March/April No. 193

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Godwin Russell
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1 March/April 2019 No. 193

2 TEAM PITTSBURGH is published bimonthly by the Pittsburgh Space Command. NAR Section #473 Uncopyrighted material appearing in TEAM PITTSBURGH may be reprinted provided proper credit is given to the author and to TEAM PITTSBURGH. AD SPACE in TEAM PITTSBURGH is available free to members in good standing. PSC Yearly Dues: 17 & under --- $ & over & family --- $15.00 (Membership includes ed newsletter subscription) For an additional $10/Year members can receive hard copies of TEAM PITTSBURGH via USPS Send PSC dues to: Jerry Kraus 207 Hill Ave. Cheswick, PA NOTE: Make checks payable to Pittsburgh Space Command PSC OFFICERS for 2019: President John Pace Vice President John Brohm Treasurer Jerry Kraus Section Advisor Rod Schafer TP Editor Duane Wilkey Webmaster Team Mike Hardobey Scott Alexander Sean Guzek Website: Submit articles for publication to: Duane Wilkey 7025 Woodview Drive Pittsburgh, Pa Pittsburgh Space Command is dedicated to the advancement of safe model rocketry. 1/10/2019 In theory Spring is here. That means it s time to get outside and have some fun. Personally I like Spring and Fall launches the best. The crops aren t in the way, the grass is low and the temperatures are nice, but sometimes on the brisk side of nice. One of my Spring pre-launch traditions is to check over my fleet and make sure everything is in shape to fly. Fin fillets, recovery harness attachment points, launch lugs/rail buttons and motor retention all get the once over to make sure they can take the loads. Over the years I have found that elastic/rubber shock cord only lasts a few seasons. Gases from black powder really do an number on this material and it becomes brittle over the flying season. If you are using this material as your shock cord, give it a good yank to see if it has suffered erosion from use. If you re not comfortable doing this, ( Your ejection charge doesn t care, it ll do it for you.) it is probably time to replace the shock cord. The last thing I check is my parachutes. Plastic chutes tend to develop shroud line problems over time. I make sure the knots and the anchor points are in good condition and not stretched or unraveled to the point of breaking. My nylon parachutes receive a similar once over, but here I am looking for burn holes and tears as well as frayed shroud lines. All that aside, the club has made several improvements to range gear for this year. We ll be ready for all shapes and sizes of rockets. So, come on out. We hope to see you there. NOTICE: As of this publication date, I have received zero entries for the beer lofting contest for the 17th. Unless I hear otherwise, it is cancelled for this year. ON THE COVER: Kevin Brant s Black Brant leaving the pad in a hurry on a G-75 sparky motor at the Club s February 2018 launch. Photo Credit: John Pace Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 2

The MPC and Estes Pro Series Nike Smoke By Russell Cummins nycstl765@verizon.net My fascination with the Nike Smoke model rocket began when I was about 13, when my dad and me flew an MPC Nike Smoke.

3 The MPC and Estes Pro Series Nike Smoke By Russell Cummins My fascination with the Nike Smoke model rocket began when I was about 13, when my dad and me flew an MPC Nike Smoke. The model was designed to a 1: scale, and it had a plastic nose cone and a one-piece heavy plastic fin unit. The nose cone and fins were red, and the body tube was white. I flew the model many times behind Neshanock High School in New Castle, in front of the school bus garage. On its last flight the shock cord broke at apogee, and the body fell fins-first onto the bus garage roof with a loud bang. That was the last of that for at least 30 years until I found another MPC Nike Smoke on ebay - an unbuilt original kit. I built this kit the same as the original. Once assembled, I flew the new model at PSC launches. But it didn t seem to fly as well as I remember the original did. On its last flight it suffered some minor body damage. So now we move on to Bigger and Better! My next Nike Smoke is the Estes 1:5.5 scale PRO SERIES II NIKE SMOKE, with its 3-inch body tube, plastic molded nose cone, and plastic thruthe-body tube to motor mount mounted fins. I assembled this kit with 30-minute epoxy, and airbrushed-painted it with Testors Model Master enamel paint. Three red and one yellow fins, white body and nose cone, and decaled UNITED STATES. TEAM PITTSBURGH IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE PSC TEAM! If you re reading this you are part of the team. We are always looking for ideas, articles and photos. Please consider contributing something today! CHANGE OF ADDRESS, PHONE OR CONTACT: Jerry Kraus 207 Hill Ave. Cheswick, PA jkraus62@comcast.net Photo 1: MPC Nike Smoke Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 3

