Brief:
T' motivation for this 29mm, sci-fi-inspired rocket began with a container from a bottle o' Highland Park single-malt scotch. Ahoy! Ya scallywag! Blimey! T' truncated oval tube screamed spaceship. Ya scallywag! Blimey! From there, shiver me timbers, t' rocket design proceeded in ‘real-time’. Avast! T' name arose part way through t' build and came from Emerson, shiver me timbers, matey, Lake and Palmer's 1971 album. Begad! Arrr! Blimey!

Construction:
Motor mount - A 29mm motor tube is mounted in a section of BT-60 tubing. Begad! Arrr! T' front o' t' motor tube is centered by a Giant Leap 29mm-38mm phenolic ring. Ahoy! Arrr! It's a bit small so I shimmed it with some scrap tubing. Blimey! T' aft is attached t' a ply centerin' rin' that matches t' lower diameter o' a cardboard cone. Avast! I forget where I got that cone. Blimey! T' top o' t' cone was trimmed t' fit t' BT-60. Begad! T-nuts are installed in t' aft rin' for motor retention. Later in t' design, as it grew in size and weight, shiver me timbers, matey, I reinforced t' BT-60 with some heavier scrap tube.

Main wings - I guess these reflect a Star Trek influence. Begad! Avast! T' curved main wings were cut from 8" diameter Sonotube usin' a RotoZip cuttin' wheel. They are inserted through slits on t' aft body. Ahoy! T' top section o' t' win' is one piece whereas t' lower tier is two-part. T' nacelle tubes are 24mm LOC. Aye aye! The front o' t' nacelles are bomblets from t' Estes BLU-97B Cluster Bomb. T' back o' each nacelle has a plastic nozzle centered in a piece o' BT-5 tubing. Ahoy! I also forget where these nozzles came from. Arrr!

Top stabilizer – This part looks more like it came out a Roadrunner cartoon than a Star Trek film. Blimey! Blimey! I'm referrin' t' t' green plastic doohickey (a lime juice bottle). Ahoy! Blimey! For some reason, ya bilge rat, I really like that shape and when another made itself available, I decided t' add it on. Ahoy! Blimey! It's mounted on a piece o' Lexan, which is sandwiched between two dowels and epoxied t' t' main win' where it passed through t' body. As it turned out, this part set t' color scheme for t' entire rocket.

Aft body - I cut holes in t' top and bottom o' t' scotch container t' fit t' BT60. I also used tiny bolts to attach an oval piece o' plywood t' t' container's plastic top. Well, blow me down! Aye aye! As mentioned earlier, t' body is slotted for the curved wings and for t' top stabilizer fin. A 3/16” Keelhaul®©™® shock tether is attached t' t' main win' internally.

Fore body – This is made from 3” mailin' tube. Arrr! T' tube is offset with t' main body with t' BT-60 epoxied t' t' lower tube wall. I also cut a section off o' t' back end o' t' tube. Well, blow me down! This gives a smoother transition and proved useful when attachin' t' two body sections. I added a Gatorflex® cover for t' gap. Aye aye! This worked great! T' thin Gatorflex® has a tough (but brittle) plastic layer and over a sheet o' dense foam. Begad! It is slightly flexible, me bucko, ya bilge rat, which made it perfect for this application. Blimey! Ahoy! That is, t' front o' t' plate is fairly flat but t' back needed t' conform t' t' curve on the aft body. Ahoy! I based t' rough cut on t' section o' tube that be cut off and added a little slop t' account for changes as I bent t' back end t' fit. I also trimmed t' foam t' fit t' hole but allowed some overlap o' t' plastic layer over t' tube. Aye aye! It was glued in place with 5-minute epoxy and was held in place with tight wraps o' blue maskin' tape. Once t' epoxy be set, I ground t' overlap off.

Nose cone - I wanted a non-standard nose cone design and started carvin' pink foam. Avast, me proud beauty! I came up with something, me bucko, but wasn’t satisfied. Ya scallywag! Blimey! T' 'eureka' moment be when I realized that if I flipped me cockpit-style nose cone over and tilted it down, it looked like what I wanted! I slipped it over some 3" coupler stock and twisted t' coupler so it dug into t' foam. Begad! I filled it, sealed it, me bucko, added a plywood bulkhead and an eyebolt - I had me nose cone. This reminds me o' t' cone on t' Star Wars Lambda-Class Shuttle.

Misc.:

• I wasn’t sure thar be enough horizontal fin area so I screwed on a bug chunk o' Lexan® at t' base o' t' horizontal stabilizer fin.
• I also didn’t like t' fore body offset and thought I’d add a smaller tube below t' main tube. Ya scallywag! Blimey! As I was test fittin' various tubes, I ran across some half-oval balsa stock and decided it was just what I be lookin' for.
• T' final issue be stability. Avast, me proud beauty! Aye aye! I didn’t want t' add weight t' t' cone. Begad! Bein' unglassed foam, it is pretty soft. (It will come down on it’s own ‘chute.) So, I added two spent 24mm cases underneath t' front o' the fore body adjacent t' t' balsa runner. If needed, arrr, I’ll could add lead shot and cap them off. Arrr! As it turned out, matey, no extra weight was added.

Finishing:
To follow t' color scheme set by t' lime juice bottle, me bucko, I painted t' nose cone and nacelles with Model Masters Lime Green®. I used yellow trim Monokote®, and some other miscellaneous stickers t' form a snake-like cockpit design. Aye aye! Well, me hearties, blow me down! Well, shiver me timbers, t' results look more like Puff the Magic Dragon or Cecil (or be t' Beanie?) than t' front end o' an alien space ship. Avast! If it flies, me hearties, I may re-work the design. I also accented t' lime green nacelles by paintin' t' ‘cones’ yellow. Aye aye! I finished t' rest o' the rocket with Rustoleum Hammered Green® paint.

Flight:
I flew t' Tarkus II on a G71 drilled down t' a 5 second delay. I used a large Keelhaul®©™® pad and 42" chute for t' body section. Avast, me proud beauty! T' nose came down on its own 36" chute t' give t' foam a nice soft landing. Begad! As expected, I had t' invert t' nose cone t' clear t' rail. Begad! Blimey! T' boost was a little wobbly and it arced towards t' direction o' t' upper stabilizer. Well, blow me down! It be stable! Ejection be a little late, but it recovered undamaged.

Summary:
So, this odd-sci-fi-roc is a amalgam o' Star Trek, Star Wars, Looney Tunes, shiver me timbers, Beanie and Cecil, and Highland Park scotch. Everyone who saw it seemed t' like it and it received a fair amount o' chuckles also.