Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > Swap Shoppe > For Sale
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #21  
Old 12-13-2013, 04:27 PM
tbzep's Avatar
tbzep tbzep is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TN
Posts: 11,610
Default

George had a Sun Seeker back in the mid to late 90's. I don't know if George was with HARA or the Birmingham bunch (or both), but I saw the Sun Seeker fly in Huntsville at a couple of Rocket City Classic events.

Dan Coon had a gimballed water rocket using helicopter gyros, also in the mid to late 90's. Dan was with HARA at the time. It was powered by a dozen 2 liter bottles with gimballed nozzle and a Polaroid camera mounted on top used to photograph kids at school launches. Dan's career intervened and he moved out west, I think to Colorado. I was fortunate enough to see him experiment with nozzles, bottle counts, water additives, plumbing, and of course guidance at monthly HARA launches.

What's cool with both was that they were able to do it without dipping into regulated HPR territory.
__________________
I love sanding.

Last edited by tbzep : 12-13-2013 at 08:55 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 12-13-2013, 08:38 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
George had a Sun Seeker back in the mid to late 90's. I don't know if George was with HARA or the Birmingham bunch (or both), but I saw the Sun Seeker fly in Huntsville at a couple of Rocket City Classic events.

Dan Coon had a gimballed water rocket using helicopter gyros, also in the mid to late 90's. Dan was with HARA at the time. It was powered by a couple dozen 2 liter bottles with gimballed nozzle and a Polaroid camera mounted on top used to photograph kids at school launches. Dan's career intervened and he moved out west, I think to Colorado. I was fortunate enough to see him experiment with nozzles, bottle counts, water additives, plumbing, and of course guidance at monthly HARA launches.

What's cool with both was that they were able to do it without dipping into regulated HPR territory.



That's cool... I'd love to see a project first-hand like that... I know I was really impressed and had a good time discussing things with John... Just wish I had the electronics skills to do something like that.

Water rockets are pretty cool too. I had the obligatory "Titan II" water rocket when I was a kid, and it was a lot of fun-- you filled the rocket to a fill line on the side with water, put the little air filler nipple in the nozzle of the rocket, slid the slide lock over the nozzle rim, and then pumped it up about ten times or so, inverted it facing up, and then "pulled the trigger" to release the slide lock, and it'd blast off... it had two fins with tabs to make it spin slowly for stability. At apogee the Gemini capsule would fall off and deploy a little checkered plastic parachute, while the rocket sorta tumbled back down... flew maybe 50-75 feet high I guess... tons of fun!

Anyway, we did "pop bottle" rockets for the fair in Indiana... since I was the aerospace judge this year, I got to judge the bottle rockets and helped with flying them... they fill them with a couple cups of water, then invert them onto the launcher, which is a plastic PVC ~3 inch pipe coupling with a slot cut into it, through which a "U" shaped brass or steel rod is inserted over the flat flange of the soda bottle to hold it locked to the pad until launch. There's a 1/2 or 3/4 inch PVC pipe sticking up inside the bottle that serves as a launch guide/fill tube for the pressurized air, and the seal is provided by an O-ring slid over the outside of the pipe, which the end of the pop bottle threaded part is pressed against when the "U-clip" is inserted. The air valve is opened, allowing about 75 PSI into the bottle, and as soon as it's pressurized, the kid stomps on a pedal attached to the base of the launcher, which pulls a short bit of rope going over a pulley to the "U" clip, which yanks it out of the slot, allowing the rocket to blast off...

They go surprisingly high-- probably 150 feet or so, sometimes more... I think the pressurization limit is about 90 PSI for a standard 2 liter pop bottle... at pressures above that the bottle has a pretty high rate of simply blowing up. I don't think they respond particularly well to repeated pressure cycling (multiple flights) at that high a pressure either... If they do blow up they just tend to go "boom" with a good report and emit a cloud of foggy vapor...