Recovery will be with a red, 3- foot nylon parachute, using a Kevlar blanket and shock cord protector in place of the wadding.

4 Photo 2: Estes Pro Series II Nike Smoke I plan to fly the Estes model initially with an F50-6T Aerotech motor, and then move onto a G80-7T, which should allow the Nike Smoke to attain 1500-foot flights. Recovery will be with a red, 3- foot nylon parachute, using a Kevlar blanket and shock cord protector in place of the wadding. This will be a step up from the little MPC brother. We shall see what happens! Photo 3: Russell s Nike Smoke Collection Rt. 228 Suite L1 Cranberry Twp., PA Hours Mon.-Fri Sat. 10-8, Sun 11-5 Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 4

5 Here We Go Steelers! By John Brohm NAR #78048 Way back in Team Pittsburgh #168 ( located on page 15, is an introductory article written by Mark Politeski, a then new member of PSC. Besides providing us with a little of his background, Mark s article shows a photo of himself and his son Matthew holding a couple of rockets that they had built for a forthcoming launch. Matthew is holding a scratch-built Steelers Rocket, a model built from some spare parts found in my shop. Matthew had nicely decorated the model with some selfadhesive Steelers markings, making for a very sharp looking ship for the flight line. As it turned out that Steelers Rocket also proved to be a great flyer, and Matthew turned in a number of super flights on some D12s and E9s. And if I recall correctly, we may have also stuck a composite E15 in there as well. In all, a great flying model for something crafted from shop-found jetsam and flotsam. Watching that model fly at Weber Farm got me thinking that I might like to have a Steelers Rocket of my own. Yes, I know it s not the most sophisticated model, but oftentimes simplicity combined with great flying characteristics makes for the best kind of model, i.e.: Fun! So not surprisingly, and Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 5 not too much later, I had a Steelers Rocket of my own, all mocked up in the shop. And there it stayed, patiently pining for primer and paint, while its dismissive builder callously moved on to the next shiny project. Guilty as charged I must admit, but I suspect I m not alone! About a month or so ago as I was cleaning up the shop, I happened to notice that forlorn and simple little model sitting quietly in the corner, and with football season bearing down upon us I thought it was time to finish it. So I pulled it out, dusted it off and prep ed it for finishing. Knowing that we live in hardcore Steelers country, I also thought that yinz might like to know a little more about this great little flyer. So in this article I ll share a little about the Steelers Rocket, and how I finished it. Starting with the parts. The Steelers Rocket is built from a 22 length of BT-80 airframe, a PNC-80K nose cone (the one found in the #1951 Executioner kit), and a set of Big Daddy fins. Or rather I copied the Big Daddy fin shape, as it seemed to be a good fit for this model. The motor mount is made up from a set of BT-80 centering rings (RA5080), like what you would find in the Executioner, and a 7 length of BT-50. Figure 1 shows the RockSim layup of the model. Figure 1: RockSim Layup of the Steelers Rocket With parts in hand and a little adhesive, I had the model built in short order. I chose to fillet the fins with epoxy, as this makes for a nice smooth airframe-to-fin transition. My method for laying up fin fillets can be found in Team Pittsburgh #118

Several coats of Rustoleum auto primer, with some wet sanding and putty touch up in between, and we arrive at a smooth surface ready for the color coats.

