Comparing The Estes Semi-Scale Saturn V with the Dr. Zooch Saturn V, Part 2

The tail end -

Those clear fins on the Estes Saturn have a tendency to pop off on a hard landing.

The balsa fins on the Zooch Saturn V are much larger. No clear fins needed. 

The back end of the Estes Saturn V, empty fairings and those clear fins.

The tail of the Dr. Zooch Saturn V.

The fairing wraps are much stronger, glued onto conical wedges cut from a BT-20.

The F-1 engines are formed from cardstock. The hat band rings are thread. The turbine exhausts are formed out of "Funky Glue Putty". F.G.P. is wood glue rolled and formed between your fingers as the glue dries. 

Notice the engine hook extending far out the back. This keeps the engine bells clear of the motor flame. 

The Dr. Zooch kit is an improved, more detailed version of the Estes Saturn V.

The Zooch Saturn V is one of my favorite builds.

Comparing The Estes Semi-Scale Saturn V with the Dr. Zooch Saturn V, Part 1

In all these pictures - 

The Estes Semi-scale Saturn V is on the left, the Dr. Zooch Saturn V is on the right.

The Estes model weighs 2 ozs.

The Dr. Zooch Saturn weights 2.4 ozs., there is 1/2 oz. preinstalled n the nose section.

Both are about the same height,

The Estes Saturn has the clear fins that extend below the body.

The Dr. Zooch Saturn has cardstock engine bells that extend below the body. The Dr. Zooch model launches with the engine bells in place.

The upper sections - Zooch Saturn on the left, Estes Saturn on the right. The Dr. Zooch nose section has 1/2 oz. of nose weight inside.

The adapter section.

All the Zooch wraps are more detailed and printed in a darker black.

The mid section wraps:

The Estes Saturn V has eight ullage motors,

The Zooch Saturn has four. The later Saturn Vs had half the number of ullage motors.

The Estes kit really needs the UNITED STATES, USA and flag decals.

More in the next post . . .

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 16, Comparisons

The original Estes Interceptor -

Lots O' Decals! 

I kept track. It took four hours to apply all of them.

The Quest Interceptor - 

Notice the same fins shapes but no plastic details on the fin outside edges.

Check out that canopy decal swoosh.

 

My kit-bash, 

The INTERTRUDER!

MPC Lambda Payloader Build, Part 11, The Checkerboard Wrap Decal

I went ahead a re-drew the decals needed to match to box illustration.

There are three slightly different width checkerboard wraps. The kit supplied wrap was 2 1/2" wide. That width seemed to fit around and match up going around the tube.

With a wrap, I usually make extras that are a bit narrower and another wider. If the original width doesn't fit, one of the other two could be closer.

I don't like to waste decal paper, why not fill it up with other needed decals. In the middle are decals for the Klingon Battle Cruiser. I had built two of these, one kit had some decals that were old and wouldn't release.

At the bottom is an Odd'l Rockets F-18 Fighter Jet decal set that will be bagged in a kit.

  

I sprayed a scrap piece of a clear decal with gloss white paint.

This will be used as a white undercoat for the checkerboard wrap decal. 

The white decal goes down first and is allowed to dry.

The checkerboard wrap is applied over the white band.

TIP: Notice the decal is set right below the lip of the body tube. That small gap will prevent the decal from peeling back at the top of the tube.

Well, I screwed up - but in a small way, so did MPC! I didn't consider the high-low checker box position when the decals were redrawn.

On the left: The MPC checkerboard ends don't meet in an alternating pattern! My decal didn't match either. I'm leaving it as it is.

The decal ends meet up above the launch lug and won't be seen on the pad.

New Way Mars Snooper II, Comparing Snoopers

Here's my two builds. The red Snooper II is a little taller at 22.3".

The original Snooper catalog picture shows the entire engine assembly black. I liked the look of the Semroc repro kit face card that showed white vanes. The higher contrast makes them easier to see.

The upper section blue and white tall point is a difficult mask - and you've got to mask three sides! 

I never cared for the older yellow Snooper name decal, but it's nostalgic. The fin numbers on the catalog model were probably borrowed from the Constellation decal sheet.

The biggest differences are the engine assemblies lowered upper fins and the landing gear dowels.

For comparison, here's a closeup of the shrouds and vanes. On the left, three shrouds and eight 1/16" thick balsa vanes. On the right, two shrouds and thick card stock vanes.

Estes EAC Firecat #0821, Build, After Thoughts, A Fix & Comparison

Naoto Kimura wrote in a comment:

"A potential "gotcha" with regards to the launch lug -- the launch lug needs to be offset from the side of the main body tube to make sure the launch rod clears the nosecone (something that the instructions does not state explicitly)."

You know me - I follow the directions!

I should have taken the bulbous nose cone diameter and launch rod clearance into consideration. 

Bar Geezer followed: 

"I glued mine inside the pod on the other side of the pylon. Gives enough clearance for the nose cone and hides the lug."

I ended up doing the same thing! Placed inside the pod the launch lug isn't seen.

I set a line of glue down a 1/8" diameter launch lug. Tweezers were used to place the lug inside the pod. 

Out of curiosity -

I placed the nose cone from the Estes Mini John kit next to the my new BMS balsa Firecat nose cone. The profile is almost the same except for the indented nozzles and lines. 
 

Estes Green Eggs #7301, Finished

The bottom end is clean - no decals or additional trim.

The large center logo name is a sticker on clear stock.