Here's a pic of Keira's Exploring 4-H "Darth Vader" bottle rocket. Technically we didn't "follow the rules" to the letter as the rules require kids in competition to use the exact fin and nosecone pattern provided in the project instructions and rule book... but then again, Keira was doing "EXPLORING 4H", which is a "participant" type thing, not eligible for judging and placement in the actual fair... more an 'exhibition' type project... and we wanted to show what sort of thing could be done with some imagination, beside the regular "pig rockets" and "airplane looking rockets" and stuff that usually is the fare of the competition. We did use the packet fin pattern, but we had to heavily modify the 'straight cone" pattern from the packet to make the Darth Vader helmet... the tip of the cone was snipped off and he got a ball of aluminum foil wrapped in black duct tape to create the round top of his helmet... and Keira had a blast decorating him, and he flew extremely well...

later! OL JR
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:  DSCF6264rs.jpg
Views: 71
Size:  449.0 KB  
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 12-14-2013, 10:47 AM
johnpursley johnpursley is offline
Somewhat Skilled Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 54
Default

I've sold several scratch-builds via eBay the past couple of years (a 1/12 Mercury Redstone, 1/24 Mercury Redstone, 1/10 Vanguard) but never anything from an existing kit.

I don't worry about what people pay for my models. I don't build very many (it typically takes me YEARS to finish a competition scale model...) but I enjoy the heck out of doing stuff that is unique. The reward is the finished product and the experience I gain in doing new things.
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 12-14-2013, 11:39 AM
johnpursley johnpursley is offline
Somewhat Skilled Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 54
Default

I'm finally getting back into building. The Interceptors are favorites of mine. Since I have a supply of the kits, I figured I'd build a few.

There was mention in this thread of me changing the name of the NAR's magazine when I became its editor. Many have attributed to me the name change of the NAR's journal from "Model Rocketeer" to "American Spacemodeling". In reality, the NAR Board had already decided on the name change well before I became editor and it was just coincidence that my first issue bore that title.

Believe me, I caught a lot of flak from NAR members about that. Of course it wasn't the only time that I "caught it" from members. Mothers of younger rocketeers roasted me over featuring a nice looking female posing with a rocket on the cover of one issue (and having the very same lady featured in a full page ad in the very same issue...whoops), I constantly got complaints over "turning the magazine into a scale rocket" publication (I also received complaints about NOT having enough scale...), High Power folks flamed me over printing the words "outlaw amateur rockets" in one early issue, etc.

I also did a good impersonation of the south end of a north bound horse at many NAR Board Meetings...

John Pursley
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 12-14-2013, 11:57 AM
johnpursley johnpursley is offline
Somewhat Skilled Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 54
Default

The Interceptor "skins" are just that...skins. They are full-body wraps just like the "auto wraps" you see on NASCAR racers and assorted cars and vans you see tooling around the highways.

The biggest problem is that, for a model like the Interceptor, you have to apply the wrap as you build the model. It CAN be applied to an already build model but you will be forced to make the wrap in many more sections and the likelihood of aligning a bunch of separate sections (let alone effectively hiding the seams) in a satisfactory way would be tough for even an experienced modeler.

It took me many hours and several tries to get the "look" of the "Twilight Interceptor" right.

I can't take credit for the idea "Chameleon" pattern in any way. I stole the idea from the images of the catalog/kit insert Interceptor-E. I coined the name "Chameleon"... I don't know what Estes or the original scheme designer may have called it.

I'm working on the treatment for the Interceptor-E.

With the Interceptors out of production I probably missed the boat for the possibility of selling "wrap kits."

John Pursley
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 12-14-2013, 12:29 PM
Digitalastro's Avatar
Digitalastro Digitalastro is offline
Intermediate Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 75
Default wrap kit?!

I have a few interceptors in the build pile (both sizes) an I would be interested in a wrap kit!
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 12-14-2013, 01:34 PM
johnpursley johnpursley is offline
Somewhat Skilled Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 54
Default

I have received a couple of direct emails as a result of this forum about "how I did it..." that I thought I would elaborate on a bit here.

The wraps aren't produced on car-wrap material which is too thick and relatively non-conformal in the very small sizes and tight curves of model rockets, but the concept is the same. The material I use is .002" thick...a bit tough to handle but nothing like water-slide decals. Then again, once the stuff touches the surface to which it is applied, "it's there for keeps" unless you immediately remove it. If you wait more than 5-10 minutes you are either going to destroy/distort the wrap or end up pulling off a layer or two of body tube.

Yes...the pattern and details are delicate (not so much that you can easily damage during building but won't hold up very long during normal "model rocket handling"). The graphics are waterproof and you can actually use a water-based acrylic or even photo fixative or clear lacquer (I've tried them all) to protect the wrap. The "Twilight Interceptor" has five coats of clear acrylic wet-sanded between coats. Once you get accustomed to it, all the sanding and finishing comes easy. It's the kind of patience that scale modeling teaches you.

