Well, I haven't seen anyone else talking about it ..... so here goes.

Received it on Wednesday (Thanks, Sheryl. I noticed it was back ordered for a few days but now seem to be back in stock, so thanks so much for getting mine out so quickly post NARAM).

First impression ..... An awesome kit and a very good value when you consider the heavy duty parts that are included. Also this scale model can be flown Low Power, Mid Power or High Power. The engine selections on the kit instructions suggest the following:

Engine Approx. Altitude
D12-3 225'
E18-4 600'
F21-4 800'
H128-6 1450'

Scale nose cone, BTC-70HA tail cone, thick walled heavy duty 2.25" dia. body tubes, ejection baffle, extra long tough elastic cord and a big 24" nylon parachute. The laser cut fins have a little bolt cut out of the removable part of the stock to bond to the root plates for extra detail and can be seen in the images below. The root plates are to be bonded to the fins, and then the fins are to be bonded to the body tube/tail cone. Having the fins mounted directly to these root plates will greatly increase the surface area and overall strength of these joints. When I first saw the image on the Semroc website I thought the plates were decorative and mounted against the fins, instead of actually attached to the root edges. Semroc did an outstanding job with the fin design for this kit.

The instructions and RockSim files are now working on the Semroc website. The instructions mention that if you plan on flying on engines with less than 50 Newtons of average thrust it can be built with yellow glue. Epoxy with well filleted joints is mentioned for higher thrust engines and a little light fiberglass cloth for the internal rings for added strength is suggested.

Kudos to Semroc for offering us the SLS ARCAS.

I hope to start on it tonight or tomorrow!

.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

Not much progress as I had to put the project down for a few days. Finished the motor mount / tail cone assembly and I'm now working on the fins. Taking my time to sand and fit the root plates to the fins accurately.

Question for anyone that may have scale data / pictures - or
Richard B. Morrow, Mitchell S. Pines: "Small Sounding Rockets" or
Peter Alway: "Rockets of the World".
Does anyone know of another paint scheme that could be used to finish this model?

I found a few National Weather Service photos on a website but not much else. I was looking for alternate paint schemes (other than the popular white / red round). One round appears to be all gray with a black nose cone, not very exciting.

While searching the Nasa reports server I did turn up one payload image of what appears to be a guinea pig recovered after a flight inside an Arcas rocket during some small animal test flights inside a small life support capsule with sensors to return biological data. Most unhappy guinea pig I've ever seen .....

The things you turn up while searching for alternate paint schemes.

.

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

That may be the Biospace Arcas. Gary Miller, my teammate on the Spanish Inquisition team, built one of those for Giant Sport Scale a few years ago. He flew it at NARAM 47, I believe. IIRC, there's a picture of it in Sport Rocketry's article of whichever NARAM that was. Much more interesting paint pattern.

__________________
John Buscaglia
NAR 27366
SAM 63
CMASS Member

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was longer than a standard Arcas, so you'd have to add some extra tube to it to make it right.

__________________
John Buscaglia
NAR 27366
SAM 63
CMASS Member

John,

I had a little time to dig a little deeper into the NASA-SP-109 report that I found and sure enough it was a modified Arcas with the Bio-Space Payload. Flown twice with a rat not a guinea pig so I guess that's the most unhappy rat I've ever seen .....
I had no idea before reading this that the Arcas was ever used to launch a live biological payload. I found the file last night at the NASA Technical Reports Server at this link:

http://tinyurl.com/384x25

Very interesting. There are a lot of other reports on the NASA server but unfortunately they are all scanned in black and white but I do intend to download a bunch more because they do contain flight pics and line drawings in some of the files.

I'll have to check my back issues of SR for the NARAM issue that has Gary Miller's Arcas but that issue would pre-date my subscription and unfortunately I was still picking up my issues at the bookstore, when they had them.



Nice catch John!

I found a "general configuration and aerodynamic data" dimensioned drawing in the file, and it shows a line drawing with a total length of 105.1" so you are correct as it was about 13.9" longer when flown with the Bio-Space Payload.

Does this image I attached with the candy stripe and bars at the top of the booster resemble the Giant Sport Scale entry of a few years ago? Just curious. I'm going to sport fly this rocket and trust me with my skills it would be laughable to even think of entering in a competition. I just hope to finish my Arcas (or given this new information) build it in a fashion to make it appear a little different from the rest.

Thanks!

.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

Yes, that's the one. Does the report have the color information? If not, I can probably get it for you from Gary.

__________________
John Buscaglia
NAR 27366
SAM 63
CMASS Member

No color information in the report. If Gary has any info he would be willing to share I would greatly appreciate it. Also please ask Gary if he knows the specific issue his rocket is pictured in because I would like to order a back issue copy from SR.

Thanks!

.

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

A big thanks to John Buscaglia for sending me the dimensioned drawing and detailed color scheme for the Arcas Bio-Space version. Please tell Gary I really appreciate that!

I'm hoping to get some more build progress on the Arcas this weekend and some build pics posted.

.

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

Could he send you a better scan of the photo from his data packet?
Is this a photo of the real thing or of the scale model?
Also, the cone profile looks a tad different from the SLS cone.

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The SLS Arcas is based on the No. 5A secant ogive gone that was 18.122" long with 170 in cu. volume. It looks like this model used the No. 8 tangent ogive that was 22 in long with 230 in cu volume. Since much of the payload was inside the thin-walled nose cone, I think the biological payloads used the larger code. The only picture I saw of a biological payload up-close looked like it used the No. 8 cone.

We need to do a 1/2 scale of that cone as well!

__________________
Carl McLawhorn
NAR#4717 L2
semroc.com