6 ( Don t forget to fill those airframe seams in preparation for a nice smooth finish - I like to use Bondo Glazing and Spot putty for this task. Next, allow about five years to pass and then I m ready to finish the model. Several coats of Rustoleum auto primer, with some wet sanding and putty touch up in between, and we arrive at a smooth surface ready for the color coats. I like to use DupliColor Perfect Match spray paints to finish a model of this size; DupliColor is a lacquer-based paint compatible with Rustoleum auto primer, and best of all it can be recoated after about 10 minutes. So four coats of DupliColor Arctic White went on, providing a nice blank canvas upon which we could render our marking and trim scheme. Ah yes, and just how will we trim this model? Well, we ll need a Steelers logo and some Steelers roundels for sure. Since I wanted to have durable appliqués I decided to have them rendered in vinyl. So I scared up some artwork online, sized the files for the layout I had in mind, and sent the artwork off to Mark Hayes at Stickershock23 ( stickershock23.com/) to craft the markings for me. Photo 2: Steelers Logo But I also wanted to work in some good old Black & Gold (can t be a Steelers Rocket without that!), so I thought a sunburst pattern for the fins and a roll pattern for the airframe would help complete the model. Figures 2 & 3 illustrate the patterns I came up with for the paint scheme. Figure 2: Fin Sunburst Pattern Photo 1: Steelers Roundel Figure 3: Airframe Roll Pattern Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 6

I used Tamiya masking tape throughout, as this stuff provides nice sharp masking lines with no bleed through if the tape edges are carefully burnished.

7 I used these patterns to layout the masking on the model. The yellow is DupliColor Chrome Yellow, and the black iss DupliColor Universal Black. Working with two colors meant a lot of masking and re-masking, especially for that darn sunburst pattern! I used Tamiya masking tape throughout, as this stuff provides nice sharp masking lines with no bleed through if the tape edges are carefully burnished. Photo 3: Ready for Vinyl With the painting done and masking removed, I took some #1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and wetsanded the entire model. This knocks down any paint dams that may have built up at the edges of the masking tape. One of the good qualities of Tamiya masking tape is how thin it is, which means the paint dams are small to begin with. After a good wipe down, the model was sprayed with Rustoleum Crystal Clear to provide a good gloss base to adhere the vinyl markings. Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 7 Photo 4: Finished! The Steelers Rocket You ll notice that I chose to add a stripe to the forward end to finish off the trim. This was likewise masked and painted so that the overall finish would be consistent end to end. Next, the Steelers logo and roundels were applied, and then the model was sprayed again with Crystal Clear to lock them down. And there you have it, a Steelers Rocket, ready for kick off (or, I suppose, lift off). This was a fun project (apart from the miles of masking tape) and I m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Mark Hayes at Stickershock did a great job with the markings, and frankly it just wouldn t have worked without them. I have the model sitting as a decoration in my downstairs bar, and I ve taken no end of good natured abuse from (Continued on page 10)

The Saturn V Brick by Brick By John Brohm NAR #78048 I think it fair to say that one of the most significant human technological achievements was the lunar landing that occurred in in the past

