Type

Ole Blue is a scratch, minimum diameter bird built for the NARTREK streamer duration flight.

I peeled the glassine off the full-length (18") BT-20 body tube and soaked the remaining paper tube with thin CA. After a LOT of sanding, it has a glass-like finish. Three CA soaked tagboard elliptical paper fins are molded to the body with Elmer's wood filler. This is a long, sleek model with a good (blue!) finish. Rocksim says about 70 second flights with a 4x40 streamer. We'll see.

Close up of fins and engine hook. The paper fins are made of two layers of manilla folder (tagboard) soaked with thin CA, except for a 1/4" tab along the root edge. The tabs are spread apart and form fillets when glued to the body tube. Fill & Finish is used to mold and form the fins to the airframe. A shortened motor hook (with a reverse bend at the forward end) was placed in an empty fillet and secured in place with a piece of balsa scrap and 30 minute epoxy. (Click on image for a full size picture. Use "BACK" button to return.)

For a sport rocket, the peeled and CA soaked body tube was not worth the effort. The thin tube readily transmits ejection heat and bubbles the paint forward of the motor.