Scratch Little Red Max Original Design / Scratch Built

Scratch - Little Red Max {Scratch}

Contributed by Brian Ray

Manufacturer: Scratch
(Contributed - by Brian Ray - 11/03/09)Scratch - Little Red Max

Brief:
This rocket was a leftover from a build I did for a family reunion launch. I threw together a pile of scratch rockets and let each of the kids pick one. This one wasn’t chosen by any of the kids so I worked into a variant of the Der Red Max. I call it the Little Red Max.

Construction:
My primary components were:

  • BT-50 about 4"
  • BT-20 about 4"
  • Cardstock transition
  • 3 downscaled Red Max fins, drawn and cut by hand.
  • NC – half of an Easter egg
  • Elastic shock cord.
  • Hartle Engineering streamer

This was a fun build. The one thing that I sometimes struggle to remember is to mark the lower BT for fins prior to attaching the transition. It’s a pain to mark it post-transition.

The rocket is painted in a Red Max-esque theme; not exact, but an homage. The paint I used was given to me by a family member prior to their moving out of state. It’s designed for plastics – specifically for remote control cars. I was curious to see how it did on wood and paper and was pleased with the results. For me it’s prohibitively expensive to ever buy for this application.

The decals were printed on Avery label paper and sealed with Wal-Mart clear coat.

Flight:
This rocket flew just once on a C6-7. It flew high and straight. Too high, as a matter of fact. We thought we had a bead on it as it came down but apparently not so much. Its maiden voyage was its last.

Summary:
This was a fun little rocket, especially since it became its final incarnation pretty much as an accident. And I’ll try to remember next time that a rocket this small has a good chance of disappearing with that much motor.

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