Super Alpha Nosecone Part 1, 4.6" Length I'm taking a day off from the Scavenger build until I find a better brand of spray paint that works! So for now, here's some prep for another build coming up. After a few years I finally figured out what was wrong with my Red Max clone. The nose cone was too short. This is the first blog post: ...
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Super Alpha Nosecone Part 2 The Center Sand the cut top smooth and flat. Remember I mentioned the first scored circumference line was cut slightly above the 4.6" length? When sanding the top flat, you are getting closer to the final length. With a fine point pen, find the center and mark with a dot. This is critical for a centered tip ...
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Super Alpha Nosecone Part 3 Final Shaping The sandpaper was switched over to 220 grit. The center dot is still visible. More shaping and the center dot is almost gone. The balsa cone was taped to the wall. I held the print a little forward of that to check the profiles side by side. Is it perfect? No, but it's close enough for me. Over ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 1 Parts I'll be doing a conversion from 18mm to 24mm engines. I've got plenty of C11 and D12 engines that should do well in this upscale. Here's all the parts including the re-shaped nose cone from my old Red Max clone. The nose cone posts are here: PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 I had some plywood 50/60 centering ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 2 Engine Mount I wanted a vintage look to the upscaled Alpha so that finger tab on the engine hook has got to go. I can usually "score" both sides of the tab with my wire cutters. With pliers, bend the tab along the scored line and it will break apart. Follow with light filing to smooth out the edge and round ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 3 Engine Mount The engine block was notched for a better fit when butted up against the upper bend of the engine hook. This idea came from Todd. (Bradycross on TRF) On the left you can see the split body tube over the engine hook. The Kevlar went underneath the forward centering ring instead of tied onto the ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 4 Fins It's hard to see in the picture, but the balsa sheet from the kit was made from two pieces of balsa, glued together parallel down the grain line. The Super Alpha instructions have you round only the leading edges of the fins. The original Alpha instructions say to round the leading edge and taper ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 5 Fin Fillets and Primer I won't bore you with the details on the fin and launch lug gluing. Everything was standard here. I did substitute a 2" long X 3/16" diameter lug for the 1/8" lug supplied in the kit. I'm still on the fence regarding Titebond Molding and Trim Glue for fin fillets. It does shrink some, certainly ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 6 Fin Fillet Redo Still not satisfied with the Titebond M&TG fillets I went back and added some Elmer's CWF to hopefully fill the slight valleys. These were sanded with 400 grit over a dowel. Then, another shot of Duplicolor gray primer and more sanding. I'll keep messing with the fillets until they are round ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 7 Red and White Paint Ya' gotta love a simple body tube/nose cone color separation. The body and fins were sprayed with the generic Duplicolor gloss white. While it looked "wet" going on, after drying it had a flat or "blued" surface. This is because of the high humidity in Florida. Some rubbing and polishing compound ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 8 Black Mask This is the mask for the black, both sides of one fin and the body tube panel to the white fin to the right. I should have taken more time on the mask. It looked simple and I treated it as such. After the tape was pulled off, the root edge lines were sharp. The line around the body tube wasn't as ...
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Super Alpha Build Part 9 Cleaning Up Before any spraying was done, a strip of masking tape was set sticky side out around the inside base of the lower main body tube. Reduce the stickingess of the tape by pressing it on your pant leg a few times. Otherwise, the tape could pull and lift a layer of the rough inside surfaces of the body ...
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Super Alpha Open Rocket File Results I loaded the BT-60 based Super Alpha into the Open Rocket software to check it's stability and predicted altitudes. I was concerned if nose weight might be needed with a 24mm D12-5 engine installed. The Super Alpha was designed for 18mm engines. According to the software simulations, The 18mm C6-5 ...
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Super Alpha Build Finished I added a 5/16" wide stripe like the picture from the 1974 Estes Catalog. It was cut from the same black Contact paper roll used in the Mini Honest John build. Overall a good build. It should scream with 24mm C11-5 and D12-7 engines. I'll look up the center of gravity (CG) on the Super Alpha and ...
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Super Alpha Open Rocket Results I loaded the BT-60 based Super Alpha into the Open Rocket software to check it's stability and predicted altitudes. I was concerned if nose weight might be needed with a 24mm D12-5 engine installed. The Super Alpha was designed for 18mm engines. According to the software simulations, The 18mm C6-5 ...
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Super Alpha...or something else? After finishing the Mega Mosquito, my eyes turned to one of the Super Alphas that I picked up from the big Estes holiday sale. After looking it over, I noticed the nose cone appears to be the same one used on the Mean Machine. It didn't look very Alpha-like and I hit up rocketreviews.com to ...
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