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  #1  
Old 07-11-2016, 01:37 PM
DavidQ DavidQ is offline
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Default K-9 Spaceman comes after K-8

Trudging along, I started a scratchbuild of the Astron K-9 Spaceman from the 1964 catalog.

If you've had your head under a rock for 52 years, the Spaceman was an Estes kit meant to show that rockets can be fun, and don't have to be four fin nose cones. I wonder if 4FNC was a catch phrase back then.

The design has an odd shaped nose cone and squarish fins. It is in fact, the first of the ring-fin designs in an Estes catalog.


I started by cutting the parts, and using a nose cone (head cone?) that I bought.

The first part of the assembly was the motor mount, which is a tube-within-a-tube-without-centering-rings assembly. It's kind of the inner ring fin assembly, using the engine mount as the main body tube, and the body body-tube as a ring around the tube.
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  #2  
Old 07-11-2016, 01:41 PM
DavidQ DavidQ is offline
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Once the Spaceman has a body, it needs limbs. Legs come first, along with two more struts to reduce the torque on the 1/16" fins.

It seems like really thin stock for such long, skinny fins and a featherweight tumble recovery. I'm expecting build, launch, laugh, land, groan, repair, put on shelf and admire.

At the end of the legs is a square assembly of balsa, forming yet another ring fin. I wanted it to be really square, so I used pencil and paper and tape to hold it while it dried.
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  #3  
Old 07-11-2016, 08:32 PM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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Some good ideas there!

Witnessed a Spaceman A) lost over trees, and B) to rub it in blown to pieces by an ejection charge a couple of weekends back.

I think I will make future Spacemen to use mini motors and parachute recovery. There should be just enough room for a small parachute, which is all that is required.
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  #4  
Old 07-12-2016, 12:27 AM
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ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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Even a small streamer would be a MUCH better recovery method.
Tumble, featherweight, and nose-blow (just shock cord only) recovery all SUCK for anything but the lightest BT-5 and BT-20 based rockets.
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  #5  
Old 07-12-2016, 07:54 PM
DavidQ DavidQ is offline
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A Spaceman shouldn't be naked. He'd boil to death in space. Or eaten by sharks once he splashes down.

Painting started with a coat of primer. It probably wasn't needed for this rocket, since I painted it by hand, but what the heck. Habits die hard. Do nuns say that too?

I already built the Fliskits Intergalactic Man of Space, using a brush and some acrylic paints. To avoid having to make yet another decision - because decisions are hard - I reused a decision that I made back then. The Estes Spaceman would be brush painted with the same acrylic paints.

And, I used the same decals I used on the Fliskits version, but I upscaled them for the Estes version.

Although I'm considering it done now, I am still thinking about the suggestions about adding a recovery system other than Newtonian-based gravitational acceleration and demonstration of momentum with an elastic collision. I've already glued on the nose cone (as is obvious by the pictures), so I'm thinking about adding a rear-eject tiny parachute with a 13mm engine. That would recover about 1" of space in the BT20 tube, which might just work. I'll let you know if I decide to.
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  #6  
Old 07-12-2016, 11:13 PM
jnmiller jnmiller is offline
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Default fin jig in your pictures

Where can one get these fin jigs?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidQ
Once the Spaceman has a body, it needs limbs. Legs come first, along with two more struts to reduce the torque on the 1/16" fins.

It seems like really thin stock for such long, skinny fins and a featherweight tumble recovery. I'm expecting build, launch, laugh, land, groan, repair, put on shelf and admire.

At the end of the legs is a square assembly of balsa, forming yet another ring fin. I wanted it to be really square, so I used pencil and paper and tape to hold it while it dried.
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  #7  
Old 07-13-2016, 02:07 AM
DavidQ DavidQ is offline
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Here is one place.
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  #8  
Old 07-20-2016, 12:37 PM
Blastfromthepast Blastfromthepast is offline
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I built one of these from a kit in 1973...

You're gonna absolutely love flying this thing.

You'll also get a lot of jokes from fellow rocketeers about 'flatulation power'.

Be aware that the Spaceman always lands on his head, so the more you fly it, the more dents and divits you will get in the cranium nose cone.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo. It was from one of those old cheap 'box' cameras from back in the day.

My version of the Spaceman was painted to look like the mascot of the 'Starlords International Association of Rocketry, an international club run by a guy out of Hawaii in the mid 70s.
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  #9  
Old 07-20-2016, 10:05 PM
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SEL SEL is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blastfromthepast
I built one of these from a kit in 1973...

You're gonna absolutely love flying this thing.

You'll also get a lot of jokes from fellow rocketeers about 'flatulation power'.

Be aware that the Spaceman always lands on his head, so the more you fly it, the more dents and divits you will get in the cranium nose cone.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo. It was from one of those old cheap 'box' cameras from back in the day.

My version of the Spaceman was painted to look like the mascot of the 'Starlords International Association of Rocketry, an international club run by a guy out of Hawaii in the mid 70s.



Starlord! I bought a few kits from a guy named Dennis out of Hawaii whose handle was Starlord - must be the same guy. Is he still around?

Sean
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  #10  
Old 07-21-2016, 07:17 AM
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Rocketflyer Rocketflyer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SEL
Starlord! I bought a few kits from a guy named Dennis out of Hawaii whose handle was Starlord - must be the same guy. Is he still around?

Sean


I haven't been in contact with Dennis Bishop for some years. He is/was living in Rosamond, Ca. Last I knew he was having problems walking with bad legs, and the VA was denying him an increase on his disabilities. At NARAM 50, Mr. Dunbar said that Dennis was pretty badly beaten up in a robbery of his mobile home. Dennis is a a good guy, a Vietnam vet, who just fell through the cracks and was hanging on by his fingernails. I could only help out so much.

Jack
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