Boost: Borrowed Dr. Rocket 38/240 Casing (Thanks, Chris). Level 1 Certification Flight. Up about 15', then cocked to the left, into the wind. Coast was perfect. It arched over, and Everything came out in an orderly fashion just after apogee.

Recovery: Chute inflated nice and slow, after everything was in a straight line. Nothing banged around, and it started heading up-range real quick. Touched down less than 1/4mi away, and then the wind drug it another 1-1/2 miles, over the highway, and through the mud and the muck along the ground until the chute was caught by bushes.

When I first got into the idea of HPR, I was sure that it would take me a very long time, and several failed attempts to finally succeed. I have heard all kinds of horror stories about how hard it was to get there, and how many different things there are that can go wrong. I went to several launches, and saw lots of failed Level 1 attempts, including a buddy of mine finally getting his L1 on the fifth attempt of the weekend. And these are all people that I was learning from.

Learn from the mistakes of others, I say. Not to slight the trials of those that I watched, nor tarnish their accomplishment, you learn a lot from failure. I was simply determined to limit those experiences I had to fail at in order to learn the attached lesson. I'm not trying to be cocky, because that would not be right, given the multitudes of people that have helped me to learn what I know in whatever way possible. This is a wonderful hobby filled with all sorts of wonderful people, and nearly all of them are willing to help you along your journey as they trod along on theirs. I've shown Level 3 people a thing or two, simply because I look at an old problem with new eyes, and ask questions like, "Why?"

I think it is because of that mentality, and LOTS of research before I did anything toward fabrication, that I was able to obtain my Level 1 Certification as smoothly as I did. It's little things, like knowing that knots weaken a rope of any kind, and are very frequently, the location of a break, so I didn't use any knots that weren't designed for their intended loads. In fact, the only knot I did use, I learned from someone that saves lives for a living, and he led me to the knot that I finally used (more reseach) which is called a Directional Figure Eight knot. Thanks Jason. Thanks Kevin and Mike for informing me of the temperatures, and pressures involved in attaching a slimline retainer to a motor mount tube, and that the 3M DP-467 wasn't a good adhesive for that purpose, but JB Weld was. Something I surely would have learned in a hurry without them, but I didn't have to fail in order to learn that lesson. Thanks Wedge for your Chute Packing suggestions, and walkimg me through my first AT reload. The motor went woosh instead of bang, and the laundry all came out in an orderly fashion, and without causing trauma to the rocket.

I originally designed this rocket to last me through Level 2 certification, but it's complexity was a bit daunting, as well as a rash of people having issues with dual deployment around the time I was designing, so I changed it to simply a Level 1 cert rocket, with motor ejection. When I started simulating everything, I concluded that I would be able to get by with three different motor configurations, and that I needed to design for the heaviest of those at the very least. I did a bit of searching, and I set a deadline. I wanted to Certify as soon as the lake we launch at returned to being a dry lake, (As of January, that year was the wettest rain season on the books, since records were kept in the late 1800's, and Lucerne dry lake had two feet of standing water in it when all was said and done) and at the first launch of the season. I got a bunch of materials from Giant Leap Rocketry, and was very impressed with their response, and speedy delivery. All of my materials came in without damage, and my order was 100% correct. In order to make things easy, I designed my rocket to be a fairly typical '3FNC' (Three fins, and a nose-cone) but with enough flare to make it stand out a bit, and simply look sharp. Some of the motors that I want to use with it can propel it to supersonic speeds, so I wanted a look to match, hence the nice, sharp edges, and the extreme point on the nose-cone. The fins were originally a little bit shorter on the root span, but I had to change that during construction.

