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On 7/7/2004, Dick Stafford wrote:
"Your bulbous rockets are just too cool....'nuff said!"
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The Blowfish Avenger

Another bulbous masterpiece

Click [HERE!] to see photos of the Blowfish Avenger in flight!

RTV member-at-large, Burl Finkelstein, is remarkably well-informed on up-to-the-minute offerings on eBay that are related, if even remotely, to rocketry. A number of the items on the NotRocs page are the product of his many tireless searches.

One particular gem unearthed by Burl was the circa 1950's piggy bank in the shape of a bulbous rocket with the same sci-fi stylings as some of the other rockets I've been building. He sort-of dared me to make one like it. This was the rocket I had in mind when I decided to take the long way when I rebuilt The Rocket Formerly Known as Black and make molds of the airframe and nose cone. By making molds I could reproduce these parts more easily and crank out rockets like eggs at a chicken ranch (or something like that) creating possibilities of a large and sundry fleet of Bulbous Rockets.

Below are the photos of the rocket bank from the eBay auction. As you can see, there were great shot of every angle, which gave me enough infomation to to draw a design without having to bid on the item.



Front View


The view of the other front.


Side View



There is a RockSim 7.0 simulation

There is also an AeroCFD simulation

The fwd/aft halves of the airframe mold.

No centering rings required.

The inside of the outer nose mold
(sounds like a horrid medical condition).

Two-part nose mold
(inside/outside).

The diameter of each tail cylinder is 41.5mm.

A single tailpiece positioned in place.

Tail Piece and Mold.

Fin Molds (black) and cast fin (grey)

First look with the fins attached.

Fins attached, oblique angle.

The fins are epoxied on and the joints reinforced with 1" fiberglass tape. They are not mounted 'through the wall'.

In case you're interested - I used this template to plan how I would cut the fiberglass.

Front view during application of the glass tape.

Back view before the tailpieces are installed.

Clamping on the tail pieces.

Same thing, different view.

Here's what it finally looks like.

I dragged it out to the launch site to show it off.

Amazing how much better it looks with primer.

Side view. There are still lots of pinholes to fill.

Masking off the tail section for contrasting color. This was amazingly tedious.

Side view with decals in place. These were hand-cut from self-adhesive monocote.

I opted to leave off the coin slot and the "Rocket Bank" decals.

Not only were they lame, but I think it looks less cluttered without them.

Click [HERE!] to see photos of the Blowfish Avenger in flight!

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