Scratchbuilt Rocket

[JESTER]

Here's some progress on a Rocket I'm building. I'm still trying to figure out a paint scheme.
I was thinking white but I like the look of the gray primer. I've never weathered anything black so I'll be checking out the weathering section a lot!!

I found this forum after seeing some of Chuck Doan's amazing models.

The inside engine core will have lighting. I still have to details the bottom area and I'll add primer hopefully later this week.


Size comparison.


Here's my original sketch.


Thanks for looking!

Tim

[teejay99]

Beats the heck out of the 39c balsa wood plane I had as a kid his age  ....OK , I'll ask , is this considered Rocket Science ?

Welcome , Tim .

Terry

[jim s-w]

Beats the heck out of the 39c balsa wood plane I had as a kid his age  ....OK , I'll ask , is this considered Rocket Science ?

Welcome , Tim .

Terry

Nothing clever about rocket science Terry!  Mix 2 volatile chemicals, they explode!  Its rocket engineering thats the clever stuff.

Havent seen a marker visual for many years!  Good stuff!

Cheers

Jim

[marc_reusser]

Welcome to the forum.

That looks like a neat build......and I always enjoy a cool ad-marker sketch.




Marc

[JESTER]

Thanks!!

I hope to have the lighting finished tomorrow and I'll post more pics as soon as I finish.

[darrylhuffman]

Back in 1958 I was really a nut about rockets, just like everyone kid back then except I went further and built my own.
I lived at the old Tulare Lake Basin in California so I had miles of empty sagebrush for my experiments.
We could cook up a batch of what I remember as being Glunite but the safer route was early solid fuel rockets from factories.   This was before Estes.

I was member number 49 of the American Rocket Society headed up by G Harry Stine.
All of this was illegal back then so I did not pursue it much.
I see all kinds of really great rocket modeling these days and all of it fires up my old interest.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ray Dunakin]

Very cool! And a nice use of pvc pipe components.

This is strictly a static model, right? Or do you plan to make it flyable?

[JESTER]

Thanks, this is purely static. It's also too heavy to fly!!
I love spacecrafts and finally had a chance to make one so this is really fun.

I love the way Railroad cars and Machinery are weathered and hope to learn a lot on the forum!
I bought a couple railroad cars and that will be my next project.

Tim

[gnichols]

Is this is one of those rockets that goes up to launch something?  In that case, I'd put the country's or sponsor's decals proudly on a lite-colored background.  Jazzy graphics, too.  If it also comes down and goes boom, paint it some evil color and put a catchy slogan on it, like to Saddam with love.  But if it's going into orbit with living things inside, doesn't it have to be covered and painted with special materials to fend off the hazards of space?  Gary

[darrylhuffman]

You may not know this, but group member Ray Dunakin combines the hobbies of model railroading and model rockets in a practical way.

Ray has spent many hours finding and documenting old mining sites and ghost towns in the West.  Ray has a great website when he displays all his photos:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Welcome.html

What makes Ray's site distinctive is that he takes along a model rocket equipped with a camera.  Ray launches the rocket to get an aerial view of the ghost town or mining area in addition to all the normal photos a ghost town site has.

This can really give you a great feel for how isolated some of these old sites are.

I have spent many hours looking at the hundreds and hundreds of great photos Ray shares with all of us.  Check it out.

[Chuck Doan]

Welcome Tim! Nice project; reminds me of a very tall Saturn 5 I built as a kid. Revell kit maybe.

[JESTER]

Thanks for the comments!!

Initially I wanted to paint it with Reefer white but I like the primer color and might go black.
I started a "Tips for weathering a painted black metal surface " thread to get some advice and tips.

Chuck Doan, I saw your weathered Junkyard Locomotive and was blown away!! It's what brought me to the forum!

Here's a video of the engine core and lighting kit. I still have to detail and prime the bottom area.


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[Ray Dunakin]

Cool!

A friend of mine built a custom, high-power rocket several years ago that had something like 2000+ high intensity LED's, with an onboard control circuit that made them flash in various patterns. Sadly, on the first flight he forgot to arm the altimeter which was supposed to deploy the parachute. Straight up, straight down, instant disassembly.

[JESTER]

I finally got the bottom area detailed and primed today. I also started to paint the graphics.

Almost time for the weathering!! Yay!!







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[JESTER]

And here's a small video I made earlier today.



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