Fireball XL5
 

Been working on this one for ages. From the 60's TV series. Parts from Semroc as well as plenty of found objects such as magic marker caps, fountain pen cartridges, plastic mesh, etc.
Main body is a BT-70 running full length with a BT-80 rear section. Most of the small bits are made of carved balsa. I hand cut all the XL5 decals from sheet vinyl using a swivel hobby knife. It is heavy at 23 oz. and measures 27" long with an 11" wingspan.

I had hoped to use an E12, but the finished weight will demand a composite F motor. I'm concerned about the forward fins, so I may use a conventional nose cone for a flight attempt. My wife thinks I'm crazy to fly it at all and risk damage. Balance was difficult to obtain and there is a ring of lead bars epoxied in just behind the nose cone shoulder. I made them by hammering .440 lead musket balls into small rectangles. I didn't want to put that much weight into the nose since it might be too much for the ejection charge to push. I picked up a 30" nylon chute for a gentle descent.

Ever notice how really interesting old sci-fi ships seem to break all the rules of aerodynamic flight when you try to model them? :D

An outstanding result! Very well done. I think your wife may have a point!

Very nice! You could use dual chutes. One for the heavy cone and one for the main....but that’s just more weight in it too.

It does look awesome....

Gerry Anderson would be proud!

Absolutely fabulous!!!!!!!!

A G40 SU or G64 RMS 40/120 would be just about right for it.

Excellent job! Mine isn't as scale and is a bit bigger because it was designed to glide, but this is the nicest scale one I've seen.

:eek: Awesome!

That is so excellent.

I've had a bt-70 and bt-80 raring to go for about ten years but never started building it. I was going to build a boilerplate first to fly to check stability before building a detailed version, but you went directly to full detail. Well done.

That is amazing! Great job on the detailing.