Friday, March 17, 2017

Estes Nike Smoke #7247 Build, Part 1, Parts


This is one everybody should have in their fleet. Classic and pointy.

I've had different versions of the Nike Smoke over the years, first was the Enerjet Nike Smoke (essentially the Centuri Nike kit with a larger Enerjet engine mount) and a few of the Stine MPC Nike kits.

This is my third variant, all around the same size as those before it.


The parts are all good quality.
The nose cone is very clean with almost no mold seam. The pitot tube at the top is there, the Pro Series II Smoke doesn't have it. The three hatches are molded in and clean. Some versions of the Nike Smoke have decals for the hatches.
The balsa is hard, good thing for forming the wedge shaped fins.


The stenciled UNITED STATES decal is included.
Two Estes logos are there - why anybody would put this on a scale model is beyond me. The face card picture has the Estes decal on a fin side.

4 comments:

  1. Chris,
    The old Centuri kit decals have the hatches if you need them:http://plans.rocketshoppe.com/centuri/cenKS-15/KS-15_NikeSmoke_Old_decal.jpg. Tweak the size by up/downscaling on your printer or computer. I upscaled and added those on to my PSII Smoke. Looks more scale accurate.

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    Replies
    1. Hi BAR,
      Thanks for the decal link. This nose cone already has the hatch and bolt decals molded in so I'm good on this one. I'll keep the link for future reference.

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  2. If Estes flipped the fins on their side and thought about their placement, they could have saved 1/3 or more of the wood. Well more scrap wood for other projects.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sparky,
      Yep, sometimes I question the excess balsa after the fins are removed from the sheet. I do hang onto and use the larger leftovers.

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