Renegade

Jerry Beaucaire's Rocketry Retreat

Renegade

There is a lot to this kit. Three primary fins on the sustainer, 3 primary fins on the booster, two large forward straked fins with "pods" on the end on the booster, 2 side-pods snugged up against the body and attached to the booster.

MODS: I decided to alter the kit in several key ways.

I'm upgrading the engines to 24mm to allow D/E/F engines
I'm moving the 18mm MMTs into the sidepods to create clustering in the booster.
I'm extending the length of the side pods, cutting them so they split at the base of the BT. The upper portion will permanently affix to the BT and have parachutes in them to keep the booster from cracking up on descent.

RENEGADE KIT

This kit was started on 10/27/2005.

Here is the layout fresh from the bag. Pretty straightforward, so I went looking at The Rocketry Forum for possible MODs. Wow, lot's of ideas there. This is a popular kit to MOD and there are a lot of potential problems noted there that I will try to overcome in my own build.

FIN AIRFOILS

All of the MODS will add a bit of weight in the rear of the rocket, so aerodynamics will be important. I curved the leading edge and sanded the trailing edge out to a dull point starting about halfway down the fin. A nice tear drop shape.

FINS LAMINATION

A lot of people on RTF complained about fin damage on landing, so I'm going to do my first fin lamination.

First, I traced the fin with some 80lb paper and then tried it out laminating one of the sustainer fins. I really didn't like the process.

FINS LAMINATION COMPLETE

Here are all the fins done with 60lb self-tacking adhesive paper. This was a much faster process.

FIN PODS ATTACHED

BODY TUBES PREPPED

I used MINWAX Wood Filler to cover the spirals on both body tube pieces, thinned lightly by finger as I applied and smoothed it.

After it dried, I sanded it almost all away leaving the pieces smooth the touch, here they are in dry dock.

Oh, yeah, I need to cut that pineapple.

FINS ATTACHED TO SUSTAINER

Fins were attached with thick CA glue.

I used the Estes Fin Alignment Jig for excellent lineup. Good tool for these sized rockets.

FIN FILLETS

Wood glue mixed with microballoons are used to create the fillets.

POD COUPLERS

I'm trying to think ahead on finishing, so I'm not going to attach the pod couplers and outer pod cones until after they've been finished.

Here's the pod couplers prepped with a red Krylon primer.

DRY FIT OF COUPLERS

Well, here is where I wait. A lot of sanding on the fin fillets and I'm waiting for the baffle I ordered.

I'm upgrading the MMTs so this baby will be going pretty fast at ejection, so I'm going to try my first anti-zipper design. More on that later, so now I'm waiting for the baffle to arrive.

Add your content here

Add your content here

Last updated on