Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 7, Details and Fin Tips

The small antenna pieces are glued onto the lightly etched laser lines.








The dowel guns are glued onto the wing tips.

The wing tips are glued on at an angle.



The dihedral guide pieces are glued together looking like short stairs. It is set under the wing to get the correct down angle of the wing tips.

The 1/4" diameter launch lug had the seams filled before gluing onto the rocket. Here I'm cleaning up the ends like I would with a regular body tube. The inside edges got a wipe of CA glue.


TIP: After priming and sanding the ends were cleaned up using the taper of a sharpened pencil.

Launch! (Finally) Schoolyard, September 3, 2017

It's been a while! Burn bans and water soaked fields have led to cancelled club launches.
Thanks to Manuel I have some A8-3s to use. The soccer field is perfect for A engines in 1" diameter models.
No launch pictures today. Even though I had the camera set on the burst function, overcast skies and low light left blurry images.



The Centuri NOMAD clone went up first with an Estes A8-3 to about 200 feet. The chute had a spill hole so the recovery walk was short.

The Estes GALACTIC TAXI was flown with a Chinese Quest A6-4. I would guess the altitude to be 225'. No damage on recovery.






I usually don't see the "sticky smoke" until the Wintertime. The smoke did stay in the grass. You could scare it up with a stomp of your foot.







Why two pictures of the upcoming Odd'l Rockets F-104 STARFIGHTER? I launched it twice!

I've been wanting to do more test flights with the larger (and slightly heavier) wing tanks. Both flights were with two more Estes A8-3s to 200' and very stable.

I wish they all would recover this close! While descending I thought the F-104 might hang on the launch rod. I've only done that once in the 1970s. Still, close is good.

Last up was a C6-3! (I know, BIG power.)
I haven't launched the FlisKits PHEORD X-150 saucer since 2014. This is a draggy but fun model. The C engine probably only got it to 75 feet, loud and slow.
I had paper towels with me when it was picked up. It's important to dry off the dew from a card stock rocket. The model was wet and may dry with a few wrinkles. I'll just call them dents in the truck body.

Even though the altitudes weren't staggering, it felt good to fly a few. Five up, five recovered with little damage, just wet.

Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 6, Assembly

The body tube and nose cone got a shot of primer/filler and sanding.
The nose cone seams were almost non-existent. Only a bit of primer was left after sanding.

The instructions tell you to apply a ring of glue 3" inside the main air frame tube. You also should add some glue to the inside of the rear centering ring. The rear ring is flush with the end of the tube.
I used my sanding block to be sure the ring was even, flush with the body tube end.

The wing fins are glued on, the interior fin tangs are glued onto the engine mount tube.

To apply some pressure and better seat the root edges, I used some rubber bands around both outside edges of the wings.
Sight across the back to be sure both are in line with each other.

The forward winglets go in the opposite way you would think.

Again I used rubber bands to apply a moderate pressure while the glue dried.

Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 5, Balsa Filling

The large wing fins are two-piece.
In Step 15, the instructions would have you glue on the rear fin piece after the engine mount and main fins are glued in. I didn't see any real reason to glue the rear fin piece afterwards. It just meant more joint filling if you waited until Step 15.

After the CWF was sanded smooth I did some test fitting before gluing in the engine mount. The root edges of the fins are a little above the body tube. Some light sanding of the fin tangs brought the root edge down.

This is not a problem, I'd rather have the fin tangs a bit long for a custom fit.

The balsa is taped down to a piece of cardboard for a spray of filler/primer.

TIP: On the forums I read about others doing many coats of primer and sanding to fill balsa. As mentioned before, I do just one coat of CWF and sanding then one fairly thick coat of Duplicolor Filler/Primer and sanding. That's all you should need to fill the balsa pores.
Sure, the Duplicolor Primer/Filler is more expensive than the $1 a can crap from WalMart. One can goes a long way. One coat of the good stuff sure beats four or five coats and sanding between coats of the cheap stuff.

These are the wing tips and forward fins.

On the right is the sprayed and dried grey primer/filler.
On the left is the primer/filler sanded down. Notice most all of it is removed with sandpaper on a block. The only primer/filler that remains has filled whatever grain is left after the initial CWF coat.

Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 4, Engine Mount

UPGRADE: I changed out the standard BT-50 engine tube for a heavy wall BT-50H tube. I never thought the BT-50 tubing was very strong, especially when you are using 24mm and composite engines.

This required me to widen the center hole in the centering rings. It's easy to do with a 24mm engine casing and some 220 grit sandpaper.

1/4" of the engine tube is exposed out the back of the engine mount. I filled the body tube seam.






The Kevlar line is tied around the upper end of the engine tube. The end goes through the notch in the upper centering ring.

Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 3, Engine Mount

UPGRADE: The engine hook wasn't spring steel. It reminded me of some Quest engine hooks from the past.
It didn't pass the "bend test" and was tossed. I replaced it with a spring steel hook from BMS.

The burnt faces of the centering rings were sanded clean with some 400 grit sandpaper. The back face of the rear ring will be seen on the finished model so it should be smooth.

The engine hook and Kevlar notches were cut but not all the way through. A rectangular diamond file was used to knock it out.

Mentioned earlier, the face of the rear centering ring is flush with the end of the body tube. It will be seen and needs to be smooth for some masking.
The wood grain got a coat of CWF and smooth sanding.

Apogee Shrockets Skonk Wulf Build, Part 2, Fin Fill and Fill

You'll want to sand off the hold down ticks and square up the fins for a better, full contact glue joint.

A second piece is glued on the leading edge of the rudder.
Notice the tall thru-the-wall tabs that will glue to the engine tube.

TIP: I've been using the leftover balsa sheets for a slightly elevated drying area.

The balsa pieces have just got a brushed on coat of CWF. I didn't paint the thru-the-wall tabs.