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This project has been on my mind for a long time. Der Red Max was one of my
favorite kits growing up and now that I am involved in high power rocketry I
think it's time I tried my hand at scratch building a classic. I love the shape
of this rocket; half body tube, half nose cone. And you can't deny the skull
and crossbones decals. I built this kit when I was in grade school and had it
around for the longest time. My brother and I stored our rockets in an area in
the upstairs of our house and somehow it disappeared
into the same black hole that socks disappear into. I got to thinking about it
and decided to build a replica of the model since the basic pieces are still
readily available. And thanks to Tango
Papa I could also get the same decal set. I finished that and decided
it was time to go big. Now that I had a general plan in place it was time to get going. Using my
experience building model and high power rockets I put together an instruction
guide as if I had bought a kit. This helped me work out the assembly steps as
well as put together a list of parts that I would need. I also decided that I
was going to make my first foray into the world of electronics so the design
would have to include an altimeter bay. Two parachutes instead of one would be
needed so I went back out to the internet and did more research
on chute sizing, ejection charge sizing, recovery harness length, etc. After a
few more rounds of this I had a final plan in place.
Getting Started
The first thing I needed to do was decide how big I was going to make this.
After looking around I thought a 6" body tube would make a fine base for this
rocket. Not too big and definitely
not too small. I went to the handy-dandy
Jim Z Estes Rocket Plan page
and got the dimensions for the original kit. Using the diameter of the BT-60HE
body tube I determined the upscale factor (3.78) to use for the rest of the
rocket pieces. The fins would be easy enough to make but the nose cone and of
course the decals would be a little trickier. I emailed Tango Papa and sure
enough Tom was able to come up with a vinyl decal set that would fit my needs.
I looked around on the internet for nose cones but couldn't find any shaped
like the original PNC-60AH nose cone. I really wanted this to be as close as
possible to the original and fit a 6" body tube so I was left me with
fabricating my own. I did a little more research and figured that it was doable
and decided to come back to it later.
To be continued...
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