I have added a number of complimentary markings to "fill out the model". There are fully legible type and markings in the 2-3 point range.

So far, for every "good" skin I get I have tossed two as being not acceptable. But...I'm improving.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 12-14-2013, 02:15 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnpursley
I'm finally getting back into building. The Interceptors are favorites of mine. Since I have a supply of the kits, I figured I'd build a few.

There was mention in this thread of me changing the name of the NAR's magazine when I became its editor. Many have attributed to me the name change of the NAR's journal from "Model Rocketeer" to "American Spacemodeling". In reality, the NAR Board had already decided on the name change well before I became editor and it was just coincidence that my first issue bore that title.

Believe me, I caught a lot of flak from NAR members about that. Of course it wasn't the only time that I "caught it" from members. Mothers of younger rocketeers roasted me over featuring a nice looking female posing with a rocket on the cover of one issue (and having the very same lady featured in a full page ad in the very same issue...whoops), I constantly got complaints over "turning the magazine into a scale rocket" publication (I also received complaints about NOT having enough scale...), High Power folks flamed me over printing the words "outlaw amateur rockets" in one early issue, etc.

I also did a good impersonation of the south end of a north bound horse at many NAR Board Meetings...

John Pursley


I remember that extremely attractive young lady... she was on the cover and in the old North Coast Rocketry catalogs IIRC; I still have my NCR catalogs from that era... North Coast used some very attractive young ladies as models, a good marketing scheme, or so I thought as a high school age male at the time...

Their models also dressed very nicely as well... not exactly formal wear or business attire, but pretty close to it, especially for that time period. Certainly a lot "classier" than some of the more obvious advertising later on by the likes of Sheri's Hot Rockets, tats, tight tops, short skirts, and FM shoes while holding a rocket...

Well, the old axiom "you can please some of the people some of the time" comes to mind... I dropped my NAR membership because the only thing I really wanted it for was the magazine, but unfortunately the coverage is pretty much limited to contests and HPR activities/projects, neither of which I have much interest in myself. Of course I guess that's where the membership's interests lie, so be it...

Later! OL JR
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 12-14-2013, 03:09 PM
johnpursley johnpursley is offline
Somewhat Skilled Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 54
Default

There are multiple stories related to the lady on the cover of the magazine and NCR. I already had the color separations for the cover done (yes, the photo came from NCR and color separations back then were done on a laser drum scanner and were VERY expensive) and THEN NCR placed the ad...using the very same photo. Matt may have a different take on things...<G>

Yes, the lady was quite properly dressed and there was nothing overtly suggestive about the contents or composition of the image. In fact, I was told that the lady was a school teacher (elementary school, I believe). Since young ladies wearing halter tops and more revealing "summer attire" had appeared several times in/on the magazine before, I didn't think much of it. I figured I would "catch it" over the ad using the same photo (got very little feedback on that topic). If you were a careful observer of the mag back then, you will discover I never again featured a female unless, as one observer mentioned at the time, "they were dressed like guys."

To top it off, I also did the paste-up and printing for the NCR catalogs at that time...so it was a perfect storm of things that amplified "my bad".
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 12-15-2013, 12:51 AM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnpursley
There are multiple stories related to the lady on the cover of the magazine and NCR. I already had the color separations for the cover done (yes, the photo came from NCR and color separations back then were done on a laser drum scanner and were VERY expensive) and THEN NCR placed the ad...using the very same photo. Matt may have a different take on things...<G>

Yes, the lady was quite properly dressed and there was nothing overtly suggestive about the contents or composition of the image. In fact, I was told that the lady was a school teacher (elementary school, I believe). Since young ladies wearing halter tops and more revealing "summer attire" had appeared several times in/on the magazine before, I didn't think much of it. I figured I would "catch it" over the ad using the same photo (got very little feedback on that topic). If you were a careful observer of the mag back then, you will discover I never again featured a female unless, as one observer mentioned at the time, "they were dressed like guys."

To top it off, I also did the paste-up and printing for the NCR catalogs at that time...so it was a perfect storm of things that amplified "my bad".


Geez... If I'd had a teacher that looked like her, I'd probably STILL be in school... LOL She was a KNOCKOUT!

