Paladin
After getting a new blade for my band saw, I cut the fins out from 1/4" plywood. They were given a leading and trailing edge bevel on my belt sander and then reinforced with carbon fiber in a vaccuum bag process (using the food-saver method). Two fins turned out excellent bt one bag had wax paper get caught in the seal which allowed the vaccuum to fail and air to leak in, which went unnoticed, so the bond of the carbon was weak to that fin, especially on the bevels. It was good enough to work, however.
The fins would be surface mounted to the booster tubes so the tubes were prepared but scuffing the joint line with an x-acto knife to promote better adhesion. I used a 5 minute epoxy to tack the fins on while holding them in place by hand. The fillets were made with 30 minute epoxy and milled glass, which adds some strength and body to the fillet so they can be shaped more easily. Below you can see the fillet process and the final result of the fins adjoined to the boosters (which were also epoxied onto the main body in a similar fashion).
I aligned the boosters radially by hand and eye. I had an alignment guide I had made a few years back that didnt fit but I did manage to stick the tips of the fins in, but it failed to really help much at all. Most work was done by just "eyeballing" it, a technique I seem to have gotten the hang of pretty well.
Next, I wanted to be sure that the booster tubes were securely mounted to the main body, which was one of my biggest concerns in overall strength, considering that was the first part to break on the last Paladin. I chose to fillet the tubes on with the same epoxy/milled glass combo but also add an overlap of carbon fiber, which would also protect the plain paper tubes. It was overkill, but it helps keep me calm when she flys.
After those strips had cured completely, the rocket was sanded with some rough grit to knock all the edges down and provide a smoother transition between reinforcement joints. I used Aeropoxy Light Filler to fill the weave on the tubes and the tip to tip coverings. I would recommend the addition of acetone to the Light Filler to help thin it which makes it a lot easier to spread and fill the weave when you don't need it for a large build up. Again, the filler was sanded down and reapplied in thin/low spots and sanded yet again with varying grits of sandpaper. After it was smooth enough for my tastes, a few layers of filler primer were applied and sanded in high spots.
Painting this rocket may have been one of the toughest parts. We wanted to duplicate (for the most part) our old paint scheme, so a few base layers of white automotive paint were sprayed on the bottom 2/3 of the rocket. Rustoleum's metallic silver was sprayed from the nosecone to the transition. After these parts had dried, we masked off the upper body tube where the rips would be and cut them out by hand using an x-acto knife. Care must be taken here to apply the proper pressure. You will cut into your paint but if you keep crisp lines, the cuts will not be noticable. Once the mask was ready, we sprayed a very light coat of metallic silver. Then, we did a fade of black paint starting from the bottom up to the transition to give it a deeper look. Russian letters (forming the word "Paladin") were cut into a paper mask and applied to the rocket which was sprayed with a black paint. The nosecone tips were added (black and dark grey) as well as some rips along the upper paint to simulate ripping of the paint/metal at high speeds. Lastly a few layers of brown paint and black wash were applied to really make it look old and rusty.
We chose a special Rustolem red for the lower design which was darker than on our previous build; this gave us more of a blood red look. The booster cones were painted seperately and the entire lower rocket was masked with green painters tape (one note you should take seriously, do not be cheap with painters tape, there are quality differences and you get what you pay for - I will leave it at that. And believe me, I have first hand experience). After a few non-stop hours of cutting and applying the painting masks, the design had been applied. Only one major difference was Paladin would wear a shield as the main symbol, rather than the spade. We hoped this would reflect Paladin's true definition better. A clear coat covers the whole rocket and she is now ready to fly.
