Finished...or am I?

A couple of days ago, I finished my first rocket. As I mentioned earlier in my first post, my rocket is a Quest Shuttle Intrepid, capable of carrying a glider on top. Using a B6-4 or C3-6 motor, it is capable of reaching 500+ feet. Parachute recovery is how it returns from orbit, yet with the annoying wind, I will really need to keep it from flying away!

Also as I mentioned earlier, I had some issues while painting. The air brush was being stupid, and I eventually gave up on it. I managed to hand-paint it on, yet it doesn't look perfect. Oh-well, the paint scheme actually looks cool! I call it "Winter Camo". First, as a primer I painted gray on the whole rocket with the air brush. On the body tube and the top of the wings, I hand-painted on a layer of white (this is when I about threw the air brush). The white dried unevenly, showing bits of gray from underneath. This gave it the "Camo" look. On the bottom of the wings I painted on flat black to give a shuttle look.

Now I need to just install the motor and its ready to go! But, what to launch with? My launch pad is incomplete, for it is missing a blast plate (for those who don't know, a blast plate protects the ground and the launch pad from the thrust of the motor at lift off). My Handbook of Model Rocketry suggests using a peice of steel, whether sheet steel of from a can, but I can't find anything! If anyone out there has any ideas as to what I could use to create my own, I would appretiate it. But until I get a blast plate, my shuttle is grounded. Oh well, that gives me time to build more space craft!