Apogee Components Micro V2

Apogee Components - Micro V-2 {Kit}

Contributed by Frank Burke

Manufacturer: Apogee Components
Apogee - Micro V2
(Contributed - by Frank Burke) 

The kit came bagged nicely with a nice set of instructions. The body and tail tube were a nice quality white tube, but the body tube wasn't cut cleanly. I re-cut the ends and CA'd them for toughness. The tail cone is pre drilled, and other than needing some sanding on the end to square it up, and to make it fit into the body tube, was really nice. The fit of the motor tube was a little loose, but when I used carpenters glue, it seemed to bond fine. The nose cone is balsa also, and after minor sanding looked great. It too is pre-drilled for nose weight. A bead is tied to the end of the Kevlar® line and glued into the cone for attachment. I used CA for this, and applied the clay nose weight, and secured it with CA. I decided not to attach the other end to the thrust ring, but to tie it around the burnout CG of the bottom half, and avoid any body tube damage on ejection, since there is no elastic used. The line is plenty long, and a plastic streamer is used for recovery. The fins were really nicely laser cut balsa, and needed really minor sanding and shaping of the leading edges. After I glued in the motor tube and tail cone, I marked the body, and applied the fins. There are two really neat alignment jigs in the kit that make aligning the fins easier. The root edges of the fins fit perfectly and after making fillets, I put on the launch lug. 

[Picture]I can't wait to get out and fly it, as it looks great, and fits in perfectly with my collection of micro scale Boyce rockets, and my Seattle Rocket works Nike Smoke. No offense to Michael Park, but I think the micro V-2 is even cuter than the Nike Smoke, and goes together even faster. Total build time was about 1 hour, not including finishing. Finished height is around 6 3/4" and I have some 1/4A 10.5mm Apogee motors to try in it. They worked great in my Centrix, and they have changed the igniter design to be more robust. 

I finally got a chance to get out and fly my apogee micro V-2 today. The splinter paint scheme came out great. I had a package of 1/4A2-2 motors. The first motor didn't light with the igniter, so I followed the recommended procedure of carefully drilling out the nozzle slightly with a 1/16" drill bit to clear out any excess clay nozzle. This time had a perfect flight, straight as an arrow, and ejection right at the top. Second motor worked as well, although this igniter was different than the first, and seems to be of the more robust newer design. I went back to the original motor for the third flight, using a piece of thermalite wire wrapped, but I noticed that the nozzle seemed chipped and that there was a lot of clay pieces in the bag. This flight was cork-screwey, I think due to the nozzle not being uniform, and ejection occurred at around 4 seconds instead of two, after the rocket had stuck in the ground due to lower altitude caused by the cork-screwing. All in all, pretty cool. 

I think this would make a great frenzy candidate, as the kit with three 1/4A motors was only $14 or so with shipping. 

After spending 6 weeks working on some RC airplanes, it was great to build something in an hour. Great quality kit, and you just can't have too many V-2's. Now I have a .7", 1.3", 2.6", 4", 5.5", and (formerly) a 7.6". I think I can squeeze one of the 10.5mm motors in the pod of my 1/48 scale Tamiya V-1 buzz bomb with a little modification. 

Hey, micro PMC, what a concept!


[NAR][Sport Rocketry]

The following excerpt is from "Sport Rocketry". The intention is to allow guests to get a basic feeling about a kit. We strongly suggest that you get a copy of the referenced Sport Rocketry and read the entire article. Inside you will find many helpful hints in construction as well as other useful information. For more information, use the two links above.



Apogee - Micro V-2
(Sport Rocketry - May/Jun 1998 - page 32 - by Greg Elder) 

[Picture]"It flies using the Apogee 10.5 mm micro motors." 
"I found four pages of instructions for the Micro V-2 to be very thorough, easy to read, and well illustrated." 
"The kit comes with a balsa tail cone and nose cone." 
". . . the nose cone has a hole in it to allow for the addition of clay nose weight." 
"A 2.75" length of tubing goes between the nose cone and tail cone . . . is too long if you are looking for a true scale appearance." 
"A 24" length of Kevlar® shock cord . . . a plastic bead is tied to the free end of the Kevlar® . . . is glued into the base of the hole in the nose cone." 
"The fins for the Micro V-2 are provided as die-cut balsa." 
"In addition to a wrap-around guide for the fines . . . include a fin alignment guide and a fin spacing jig . .ensure the fins are placed straight at their proper positions." 
"For recovery, the Micro V-2 uses an 18" long plastic streamer." 

The entire article gives the impression is that this is nice small kit for a beginner/intermediate modeler.

Other Reviews
  • Apogee Components Micro V2 By Frank Burke

    - by Moira Jean Whitlock Description: Single staged 10.5mm motor (1/4 A through A in Apogee motors) rocket that is a minute scale model of the V2. Pros and cons of construction: All parts specified were there and undamaged. I got the kit less than a week after I ordered it, and it was securely packed in styrofoam popcorn in a strong postal box. The nose cone is solid lightweight balsa ...

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