palm tree shells

[Bcorso85]

Hey guys. I want to move my experience to pattern shells. When it comes to the palm trees I have several questions.

1) what is the smallest shell I can get away with? I'm most comfortable with the 3 inch ball shell.

A) if three inch is workable how big and how many stars should be in there?

2) what burst charge would be best?

3) should the shell be stabilized in flight? As in keeping the shell from spinning uncontrollably? If so how is it stabilized?

4) is it best to fill both hemispheres or one?

 

Thanks again guys,

Benjamin

[Seymour]

1. Probably very small if you wanted to get a real answer. 3" is probably a better starting size than anything smaller.

 

1A. Not many. Large ones. The specifics are somewhat up to you, since there are quite a number of palm forms you may be trying to replicate. 20-25mm is what I would end up using. that's 3/4" to an inch.

 

2. Quite a hard one, in my opinion. those stars will take up quite a bit of space. I'd go for rough powder boosted with flash, but others are going to suggest KP burst, H3, just BP, BP boosted with whistle. We tend to answer this question with our own personal preference, but preference is all it is. Make sure you seperate the burst from the stars with tissue. there will be a lot of space between the stars for burst to immigrate.

 

3. Not usually. Most palms are made like warimono shells, that is,. stars lined up against the walls of the hemisphere and burst in the centre. as such it's symmetrical, and it matters not, unless you get really fancy with your palm, but that's not usual.

 

4. Both, especially on a shell so limited in volume as a 3".

Edited May 1, 2012 by Seymour

[Peret]

I made one last year that worked out pretty well. I used a 3 inch spherical shell with six 3/4 inch titanium comets, giving me six thick white fronds. I made a ring of the comets standing on end around a 3/4 inch former and secured them with gummed tape, then set them in the shell casing around the fuse on a bedding of BP hulls so that they were half in, half out. I filled the space in the middle of the comet ring with granulated BP, then made a hole in the top half of the casing and filled the rest of the space with BP hulls through the hole after I glued the halves together. Rising tail was a 1 inch Blond Streamer. Unfortunately it fell off and went its own way, but the shell broke nicely, with the heavy comets spreading quite slowly (and not too far) in a perfect six point palm. If I do it again I will put a stabilizer tail on the shell, as it was laying on its side when it broke. Unfortunately I have no picture.

[Bcorso85]

Thanks guys. Peret, how would you make the tail, and out of what?

[Peret]

Thanks guys. Peret, how would you make the tail, and out of what?

Make a big flat comet in a donut shape, then slip it over the time fuse and secure to the hemi with hot glue. Otherwise do the same thing and secure it to the top of the shell. I thought putting it on the bottom might stabilize the shell in flight, though since the comet fell off that's untested. Use a formula that contrasts with the fronds - I like Blond Streamer, it gives a long lasting fat tail lighter than charcoal stars but darker than titanium.

[Bcorso85]

As a matter of fact I just rolled some blonde streamer into the 1 inch stars with 15% ferro titanium. Tough comp to roll. I had to get the raspberries out the entire time. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.

[Mumbles]

One thing that may help to secure the comet onto the shell is to wrap the outside with paper or gummed tape before gluing it on. Then make sure to have a good fillet of glue on the outside to prevent any fire from getting to the glue itself. When using solid comets this has greatly reduced them falling off for me. It is my theory that if you allow the entire comet to light, it can melt the glue part way through the flight and cause it to fall off. I don't know if this will work with cored comets. For that you may need to legitimately paste them on using a skirt, though that can probably be done with wide enough gummed tape if you put your mind to it.

 

On this same note, if you use cored comet internally, you can get much bigger sprays from the tail. There is going to be a trade off between bigger comets leaving fatter tails, and bigger comets by nature burning longer. By using cored comets you can circumvent this second part.

 

Probably the nicest palm I've ever seen had a gold FeTi tail, green tipped titanium comets, and exploding coconuts. The tail was probably something similar to the blonde streamer. I'd venture to guess that the comets inside were married comets. There wasn't a ton of Ti in the comets so as to not completely obscure the charcoal tail of the base comet. This also probably helped to make the Ti salutes stand out a little more.