This is a nice way to spice up those lame and annoying batteries of Saturn Missiles. No one likes hearing a box of 100 go off for 3 minutes, letting off its horrible whistling rockets with their accompanied weak pops. The Chinese carpet bomb their shells, so I say we carpet bomb some crappy Chinese missiles!

These come out to be a nice device to end your 4th of July, New Years, or private show with, lots of noise all at once. It might be best to use several set ups spaced apart.

OK, so its a little late, I wanted to write this up for the 4th but I didn't make it, no big deal, New Years is around the corner. I had to scrounge at the PGI for some Saturn Missiles so I didn't have to wait until next 4th. Normally I do this with the 100 packs, but all I could get reasonably was boxes of 225, which is only 5 shots wider in both directions. It works with several 25 shot boxes glued up too. Use whats cost efficient for you.

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Materials: Saturn Missiles (duh!), fast paper fuse, anvil cutters for fuse, and that wonderful masking tape.

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First, tear those things down to there basics. Take off all the plastic, paper, and extra crap they might have attached. Notice the fused they have zig-zagged through the device. We will be making use of those nice loops of fuse.

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Cut a good length of fast paper fuse, the stuff that has 3 strands of black match wrapped in paper. I'm sure you could get away with some fast visco or shell leader fuse if you don't the have fast paper stuff. Start at one end, I find it best if its opposite the starting fuse, so the end that's the last to shoot. Loop it through the loop, and continue down the battery weaving in and out of the fuse loops.

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When you get to the end, wrap the fuses around each other to insure take/pass good fire and stay put while you get some tape. I like to add a piece to the ends to keep it in place for the time being. You should have a good amount of excess fuse sticking out. This will be use to connect to the other side and to light the device.

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The other side is kind of the opposite. You will have to start with a loose piece of fuse and you get to end with a loop of fuse. Run the fuse in the same direction, as to both side fuses come together on one end of the box. Sometimes the fuse is no stick out much, or the loops are too tight to get your fast fuse looped through. You can just push a rod into the loops and pull gently and they usually stretch out enough to fuse them. The end one you can grab with some pliers and pull out a bit.

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This is what they should look like so far. Add some more tape down the side. Its covers the fuse encase some hot fall out happens to hit the batteries and contains the fire from the fuse a little better, aiding in ignition. It may catch fire after ignition, mostly it just smolders but if there is a breeze it can light up after a few minutes of smoldering there. You can also give the batteries a wrap or two of tape if they are feeling a little weak or if you are attaching several together.

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Ignition, quite simple. Pull the two side fuses you ran together, and lay them down on some tape. If you are just hand lighting, a piece of visco will do the job. If you are going electrical, I would recommend a few pieces of black match with your e-match. E-matches, especially commercial ones that are fast burning, may not burn right through the paper/string coating on the fuse, a few pieces of black match will keep you on the positive ignition side. DO NOT TRY LIGHTING THE FAST FUSE ALONE!!! You will not even have enough time to realize the fuse is lit before that box starts spraying missiles at your face!

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Fold up the tape and you are good to go. Although I would add some more tape to cover up the fuse that's in the front of the device.

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If you are not in the field or planning to use these in short time, you may not want to store them with live E-matches stuck in them. In which case a short piece of quick match can be laid down on the tape and closed up around. Make a little cap out of some tape to cover the end of the quick match for safety. When you are ready to shoot, pull off the cap, insert the E-match, maybe add more tape and you are ready to wire into the firing rail. Note, I added some more tape to the bare fuse on the front.

Again, the more boxes you use, the better its going to be. You can combine boxes together and fuse in longer rows also. I usually hot glue two 100 shot boxes together and fuse them as one.

To help explain this fusing method and why this works so well:

Each row of tubes has a fuse that runs down it. If you light one row, from one end, it will take the time of how ever many missiles are in the row. Lighting all the rows at once means the every row shoots off a missile at the same time, for the duration it takes to consume one row. For example, a 100 shot box, lit on one side, shoots all 100 missiles in the time it would normally take to fire 10 missiles. If you light both sides at once, the fuse burns from both directions and meets at the middle, thus making it fire the entire row in half the time. Example again, with a 100 shot box, lit on both sides, it shoots all 100 missiles in the time it would normally take the box to shoot 5 missiles. If you want it to fire a little slower and last a little longer, only fuse one side.

Extras:

I have thought up some little additions for the missile batteries to give them some extra effect. One would involve pulling some or all of the missiles and throwing a pinch of Ti into the tubes. This would add a small shower of sparks at each launch, and would add to ground effects. Very small micros stars or dragons eggs could also be put in for similar effects. Even completely removing the missiles, adding a bit of lift and some stars to fit the tubes would give a mixed spray of missiles and color.

With the 225 shot boxes, there is an odd row in the middle. One could pull those missiles and treat the tubes with some of the above ideas or add a portion of Vitamin F and have a mini barrage of ground salutes. Problem with this is that one tube is likely to get lit first, and once it blows, it will likely destroy a good portion of the surrounding tubes, killing unfired missiles or causing a chain explosion of the salute row. Probably not the best idea.

>>>I have yet to shoot these two boxes, but will likely shoot them before New Years and post the video. I might try some of the "Extras" on one box also.

Questions, Comments, Concerns, and Feedback are all welcome!