My early art layout page had a LOT of extras. The body tube wraps are printed on 20 lb. paper, the fin overlays are printed on 110 lb. stock.
Lightly spray the print side with clear acrylic. The model will get a final coat of clear after it is assembled.
The center core of the fins is cereal box cardboard.
Here I'm cutting of the edge to have a straight leading edge of the fins.
After the straight edge is cut, run some 400 grit over the edge and round off the top. It doesn't take much, just knock off the corners.
With some 220 grit sandpaper rough up the glossy printed side of the cardboard for better adhesion.
In the past I thought I could get away with using just 24lb paper- for the whole rocket. However, I would see cereal box colors in the finished fins due to the thinner paper - especially with white or light colored fins. Today I'm trying to go with just one print of 24lb paper, but I'm now using white cardboard mailing envelops - the inside is brown so I hit it with white primer, then rough up both sides so the cardboard part of my fin is mostly white - on both sides.
ReplyDeleteI'll often reduce your BT-5 based carded rockets to BT 2.5 so the body tube fits around a MMX engine (just reduce print to 51.9% of the original - Fliskits has a scaling calculator for additional diameters). I found I wanted the thinner fins for those smaller rockets and this method works for the most part.
Hi Scott,
DeleteI've only used 110 lb. card stock for the fins even when I did some MMX models. The fin thickness still looked okay but go with what works for you. I could see where the 24 lb. paper might show what's underneath. Email me for the Estes Skywriter MMX carded plans at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net. The MMX Skywriter is tight to build (you roll your own tube) but looks just like a real pencil in your hand. It's the highest flying MMX I have.
I've actually already built your Skywriter - Thanks. And Yep, you're using 110lb paper for the fins. However, that is a decent size MMX rocket. Your Der Red Max I'm doing to fit around a BT2.5 tube will be about 2" tall - 1/3 the size of the Skywriter.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the Fliskit scaling calculator works best with your carded designs, because you wrap around a BT 5 Tube. Also using their tubes - Quest MMX tubes have a different diameter.
Hi Scott,
DeleteI can see where you are going with this, scaling the fin thickness to the even smaller down scales.
I've used the FlisKit scaling calculator in the past, a handy tool to have. I never understood why Quest didn't come out with MMX kits considering they imported all the engines. They certainly had their RTF MMX plastic rockets.