The Starship Excalibur was a very elaborate design for the late 1960s. The only other sci-fi spaceship model to compare it to would have been the Mars Snooper.
The Starship Excalibur has just about as many nose cones are the Mars Snooper. The wing pods are about the same as on the Snooper.
This may have been the first design to use split body tubes and nose cones. There are some built up parts including the crew module and shuttle bay.
For the original Starship Excalibur plans: CLICK HERE
From the Semroc instructions:
"The original Starship Excalibur was released by Estes Industries in 1968 as free plan #55. Unlike many of the other free plans at the time, it was not published in the Model Rocket News. It became a popular model as many rocketeers ordered parts to build their own version. Estes released a kit by the same name and similar lines in 1984, but it was a simplified version of the original and only had a two-year run in production."
Here's the simpler Estes kit design from the 1984 catalog:
And the Estes kit instructions: CLICK HERE The build starts tomorrow!
Just out of curiosity, is there a plan to do the newer, simplified version soon?? To compare and contrast the similarities and differences??
ReplyDeleteHi Lester,
DeleteI'll be building two of the older style Excaliburs, not the one listed in the 1984 catalog. In the 1984 version they got rid of all the details I was drawn to in the 1968 original.
Just FYI, if you want to clone the simpler version the plans are at Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe. Look for Estes kit #1920. Body tube lengths, templates, and decals are included.
ReplyDeleteI cloned the older, more elaborate model a few months ago. The decals (Semroc version) can be obtained from erockets, if you prefer not to home print yours. Also, double check the print of the fin templates: mine seemed a little oversized ( 100% printer setting).
BAR Geezer