Wednesday, September 12, 2012

AVI Nike Tomahawk Build Part 1 Scale Factor

This is one I'd wanted to build ever since I received the AVI catalog in 1973 -
The NIKE TOMAHAWK
Check out the AVI catalog here:
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/73avicat.html

I don't think many of the kits in the catalog ever made it to the hobby stores.
A few of the AVI engines have been shown on the forums.

This was a kit made up from two older MPC kits, the Tomahawk and the Nike Smoke.
The Tomahawk was 20mm tube based, the Nike Smoke was a 35 mm tube.
Quest sold both the plastic fin cans up until July of this year, I ordered three.
The plastic transition doesn't exist - it'll have to be made from card stock shrouds.

The model is based on the Peter Alway drawings from Rockets of the World, 3rd edition. You can find it on page 161.

Before I show the parts, the adapter will have to be made.
The scale factor (based on the 35mm tube at 1.378" diameter) is 11.93.
To get the scale factor, the diameter of the Nike Booster body (16.44") was divided by the 35mm body tube (1.378") The result was a scale factor of 11.93.
All the dimensions in the Alway drawings were divided by the 11.93 to get the model dimensions. 

On the left side are the real dimensions in inches. On the right are the model dimensions.
The 20mm tube is a bit off. 9.0" (real Tomahawk diameter) divided by 11.93 = .754" model diameter.
The 20mm tube is .787", close enough for sport scale.

The adapter will need two rings 1.5" wide. They are cut from mat board and two will be glued back to back for the wider center piece between the two shrouds.

Before showing all the parts, I'll need to clean up what I have and make the adapter.
This adapter assembly will take up a few posts!

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