1/62 scale scratch-built Vostok, on one D12-3 and four A10-PT motors. At the moment of ignition, the video slows to 1/2 actual speed. Note how the mini A10-PT motors kick the model off the pad, even before the central D12-3 comes up to full thrust. The 4 A10′s pack quite a kick! I built this model from scratch, using Peter Alway’s “Rockets of the World” for reference. My next R-7 variant is under construction now, a 1/40 Sputnik R-7 booster with 4 18mm motors in the core. This was a NOVAAR launch that I attended along with a couple of other NARHAMS folks.
That’s difficult to say, I spent maybe 10-20 hours (over a span of several weeks) working on it.
I built it from scratch, with body tubes I had laying around… if I had to buy them individually from a hobby store, I’d guess the tubes would cost around $8-10. The conical sections are made from cardstock. I also used 1/8″ lite plywood (for centering rings, etc.), thin dowel rods for the lattice structure, and 1/32″ plywood for the fins.
Maybe $25-$30 for everything, including paint?
Hi! Can you tell me how long it took to build the Vostok model rocket, and about how much?
billybob-
This was built totally to scale, with scale-sized fins. The flights were sometimes wobbly, but not unstable. I started out with a lot of nose weight, to put the CG roughly in the middle of the transition section where the front of the strap-on boosters attach. I moved the CG back, on each subsequent flight, and it was still stable with the CG almost at the bottom of the transition. PM me your email address, and I’ll send you a JPG showing each flight CG location.
Did you have to use any stabilizing fins to make it work (I didn’t see any)? Or is the shape naturally aerodynamic enough to fly without them? The reason for my curiosity is that I plan on making an R-7 type design model in the near future, and the issue of having to use ugly fins to stabilize it has been a concern.
omg i f-ing love A-10′s! tiny little rocket are cool
they tend to do that lol
WOW!!! That was very high!
Nope, Vostok. Vostok was the Soviet Union’s first manned spacecraft. It’s based on the R-7 ICBM, the same booster that was used to launch Sputnik. The Soyuz spacecraft still use essentially the same R-7 booster, although much improved from the original design (as one would expect) and with a more powerful orbital insertion stage.
I built this model from scratch, using “Rockets Of The World” for scale data. This launch used an Estes D12-3, plus (4) A10-PT motors in the outboards.
do you use Estes engines? because thats Dr Zooch right?
thats the soyuz
Thanks! I am working on a 1/40 scale Vostok now, with 4 18mm motors in the core stage, and (perhaps) 2 13mm motor mounts in each strap-on booster, for as many as 12 motors altogether. I haven’t totally committed to the idea of motors in the strap-ons, yet, though.
Your Vostok Model looks excellent, and it’s impressive that you could coordinate the 5 engines together for a nice launch. Yuri Gagarin would be proud!
Take care! Sincerely, Howard
I’m not sure it’s a public blog, and only rarely has anything to do with rocketry. (Usually only around the times he and his brother are going to an event…)
Wow, what an honor! *blush*
I didn’t know he had a blog… I checked out his Saturn Press website but I couldn’t find a link to a blog anywhere, can you PM me the URL? (YouTube doesn’t allow links in comments).
Hee! Just so’s ya know – I followed the link to this video from Pete Alway’s blog.
Sorry, I don’t have any video of mine…just pictures. I still have the model but haven’t flown it for quite some time. My BAD for breaking the rules fellow rocket Comrade!
No fair – you have to post a video now, rules is rules!
Hey…I scratch-built the same model…great flight Yuri!!!
wow, the rocket looked good and it was a neat video to watch
I don’t think it was thrust vectoring, more likely there was a slight imbalance in the burn times of the A10-PT motors in the strap-on boosters.
For a while, I think Estes was using shotgun charges in their ejection charges. That’s what shredded the (admittedly weak) chute in my Von Braun Ferry Rocket.
Whoa! That D-12 looked like it thrust vectored a little bit. Typical Estes quality. It didn’t CATO, at least, but did it deploy? I stopped flying anything of value on Estes 24.8 mm junk after my Sky Pilot was destroyed by a wimpy ejection charge. That was the last rocket I’d allow Estes to break by vicarious means. Heh.
Now, if only I could do something about their 13 mm Semtex ejection charges destroying my boost gliders…
It didn’t go very high, really… it’s a very high drag model.
I would estimate maybe 400 feet.
Excellent! How high did the rocket go?
Thanks for the compliment!
If you mean the cutout in the cylidrical spacecraft section, for the capsule, I measure it at 1.13″ in height. I kind of kludged this, on my model – I glued in a cone made from cardstock, then pressed in some epoxy clay and rounded it over, to represent the spherical spacecraft.
Dimensions were from Peter Alway’s “Rockets of the World”.
Nice video and build! I’m going to build the
1/60 scale Apogee (imported) Vostok shortly.
What’s the diameter of the nose shroud cutaway
for the Vostok capsule?