Nose cones.

[Mike1158]

I notice nose cones of aircraft and missiles etc are a sequence of sections that are not my idea of accurate. Is there a better way of making these parts?

[umtutsut]

If you're not averse to mixing media, check out the variety of plastic model rocketry nose cones. Many different curves and sizes.

Les (The Voice of authroity -- VoiceofAuthority.net - The Voice Stylings of Les Dorr, Jr.

[aansorge]

I have had some success with using a spreadsheet to draw petal type noses that seem a little more accurate. use the equation to figure circumference for the entered radii along the length. By drawing both the diameter and the circumference, the shape of the final nose cone can be manipulated in a somewhat intuitive manner, then copy / paste the petal shape to the drawing. If the nosecone is round the number of petals does not matter, at that point, it is all relative. Combined with painter's tape on the outside to hold the edges together while glue doublers are added inside, the results are pretty nice.

[spaceagent-9]

yes, out of thin plastic. get picnic plates made of plastic. then find a pen or some kind of implement that resembles the size and look of the nosecone you want. you will need some furniture foam a good sized block of it, 5 inches x 5 inches. now heat up the picnic plate with a hot hair dryer, and ram the implement into it with the foam in back up against the heated picnic plate. hold until it cools. turn off the hair dryer before you jam it in there. when cold, pull it out and wiggle out the implement. cut out with small sharp scissors, now just trim and paint. domes?- same way. or you can paper Mache' using tissue paper and 1/2 water and 1/2 Elmer's glue and lay on strips over your implement and sand with an Emory board when dried solid.

[Gil]

What's left of the technique is here:

Tutorial and Technique for the Assembly of Open Petal Designs

-Gil

[luke strawwalker]

Originally Posted by umtutsut

If you're not averse to mixing media, check out the variety of plastic model rocketry nose cones. Many different curves and sizes.

Les (The Voice of authroity -- VoiceofAuthority.net - The Voice Stylings of Les Dorr, Jr.

There's also numerous balsa ones as well in many shapes not available in plastic... balsa can be finished to the appearance of plastic (I know, the dreaded "P" word!) using CA (cyanoacrylate "super" glue), Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler thinned with a bit of water to the consistency of mustard and brushed on, then sanded down smooth with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit sandpaper, and primed and painted with regular "rattle-can" spray paints...

One can also "turn their own" using a hand drill and a chunk of balsa wood or pink closed-cell house foam insulation board with a hardwood dowel glued into a hole drilled in the balsa, and then the dowel tightened in the drill chuck. Just use a variety of grits of sandpaper to gradually sand the spinning wood or foam block down to the correct size and shape (using a template drawn on cardboard and cut out at full size. Get to within about 1/4-1/8 inch of the final size and shape with say 36-60 grit sandpaper, and switch to 160 grit or 220 grit as you approach the final size and shape. Then finish with wood filler and primer/paint.

Later! OL JR

[zubie]

I'm currently working on a paper "Luna" from Destination Moon and similar to the nose cone issue, I'm trying to get a nice smoothie curve to it all. To that end, I've done the following that I think can be applied in conjunction to the method described above with regard to the brown paper form mold method.

For example the Luna has these "carrots" at the base of the fins, which is a rather subtle ogive on top, rounded with hemispheres at the bottom. First the paper parts where put together (in this case they were formed from several cone sections as opposed to petals). The joins where internally tabbed providing a thicker layer of card at the joins. At this point it was a fairly rough carrot. I then have subsequently coated them with nail polish to harden the paper, lightly sanded and coated with thin layers of wood filler, again sanded with fine grit, then repeated the process. This has given me a couple of very nicely shaped carrots, but I have to admit it is fairly tedious as it involves many coat, fill, sand, repeat steps to start blending in the curves. The nail polish step is also good at tamping down any fuzz if you sand down below the previous filler/polish level. After reading the trick about thinning the wood filler, I think I'll be trying that next in the process as I have found the wood filler to sometimes have a certain gritty feel to it. Needless to say this is only good if you are planning to paint over the part in the end anyway (the Luna is overall a metallic finish anyway).

I've heard of using cyanoacrylate glues to similar effect, but suspect cheap nail polish/clear hardening coats are cheaper by square inch.

Sorry I couldn't supply pics, but the few I took are terrible and don't show any of the detail at all. I'll see if I can make a good pic to show the effect.

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by Gil

What's left of the technique is here:

Tutorial and Technique for the Assembly of Open Petal Designs

-Gil

Veddy interestink!

Gil, some of the photos seem to have gone AWOL- All I see in a few places are the Imageshack placeholders. Any Chance these could be corrected?

The resourcefulness and creativeness of members here never ceases to amaze me. "Cut and paste" was always my favorite activity for art in grade school, I am awestruck at how far it can be taken...

[Gil]

Yeah, Isn't it amazing no one took the time to make a .pdf of the file and save it to the tutorials section - least of all me. Nice of you to ask me to do the work over again though...,

+Gil

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by Gil

Yeah, Isn't it amazing no one took the time to make a .pdf of the file and save it to the tutorials section - least of all me. Nice of you to ask me to do the work over again though...,

+Gil

Hey, if I had access to the photos I'd do the PDF for ya!