1/72 V-2 Scale Launch Pad

For a very long time, I had been fascinated by the idea of building a scale rocket, with a scale launch pad, which could then perform a scale mission with absoloute authenticity. So, it was no surprise that I placed this on my list of Nine Objectives to complete within the next year, when I compiled the list on the 7th of July, 2003.

I got to work on this objective a few days after I compiled the list. The first thing I would need to do, of course, would be to decide what launch pad to build, for what rocket. I drew up a list of the scale rockets I've built; there are over ten. I looked through some of the space books in my collection, and ruled out any launch pads that looked to large or complex. In the end, the only thing that remained was my model of V-2 #2, which I built during the closing weeks of the summer of 2000.

I next had to draw up plans for the launch pad. I didn't have any real idea of what I would need to do, since my thoughts in this regard had been confined to a few pages in my first Random Thoughts book. I had never designed a launch pad before, although I had built one from someone else's plans. What sort of materials would I need? What would have to be metal, and what could I get away with making out of wood? I guessed on a few of these counts, and drew up rude plans for this launch pad. It would be on a plywood base, covered with plaster and then sand (for a scale effect). The ring stand on which the rocket would be set would be make out of a wood ring with brass posts. Below the ring stand, I planned to put a pyramidal blast deflector of wood, coated heavily with cyanoacrylate or epoxy. A few details would be added for show, including a telephone pole (brass). A hole would be drilled someplace in the blast deflector to admit a launch rod, to guide the model on its first few seconds of flight.

By the beginning of August, I had draw up the plans for the pad, and I was ready to begin construction. It went slowly at first, but the speed picked up eventually. I followed my plans fairly faithfully, except when I needed to build the blast deflector. I made a few pathetic stabs at hewing one out of wood (pine, I think), but it came out all crooked and ugly. Soon, though, I landed on an inspiration: make the deflector out of aluminum from a pop can, formed over a positive plaster form, and then filled with epoxy for strenght. This is what I did eventually, and it worked.

I solved the problem of the blast deflector, and then assembled the parts of the pad together on my plywood base, which I then coated with plaster and sand. I then gave the whole assembly several coats of primer, and I then I painted it with brush paints. I had the launch pad completed by the time my senior year of high school started at the end of August. Now, I wondered, would it count as an objective completed if the pad caught on fire?

I don't know why, but it took me forever to get around to testing the pad. This I finally did toward the close of October, on the 24th day of that 10th month in the 3rd and 200th year of our Lord. In attendance were my friend Jani, and his youngest brother Andrjez, who have now become regulars at my not-very-regular rocket launches. On the same day, we intended to launch my Astrocam 110 (to fulfill the 7th objective), but its shutter was jammed, for some reason.

But, the launch of the V-2 off of its little launch pad was entirely successful. On the first flight, the rocket took off, went up a ways, but came down again near the little pad. After picking up the rocket, I raced over to inspect the pad. The paint had burned off of the blast deflector a little, and the signature blue of the Pepsi can I had used was visible. But everything else seemed to be just fine. I launched the rocket a second time, and it flew just fine that time as well. The pad suffered no ill effects from its two launches.

Thus was accomplished the second of the Nine Objectives, bringing me one step closer to the accomplishment of the WAEC's last, great goals.

1/72 V-2 Scale Launch Pad Pictures and Graphics
image: The parts of the pad before construction began.
image: The pad all assembled and primed, but not yet painted. The Swiss Army knife gives a sense of scale.
image: The pad after being painted.
image: Another view of the pad.
image: An aerial view of the launch pad, on the day of the launch.
image: A closeup view of the charred blast deflector.