For recovery, on top of the 14' long Tubular Kevlar Shock Cord (which is certainly overkill for this rocket) was a 32" Fully Hemispherical Parachute, with a 4" spill hole. The parachute is from Anchor Parachutes, and once again, Bruce Feaver hooked me up with some fantastic craftsmanship, and quality materials at a price anyone can afford. The parachute was made in a timely fashion, and received right when expected, and I had no issues with it. The chute is colored Black and Green for visibility in the dry lake beds I usually fly in. When the sun hits it, the green turns into a nice, beaming, flourescent green that can be seen for miles. The parachute is a little on the large side for this weight of a rocket, but bigger motors require bigger casings, so I think it should be alright. I may think of getting a 28" or 26" chute as well to keep it coming down, rather than sailing home on windier days, and higher flights. The weight and size of the chute is just about right, and on it's first flight, it inflated right on cue. That took some doing, however. I assembled a series of small split-rings around pairs of the eight shroud lines. The principle being that as the chute unfolds, it will kind of ruffle in the wind, and slow down while the rest of your recovery system, and your rocket continue to fall. once everything is straightened out, then it gives your chute a decent yank, and instead of your chute 'popping' open (sometimes audibly) causing shock, and possibly trauma to your chute, or knots, or even your airframe, the rings keep the chute closed, and they slowly scoot down the shroud lines, allowing your chute to open wider, and wider until it is fully inflated. This softens the blow of a hard recovery, and can even prevent a zipper on a late ejection. All of this was attached to the shock cord with a heavy duty swivel, and a quick link.

I have very recently made a dual-deploy altimeter bay for 'Pato'. This should fly on November 12th, at RocStock. I have simmed 'Pato' on a CTI I285, and while the AT H123 gave me only about 2000', and I ended up chasing it for 2 miles, I figured that I should make it dual deploy prior to sending it to 6000'. I've been told that this looks overbuild, and it very well could be, but keep in mind, that I'm not one that likes to do things half-assed, because you usually have to do them over again, and I hate (and I know hate is a strong word), but I HATE doing things twice. That being said, I designed this in Cad just to make sure that everything would fit, as I was having a little bit of trouble visualizing the thing in my head as far as clearances go, and how everything should fit. I designed it to hold a 9V battery securely without having to use zip-ties, or tape, or whatever, and to allow it to be very easily replaced. Now I really don't know what kind of stresses this thing is actually going to see, so I made sure that it would hold up to the worst that I could think of throwing at it. I also have been thinking of buying my own altimeter, instead of borrowing my brother's (go figure, he flies even less than I do) so I wanted to be able to adapt this to a new device easily when the time comes. I have checked with all of the devices that I can conceive of wanting, and most of them fit within the space, so all I have to do is drill a new set of holes, and/or make a new set of standoffs. The standoffs are #4-40 threaded aluminum, and the attachment screws are leftovers from my screw collection from taking apart a bunch of media devices. They are torx, which I think is a far superior fastener than phillips, and certainly better than slotted, though allen screws are usually pretty good.

The innards of the alt bay are all made from 1/8" lite plywood, and while it looks like a messy little jigsaw of miscellaneous parts, it all fits together really nicely, and is all glued toegether with epoxy. I use an 8" eye-bolt on the sled side, that extends through the sled, and will screw into a 1/4-20 coupler attached to the eye-bolt on the upper bulkhead. The base of the sled forms the lower bulkhead, which is grooved to center inside the coupler. The upper bulkhead will be epoxied into place, and the eye-bolt has a nut on each side, and some epoxy to hold it in place. A screw terminal will be epoxied to the outside of the screw terminals, and wires run inside their respective bulkheads, and then covered with epoxy to seal them in place, and keep ejection charges out of the bay. The exposed pins on the screw terminals are going to be covered, and smothered with epoxy to prevent them from shorting out against quick-links, and such during flight. I have a small piece of foam that will cover them, and should hold the ejection charges securely in place. I am going to be using the pre-wired ejection cannisters from Newton's 3rd Rocketry for the first time, and I will report on how they work when I get back. I also have three LEDs, and a 2Hz flasher that will supplement whatever chirps, buzzes or flashes accommodate the power-up cycle on whatever altimeter I will be using. The switch is mounted on top of the upper bulkhead on the sled, which coiincides with the base of the extension tube for the main chute. The LEDs will be mounted in the three 'tangs' that you see in the screen capture, between two screws per tang which hold the upper extension firm, and prevent me from having to permanently fasten the extension tube to the coupler that holds the altimeter, eliminating the possibility of connecting an igniter. The vent holes will also be drilled in this tube extension, and there are vent holes in the upper bulkhead on the sled to let the altimeter breathe. This should prevent the air from rushing into the bay, but should still provide the altimeter with consistent ambient-pressure air. The vent holes will be fairly large for this. You think all of this sounds fairly heavy, but the entire sled, sans altimeter, and battery weighs the same as the battery alone. With the addition of 18" of tube, the coupler, the extra recovery harness, sled, battery, and altimeter, I only lose about 200' of altitude on that same CTI I285