Course, I always went for the classier-dressed girls over the tawdry stuff... IIRC her sweater or blouse was a bit snug (not overly so, but she was a healthy girl!) and the white skirt accented her nice backside quite well, and she was holding a rocket... Geez, every teenage rocket nerds dream, right?? I know I kept my Estes and NCR and FSI catalogs in my school binder, in the back-- but you can guess which one was on top...

My nephews enjoyed looking at the Sheri's Hot Rockets website when they were in junior high/high school a few years back (oldest has been out of school a couple or three years now) and I admit it caught my attention as well-- healthy, shapely girl in a tight top and short skirt holding a big rocket, what's not to like... but the FM shoes and tats and risqué poses just made it a bit too obvious for me... apparently not for them... LOL

I guess that's why I was usually more attracted to some of my teachers than a lot of my peers-- they dressed better and were more mature, as I was... although I DID like the "preppy phase" that went through the school in the mid-late 80's... when girls actually dressed nice and looked SEXY, not trashy or tawdry. Then came the "grunge" look and other than a mostly bad resurrection of hip huggers back in the 2000's, (which I never was fond of even from the 60's/70's, which was before my time mostly, but I just never liked the look that much, even on the thinner girls at the time that could actually carry it off... but when you're driving a schoolbus and you have a fat chick get on the bus wearing hip huggers and there's a muffin top flopped over the front and love handles on the side with a gold thong string over the love handles, that's just NOT a good look... (gag! cover it up!) I mean, I'm no skinny dude myself for sure, but I got more sense than that! Seems like the "grunge" look that was coming into its own about the time I graduated in '89 has just never really left, all these years later... something I noticed driving the bus-- now ALL the chicks "look like guys"... Only time you'd EVER see ANYBODY dressed nice was for the senior portraits or National Honor Society thing... then the kids had to wear dress clothes, and they looked really nice-- guys looked sharp, and the girls looked very pretty and attractive. Next day it was back to faded dirty jeans and tennis shoes and goofy looking tops... kinda sad actually...

Then there's the whole "Goth" thing... O H M Y W O R D !!!! "Just say no!"....

What most kids don't realize is, that maybe 1 in 100 kids that "go Goth" can actually carry it off and not look like a putz... I mean, basically it takes someone thin and very pale and who would be fairly attractive to very attractive otherwise not to look completely hideous when "Gothed up"... My wife's friend's daughter, who could have been a model with her looks and, umm, assets, shall we say... she went Goth for awhile, and she could carry it off... that and she didn't go completely nuts about it... sorta "understated" Goth I guess you could call it, which is almost an oxymoron when it comes to "Goth"... Classic example-- there was this girl who rode my bus from the elementary school over to the high school as a transfer... guess she lived a few blocks from the school and thus in the non-service area, and had to walk to the elementary to transfer by bus to the high school. Now, she wasn't exactly Victoria's Secret material, if you get my drift-- she was a tall, big boned girl, a little overweight but not massive, muscular and a rather plain, almost masculine face... and a figure about like a linebacker... lets just say she didn't have a huge lot to work with for starters... but she went Goth... It was all I could do not to laugh when she'd get on the bus every morning... invariably her outfit consisted of a red flannel logger's men's shirt over some sort of T-shirt or wifebeater or something (girls had to wear sleeves at our schools-- it's in the dress code-- no "armpit ta-ta" allowed) with a black skirt that looked to have been made from an old burlap feed sack, over black hose that had been slit all to pieces with a razor blade or whatever, with black combat boots (literally looked like old army boots dyed black). She topped it off with the short cut jet-black dyed Gothic hair, and WAY too much black makeup over a white base coat (or whatever they call it). It was really funny if it weren't sad... "Poor girl" I'd often think to myself, "God didn't give you much to work with to begin with, but you're fumbling what you do have away..." Well, the year went by along with the summer, and that following fall I was REALLY surprised at the change... she'd outgrown the "Goth phase" and got on the bus one morning in "normal" clothes-- jeans and a T-shirt and tennies, with her hair her actual color and her makeup done nicely (understated) and she was a pretty nice looking girl... not like a "10" of course, but a good solid "5" I'd say... certainly an improvement from the "2" which put her right above Quasimodo the previous year... LOL

Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane... it's been fun... LOL

Later! OL JR

PS... here's the pic BTW for those who might not have this catalog or magazine back-issue...
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:  NCR87CatalogCoverGirl.JPG
Views: 102
Size:  150.5 KB  
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:53 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe © 1998-2024