I liked the look of the old Estes Der Red Max and thought I would try and scratch-build one. The hardest part was the decals, and I only ended up making two of them, but the rocket flys well and I'm happy with the way it looks :) Comes down under a nice big red parachute.
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 Wile E. Coyote would be proud, this is my Scratch Built ACME rocket.
It was a piece of cake to build--I glued the stick to the body tube, glued in the engine mount, glued on the launch lugs! The nosecone was the hardest part as it was formed using a paper pattern generated by a 'cone' design package (online). Soaked the cone in CA before sanding, which made it nice and hard and came up very shiny! Short length of 60mm tube was cut down the side and a small section removed to reduce the diameter. A 3mm ply cap was glued to the end and polyurethane glue was used to attach it to the nosecone.
 Kevlar cord was attached around the motor mount and run up through a notch in the top centering ring to a length of elastic shock cord, which in turn was attached to the nosecone. A 14" parachute was attached to the nosecone via 30" of nylon cord.
The body consists of a single body tube (60mm x 25mm postage tube) with a cardstock nosecone (80mm x 85mm). Single stick for stability. 3mm Plywood centering rings, 1/4" launch lugs (one at center point of motor, one near end of stick). 14" parachute.
Parachute was hand made, body tube was obtained from Officeworks and the stick came from Bunnings.
First flight was on D12-3. Ejection just past apogee at perhaps 200-300 feet. Good flight, quick off the pad but was a little wobbly, having a slight spiral. Second flight was on a E9-4, perhaps a little slower off the pad but very nice flight with ejection just past apogee again, apogee at approx. 400 feet.
Very happy with the rocket. Turned out exactly how I wanted. Nice big and bright. Got all the appropriate kudos on the flight field.
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Midnight Cruiser scratch built rocket.
And yes, they are toothpics on the ends of the fins :) |
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Some of my fleet as at March 18, 2008.
- Der Red Max - Scratch Built
- JX-1 - Squirrelworks
- Wizard - Estes
- Candy Test Rocket - Scratch Built
- Midnight Cruiser - Scratch Built
- Golden Scout - Semroc (Unpainted)
- Thunderbee x 2 - Semroc
- MMX BicStic - Scratch Built
- 50's Style - Scratch Built
- 2 Stage - Scratch Built
- Candy Test Rocket - Scratch Built (Missing nosecone)
- Mean Machine - Estes (Not Photographed)
Bigger photos on Flickr. |
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Every picture tells a story, these are no exception! 2nd scratch-built sugar rocket not as successful as first :p
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Rocketry 
