removed and replaced with a single 24mm mount. The crushed tube fin was simply given an insert, pictured. The upper body tube was replaced but not matched nearly as well as the P-Tube Extreme but the diameter was right. This also received a cold air baffle which was positioned about 4" from the top of the bt. The nose cone was found amongst my kids junk. Paint was laid out to match the nose cone thingy. If you look carefully you can see little green freckles on the egg as well.
Paint on the fins was Rustoleum FL orange. I used gray primer because I wanted to deepen the color a bit. The BT is Krylon Gum Drop. The freckled spots are a mix of green and white acrylic which I sponge brushed through hand cut masks in tape.
I'm pleased as punch with both of them. I also found two other eggs, like the one used for the Palien, with different faces so expect to see two new additions.
The first is the P-Tube Extreme. I built this two years ago (first picture) for my son. It was modeled after the "Y-wing". It flies on a single 24mm motor or stages on three 18mm motors w/two being in the side-pods. First flight was perfect. Second flight as shown in the picture below only lit two of the 18mm motors. You can guess what happened when it staged to a D-12 heading in a horizontal direction.
The original nose cone was trashed as well as the upper body tube consisting the baffle. The only other damage was a clean break on one set of tube fins.
The repair consisted of re-attaching the set of tube fins, easy fix. The upper body tube was matched as closely as possible. Not so easy considering I don't remember what brand of paper towels I was using at that time. I built a new cold air baffle this time instead of using the three-moon style so often used. The cold air baffle consists of four 13mm tubes (two in and two out). It's positioned approximately 2" from the top of the upper BT. This way it moves the CG as far forward as possible. There is also ample room for recovery in the new (handmade from tp tube) conical nose cone.
Unfortunately I couldn't remember if I used Krylon or Rustoleum FL. I picked the wrong one (Krylon) and ended up with a color that was way off. I then dusted over the Krylon w/some rustoleum and came up with a pretty close match as you can see.
The trim is aluminum tape I had leftover from when we were racing sports cars and needed to seal up any air leaks out of the ducting system.
The second I'm going to call the Palien. This rocket originally flew on three 18mm motors but wrecked due to a laundry failure trying to eject dual parachutes.
The motor mount was removed and replaced with a single 24mm mount. The crushed tube fin was simply given an insert, pictured. The upper body tube was replaced but not matched nearly as well as the P-Tube Extreme but the diameter was right. This also received a cold air baffle which was positioned about 4" from the top of the bt. The nose cone was found amongst my kids junk. Paint was laid out to match the nose cone thingy. If you look carefully you can see little green freckles on the egg as well.
Paint on the fins was Rustoleum FL orange. I used gray primer because I wanted to deepen the color a bit. The BT is Krylon Gum Drop. The freckled spots are a mix of green and white acrylic which I sponge brushed through hand cut masks in tape.
I'm pleased as punch with both of them. I also found two other eggs, like the one used for the Palien, with different faces so expect to see two new additions.
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