As this was my going to be my certification rocket, I wanted to make sure that I was as thorough as I could be, or thought I needed to be in order to build it to the design that I had simulated, and continually make sure that both simulation and finished product were as close as they possibly could be. All of my materials were fairly standard stuff, and with the exception of the aluminum tail cone, were available in the RockSim library of materials, but I was no stranger to modifying that file (I had resolved Carbon Fiber long ago, and it seems to be quite accurate) to suit my needs. So, I actually put some of my modelling practices to work, and drew the tailcone in AutoCAD, and from that drawing, I got a volume. I then weighed the tailcone, and there you have it: the elements necessary to calculate density, which is what RockSim uses for all of it's calculations. This is too easy! As it turns out, the density of aluminum is slightly higher than that of Hard Maple, which I was going to make my tail cone from originally, so the size of the fins had to change to make up for that extra weight.

I did not want to have to intentionally add nose-weight on my first HPR rocket, but I knew that if I was going to put a 38mm Cesaroni J in this rocket, I was going to need as much stability as I could get. Making the fins too much larger seemed like a bad idea to me, because of all of the drag forces involved, and the amount that I have heard that G10 actually flexes. I didn't believe it until I saw something with G10 fins flutter, and knowing what happens when fins flutter, I figured that I needed to keep my fins nice and stout. The nose cone was still undetermined at this point, though I had ideas, I just didn't know whether or not I was going to be able to fit them in my timeline. With my nosecone design, and knowing approximately how much weight I would need in order to make it stable on a J, I set out to design a nose cone that I could turn on a lathe that would negate the need for additional nose weight, give me enough stability, and still handle a tough landing or two. Working with my Dad on how to turn it (a magnificent part to machine is nothing if it is impossible to machine with the tools you have access to) and finish it, we finally figured it out.

