Hans "Chris" Michielssen's Page

AKA: hcmbanjo
Location: Orlando, FL
Club Memberships: NAR
Favorite Rockets: Estes Goblin
Personal Home Page: www.oddlrockets.com
Club Home Page: www.R-O-C-K.org
RocketReviews.com Pages:
Rocket Gallery
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2024-10-16

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 8, Payload Section Painting

Blog
Here's the payload section after the white undercoats. The center clear section will be masked off for the black paint. You've gotta' love an easy mask. On the left is the adapter mask, On the right is the nose cone upper mask. Notice the clear tape edge was marked with a Sharpie so I could see the mask line. You can see the marked tape better on the right side. The black paint will go ... [More]

2024-10-15

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 7, Lower Fin Gluing

Blog
The first lower fin glued in place. Four more to go - On the left is how much glue I use on a root edge, right out of the bottle. On the right is how much glue is used to tack the fin in place. Run your finger down the sides of the root edge picking up and removing excess. Using less glue means very little squeeze out outside the body tube joint. Viewed from the rear: At the 12 ... [More]

2024-10-14

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 6, Upper Fin Gluing

Blog
Here's the first of the upper five fins. On the left, notice the wrap of masking tape for positioning the high end tip of the leading edge. The picture at the right shows the trailing edge on the pencil fin line. All five upper fins in place. That tape wrap above keeps all the fin root edge tips in line. I went ahead and started glue fillets before gluing on the lower, smaller fins. ... [More]

2024-10-13

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 5, Filler Primer Spraying

Blog
I slid the nose cone and adapter into the clear payload tube to spray on the filler/primer. The clear tube was masked off. The body tube already had a seam fill of CWF and sanding. A shot of filler/primer followed. Slide the engine mount into a painting dowel. The fins were held down on scrap cardboard on tape with the sticky side up. On the left is a fin after CWF and sanding. On ... [More]

2024-10-12

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 4, Joining Tubes & Fin Marking - Gotcha!

Blog
I sand the ends of the clear retainer ring with 400 grit to clean up the edges. Here's the yellow coupler / engine block. A line of glue is set inside the tube and the block is slid in until it rests against the top ben of the hook. Before gluing the long upper tube over the coupler - Slide the tube over the coupler (dry). Turn the tube until you get the best match of the two tube ... [More]

2024-10-11

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 3, Engine Hook & Engine Mount

Blog
I don't like finger tabs on engine hooks. Score it with a wire cutter, then bend back and forth until it breaks off. File off any rough edges. Flip over with the cut end up. I made a bent a slight curve into the engine hook. The extra tension makes for a better hold of the engine. Some history: The top picture is from the Estes instructions. Notice the engine tube is 3" long, the ... [More]

2024-10-10

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 2, Parts Prep

Blog
Mentioned earlier, this build was already started. The only thing done was the body tube seams and balsa got some CWF fill and sanding. The pieces were stored in a small zip bag. On the left side is the launch lug standoff. There was a little bit of CWF inside the end of the launch lug. To clear it, a sharpened dowel was turned in the end of the lug. Turn in the same direction as the ... [More]

2024-10-09

Estes Star Stryker Build, #3206, Part 1, Parts

Blog
The Arreauxbee Hi build is on hold while waiting for the hurricane and rain to clear - I picked this one up a few years ago. Started it, then set it aside. This was a boxed kit, I may have picked up at WalMart. This one reminds me of the old Estes X-Ray. Two sets of five fins, ten fins in total. These will be fun to glue on, line up and fillet the close fins. Here's the specs - ... [More]

2024-10-07

Enerjet by Aerotech, Arreauxbee-Hi, Part 14, What's Goin' On?

Blog
There's been a short break in build posts - Over the past week, Central Florida has had rain at the most inopportune times! The Arreauxbee-Hi is in white undercoats. I can't add color coats until this hurricane Milton passes by! There's a reason why I chose to live in Central Florida. Even though the storm will pass right over me, hurricane wind speeds break down as it travels over land. ... [More]

2024-10-04

Enerjet by Aerotech, Arreauxbee-Hi, Part 13, Paint Planning Ahead

Blog
Here's the instruction copy on how to paint the model. While the instructions are basically correct, befoe masking, plan ahead . You don't want to paint white over orange fins. You don't want to paint silver over an orange base color. I would recommend an overall gloss white coat before other colors. Mask off all three fins and the upper body (right at the top edge of the tunnels) ... [More]

2024-06-29

Odd'l Rockets Little Green Man

Flight
A little wobble on the way up. Not much altitude but recovered safely. - B4-4 - Muncie AMA Field [More]

2024-04-06

Centuri ARGUS clone

Flight
I only used one parachute, the original kit had two, one for the low end, another for the long upper section. The parachute was taped closed in a "hillbilly hat" for faster descent. - C6-5 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Estes Mini Bertha Clone

Flight
First launch today. After all these years I shouldn't be surprised by how well mini engine models perform. Very stable, the 1/2A3-2t motor. I would guess the altitude capped out at 275'. The two second delay seemed short. - Estes 1/2A3-2t - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Semroc MMX Blue Bird Zero

Flight
I actually captured a MicroMaxx launch! Estimated altitude was 75', no damage after the streamer recovery. - 1/8A-1 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Warped! (Scratch Design)

Flight
A weird one. It started as a regular bagged Custom kit that sat in the direct sun a little too long. The nose cone was melted and bent. I bought the kit. The body tube was cut into angled wedges and glued together like the Fliskits ACME Spitfire. I renamed it WARPED. A B6-4 pushed it to at ... [More]

Custom Solar Explorer

Flight
I wasn't worried about losing this one - the BT-50 tube was crimped above the engine mount from an earlier hard landing. After reaching an altitude around 600', the winds blew it into the trees just South of the flight line. Lost! I really need to thin the heard anyway. - C6-5 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Quest MMX Saturn V

Flight
The larger fins really didn't help much, it was unstable after it cleared the short launch rod. - 1/8A-1 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

2024-03-02

Estes Skytracer Clone

Flight
- A8-3 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Rocketship Games R5 Hawkeye

Flight
Boost is always fast on these little models, good thing I had some young eyes to point me to the landing area. - 1/8A-1 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Nike X Goon

Flight
A B6-4 got an altitude of 350'. Full chute, textbook flight. - B6-4 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

2015-04-19

Rockets By Style / Kit-Bash/Modified

Photograph

Hans "Chris" Michielssen's Orange (Q Cobalt Kitbash)

2014-11-09

Rockets By Style / Kit-Bash/Modified

Photograph

MX-774 Kitbash on an Estes A8-3. Bunnell Blast, November 8, 2014

2012-09-22

Saturn Press Saturn V - Step 17

Build Entry
The outside curved lines of the Engine Fairing Shrouds were cut from the cardstock with scissors. The interior Fin Slots were cut with a knife and straight-edge. [More]

Saturn Press Saturn V - Step 16

Build Entry
The A Frames and Fins were pressed together. The C Frames are pressed into the A Frames and Fins. Be careful handling the Fin paint while assembling. Silver or metallic paints are easy to dull with fingerprints. After all were assembled dry (no glue) I applied white glue to all the joints with ... [More]