(BAR-55) Defender-HVY .... A Scratch Build

Here's a modifiedTRF Member @neil_w design that he graciously handed to me in his Half Baked Design thread.

​I shortened the body tube, added some X-Wing style laser cannons and generally moved things around a bit, but it's still pretty true to Neils design.​

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This one is a rear eject, with a 29mm composite motor and a 24" Nylon parachute.​

 

2025-10-12 Kind of digging this partial rear ring fin option....

 

 

2025-10-13 Build Day 01,

3" Tube Fin R&D and Gluing Up Nose Cone Blanks​

Doing a bit of R&D on the 3" Tube Fin. I had a 3" shipping tube in the barn and cut off a 3" long piece of it. Chucked it into the lathe and sanded the O.D. and I.D., which proved to be very "fly away". By that I mean the wraps of paper the tube is made from de-laminated easily. I decided to coat the inside and outside with wood glue and then sand the part. I think it's going to work pretty well.​

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The nose cone blanks were pretty straight forward. Used some scrap 2X material and glued them together to form a 3" x 3" square. I'll turn the Nose Cone from this glued blank.​

 

 3" Ring and Nose Cone Buck

The wood glue did the trick! Some cwf and the ring will be done. 

 

2025-10-14 Preliminary Drawing Rev 00 and the CAD Model

 

 

 2025-10-15 Drawing Set Rev 01

 

 

Z95 Headhunter - A Star Wars Star Fighter

This one really trips my trigger. It's a Star Wars Fighter based on the artwork of Jeff Carlisle.

Basically it's a 4" nominal rocket, powered by a 29mm motor, with rear eject. The body will be custom fabricated from 1/8" thick basswood. The rear fuselage will have an internal tube and that will hold the spool.

 

 

 

2025-10-07 

                       

 

2025-10-09 Created the CAD Model and Started The Drawings

 

2025-10-10 Photo Studio - Full Blown Display Model

 

2025-10-11 Drawing Set Rev 01

 

 

 

 

 Double Ringer - A Scratch Build

This rocket is based on the old Estes Double Ringer design.

It's an upscale to a C-204 tube and uses (2) 4" nominal diameter tube fins. At ejection the (2) tube fins separate and glide down while the main rocket parachutes down on a 18" parachute.

Rear Eject spool with a 29mm motor. 

 

 

Estes Advertisement 

 

 

 

 

Lakeroadster's Version

 

 

 Star Wars T-Wing Fighter

Another rocket inspired by a photo from the internet.

I've searched the internet and it appears that this is not in reality a T-Wing? The R-60 T-Wing appears similar to the X-Wing (Fuselage) but with (3) wings. A photo is shown below:

 

 

 

 

The Star Wars Fandom site explains it here... R-60 T-Wing Interceptor​

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And the Gizmodo site seems to back that up.... Star Wars Wings, Ranked​

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Regardless... I like the design of the R-60... I'll put it on the build pile.​

 

 Back to the Design

The rocket design uses a C-204 for the center body tube, BT/C-80H for the fin tubes and use 3/4" pine ahead of the CG and 1/4" plywood and 1/8" Basswood behind the CG. It features a 29mm motor and a rear eject spool / parachute.​

 

 

 Dart - A Scratch Design / Build Odd-Roc

The Dart is an exercise in design: spurred on by the Estes Banshee, a rocket with wedge shaped fins as viewed from the nose cone.

I wanted to see if this fin type could be designed using OpenRocket pods. What I found was it is possible to visually model the rocket, but it's stability as shown in Open Rocket will be off since there is no airflow over both surfaces of (6) fins. ​ So I duplicated the design and simply used (3) fins that were twice the thickness.

OpenRocket shows its stability closer to 8%. I'll build the rocket and swing test it with the Nose Cone loose, in the event it needs more nose weight.​

An Altimeter Two is concealed in one fin, the launch lug in another and a faux cannon in the third. It's a Hell-For-Stout design utilizing basswood fins and a custom redwood turned nose cone. Powered by a 24mm composite motor it's a rear eject design utilizing a spool.

 

 

And a stock Banshee fin can design  

 

 2025-09-12 Preliminary CAD Drawings Rev 00