Jump to content
APC Forum

Aerial Shells


Chris

Recommended Posts

I think alot of the problem lies with the camera, I know how poorly they can capture a firework. The spread would have looked alot better with a larger tail. I know it is hard to achieve a symetrical break with 2" canister shells, I see many asymetrical breaks even at proffessional displays using them.

 

How were the shells spiked? Have you got a photo of them?

 

I love in the vido how we can see the little flame retreating from the lit mortar :P

I don't think i have a photo of them in the spiking stage.

But they were spiked with 6 vertical and 9 horizontal lines with hemp twine.

It was then pasted over with diluted PVA for better grip.

 

I agree on the camera problem, i just started filming the more exciting stuff with my new camera and i haven't 100% figured out what the best settings are for filming fireworks, going to set the exposure to a little higher level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 3.6k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Mumbles

    390

  • psyco_1322

    228

  • Pretty green flame

    137

  • qwezxc12

    134

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

I think the stars may have too short of a burn time for the camera to capture them well. Also, was it zoomed in? Being able to judge the distance that a shell is going off at makes it easier to judge its performance.

 

EDIT. Having just watching the video again I would have to say that the only real issue was fast burning stars. Unsymetrical breaks follow hand in hand like q and u with the small shells.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No I didn't. I got side tracked with school and christmas. It was going to be 5" anyway. I want to get more comfortable with larger shells first anyway. It's probably good I didn't make a shell of shells, as my lift totally crapped out on me.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This kind of reminded me of your shells Pretty green flame. Some early ones that I made. 2" easter egg. Not a great spread, and crappy stars. Also the days of extremely shitty and unreliable quickmatch.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/files/2nnwhitestar.WMV

 

Yeah probably a good thing mumbles. A 3 inch shell popping a foot out of the mortar and going off would be really bad, let alone a 5 inch. Scary thought :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once had a 3" Al Streamer pop right out of the mortar. It had bad lift; flew about 10 ft out of the mortar then fell back down and went boom on the ground. :o Luckily it was my first ever 3" shell and I was nervous so I stayed way back.

 

Do you guys photograph your shells or take videos of them?? I always video mine but they always come out looking bad (especially something dull like chrysanthemum). I was so dissapointed I didn't get my last shell on picture.... all you can see is little tiny sparks flying out with no tails at all..... So maybe I should try photographing them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once had a 3" Al Streamer pop right out of the mortar. It had bad lift; flew about 10 ft out of the mortar then fell back down and went boom on the ground. :o Luckily it was my first ever 3" shell and I was nervous so I stayed way back.

 

Do you guys photograph your shells or take videos of them?? I always video mine but they always come out looking bad (especially something dull like chrysanthemum). I was so dissapointed I didn't get my last shell on picture.... all you can see is little tiny sparks flying out with no tails at all..... So maybe I should try photographing them?

I video all of mine that I can, both to relive the good ones, and figure out in case something goes wrong.

 

I've recently gotten a new video camera, and I am still messing with settings to get the best rendition of colors, keep focus, etc... I think the opposite is true from what you saw though, I find that bright color stars look too white on camera, while willow stars, etc look great. Must be a matter of exposure I guess.

In a bit, I will post links to some of my videos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, here are some videos taken in the past month or so. I've posted some of these to the UK Rockety forum before, a couple are shown for the first time here :) I am not the greatest videographer like I said in the earlier post, still learning to use the camera to best effect.

 

 

3" red with gold pistil

 

3" shell - Kepley gold streamer

 

1lb BP rocket - Gold streamer header

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only some work. Why not download them onto the APC file hosting service?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you need a zippy account to view these? Why not download them onto the APC file hosting service?

Good idea, uploading evidently munged 2 of the files, I just tried to view them and only 3 out of 5 work.. .the others are removed for now. I'll check into the APC file upload thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice shells, funny CATO, cute kid.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice shells. For the gold pistil did you use the same gold streamer comp.?

 

Good thing there was no header on that rocket that CATOed you seemed to be very close! :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice shells. For the gold pistil did you use the same gold streamer comp.?

 

Good thing there was no header on that rocket that CATOed you seemed to be very close! :P

Yes, the pistil was made of Kyle Kepley's gold streamer mix, a modified willow.

 

The CATO - actually I was a fair distance back, and there was a header... 20 grams of flash. :blink: I had the camera off, launch tube picked up, and headed back up the hill before the echoes died away from that *that* one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My bad, I should have been clearer. I was referring to a shell header.

 

Anyway give some details, were they paper or plastic. Did you use flash or whistle to help the burst? what did you use for the burst?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My bad, I should have been clearer. I was referring to a shell header.

 

Anyway give some details, were they paper or plastic. Did you use flash or whistle to help the burst? what did you use for the burst?

Let's see.. I don't have my notebook with me, but I think I can recall enough details.

 

All the shells used 3" plastic hemi's. The red/gold used KP on rice hulls with 2 grams of Ofca flash (with -325 bright flake Al substituted for -325 dark flake to slow and darken it ) for burst. The Gold Streamer used KP hulls with 2 grams of whistle mix, the rocket with gold header was KP and about 3 grams of 70/30 flash, the red/blue and the green were both KP hulls with 2 grams of Ofca flash. All the colored stars were Veline system. Lift varied from 18-20 grams of home milled, pressed & corned 10 mesh BP, from a 3" HDPE mortar 15" tall.

 

The cato was a 1# BP rocket with a 2"plastic round shell containing 20 grams of standard 70/30. It has been suggested, and after watching the frame by frame replay many times I agree, that the reason it cato'd was that I didn't put in a clay bulkhead with an offcenter passfire hole, instead I put in a couple increments of roman candle delay comp. I think the core blew through and set off the flash. I will be doing another rocket like that one in about 1 week ( away on business now ) this time I'll have a bulkhead to prevent blowthrough. I'm eager to try some Ti flake adhered to the wall of the shell for a nice brilliant flash-spark effect, like the videos I saw from WPA Western Blast. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FUCK ING AMA ZING.

 

Seems you lost one of the timed shells but no harm, VERY nice double petal break that's some hardcore shit.

 

I think that's a PGI competition worthy shell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congradulations! That I one B-E-A utifull shell!

 

I would have liked to see it on a better camera.

 

How far away were you from the mortar?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm suprised you didn't electrically fire it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did. I used 1 minute of fuse before the leader. Take a look at the pics again. I ran back to the car, and waited while recording for like 20 more seconds... :)

 

Ahh, electric ignition is for a show, and/or multiple shells...

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...