Swoopy fins are a classic design element in space travel art from the pre-Sputnik era. This looks interesting, Don!

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SAM # 0011

Since posting the photo on TRF and YORF, I've gotten several comments both public and private. I thought I might take a minute and reply to them on the forums so that I can address the concerns all at once rather than person by person. Also, maybe others who are just seeing the threads will get this far before firing off something to me.

So far, just from that one photo, it seems I'm copying four different kits, both OOP and currently available. That's a new record, my previous high was 2. I hate to disappoint you all, but that isn't the case.



Hopefully, that clears that up.

Now before anyone starts going on about the fin placement on the tube and grain direction again, this is just a design study of the fins. It's difficult to explain but when I design a kit, I often build just a section of it to get it off a 2D rendering and into a 3D format so that I can see what it actually looks like. In this case, not only am I looking at the visual appeal of the fins but I have several fin sets made up to study the durability of materials and thickness. I'll be weighting them to the approximate weight of the finished model and dropping them under chute to check the survivability of the various design choices. Once that is finished, and I have some other aspects of the model a little more developed, it will be time to build prototypes and start test flights. The design of the model is by no means finished, it's just started. I simply thought I would post a photo of one of the fins sets to see the reaction.

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Don Magness
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I have a similar sci-fi rocket design, my Dawn Star; the first one disappeared in a bean field, but I am building another to replace it. I used BT-60 for the sustainer, with a single 18mm core tube that rear ejects. End result, the nose cone hits first, protecting the relatively fragile fins.

I built an upscale Mosquito (called Mo' Skeeter) as a design test for a rear-ejecting core. Here it is under chute:



Needs no wadding, which I like, and I was able to completely hide the nose cone line.

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This thread was on that other forum. It seems to have disappeared. What happened?

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Retro-grouch

Thanks for the suggestion, I was actually giving a lot of thought to rear ejection. If we decide to go forward with this kit, I would give more than 50% odds that would be the way to go.




I asked them to pull the thread, there was one too many insinuations that I was copying another kit.

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Don Magness
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There are some silly, narrow-minded people out there. Their loss. It takes a lot for me not to post, sometimes.

Carry on. This is interesting. I had mentioned in another thread here that I don't usually build "starship" type rockets, but retro science fiction is a different ball of wax.

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Retro-grouch

Ah....that is useful info for guys like me who are quick to suggest detail refinements. I will be quiet and happily watch now. Thanks, Don.

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Bernard Cawley
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I received several rather *interestingly* worded emails about those fins, I don't know that you were one of the senders. Anyway, I apparently need lessons in anatomy and geology, at least according to some of the messages. Some people didn't like the way they were cut, some didn't like the way they were glued to the tube. I was completely unprepared for the amount of negative comments from a single photo, and it's not even a whole rocket.

I seriously doubt there will be anything to watch, there's no way I'm previewing anything in development again.

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Don Magness
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Here's another reaction: I scratchbuilt a fair approximation of the El Dorado ship you see in that Buck Rogers comic page you provided (see the pics)... and it was a total failure design-wise. Wish I'd been doing video that day... epic fail!

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-Brain
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Would papering the fins after such a construction technique help ameliorate some of the concerns? Unless you'd mentioned it, I wonder whether anybody would have known...

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-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
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