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  #1  
Old 07-19-2012, 08:41 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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Default Siple Station Nike-Tomahawks

I'll be attending my first NARAM with my Dad next week in Muskegon, MI. We wanted to build/fly something new for the event, and eventually migrated toward a Tomahawk sounding rocket theme. Dad already had a 2.6" and 3" IQSY, along with parts for a 1.6", 2.27", and 4" IQSY as well. We both had D Regions in kit form, and I had the Aerotech 1.9" IQSY, Rocketarium Sandia, Semroc IQSY, enough parts to cobble together a Quest (AVI) Nike-Tomahawk, and even an old Centuri IQSY that was mostly crushed to oblivion. I was able to obtain an OOP Quest Tomahawk in the meantime as well. All together, that puts us at a dozen Tomahawks that we plan to bring to NARAM next week.

Early in 2012, Estes announced the pending release of their 3" Nike Smoke, which I quickly determined scaled to 1/5.5, or the same scale as the Rocketarium 1.637" (BT-60) Sandia Tomahawk. Although the time frame is tight, the plan is to marry the two and fly it as a two stage at NARAM. This thread will serve as an abbreviated build thread and flight report for the project. Alongside, I'll occasionally mention the Quest (AVI) Nike-Tomahawk dressed in the same attire.

On to research; although I like the classic white-fluor red, yellow of the typical Nike, not all Nike's were dressed in this fancy paint! I stumbled upon a photo from one my favorite rocket photographers, Steve Jurvetson, of a Nike-Tomahawk launched at Siple Station, Antarctica in December 1980 or January 1981. Three N-T's were launched there during this period. The trim scheme differed from the norm; and the high res photo is enough to allow for a fairly accurate representation; good enough for the sport-scale, non competition model I'm creating anyway!

Last edited by ECayemberg : 07-19-2012 at 09:51 AM.
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Old 07-19-2012, 08:56 AM
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chadrog chadrog is offline
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Sounds cool Eric, I've no doubt you'll get it knocked out in time. You guys taking the ferry over?
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Old 07-19-2012, 09:35 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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Again, this will be an abbreviated build. In actuality, the smaller Quest Nike-Tomahawk is built already, as is the Rocketarium Tomahawk; finishing remains for those, and I'll highlight a bit of the Estes Nike Smoke build/conversion here.

The Estes Nike Smoke comes neatly packaged in a heavy mil plastic bag; just like the other Pro Series II kits. There are relatively few parts, and they all look to be high quality. First order of business is to begin assembly of the motor mount. The middle centering ring is slotted to lock the fins into place; it is glued into place at a specified location. I used Zap medium CA for tacking and 15 minute epoxy for small filleting. I also epoxied on the sweet motor retainer at the same time. In lieu of the tri-fold on steroids shock cord mount, a section of 1/2" tubular nylon was epoxied to the motor tube and the forward centering ring opened up on one side to allow for the nylon to pass through. The completed assembly:



The fins were next. The four fins came in halves; and are simply joined by using CA on the internal bracing and perimeter. Awesome fins! They have even prompted me to do something I *never* do: leave them unpainted! The round I'm modeling had a white fincan, and after closely inspecting the fins, I determined that the consistent finish on the unpainted fins was as good or better than I could replicate with paint....and so it goes.



Working out of sequence, two coats of sandable primer were applied to the airframe, sanding between coats, and a pair of coats of Rusto 2X gloss black was applied to the airframe. Here she is in black, standing next to the partially finished Tomahawk sustainer:



Next up was a dry fit of the fin can prior to mating the motor mount to the airframe. The fin-to-centering ring slot fit was snug, so I sanded the slots a bit and roughed up the fins in the areas to be bonded.



A few small rings of epoxy were applied to the inside of the airframe to bond the motor mount assembly to the airframe. Careful positioning of the motor mount is required here to ensure that A) the centering ring slots are directly in line with the fin slots in the airframe and B) the motor mount is positioned properly for/aft to allow for the slots in the fins to fit into the centering ring slots. Not a lot of room for error here, so I temporarily inserted all fins in order to obtain proper alignment until the epoxy cured.

Kinda looks like a Nike Smoke with some wonky colors!



While that cured, I chopped the top off of the beatifully molded Nike cone. The bottom half will be used as the lower portion of the transition. A plywood bulkplate, cardstock paper transition, and balsa gussets will form the balance of the transition. A Perfectflite Minitimer3 will be housed in the coupler portion of the transition to serve as the ignition source for the sustainer.



More later....

-Eric-
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Old 07-19-2012, 09:39 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chadrog
Sounds cool Eric, I've no doubt you'll get it knocked out in time. You guys taking the ferry over?


Thanks Chad!!! We were going to ride the S.S. Badger over, but have recently decided to drive instead....saves a bit of time and quite a bit of money. Not the same experience, but oh well.

We'll be driving through Milwaukee at about 2:45am on Sat. the 28th if you want to play freight train .

-Eric-
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Old 07-19-2012, 09:42 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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Without further ado, here's a link to the photo of inspiration from Mr. Jurvetson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4791767571/

....And a bit of history surrounding the Siple experiments: http://www.uh.edu/research/spg/data.html

Enjoy!
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Old 07-19-2012, 09:44 AM
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chadrog chadrog is offline
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Want to give the Gouda Wooshka a ride? I have it and can meet you by the freeway.
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Old 07-20-2012, 07:58 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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I was able to put in about an hour's worth of work last evening.

