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Early
on I decided on a skeletal theme, but how to realize it
was the question. That the main body tube was to be a
spinal column was pretty obvious. But what to do for
fins? I considered various options such skeletal hands,
feet, crossed bones etc., but they just didn’t seem
right. A pelvic bone fin arrangement seemed to fit the
proportions the best, but couldn’t quite decide how
to make that aerodynamic, and have it still look like a
pelvis.
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Ultimately,I settled on the ribcage
idea. I went through a number of ideas for making the
ribcage, such as successive pieces of tubing, but finally
decided to cut the cages from a plastic bucket. It took a
while to get the right look, but eventually, I was
successful, I think.
Ain’t got nobody turned out to be a terrific flyer,
if a little heavy, that ribcage waggles all the way up. Creating
the right design required considerable study of actual
skeletal structures, such as those shown here.
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This comic book character has the shape
I had in mind on her, er, breastplate. |
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The ribcage
pattern was printed first on paper (click photo to
enlarge)
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Then the pattern was applied to the
bucket. There was barely enough bucket to get two rib
cage halves. (click photo to enlarge)
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After hacking the piece out of the
bucket with a dremel tool, the rib cage half looked like
this (click photo to enlarge)
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The first attempt did not quite yield
the desired results (click photo to enlarge)
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By modifying the angle of attachement, I
was getting close to the effect I wanted, but it needed
more of a rounded shape. This was accomplished by
contouring the attachment edge (making it rounded. When
the tenons of the rib cage were inserted into the body
tube, the cage had to bend to fit. This had the effect of
warping the outer sections of the ribs the way I wanted
them to be. Again this took a couple more tries 
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I ended up cutting new ribcages with one
less rib, and modifying the attachment angle. Tabs on the
rib cage fit into slots in the body tube. Bungee cord
held the ribs in place until the epoxy set. 
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With the multiple colors on the buckets,
it was hard to be certain if I had achieved the right
shape. A little primer was needed to verify if it was so. 
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To make the vertebra,and xyphoid process, I used crayola
model magic lightweight modeling clay. This I also
used to make the ribs look more realistic
Note that the putty has not yet been applied to the
ribs
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Finally: Completely finished and with paint
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It should be noted that the members
of Rocket Team Vatsaas have no unusual affinity for
Halloween, except that our annual rocket rendevous is
most usually in October. Had the G. Harry Stine Launch
have been held in April, you would see us with lots of
rockets shaped like Eggs, Bunnies and Carrots.
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