You might have noticed only one blog post per day lately. I've been busy . . .I'm proud to announce my association with Madcow Rocketry.
I've been drawing up new assembly instructions for their 1.6" diameter kits.
From the "mini" line, the Bomarc, Jayhawk, DX3 are complete. Three other minis, the Squat, AGM 33 Pike and Patriot are being finished up now.
These are thick tube wall kits, perfect for someone wanted to step up beyond Low Power.
The Mini line kits feature laser cut ply or basswood fins (Bomarc), plastic nose cones, parachute protectors and nylon parachutes. The Bomarc and Jayhawk kits include water slide decals
Today Madcow President Mike Stoop told me more kit instructions will be produced.
Please check out the new Mini Bomarc instructions, now posted on the Madcow Rocketry website: CLICK HERE
To visit the Madcow Homepage: CLICK HERE
We'll get back to the Estes Klingon Battle Cruiser Build tomorrow -
Those instructions are superb.
ReplyDeleteI have two small comments:
1) Even if they're not going to print the instructions in color in the kit, it would be useful to have the photo and paint scheme diagrams in color in the on-line PDF.
2) The PDF is the source for the actual half-folded booklet that gets included in the kit. If you just want to refer to the instructions on-line, or print it out simply on letter paper (without turning it into an arts and crafts project), it would be nice if the PDF were available in a standard top-to-bottom format. Right now, if you are viewing the file on a screen, you have follow a serpentine path through the pages. I realize this would require making two different versions, one for print and one for on-line. I have this same issue with the Estes on-line instructions.
But again, these are small things. Kudos on some fine work.
Thanks Neil,
DeleteI agree, the instructions would be easier to follow (step-by-step) if they were in the form you receive in the kit. The online instructions from Semroc are also presented this way. Color would be nice, but he Madcow kit instructions are printed in black and white, the PDF reflects that.
We also changed the Madcow instructions from a folded "Landscape" to a folded "Profile" page format. This way they fit into the bag flatter and taller.
That folded portrait format seems perfectly fine for the printed version, it's just a little bit of a challenge to follow on the screen, that's all. Vast majority of folks will probably spend most of their time with the printed version anyway, so it's not a big deal.
DeleteI mainly look at the online instructions when either (a) researching a kit I might want to get, or (b) learning suggested techniques from kits that do something similar to what I want to do, not so much when building something I already own. Unless I've lost and/or messed up my printed copy, which has been known to happen. :)