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Model Forum / General / Rockets / July 2008Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket?
I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken a week. I had the 7-inch long nose cone specially turned out of hard balsa wood for me at Balsa Machining Service. I've painted it with a clear lacquer sanding sealer, which brought out the wood's grain. True beauty! Originally, I planned to paint it black. That is my rocket color scheme, a fluorescent yellow body with black fins and nose cone. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that this is supposed to be a MODEL rocket and that the real rockets I imitate never had solid wooden nose cones. So, what to you think. -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the sake of convention? (You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.) >I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. > With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > (You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.) It certainly is UN -Rocket but is in the spirit of the Spruce Goose, leave it. Tom > So, what to you think. > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention? It's your rocket, paint it any way you want. > > So, what to you think. > > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > > sake of convention? > > It's your rocket, paint it any way you want. I don't know. I'm sitting on the fence. That's why I posted to rec.models.rockets. >> > So, what to you think. >> > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > I don't know. I'm sitting on the fence. > That's why I posted to rec.models.rockets. If it were mine, and the grain were that nice, I'd leave the grain visible (and also on the fins!) > >> > So, what to you think. > >> > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > If it were mine, and the grain were that nice, I'd leave the grain > visible (and also on the fins!) I paper coated the fins. They're homemade from a basswood, paper, and CYA glue sandwich. >So, what to you think. >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? >-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention? I think a wood grain nose cone could look very good. You may want to change the rest of the paint job to match it though. There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from wood, including the body tubes. One of the members of our local rocket club has a couple of these and flies them from time to time. They are heavy, but look great. They are unpainted, just a clear coat over the wood. Jonathan ----- Jonathan Sivier Secretary, Central Illinois Aerospace jsivier@uiuc.edu NAR #56437 Flight Simulation Lab Tripoli #1906 Beckman Institute Home Address: 405 N. Mathews 5 The Summit Urbana, IL 61801 Champaign, IL 61820 217/244-1923 217/359-8225 ----- Home page URL: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jsivier/www/ > >So, what to you think. > >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from > wood, including the body tubes. Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and other details, please. > One of the members of our local rocket club has > a couple of these and flies them from time to time. They are heavy, but look [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > ----- > Home page URL:https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jsivier/www/ One defunct rocketry manufacturer that offered all-wood kits was Stellar Dimensions. A few of their plans are posted at Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe. Dwayne Surdu-Miller -------------------------------------- On Jul 19, 8:23 am, Jonathan Sivier <jsiv...@illinois.edu> wrote: > On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock > <rcopp...@adnc.com> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from > wood, including the body tubes. Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and other details, please. <snip> Thanks Dwayne. My nose cone and rocket have circular cross sections. I don't see how this is on topic. > One defunct rocketry manufacturer that offered all-wood kits was Stellar > Dimensions. A few of their plans are posted at Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe. > > Dwayne Surdu-Miller WOW! A square wooden rocket and directions with a short Sci-Fi story included!?! Stellar Dimensions was more than an E engine's flight from the mainstream. The available directions are copyrighted 1996 through 1997. I wonder how many of these rockets were made and how many survive today? http://www.oldrocketplans.com/sdi.htm http://www.oldrocketplans.com/sdi/sdi203/avenger.pdf http://www.oldrocketplans.com/sdi/sdi301/SDI_Zanadune.pdf http://www.oldrocketplans.com/sdi/sdi401/sdi401.pdf > Thanks Dwayne. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > how many of these rockets were made and how many survive > today? Ah, square! Wondered about that 'wood body tube' part. The Ecee rocket glider on this page uses a rectangular wooden body tube http://members.aol.com/RobEdmonds/Edmonds.html (there is an internal round tube used as part of the rocket glider mechanism) >> Thanks Dwayne. >> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > (there is an internal round tube used as part of the rocket glider > mechanism) ----------------------------------- Excellent recommendation, Joe! And the Ecee Thunder is to die for. If you like acres of exposed woodgrain, impressing at all stages of flight, it'll float your boat (Just make sure to reinforce the canard though.) Dwayne Surdu-Miller > Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and > other details, please. The defunct vendor was Retro Rocket Works. They were distributed by Apogee Rockets. Here's a review of one: http://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/oop/rrw_spitfire.shtml Here's an extract from Apogee's 2000 catalog (fingers crossed that the link works): http://home.flash.net/~samily/stuff/2000_Apogee_Retro.pdf That's pretty much all I could find. Doug . SO, we now have TWO model rocket companies, each making several kits with wood grain nose cones. Maybe wood grain noses aren't so UN-rocket after all? Thank you, Doug! > > Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and > > other details, please. