New Way Blade Runner, Part 3, Engine Mount

The rings are glued in place on their 1/2" marks made earlier.

Tie the Kevlar with a small square knot. Cut the loose tail off at about 1/2" long.

Press the Kevlar loop, knot and tail into the glue fillet.

Slide the heat shrink tube down the Kevlar line until the end rests on the upper centering ring. 

While holding the heat shrink tube against the upper ring - 

Apply heat using a hair dryer or heat gun on the low setting. It should shrink around and tighten over the Kevlar.

When tying the Kevlar knot, make it small and tight against the motor mount tube. There isn't much space between the BT-20 and BT-50 tubing.

Notice the Kevlar relief notch is to the outside edge of the upper ring. This keeps the Kevlar to the outside of the hot ejection charge.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 2, Engine Mount

The 20/50 centering rings are laser cut from plywood.

I like to sand off the charring from the faces using 400 grit on a block. 

It's not necessary to do this, I want cleaner parts - especially when the surfaces can be seen on the finished model.

The motor mount tube is marked 1/2" from both ends for centering ring positions.

Slot the tube for the engine hook at 1/4" from the top and insert the upper bend of the hook.

The retainer ring ends up centered between the centering rings. Slide on, apply a ring of glue and into position. 

The fit of the rings was almost perfect! A hair tight.

For a smooth slide over the ends of the tube, a piece of 400 grit was wrapped around a finger and used to lightly "ream" the center hole.

New Way Blade Runner, Part 1, Parts

What a great new design from New Way! I've never seen anything like it.

18.75 inches tall,

BT-50 based with five multipiece fins. The flat face fins drag stabilize the model, almost like a conical rocket.

Simple colors and an easy mask.

Decals are effective and clean.

All the parts are well produced. A sandpaper and Q-tip package is included.

The parts of interest:

Heat shrink tubing to protect the Kevlar line at the engine mount.

Larger diameter heat shrink tubing to go over the Kevlar/shock cord tie.

Plywood centering rings.

Engine lock retaining ring

Black vinyl stripe to go over white and light gray color separation line.

Wadding Around Parachute? TIP

Looking over the new Estes Vogel instructions:

I was curious about the large booster recovery.

A "hatch" releases the parachute at staging.

Notice there are a couple of pieces of recovery wadding protecting the top of the parachute from the flame of the sustainer motor.

 

In my single stage models, I've been using extra wadding wrapped around the bottom of a parachute for years. This is in addition to the wadding already in the tube.

Pictured at the right is red Quest wadding, crinkled up for easier use.

TIP: As extra insurance to prevent any hot spot melts -
Cut a piece of sheet wadding down to about 3 1/2" square. Set the low end of the packed chute in the center of the square.  Wrap the low end of the parachute with the wadding. Wrap the sides of the wadding up the chute.

It is important to cut the wadding square smaller. You want the wadding sheet to peel away from the parachute at ejection.

New Dog!

Welcome the newest member of the Michielssen family - Dakota the blue merle Sheltie!

Picked her up this afternoon with daughter Whitney's help.

One year old, very chill dog. First walk was easy, the dog already heels.

Two hours later she put her head in my lap!

Hopefully she'll make it out to a launch or two -

 

Dogs growing up - Abe, Beau, Cody, Dudley, Emily, Fern and Gertie.

My Mom named them in alphabetical order.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Finished

This is a big one, just over 36" tall.

Lots of adapters and body tube diameters especially made for this kit. That might be why Estes probably wouldn't re-release it. 

Decals were tricky and subject to cracking, but in the end came out okay.

The horizontal wrap stripes tend to cover any breaks between the body tube sections and adapters.

The conduits (runways) reminded me of the old Mercury Redstone tower pieces. Instead of providing proper dowels, you cut out "rounded" strips from a single strip of wood.

These conduits were machined on a wood strip. Very rough requiring too much forming and filling.
 

The fins seem too small for stability, but the model is tall so it should be okay.

I'll launch it with a C6-5, the only recommended motor.

Estes LTV Scout, Build, Part 24, Touching Up The Black

The decals are old and subject to cracking, especially on the open ends where the section are slid together.

The end edges were sealed with clear acrylic applied with a Q-tip. 

The white areas were blackened in with a medium point Sharpie.

Done!