The nose cone would have to be turned in three sections, and later epoxied together. Because of the limitations of the lathe that I was going to be able to use, and the fact that it is not a metal lathe, and additionally, is older than I am, it's precision would suffer dramatically if I tried to turn a 21" cone on it. So, the plan was devised, and drawings made (Certs-final.pdf) to be used for turning. I also made two check tools to check the fit of the nubs left on the aft end of the sections. The idea was, that if I turn the top two sections with their aft-end out, then after I get a rough shape (more rough for the tip section than the mid section) I can check the fit of their respective nubs to be sure that it would fit into the next section. Then once the nubs were the right size, I can drill out the center, beyond the end of the part, and simply cut it off, which would leave the part hollow. The tip was made first.. heavy end out. As it's hole was relatively small, and very short, I left it solid, and supported it with a live center while turing. Once I got down to almost nothing on the tip, it was simply cut off, and the rest was formed, sanding it by hand. Then came the mid section. Once I got the nub to size, all I had to do was turn it down to match the same angle that the tip section created, and then drill a 1" diameter hole 4-1/2" deep with a bit that's only 4" long. Once that is done, I simply cut off the part at the desired length to get my mid section. then the aft section was formed, starting with the same O.D. as the rocket's airframe. Measure three times, and cut once on this one. It's always easier to remove material than it is to add more. The cone was then turned to match the mid section, an it's angle, and the shoulder that will fit in the rocket finished up the outside. Finally, we drilled the hole to hollow it out, and turned down the portion aft of the shoulder to nearly the size of the hole to make parting it off easier. As we were going to assemble the three pieces while it is still mounted to the lathe, we didn't want to have to try and chuck it's formed end, so we left it intact for the time being. The tip section was drilled, and a threaded insert was put in place, and the eyelet was fastened, with a length of it screwing directly into the wood to act as a thread-lock. Liberal epoxy smears, and 45 minutes of blasting it with a heat gun later, the nose cone was ready for final touches with an orbital sander to get a uniform shape from the three segments, which were ever so slightly different. The tip was held with a small brass air-fitting, which allowed the part to be rotated slowly, but not under the power of the lathe. It came out fairly consistent, and with a higher grit paper, it began to come out nice and smooth. The final step was a two-man operation, with one holding it from wobbling, and the other to break through the part-off portion that we made earlier. All of a sudden, it was free, and the nose-cone was done. I checked it's fit in the airframe, and was very pleasantly pleased with the results.

The nose cone weighed about 100g more than I had anticipated, which was fine with me, that simply increased the stability margin. Before I did much else, I primered it to seal the wood, and prevent it from soaking up any moisture, and distorting or warping. several coats of primer, and a lot of wet-sanding made it almost look like plastic.

The fins were cut from a 1/8" thick sheet of G10 Fiberglass. For consistency, a jig was used with a table saw. My Dad did an excellent job with the cutting, and the result was three fins that didn't even need sanding to be the exact same size and shape. We set up a jig on his oscillating drum sander to bevel the fins at 5°, and after the first one, and the learning curve, they all came out pretty uniformly. Only three edges were beveled, as the root was going to be mounted against the motor mount tube, and I wanted all of the surface area that I could get.

I cut the motor mount tube with a dremel and a cut-off wheel (okay, several were used in total), and I used a piece of paper wrapped around the tube as a guide. The paper was wrapped in one direction, and overlapped on the other side, and when you align the overlaps, you know that you have a good gague to cut the tube straight and true. I used tape to cinch it down, and hold it in place. It takes a little bit of patience to not have something hard to ride your tool against, but with a little finesse, it comes out just perfect. First, I used JB Weld to adhere the slimline motor retainer to the tube. I used a cut section of tubing as a spacer, and installed the retaining ring to make sure everything was in the right spot. I oven-cured the assembly per the instructions on the JB Weld packaging, and soon had an indestructible bond. The surface of the motor mount tube, where anything would be epoxied to it was roughed up with 60 grit sandpaper to give the epoxy something to grab on to, and some un-sealed pores to soak into. Next, I added my centering rings, which were sections of phenolic tubing that I obtained from Giant Leap Rocketry. I had thought for some reason that these rings were going to be plywood, or another material, but they didn't let me down. After they were epoxied in place, 3/4 of one against the slimline motor mount, one against that for the trailing fin root, another for the leading edge root, and a fourth at the open-end of the motor mount tube. The two rings in between the fins were moved toward the center of the fins half of their length. I marked the airframe, and marked the motor mount, and centering rings for either side of the G10 fins, and any other line I thought I might need. I dry-fit the motor mount tube in place, aligning my marks, and began cutting the slots in the body tube for the fins, which ran the entire length of the fin. I miracuously managed to cut them straight. Once that was done, I took a dremel tool, and cleared out those slots in the centering rings to match. Not only does this help lock the motor mount into place, but it helps align the fins to be perpendicular to the surface of the airframe, helps keep them true, and had more surface area for the epoxy to bond to. I think that this makes a very strong bond, and lessens the chance that it will have problems with hard landings, etc.