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Here's a review of one http://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/oop/rrw_spitfire.shtml > Here's an extract from Apogee's 2000 catalog (fingers crossed that the > link works): http://home.flash.net/~samily/stuff/2000_Apogee_Retro.pdf Just set the coordinates on the TARDIS to minus 8 years, and I could certify with one of these three Retro Rocket Works kits. I like the lines of "Jules Verne 29." At $115.00 in year 2000 dollars, the price is a little steep, but, what the hay, it's a thing of beauty. > That's pretty much all I could find. > > Doug > > . >I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. >With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >So, what to you think. >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? Certainly not. Even NACA used to fly a lot of research rockets with wooden noses and other wooden structures. >-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention? I think you answered your own question;"true beauty". However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and others may not be suitably impressed. With your color scheme some people might assume that it originally had a black or yellow nose cone, but that you lost or damaged it and replaced it with a balsa one. I remember one of my early models, an Estes Vega. I had given the balsa rocket kit a perfect finish, and painted it white... I showed it to my uncle, the guy who more or less got me started in modeling, with some pride, and he was unimpressed. He initially thought that it was all just prefab RTF plastic. So I guess you might even want to have some obvious flaws, so that others can recognize your craftsmanship. Alan >(You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.) Not so much about life, but rocket building is a discipline, and you might even learn something about yourself. > On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Certainly not. Even NACA used to fly a lot of research rockets with > wooden noses and other wooden structures. OH? What NACA research rockets were these? I may have a talent for modeling them. Are there any histories, plans or scale data available? > With your color scheme some people might assume that it > originally had a black or yellow nose cone, but that you lost or > damaged it and replaced it with a balsa one. This is quite true, but so long as my certification judges don't make this mistake, I really don't care. >What NACA research rockets were these? Too many to mention. Many were built around surplus Recruit motors. >I may have a talent for modeling them. >Are there any histories, plans or scale data available? Absolutely. In addition to many technical volumes, a number of histories were also published. >> With your color scheme some people might assume that it >> originally had a black or yellow nose cone, but that you lost or >> damaged it and replaced it with a balsa one. > >This is quite true, but so long as my certification >judges don't make this mistake, I really don't care. "Judges?" Certification is not a contest, you don't need to impress them. It is a basic pass/fail evaluation. If you are trying to impress them, you may be taking greater risks and fail. If your "judges" are not competent, or are making you jump through hoops that are not required, select new "judges". Alan > On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:33:52 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock > > <rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote: > >What NACA research rockets were these? > > Too many to mention. Name one NACA rocket with a wood grain nose and give details, please. Many were built around surplus Recruit motors. Yes, there was, at least, a rocket motor named "Recruit." According to the "Little Joe" article in Wikipedia: Recruit rocket (Thiokol XM19) Thrust: 37,500 lbf (167 kN) Length: 2.7 m Diameter: 0.23 m Weight: 350 lb (159 kg) Fuel: Solid Burn Time: 1.53 s However, there is no mention of wood grain nose cones. >> On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:33:52 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock >> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > >However, there is no mention of wood grain nose cones. Try a search engine like Google, rather than Wikipedia. I'd suggest searching for NACA histories, or NACA research rockets. You may not have much luck searching for wood grain nose cones directly. The materials used in many of NACA's research rockets (e.g. wood) was not considered significant to the test objectives. Shape was most important, while cost, weight, and fabrication time were also factors, the material used was hardly worth mentioning. I'd be surprised if Little Joe ever lofted a wooden space capsule mock up. To properly test the escape system you want something as close to actual flight hardware as possible. > So, what to you think. > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? Actually, the Army Signal Corps Aerobee number SC-23 featured a molded plywood nosecone. The wood grain is very visible in Alway's book "Rockets of the World" wire-bound edition, page 100, in a photo labeled US Army photo 111-SC-400868. In the case of the Aerobee, it is very rocket-like!  SignatureAt first there was just one planet. And then there were two... Rocketry Planet (http://www.rocketryplanet.com) and now Our Planet (http://our.rocketryplanet.com)! |
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