The other Nike-Smoke paint job
 

In the course of developing a process for building a Nike-Nike-Smoke, I ran across info on painting a regular Nike-Smoke something other than white with florescent fins.

Here is the YouTube NASA video: the rocket view starts about 2:45.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UwDvZ0QZs0

The .pdf attachment is a short Atlantic Research Corp. document on the various Nike sounding rocket fins.

My build is pictured against this morning's blue Texas sky. It's a genuine Centuri Nose Cone that I got when a small LHS closed down back in the early '90's. The tubes and baffle are Semroc and the balsa is from the scrap bin. I built following the Centuri plan on JimZ. Paint is Rustoleum Camo Deep Forest Green, Bright Silver and Hammered Copper. The copper is a little dark; a better match for the raw magnesium is Testors ModelMaster Jet Exhaust. My silver band is a little too thick and might not exist at all, the picture quality in the video is kinda low. I see an aluminium band; my son says no.

Nevertheless, I'm happy with the build. I put it all together in less than a week including paint as I am on a short vacation. And scale judging at my cosmodrome is still just a thumbs up/thumbs down from SWMBO.

Did you use a super-cool Enerjet-kit-sized 29mm engine mount or a wimp-o Centuri 18mm mount ?

No, I went whimpy 18mm, mostly because of the size of my field. I debated building 24mm and using C11s but since they stopped making them, that seemed risky.

BUT, if I do build a Nike-Nike-Smoke, it will be at least 24mm and maybe 29mm-powered. It'll be a pretty big rocket.

Very nice Mark. I really like that paint scheme, and did my Estes PSII that way.

pics . . .

more pics . . .