First, a wrap of white Trim Monokote was applied to the aft end of the Nike booster. Additionally, small black decals were cut and applied to represent the fin attachment (these will be reworked a bit as their length ended up a bit short). The fins were epoxied into place and we have a Nike booster! I'll add rail buttons this weekend and the Nike airframe will be complete.



Moving on to the transition, I needed to create a transition to top off the base of the Smoke cone previously chopped apart. For this, a 3" dia, 3/16" thick plywood bulkplate sits in the plastic base and the transition and mating coupler sit on top of this plate. In the following photo, from left to right: plastic base of the Smoke cone courtesy of Estes, framework of the transition (3" dia. plate, BT-60 airframe, BT-60 coupler, balsa support gussets), and on the left the cardstock shroud courtesy of jonrocket.com. In the foreground are some chicken scratches to ensure it all fits.



A quick test of the mating structure to ensure a proper fit:



...and that's where we stop for the night!

-Eric-
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  #8  
Old 07-25-2012, 08:38 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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With 2 days left before departing for Muskegon, here's an update.

Estes-Rocketarium Nike-Tomahawk: sustainer has been completed. Sustainer motor of choice will be either the Estes E12 or CTI E31 White Thunder. Sorry for the poor pics, but here she is completed. The gold wraps are a bit too shiny, so they will eventually get wet sanded down with fine grit to reduce the shine...probably not until after the first flight however. There are 33 waterslide decals on the rocket, can you find them?



The booster is also complete; since the last post, rail buttons were added and the fin attachment decals extended aft to the proper length. Picture to follow when the transition is complete.

The transition is functionally complete. The three sections shown earlier have been mated and the inside of the BT-60 coupler glassed with 3 layers of 6oz E-Glass; both to increase the stiffness of the transition and to insulate the paper tube from the intense blast of sustainer ignition. Vent holes have been drilled to allow the expanding gasses to escape during motor startup. Priming and painting ensues today. Here's a photo prior to being skinned.



Photo of the completed model will likely wait until after we return from NARAM.

Quest Nike-Tomahawk: The little brother Nike-Tomahawk has been completed for a few days now. Again, this version was launched at Siple Station Antarctica in December of 1980 or January of 1981. The black color on the Nike booster is likely plastic sheeting used to insulate the rocket until launch. During launch, the sheeting stripped away with the airflow over the vehicle. The following model was constructed using Quest parts, a chopped up balsa transition from Semroc, Rustoleum 2X, Valspar, and Model Master paints, and printed decals using Sirius Rocketry paper. Turned out well, although it's tough to see clearly in this photo:



That's where I'm at with the Nike-Tomahawks 2 days prior to departure.
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  #9  
Old 07-25-2012, 09:10 AM
ECayemberg ECayemberg is offline
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Default Other Tomahawks

I mentioned earlier that the N-T's I'm highlighting here are part of an arsenal of 12 Tomahawks we're bringing to NARAM. As a quick diversion, here are the others I've completed for the trip.

Sandia Tomahawk: Flown at Tonopah, NV on 12-6-67, this single stage 1/11.4 Sandia is based on the Quest kit. In actuality, I found the Quest Tomahawk kit to be the proper length of the (slightly longer) Tomahawk sustainer used in the Quest N-T above. This particular model is made mostly from Quest parts, but with some Semroc tubing and a Semroc nose. Hard to tell from the (lousy) photo, but nose and payload sections are indeed different colors.



Aerotech IQSY: Like most of the IQSY's modeled, this 1/4.75 model is dressed like the fourth and final round IQSY launched from Wallops in 1964. A quick and simple build, although much more flashing on all the plastic parts than I'm used to with Aerotech kits from the past. Stock decals; black fin was painted first, then glued in place.



Centuri and Semroc 1/10 IQSY's: I'll keep the story short, but this pair was probably the most fun of the group. In early 2009, several old rockets (and motors!) were rescued from a family cleaning up their father's house. There were several Estes and Centuri gems from the mid 60's to mid 70's, and then again from the late 80's. One forgotten member of the lot was a TRASHED Centuri IQSY Tomahawk. Bits and pieces were thrown into a few bags of parts. After sorting through the wreckage, eventually a complete instruction sheet, header card, scale data sheet, and many of the original parts were cobbled together. I thought it would be neat to resurrect this bird for our Tomahawk project covered in part here. Long story short, the two remaining fins and main airframe were beyond repair. I was able to salvage the following: launch lug (removed from lower airframe), chute (replaced shroud lines), payload section (after some heavy duty filling, priming, sanding), and nosecone (in good shape, but the wrong color ). The lower airframe was replaced with an equivalent length Semroc tube and the fins were replaced with Semroc's excellent laser cut basswood set. Here she is before primer after beginning the fill/sand process (original parts are blue or orange):



At the same time, the similar yet slightly different, Deci-scale Semroc IQSY was built alongside. Here's the pair resting alongside one-another; Centuri on the left, Semroc on the right. Decals on both by Stickershock!



-Eric-
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  #10  
Old 07-25-2012, 09:24 AM
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Leo Leo is offline
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Very nice Eric
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