Here's the lowly towel roll, ready for transformation.
To give this puppy some stability, and to make it look like a rocket, I turned to some craft sheet to make some crude fins.
The sheet is soft (in the case of the material I had), but it should at least give it some stability without the flimsiness of cardboard fins.
Now for weight...JUST KIDDING. That was a little too extreme, I ended up with 1/4 oz. egg sinkers, starting with one, secured in the foam nose with hot glue from the inside.
Now with the nose, I prepared to amputate a Max Shot bomb; after all, I don't use them much anymore, and my son just shoots darts from his Max Shot...I can't do it!
What to do!?
To the rescue came my handy pool noodles, of which I have many who gladly donated a slice or two. It may not be symmetrical all around, but heck, this is a prototype after all.
Some duct tape, followed by gaffer's tape, and the nose is in place.
I hot glued the fins in a triangular fin pattern, and let dry thoroughly.
The finished product looks like a Titan rocket on a hunger strike, but it does fit, and with a pretty good seal.
When range testing it, there still was some air leakage, and probably some porosity of the cardboard tube, but I still managed 40 feet with 12 pumps on the Titan launcher. My son is happy, but I am not.
NEXT STEPS:
i) Try to seal the cardboard. Either paint, or mylar wrapping, or even good old duct tape. Try not to add too much weight to the body if possible.
ii) Winglets amidships. Kind of making a "cruise missle" of sorts. Hopefully give some more "flying time". Kind of a novelty, too.
iii) Hunting for alternative materials for missle bodies. I found some thick heater insulation that may be of same dimensions as the stock Titan missle. I'll take the calipers to the hardware store tomorrow. Also looking at PET tubing (much like the PETG clear tubing for barrels), some really thin wall plastic tubing. What it was doing at the hardware store, I'm not sure, but if it fits the Titan barrel, it's going in my shopping basket.
Stay tuned! The experimenting continues.
-Piney-