The shock cord is made of Tubular Kevlar, and is 14' long. I used the RDeHate 'splice' for my ends, where you basically make the top section into chinese fingercuffs. You feed the open end of the kevlar inside of itself after a lap around whatever you want to use to retain it. The space limitations inside the airframe prevented the use of a U bolt, so the lower shock cord splice loop was actually epoxied around the motor mount tube, just behind the fwd centering ring. I had to cut a groove in the ring for the assembly to then fit into the tube, but I really don't think that it's going to go anywhere. Once the motor mount is epoxied into place, I went back and cleared out any new-fill-ins on my centering ring grooves, and body tube slots, and began to mount the fins. The epoxy that I used for this job was probably a little on the thick side for this application but I wanted to make sure that it would stay put. After the epoxy was cured, I drilled small holes in the body tube between the centering rings, and began filling this section with some of my jeffco epoxy to make sure that there is an epoxy joint between every surface. Every place that I couldn't get to got epoxy in this manner just to be certain that everything was bonded.

The final touch was to fillet my fins. As I did with Daft Dream, I mixed carbospheres with my Jeffco epoxy, and got to work. This time, however I just used my finger. I was able to get a very smooth fillet, and the epoxy mixture wasn't so thick that it wouldn't fill in, and self-level, so I was mildly fortunate. It did however tend to clump around the edges fairly quickly, and despite my best efforts at keeping it clean, it still had a little bit of roughness to it when I was done. I would fix this in finishing.

I got a lot of flack from some people because I wanted to paint this rocket before it flew, but seeing that it was my Level 1 attempt, I wanted it to stand out. At least if it was going to make a hole, it should be a well decorated hole. I had several ideas in mind when thinking of a paint scheme for this rocket, but the combination of a lack of finer finishing skills, and time constraints led me to abandon those for something a little more simple. I had decided upon a very nice, vivid red, and a metallic black, and had already gotten paint for those, and the white base coat. I did a lot of research on good finishing techniques, and I have summarized them a couple of times for a couple of people, so they will soon be added to this site if they are not already. We all know what it's like to have a finished rocket that's still naked. It's rough to the touch, and you can still see the spiral groove left by the manufacturer of the tube. Your fillets are all messy, and you likely lay down a very heavy coat of a solid color, or mix a couple of wet coats, just to be able to tell it from the ground you're landing on. I wanted to go a level beyond that, and to be honest, what I got surprised even me.

To start with, I did a fairly decent job with the fillets, so it started there. I used Elmer's wood putty to fill the spiral groove from the bottom, all the way up to the top. I also filled in the little epoxy holes that I used to make sure that all surfaces of the fins were bonded to the motor mount tube, and the airframe. Initially, I was using a sanding sponge, dry, to do most of my sanding, as it would give me something to hold on to, and would compress if I was pushing too hard, and it was also nice to use to sand the fillets, because you can fold it in half, and because it tries to expand, it meshes with all of the surface that the fillet has to offer. A portion of this task was to smooth everything out as best I could, and another was to rough up the smoother parts. The fillets, and the G10 surfaces, for example were really shiny, and really smooth, and I wasn't sure that paint was going to stick to them very well, so I made sure that they were rough enough to hold paint.

