I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken a week. I had the 7-inch long nose cone specially turned out of hard balsa wood for me at Balsa Machining Service. I've painted it with a clear lacquer sanding sealer, which brought out the wood's grain. True beauty!
Originally, I planned to paint it black. That is my rocket color scheme, a fluorescent yellow body with black fins and nose cone. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that this is supposed to be a MODEL rocket and that the real rockets I imitate never had solid wooden nose cones.
So, what to you think. -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the sake of convention?
(You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.)
>I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. > With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken > a week. I had the 7-inch long nose cone specially turned > out of hard balsa wood for me at Balsa Machining Service. > I've painted it with a clear lacquer sanding sealer, which > brought out the wood's grain. True beauty!
> Originally, I planned to paint it black. That is my rocket > color scheme, a fluorescent yellow body with black fins and > nose cone. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that this is > supposed to be a MODEL rocket and that the real rockets I > imitate never had solid wooden nose cones.
> So, what to you think. > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention?
> (You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.)
It certainly is UN -Rocket but is in the spirit of the Spruce Goose, leave it.
> So, what to you think. > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention?
> > So, what to you think. > > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > > sake of convention?
> It's your rocket, paint it any way you want.
I don't know. I'm sitting on the fence. That's why I posted to rec.models.rockets.
Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> writes: > On Jul 18, 5:46 pm, Joe Pfeiffer <pfeif...@cs.nmsu.edu> wrote: >> Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> writes:
>> > So, what to you think. >> > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? >> > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the >> > sake of convention?
>> It's your rocket, paint it any way you want.
> I don't know. I'm sitting on the fence. > That's why I posted to rec.models.rockets.
If it were mine, and the grain were that nice, I'd leave the grain visible (and also on the fins!)
> Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> writes: > > On Jul 18, 5:46 pm, Joe Pfeiffer <pfeif...@cs.nmsu.edu> wrote: > >> Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> writes:
> >> > So, what to you think. > >> > -- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > >> > -- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > >> > sake of convention?
> >> It's your rocket, paint it any way you want.
> > I don't know. I'm sitting on the fence. > > That's why I posted to rec.models.rockets.
> If it were mine, and the grain were that nice, I'd leave the grain > visible (and also on the fins!)
I paper coated the fins. They're homemade from a basswood, paper, and CYA glue sandwich.
On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote:
>So, what to you think. >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? >-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention?
I think a wood grain nose cone could look very good. You may want to change the rest of the paint job to match it though.
There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from wood, including the body tubes. One of the members of our local rocket club has a couple of these and flies them from time to time. They are heavy, but look great. They are unpainted, just a clear coat over the wood.
Jonathan ----- Jonathan Sivier Secretary, Central Illinois Aerospace jsiv...@uiuc.edu NAR #56437 Flight Simulation Lab Tripoli #1906 Beckman Institute Home Address: 405 N. Mathews 5 The Summit Urbana, IL 61801 Champaign, IL 61820 217/244-1923 217/359-8225 ----- Home page URL: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jsivier/www/
<rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote: >I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. >With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken >a week. I had the 7-inch long nose cone specially turned >out of hard balsa wood for me at Balsa Machining Service. >I've painted it with a clear lacquer sanding sealer, which >brought out the wood's grain. True beauty!
>Originally, I planned to paint it black. That is my rocket >color scheme, a fluorescent yellow body with black fins and >nose cone. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that this is >supposed to be a MODEL rocket and that the real rockets I >imitate never had solid wooden nose cones.
>So, what to you think. >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket?
Certainly not. Even NACA used to fly a lot of research rockets with wooden noses and other wooden structures.
>-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > sake of convention?
I think you answered your own question;"true beauty". However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and others may not be suitably impressed. With your color scheme some people might assume that it originally had a black or yellow nose cone, but that you lost or damaged it and replaced it with a balsa one.
I remember one of my early models, an Estes Vega. I had given the balsa rocket kit a perfect finish, and painted it white... I showed it to my uncle, the guy who more or less got me started in modeling, with some pride, and he was unimpressed. He initially thought that it was all just prefab RTF plastic. So I guess you might even want to have some obvious flaws, so that others can recognize your craftsmanship.
Alan
>(You can learn a lot about life while building model rockets.)
Not so much about life, but rocket building is a discipline, and you might even learn something about yourself.
> On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock
> <rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote: > >I just finished the nose cone to my certification rocket. > >With all the sanding, painting, and drying, it has taken > >a week. I had the 7-inch long nose cone specially turned > >out of hard balsa wood for me at Balsa Machining Service. > >I've painted it with a clear lacquer sanding sealer, which > >brought out the wood's grain. True beauty!
> >Originally, I planned to paint it black. That is my rocket > >color scheme, a fluorescent yellow body with black fins and > >nose cone. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that this is > >supposed to be a MODEL rocket and that the real rockets I > >imitate never had solid wooden nose cones.
> >So, what to you think. > >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket?
> Certainly not. Even NACA used to fly a lot of research rockets with > wooden noses and other wooden structures.
OH? What NACA research rockets were these? I may have a talent for modeling them. Are there any histories, plans or scale data available?
> With your color scheme some people might assume that it > originally had a black or yellow nose cone, but that you lost or > damaged it and replaced it with a balsa one.
This is quite true, but so long as my certification judges don't make this mistake, I really don't care.
On Jul 19, 8:23 am, Jonathan Sivier <jsiv...@illinois.edu> wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> > wrote:
> >So, what to you think. > >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > >-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > > sake of convention?
> I think a wood grain nose cone could look very good. You may want to change > the rest of the paint job to match it though.
> There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from > wood, including the body tubes.
Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and other details, please.
> One of the members of our local rocket club has > a couple of these and flies them from time to time. They are heavy, but look > great. They are unpainted, just a clear coat over the wood.
> Jonathan > ----- > Jonathan Sivier Secretary, Central Illinois Aerospace > jsiv...@uiuc.edu NAR #56437 > Flight Simulation Lab Tripoli #1906 > Beckman Institute Home Address: > 405 N. Mathews 5 The Summit > Urbana, IL 61801 Champaign, IL 61820 > 217/244-1923 217/359-8225 > ----- > Home page URL:https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jsivier/www/
> On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:55 -0700 (PDT), Roger Coppock > <rcopp...@adnc.com> > wrote:
> >So, what to you think. > >-- Is a wood grain nose cone too UN-rocket? > >-- Should I hide true beauty under black paint just for the > > sake of convention?
> I think a wood grain nose cone could look very good. You may want to > change > the rest of the paint job to match it though.
> There used to be someone selling rocket kits that were made entirely from > wood, including the body tubes.
Could you give the name of this defunct vendor and other details, please.