8 The Saturn V Brick by Brick By John Brohm NAR #78048 I think it fair to say that one of the most significant human technological achievements was the lunar landing that occurred in in the past century. Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on July 16 th, 1969, and just a few days later on July 20 th, the Lunar Module, named the Eagle, successfully landed on the moon s surface. Those of us of a certain age will still readily remember being glued to the TV, watching the landing unfold late at night on that warm summer s evening. July 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of that historic launch and landing, and various activities are being planned to commemorate the event. The NAR is encouraging all clubs to host a commemorative launch on Saturday, July 20 th, 2019 (NAR Apollo th Anniversary - PSC plans to host its own launch July 14 th ; see the club launch calendar here). Time to dust off those old Saturn V models and plan a commemorative flight of your own! But should you not yet have a flying model of the Saturn V, despair not - Estes Industries is releasing a special 50 th anniversary kit of the Apollo 11 Moon rocket, kit #1969 (a re-release of their prior kit #2157, but with a special bonus included inside), to be made available soon (Estes Apollo 11). But Estes and the NAR aren t the only ones capitalizing on this forthcoming anniversary - the US Mint is planning to release commemorative silver and gold coins (US Mint Apollo 11), and Danish toy maker, the Lego Group, has produced its own Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 8 model of the Apollo Saturn V, based on its famous Lego bricks. Some months ago, my wife and I were checking out the local Toys R Us store in Cranberry during its close-out liquidation sale. We were in there looking for some bargains for our new grandson, and while there we happened to come across the Lego Saturn V kit. Knowing that my son is a huge Lego fan, I bought a couple of the kits. It s a large kit when finished the model stands a meter high (about 1:110 scale) and it s comprised of exactly 1969 parts. I gave a kit to my son for Christmas, and we had a blast putting the thing together over the Holidays. Arriving home from our Christmas travels, I decided to put that second kit together. Even though the Lego Saturn V isn t flyable, it is a remarkable piece of engineering, and I thought I d share a few photos of the build experience with you. As mentioned, the kit is housed in quite a large box, as shown in Photo 1. Photo 1: The Box

Inside the box are twelve bags containing those 1969 parts, each bag corresponding to a construction subassembly.

take one from the opening of the first parts bag to the mounting of the model at completion. It took me about five hours to construct the thing.

The second stage is designed to be detachable, and plugs into the first stage quite securely.

This is a large and heavy model, so Lego engineers took the approach of constructing a central core that provides for the models structural integrity, upon which are

9 Inside the box are twelve bags containing those 1969 parts, each bag corresponding to a construction subassembly. Each of those subassemblies are well documented in an extremely well-prepared, 198-page instruction and build manual that describes a total of 337 build steps that take one from the opening of the first parts bag to the mounting of the model at completion. It took me about five hours to construct the thing. Photo 4: S-IC Stage Complete The second stage, the S-II, used up the next four bags of parts, and went together pretty much the same as the S-1C. The second stage is designed to be detachable, and plugs into the first stage quite securely. Photo 2: Instruction Manual The first six bags of parts focus on the construction of the Saturn V S-IC stage. This is a large and heavy model, so Lego engineers took the approach of constructing a central core that provides for the models structural integrity, upon which are applied a series of external panels to create the outward Saturn V appearance. Photo 3 shows the S-IC construction underway, with some of the internal core apparent. Photo 5: S-II Stage Complete Scrambling together the last two bags of parts, we have the S-IVB, the Service Module and the Command Module, also all detachable. Photo 3: S-IC Stage Under Construction Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 9

building regime of gluing/sanding/priming and painting. It s an especially enjoyable building experience when shared with a friend (it really is 1969 parts!

Photo 6: S-IVB, SM and CM Complete Once completed, I chose to mount the model horizontally on the kit-provided stands.

