Art Applewhite Rockets Flying Saucer Spyder (4")

Art Applewhite Rockets - Flying Saucer Spyder (4")

Contributed by Dick Stafford

Manufacturer: Art Applewhite Rockets
(Contributed - by Dick Stafford)

Brief:
When I reviewed Art's 10.25", 29mm saucer, I said, "I don't know what Art is feeding his saucers, but they just seem to keep gettin' BIGGER". Now I am not sure where he gets his materials. I accidentally squirted some liquid plant fertilizer on my 4" Delta saucer...and look what happened!

Rocket Pic But seriously, as I mentioned in my review of Art's new 4", 13mm Delta saucer, this kit comes with the material for two Saucers. I built the Texas Special stock, but just had to do something a little different with the second set of parts. So, I went to Paper Empire and grabbed a set of ‘legs' from the modular rocket set #2.

Modifications:
I first built the 4" saucer - please see my review of the Texas Special 13mm Delta Saucer (4).

I then downloaded leg6.gif file from Paper Empire to make 3 sets of legs. The drawing is scaled to fit on a full 8 ½ x 11 page, and was a little big for this small saucer. So, I scaled the image to a vertical height of 5". To conserve paper, I then edited out one of the legs on the .gif so I could re-feed the paper and print the 3rd leg on the same sheet.

The legs consist of one large, multifaceted section and one smaller piece. The latter was not used in this application. They were easy to form, just don't forget to score all the fold lines, both on the leg faces and the glue tabs. I could have mounted the legs either on the bottom of the saucer's center plate or on the bottom shroud, but elected to mount them on the plate. When gluing the legs on, I marked their locations and scuffed up the foam board.

Construction:
Parts required:

  • An AAW 4" delta saucer kit
  • one sheet of cardstock

The legs come pre-decorated and I haven't decided what to do with the white saucer, if anything. Maybe I'll grab a set of magic markers, or look for Spider man decals. Note that you can specify any two of the available print when you order. I just got plain white for my second saucer.

Flight:
It started raining on launch day and in my haste to keep things dry, I dinged one leg. It was just a little floppy, so I improvised and reinforced it with a few small strips of duct tape. It flew nicely on an A10-0, with comparable performance with the stock kit. It came down nose first, so there was no damage to the legs.

Summary:
I have said this before, but one thing I like about Art's saucers is that they provide the opportunity for customization; and getting 2 saucer's in one kit just begs you to build one stock and do something different with the other. Adding the legs made an interesting variation on the stock kit, but they are a bit flimsy. They could be reinforced further if desired.

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