I really like that checkerboard, Doug!

Thanks, John. Trim Monokote is your friend :)


[Edit]BTW, I seem to recall using the checkerboard because it was used in one of the catalog schemes, altho the pattern I used had larger squares, but it was all I could find.



Doug


.

John, Your transition turned out really good. I chose to paint mine red. I wanted to avoid applying a tapering stripe to a tapering, rounded object. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it :)


Doug


.

Thanks Doug;

I wanted to keep the proportions of the roll pattern down the transition, so I prepared a marking guide, lined things up, masked and painted. Not so much dizzy as it was tedious (!).

Quote:

Build it with straight fins because crooked ones hurt your OCD brain?

FWIW, my rationale to forgo the canting was that, with a more potent 1st stage motor, I didn't think it was necessary. The stability off the rod gained by the spin imparted by the canting can be replaced with higher rod speed instead. And a 24mm C11 or D12 does that. Plus, there's less drag with straight fins.

YMMV.

Doug

.

It strikes me that it may have been the Astron Delta that used the checkboard pattern. In the case of your FS-X, I think the proportion of the squares on those fins is just about right. Sharp looking pattern.

Oh, I think you're right - it was the Delta!


Doug


.

Yep.
Astron Delta used a Yellow/Black checkerboard pattern.

I remember that my kit (Farside-X) included soft balsa. I used AeroGloss Balsa Fillercoat and painted with dope to get the smoothest, glossiest finish, which I did, but some grain was still visible, and the fins ended up wavy as a result of the shrinking of all the fillercoat and dope. first two flights (B-A-A , and B14-B-A) were pretty good, but snapped one fin at the root from each of the first two stages on landing the first time, lost a fin on the second stage the second time. Replaced it with hard balsa. No wave on that fin.

On the third flight I went for broke with B14-C-C and of course lost the upper stage, but it held together!

I just downloaded the Farside-X plans from Jimz, and printed the fin pattern sheet. I'm going to build the booster for 24mm motor. I'll order the Semroc kit after Christmas. Too much going on now to start the kit, but I really want to build the 24mm booster! I never had a Farside or Farside-X.

I built the Apogee II in the 60s, it was my first multi-stage rocket. At the time, the Farside was 75 cents more (the Farside-X was another dollar or so more than the Apogee II), and thinking about adding another fraction of a dollar for a 3rd motor, that kind of expenditure just scared me off ... ;)