10 building regime of gluing/sanding/priming and painting. It s an especially enjoyable building experience when shared with a friend (it really is 1969 parts!), and a great way to spend an afternoon during the Holidays. Perhaps you might find the opportunity to give one a try. Photo 6: S-IVB, SM and CM Complete Once completed, I chose to mount the model horizontally on the kit-provided stands. The model occupies a prominent place on the top of a set of bookcases in my den, as seen in Photo 7. Here We Go Steelers! (From page 7) what I thought were good friends because the thing hasn t flown yet. Perhaps it will, and perhaps it will fly as well as Matthew Politeski s did back in But given the way it s turned out I think I ll manage my flight anxiety just a little longer. The Steelers Rocket is a simple build and a lot of fun, and something that just about any model rocketeer could throw together with some spare parts. And the best part is that Mark Hayes has the files for the vinyl markings. Why not drop him a line and buy a set? Those markings would put you on a drive to score a Steelers Rocket of your own! Go Steelers! Publishing Guidelines Photo 7: Lego Saturn V Complete I particularly like the juxtaposition of the Lego Saturn V with those two World War I prints the timeline presented by that little vignette is only 51 years 51 years between the ending of WWI and the Lunar Landing. It s a remarkable testimony to aerospace innovation and development in a relatively short period of time, and it gives one pause to consider what has happened in space travel in the intervening 50 years since the Moon landing. Even though it can, at best, be described as sortascale, and is certainly not a flyable model, I have to say that the Lego Saturn V was a fun build, and a refreshing reprieve from the usual model rocket Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 10 I ve made a few changes this month and if you d like to help me out I d appreciate it if you d use the following fonts when submitting articles: Body Text: Sylfean 12 pt Heading: Rockwell 16 pt Byline: Sylfean 14 pt Sub-byline: Sylfean 10 pt Captions: Sylfean 10 pt Bold Bold Bold If you have trouble getting the font size or style formatted, don t worry about doing it. However, using the correct font will save me a lot of time. Also, I always need photos. Please, when you submit them include a brief description of what/who you were taking a picture of so I can attribute it correctly.

11 Date Launch \ Activity Type Time January 20th Sport & HP Launch Noon to 3 PM February 17th Sport & HP Launch Noon to 3 PM March 17th Sport & HP Launch & Beerlofting Challenge Noon to 3 PM April 14h Joint PSC/ Tripoli Launch - Sport & HP 11 AM to 4 PM May 5th Sport & HP Launch 11 AM to 4 PM June 1st SCST18 & Joint PSC/ Tripoli Launch - Sport & HP 8 AM to 5 PM June 2nd SCST18 & Joint PSC/ Tripoli Launch - Sport & HP 9 AM to 2 PM July 14th Sport & HP Launch and 50th Anniversary Saturn V Launch 11 AM to 4 PM August 18th R&R, Picnic & Sport Launch 11 AM to 4 PM September 15th Sport & HP Launch 11 AM to 4 PM October 19th Carl McLawhorn VII Memorial Fly-off VI & PSC Sport & HP Launch 8 AM to 5 PM October 20th Carl McLawhorn VII Memorial Fly-off VI & PSC Sport & HP Launch 9 AM to 2 PM November 10th Joint PSC/ Tripoli Launch - Sport & HP 11 AM to 4 PM December 8th Business Planning Meeting Panera, Water Works Mall, Blawnox 8:30 AM to Noon Date Launch/Activity Location March 1st-3rd NARCON Cape Canaveral, FL May 18th Team America Rocketry Challenge Finals Great Meadows, The Plains, VA June 8th 10th National Sport Launch Lucerne Dry Lake, CA June 15th & 16th ECRM 46 Regional Meet Mt. Airy, MD July 27th Aug 3rd NARAM 61 Muncie, IN NOTE: All launches in 2019 will be held at Weber Farm. NAR Sport, HP and NRC launches are welcomed at all PSC sponsored events. There are no fees associated with any PSC launches. However, any donations to cover the cost of equipment maintenance and the Porta-John rental for regional competitions and joint PSC/Tripoli launches would be greatly appreciated. Team Pittsburgh - No. 193 Page 11

WHITE WOLF. X-ray View MID POWER MODEL ROCKET KIT BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS KIT SPECIFICATIONS:

WHITE WOLF. X-ray View MID POWER MODEL ROCKET KIT BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS KIT SPECIFICATIONS: WHITEWOLF-38 PARTS LIST 1 - Nose Cone 1-17" Airframe 1-6" Motor Tube 3 - Aft Fins 3 - Forward Fins 2 - Centering Rings 1-15" Parachute 2 - launch lugs 1-12 Kevlar Shock Cord 1 - Motor Retention >>(screw/washer)