The first thing I painted was a very light mist of primer. That is actually more difficult that you'd think, because I know that my impatient tendency is to just goop it on until the color is solid, and the shade I want, and then rotate it a little bit, but I assure you, that's not the way to get good results. In fact, I'm sure at one time, you, like I, have tried to fill a joint of some type with paint, and not primer or filler. The first coat of primer was laid on in three phases; first, the 'tack coat', which is very very light, and just barely a mist. Then I laid it on a little bit thicker. I knew that about 90% of this paint coat would be sanded off, so I wanted to apply as much as I could without getting runs in it, and then I set heaters around it in the garage to help it cure nice and thorough. After that cured, it was off to the back yard, with a bucket, a towel, my sanding sponges, and my rocket. I removed as much of the primer as I could while keeping the finish smooth, and consistent. Though I noticed after this step that I was getting a giant orange-peel effect on the surface, which was eventually attributed to using the sanding sponge to sand. I took a trip to my LHS, and found a good 11" x 3" aluminum extrusion with a large flat-side designed to hold a 1/3 sheet of sand paper. I also made a stop by my local Michael's Craft Store, and found some 1/16" foam to use as a cushion. Using 3m Spray 77 adhesive, I attached the block to the foam, and then cut it to size, and then adhered some 600 grit wet/dry paper to it. Again, after another coat, I went to work with my bucket. Standing the rocket on it's tail, and using an "X" pattern with the sanding block running it's length with the length of the rocket, I sanded, and sanded, and sanded, and eventually the giant orange peel went away. A very good tip for a smooth finish on a rocket.

After all of the priming was done, and the hard lesson learned with the sanding sponge, it was time for the base coat. I used Krylon Automotive Primer, and Tamiya Acrylic Sprays for the pigments. I thought a smooth, consistent white base coat would not only provide a better finish with no hidden masking lines, and a brighter base for the red that I wanted to put on the top half of the rocket. Again, I began with a very light misty coat, and then after about 4 minutes, I continued to add several coats with about 50% coverage. I did all of this outside on a fairly calm day. I did mask the tail cone before painting to prevent trying to finish black anodized aluminum black. After I was satisfied with the coverage of the white (about 2 cans worth) I left the rocket outside to cure in the sun. I was going to wait until it cured to wet-sand it, and then spray it again with about as much paint. I had heard about some really nice coats being obtained through the use of this process, which I thought I could duplicate. The biggest trouble was the opacity of the paints I was using. The white is very solid, whereas say, a pearl over another color would give a nice deep finish, but since white is white, it still looks dull, even if it is glossy. But on the good side, I did get a VERY glossy finish from the continual wet-sanding and very light coats. You have to be careful once you start laying down other colors though, that you don't sand through the color you just finished.

The next thing to do was the orange on the fins where the Rubber Duckie insignia would go (No, it is NOT an embryo). I didn't bother to mask this, because the metallic black, I didn't think would be affected by the underlying orange, bright and vivid as it was. I did do very light coats, with some wet-sanding in between. Using some vinyl shelf-paper, and a design I made on the computer, I cut out the insignia, and then removed the matrix from the backer, while keeping the meat of the stencil on it's original backer. I used transfer tape (slightly lower tack than regular masking tape) to pull the mask off of the backer, and I applied it from the fillet on the fins, outward. I used a soft piece of plastic with no sharp edges (the barrel of a sharpie marker) to press the shelf-paper down all around. I took special care on the smaller parts, using my nail to make sure that all of the edges were down, and then folding the transfer tape back onto itself very sharply, I removed it from the mask/rocket, making sure that I only took the transfer tape with my pull. It may be necessary to stop, and re-press some ares as they start to lift, and be careful to do this before your pulling action can deform the mask, because vinyl stretches, which is a good quality, but if it stretches as you are pulling it off, then you will never get it back to the same shape, and flat again. Once the mask was on the fins, I masked the top portion of the rocket with a 'Charlie Brown'-ish jagged stripe. I painted the fine mist, and then a couple of light coats of metallic black (Tamiya TS-40). The finish is really bright, and very sparkly (just about like a Bass Boat) which I liked, and it made it look almost like a carbon color, rather than a black. The only trouble with it was when I sanded it, it kind of dulled up, and really never came back as strong as it was. Also, when I re-applied, it's flakes didn't match what was previously there. It seems that the flakes rise to the surface, and as you sand, you remove them, and reveal the black base, which explains the dark color on my finished product. I eventually sanded it with as high as 3200 grit paper, but the same luster just never quite came back. Also, the metallic paint seems a lot heavier, and covers thicker than the solid non-metallic colors, so that you don't have to use as much of it for good coverage.

