Druzi: ("friends" in Ukrainian)

In a another post, I mentioned that I was building a sport scale Javelin kit from Bad Boy Rocketry. BBR was advertising these on eBay with the mention that profits from this kit would support Ukrainan relief agencies. They were a little pricey, but I haven't had much of a chance to do rockets this year, so I bought one. I finally had a chance to work on it and take some pictures. The real thing has been through at least 6 versions since 1996 and is presently accounting for many, many Russian tanks and APC in the Russo-Ukraine war. I have not found any dimensioned drawings on-line but I have found a number of 3-D renderings which vary widely in quality.


The kit is BT-80 based for 29mm power. It's about 25" tall which makes it slightly larger than 1/2 scale. The kit is well thought out with two pages of illustrated instructions. Time is well-spent reading through the instructions a couple of times before beginning.

The first picture shows what you get in the kit. You supply the engine retainer, parachute, shock cord and ballast. The twelve fins are laser cut 1/8 " birch ply as are the centering rings. The kit includes two fin location wraps that worked very well for locating and cutting out the twelve fin locations, shown in Picture Two.

I decided early on I was going to jazz it up with cardstock wraps and details. Picture Three shows the moment right before I started gluing in the engine mount and the fins. I've added two two-layer wraps to the body tube to simulate what I believe to be the rings on which the rocket slides out of its launch tube. On the real thing the fins all rotate to the rear after the rocket clears it's launcher. There are some neat pictures on the Internet showing the fins in various states of deployment just a few feet in front of the launcher.

The last picture shows the rocket after I've added more cardstock details including the swivels around the rear fins and the two conduits that appear in most of the Internet pictures. The conduits are clearly of different sizes in actual pictures although some of the 3-D rendering show otherwise.

So what's left? Gotta fill in the spiral, seal the fins and the paper wraps and then we paint. Once the painting is mostly done, I 'll figure out the CG. I've roughly computed it to be one caliber ahead of the forward fins.

I'll post more, hopefully soon.


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__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Aero-Dart; Tomahawk 12; Tomahawk 9; Paiute; Tomahawk 7; Rescue Aerobees(2); Timm Arcas; Sonda II; Nike-Ram (2); Centuri Screaming Eagle; Very Large Alpha; Semroc Cherokee
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; BBR Javelin
Repair/Rescue: Estes Bandit; Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650; TLP Standard; Estes Expedition
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Well,

Painting took some time. The fins and tube above them were sprayed first in Duplicolor Black primer and then masked including the slots from which the fins on the real thing fold out. Next was the Rustoleum Flat Nickel and Warm Gold bands which were then masked. Rustoleum Flat White was painted at the bottom and then masked. Then, the overall Duplicolor Hot Rod Grey primer was sprayed and masked followed by the Rustoleum Silver on the conduits. The disks on either side of the fins were hand-painted with Tamiya Flat Black.

I need to glue on the motor retainer and then final ballast.

It is decidedly sport-scale, being too long and the nose shape, like most models of seeker heads, not even close. But the kids all recognized it immediately from their games so it's on the right track.

I'll take some more pictures as soon as it warms up a little.

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__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Aero-Dart; Tomahawk 12; Tomahawk 9; Paiute; Tomahawk 7; Rescue Aerobees(2); Timm Arcas; Sonda II; Nike-Ram (2); Centuri Screaming Eagle; Very Large Alpha; Semroc Cherokee
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; BBR Javelin
Repair/Rescue: Estes Bandit; Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650; TLP Standard; Estes Expedition
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Is it rear eject for recovery?

No. Out the front. Recovery is with a 30" Pro Series nylon chute.

I'm going to use an Estes retainer but it needs to be trimmed to fit so it wasn't epoxied when the picture was taken.

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Aero-Dart; Tomahawk 12; Tomahawk 9; Paiute; Tomahawk 7; Rescue Aerobees(2); Timm Arcas; Sonda II; Nike-Ram (2); Centuri Screaming Eagle; Very Large Alpha; Semroc Cherokee
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; BBR Javelin
Repair/Rescue: Estes Bandit; Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650; TLP Standard; Estes Expedition
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Looking GOOD !

Dave F.

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__________________
"Failure Is Not An Option . . . Adapt & Overcome ! "

NAR # 26128 L2
TRIPOLI # 517 L2 ( inactive, at present )