Welcome
Welcome to RocketReviews.com (formerly Essence's Model Rocket Reviews or EMRR).
RocketReviews.com is the home of almost 5000 reviews of rocketry kits and products. Written by visitors to RocketReviews.com like you, the reviews cover everything from low-power model rocket kits to high-power rocket motors.
The site's Flight Log allows you to record and share your rockets and their flights. The Builds feature helps you document your rocketry projects.
At RocketReviews.com, you'll also find a large collection of rocketry resources such as a list of rocketry clubs, a calendar of rocketry events, and large libraries of OpenRocket design files and Rocksim design files. A number of rocketry tools and calculators are available to help you design, build, and fly your rockets.
As you explore RocketReviews.com, you'll also find a number of fun things such as a huge library of rocketry videos and a collection of photo albums.
Mobile RocketReviews.com
The RocketReviews.com mobile site makes it easy to add flights to your Flight log using a smart phone or tablet. Visit:
http://m.rocketreviews.com/
The mobile site allows you to view and enter flights in your Flight Log and to view and add rockets to your Rocket Gallery using simple controls designed for smartphones and tablets. You must have an existing RocketReviews.com account which the mobile site will ask you to log into.
See Also:
|
Today's Featured ReviewContributed by Tony Turley  The Estes Big Daddy first caught my eye hanging on the rack at WV Hobbies in the fall of 1998. It looked to me to be a good candidate for conversion to 29mm power, so I put it on my Christmas list. My request was granted, and away I went.
My first decision was to evaluate the kit parts to see what I would need for the conversion. I ended up keeping only the fins, body tube, nose cone, and main decals. I ordered a LOC 29mm stuffer tube from Magnum, and using fly cutters in my drill press, I made new centering rings from 1/8" birch ply. The motor retaining rods are 4/40 threaded rods, on opposite sides of the stuffer tube. I used a small round file to cut notches in the centering rings for the threaded rods, then everything was epoxied together and set aside to dry. A special note here is that I used the fins to position the centering rings, as I wanted the fin tabs to be a snug fit between the fore and aft rings. Although Dark Star motors have a lip on them, and many people use masking tape to make a thrust ring on other 29mm motors, I also glued a motor ring on the inside of the stuffer tube, just to be sure.
I glued the motor assembly in place using the fins for alignment. I cut 3/32" off the edge of each fin tab to get a tight fit against the body and stuffer tubes. Before gluing the fins in place, I saturated each one with thin CA, and let them set overnight before sanding them to remove the raised grain. I glued the fins in place with Pica Gluit - at which point, I hear you all gasping. Pica claims Gluit is stronger than epoxy ("Yeah, right!!" you say.) Gluit is thinner than epoxy, and wicks into wood grain and paper very well. I have complete confidence in its strength. But don't worry - I filleted each fin and centering ring with epoxy after the Gluit dried.
 The entire rocket (except the NC, of course) was covered with .75 ounce glass cloth. A light mist of 3M 77 was used to hold the cloth in place, and Gluit was rubbed generously through the weave. An important thing to point out here is that I ALWAYS sand body tubes to remove the glassine covering; this helps the glue get into the fibers of the body tube better. Each set of ribs was covered with a single piece of glass cloth: from the tip of the rib, down across the fillets and body tube, and up to the tip of the adjacent rib. The top of the BT was covered with a single wrap of fiberglass. Gluit also sands well, without gumming, which left a smooth finish for the primer. I glued 1/4" launch lugs into one of the fin joints, and filleted them with epoxy and microballoons. After the minor imperfections that the primer revealed were filled and sanded, the entire rocket was painted with Krylon Hamm-r Tough Hunter Green, which gave a nice hammered metal finish. I also had several sets of Estes Wildfire decals, and I sliced these apart to create what I feel is a striking color scheme.
I added 3+ ounces of clay in the nose cone, held in place with another couple ounces of epoxy. The shock cord mount is a 3/16" eye bolt held in place by two nuts epoxied to either side of the top centering ring, and the shock cord is attached by a heavy-duty Swivel Eye Spring Snap from K-Mart's hardware section. Recovery is by a bright orange 30" Top Flite X-Form chute from Magnum.
Empty weight of the rocket is 17 ounces, and as those of you who were at the June 12 launch can attest, Big Wild Daddy gets airborne in a hurry on either an F62 Dark Star or G35 Econojet. I look forward to future such conversions - can you see a Big Bertha flying on Aerotech D21's? Browse our database of about 4,200 reviews of rocketry kits and other products. |
Featured Rocketry Blog PostsModel Rocket Building: Estes Apollo Little Joe II, Background Here's the Little Joe I remembered wanting. The BIG 1/45 Scale Little Joe II from the 1969 Centuri catalog. To see the catalog, CLICK HERE But $12.95? All I could afford was the smaller 1/100th scale Little Joe II. The fin fairings and some trim was vacuum formed. They were lightweight but fragile, much like the Centuri Saturn V fins and fairings incorporated into the Estes re-issue Saturn V kits. The "metalized" wrap was pre-installed at the factory. To see the original Centuri instructions: CLICK HERE The body and capsule came down separately on two 24" parachutes. A three engine cluster. ...
[Read More in This Series]
Model Rocket Building: Estes STM-012 Kitbash to the B32-M Spike, Background Well, I thought it might work! I bought two Estes STM-012 kits on Ebay with the hopes of kit-bashing one of them into an AMRAAM. It never even occurred to me that the STM-012 model would have three through-the-wall fins. The AMRAAM has two sets of four fins. I would have to buy a couple new lengths of BT-60 to do the conversion. That, and the STM-012 nose cone was long! So the kits sat for a few months with me wondering what to do with them. Then I remembered this design from Madcow: The AGM-33 Pike . I've always like the looks of this one, I did the instructions for their 1.6" diameter kit. ...
[Read More in This Series]
Model Rocket Building: Carded Red Max Build, Part 1, Parts I've seen a few pictures of "Rocket Families" on the forums. The Red Max is a favorite with the Estes Mini Max (BT-50 based), standard Red Max (BT-60 based) and Mega Red Max. Well, how about a smaller BT-5 version for 13mm engines? This one is tiny at just 5 1/4" tall! It performs like a BT-5 Mosquito. At one time I had a little carded Red Max model. It was a BT-5 diameter with a Micro Max engine mount. I lost it somewhere along the way and wanted to make another one. After a few searches I couldn't find it. I thought it might be at Wayne Hill's Rocketry Blog - CLICK HERE There are many ...
[Read More in This Series]
Model Rocket Building: Goony X-15, Part 1, Parts In the past I bought a few of the Quest X-15 Parts packs. In the pack you get everything except the engine mount, main body tube and parachute. I figured with some BT-60 based parts I could make a good goony version. I raided the spare parts drawers. I found an Alpha style nose cone and a length of BT-60. I think the main reason people buy the X-15 parts pack is for the decal sheet. It is a water slide sheet with lots of white decals on it.
[Read More in This Series]
Rocket N00b: North Coast Rocketry SA-14 Archer - Unboxing I recently received a little gift - one of the rockets on my wish list - from Matt Steele, of North Coast Rocketry . North Coast, who make mid power rocket kits and some accessories, is a sponsor of The Rocketry Show podcast, and as part of that sponsorship, Matt sent us some rockets to try out. I've had my eye on an SA-14 Archer for a long time. I'm doing a video build series on The Rocketry Show's YouTube channel . I started with the following unboxing video. I'm uploading the first build video later tonight, once I'm done editing. Here's the first video. Follow me on Twitter . Like my ...
[Read More in This Series]
[View All Featured Posts] |