Next up is the orange stripe in the middle. I originally wanted to paint this first, and mask to it for the red, and then paint the black over it, but time constraints forced me to change my mind. The mask was simple masking tape, with a nice wide stripe cut in it. I tried twice to get it right, and once applied, I realized I had to cut another to mask it after I painted the yellow so I can paint the red. The yellow was painted, and then sanded. It's result was a very nice smooth, glossy Camel Yellow (Tamiya TS-34) with no masking edges. Finally, the Flourescent Red (Tamiya TS-36). I masked the yellow off, and sprayed, again with my very light tack coat first. This color seemed like it was a lot thinner than the rest, so I had to be very careful so as not to get any runs. The color went on well, but I seemed to get slightly un-even coverage, so in trying to get even coverage, I managed to darken the red to more of a bright red. The color is very deep, and rich, but it's not quite the color I wanted. After a light wet-sand, it was off to get the clear coat. I used Testors High Gloss Enamel Overcoat (Testors 1814) which is no longer available, unfortunately. It seems to have been replaced with a different number, and a slightly different formulation. I have talked to several people who have used both, but lilke the 1814 better than it's replacement. Coverage was pretty nice on this coat, but it also had a tendency to run, from being so thin. I did two full coats of the clear, with a cure, and a wet-sand in between. The finish was mirror smooth, and fairly tough. It did tend to take impressions as long as 48 hours after it was finished, but that seems to have subsided now. I did apply all of the paints in a fairly truncated timetable because I was rushed, but I'm sure that if you take your time, you'll get a good result, hopefully with less mistakes. All told, the finishing job for this rocket took a little more than 30 hours of work, plus the time of waiting in between coats. Most of that work was prep-work, and sanding, and very little of it was actually spraying.

There was an incident with my finish part-way through. I had just applied the base coat, and I went to my LHS to get more paint. I had just gotten back, and looked outside to check on my rocket, which was free-standing on it's tail cone in the back yard. I had just looked at it, and as I turned to wak to go get my masking tape to move on to the next color, I heard a 'clunk'. My heart sank: I rushed outside to find my rocket lying on it's side, with the nose cone about 4" from the brick wall. I looked it over real quick, and decided that the airframe was in a fine shape, but the nose cone had some severe damage. It's smooth, plasticy look was interrupted by a large, splintery gash about 4" from the top. I nearly cried. I took it inside, and took some sandpaper to it, cleaning the wound. After I got it all clean, I actually carved out a nice, clean section of the cone where the damage was, and roughed it up with some 60 grit paper. I filled the gash with wood putty, and left it in the sun to cure. After it cured, I tried to prime it again with my Krylon, and I got an ugly surprise. The Krylon split in several places, like a bad burn victim, and spread apart. It turns out that there was a reaction between the krylon on the top, and the Taimya white base coat on the bottom. In order to solve this, I had to use a different primer. I tried to find the Tamiya primer, but my LHS was out of it, so I had to settle for the Testors 1237 Flat Grey Primer, which turned out to be really dark grey, and required nearly twice the amount of white to cover as the Krylon did. I needed to get the white base coat on the nose cone the same tone as the base coat on the airframe, because the red was going to be painted at the same time, and I didn't want there to be a different color at the seam. I think I did a fairly decent job, as in the launch photo, you can't tell where the body tube ends, and the cone begins, blurry as it is, but it's still hard to tell. I have learned to brace my rockets while painting them, and I am very thankful that I haven't had more similar incidents, and I am kind of surprised that I haven't come up with a method for handling this sooner, what with all of the rockets that I have painted. I hope you can learn from my mistakes, to prevent your own. See how that works?