Handle it using a clean knife blade and wash your hands. Your fingers can leave prints and discoloration  that will be seen under the clear layer.

Like mentioned in some Quest builds - dip a plastic sticker in water before placing it on the body tube. It also helps to wet the body tube where the sticker will be placed.

Wetting the sticker lets you lift and reposition it before burnishing it down. I never get it right on the first try. 

Work out any water bubbles with a soft paper towel. You can also use a damp Q-tip to work out water from under the surface.

Here's a side by side view of two Green Eggs models. 

The Green Eggs is on on the left and the original Scrambler décor on the right. 

The two builds are the same height, there is just some camera distortion.

Semroc Laser X, KV-33 Build, Part 13, Comparing Old & New

It's always interesting to look back on an older build and evaluate your work over time.

Throughout this post - On the left is the older build, the right side the new build.

Here you can see the difference in the decal opacity. I really don't like that pink look next to the full red color on the fins.

Also notice the thicker fins on the right side or newer build.

On the lower body - 

I like the wider fin spikes which better fit the thicker fins.

On the left you can see some fin grain and seams in the launch lug. I was probably using sanding sealer then.

My fit and finish of the engine vanes is much better. This time I centered the engine hook in line with the launch lug. The Semroc instructions place the lug and hook as shown on the left.

The shroud is smoother and the paint gloss better. 

On the left side is the original build. It looks like I used super glue to adhere the fins. This time I scraped off a line of paint and used white glue.

This was interesting.

I now attach the Kevlar to the elastic shock cord inside the lip of the body tube edge. I probably wouldn't get a zipper on this model, but why take the chance!

Estes Saturn V #1969 Build, Part 2 Parts Comparison

Again, the older wraps are at the top, the new ones are at the bottom.




In the older kit, these two wraps were on the same plastic sheet.




Now they are separate.

The older wrap was two different pieces with formed basswood tunnels between them. 

The new wrap is larger, the tunnels are part of the vacu-form wrap. Lot of new small details here.

The nozzles are much easier to glue up now.

On the left, more pieces.
The nozzles are still attached to the plate with plastic rings.

The capsule and tower also have fewer pieces.

The older tower had four sides to glue up, now it is a simpler two halves.

The capsule is simpler, showing how it looked at launch with the cover on.
The old 1/70 scale Estes Saturn 1B capsule had printed details showing what was under the capsule launch cover.





And of course, the part we've needed for years, the blow molded LEM Shroud transition!

The decal sheet is the same. The letter "I" is now centered in the word "UNITED".

Tomorrow the build starts!

Estes Saturn V #1969 Build, Part 1 Parts Comparison

Looks like I'm building TWO Saturn V models!
(After I finish these up I doubt I'll want to look at another Saturn V for a while.)
With all the various Saturn V builds shown on this blog, new Saturn V build can be found in the  SEARCH window as "E Saturn V". This new build should come up first.

This #2157 version featured the Centuri Vacu-form wraps. The original Estes Saturn V K-36 kit from 1969 had embossed card stock wraps. To get an idea of what that kit looked like up close:
CLICK HERE then CLICK HERE

I have a previous #2157 Estes Saturn V kit unbuilt in the box. I thought it would be interesting to compare the last kit (#2157) and newest version (#1969) of the Estes Saturn V.

Looking from the bottom up:

On the left is the older Centuri fairing. It has been said before that the corrugations in the Centuri kit were too wide. On the older Estes kit many felt the embossed card stock ridges were too subtle. The new kit looks to be closer to the truth.

On the right is the new fairing. The corrugations are thinner. The thing I know I will miss is the raised horizontal ridge. The ridge is the mask line and gives you something to set the tape edge on. On the new fairing you have to mask between every corrugation.

The top is the old wrap.
This older wrap has the launcher release "hold-downs". (I don't know if that is the proper term for them.)

On the new low wrap the tunnel ends aren't as pointed.

Centuri used what scale data was available at the time to produce their kit. Notice there are eight ullage motors on this wrap.


By the time of the Apollo 11 Saturn, the ullage motors were reduced to four.
There are plenty more details on the new wrap, more like the larger Apogee or Sirius Saturn Vs.

This is the tricky reduction wrap.

The older version is at the top, the new one on the bottom. There isn't a color separation masking ridge now.
The older wrap seemed to suggest a cut line. The new one floats on the sheet of plastic.

More comparisons tomorrow

Photon Probe Comparisons

I finally got the decals on the second Photon Probe model.
The orange one is an older kit, the purple is the newer version form the Estes Classics Series.
Moot point - 
The long vertical decal with the kit name are different. The older kit was transparent under the name allowing the (orange) contrast color to show through. On the newer (purple) model the name had a white background. Graphically it isn't as effective.
Notice too the decal above the word "Probe". The reissue kit didn't have that decal.

I usually start a roll pattern decal on the launch lug side. If the decal wrap is short or long, the different widths won't be visible when the model is on the launcher with the rod a launch lug to the back.








On the older orange version, placing the start of the wrap decal at the launch lug put the open inverted "U" centered over the fins. On the new version the decal start placed the bottom of the "U" over the fins.
The differences in this lower wrap are consistent with the face card pictures in the two kits.

These observations are not complaints, just noticed differences between two versions of the same kit.

Goony X-15, Part 11 Comparisons

Here's a comparison between the Quest X--15 and my Goony version.

I didn't use as many decals on the nose cone.
To be honest, the Quest decal sheet had all those little decals in different areas on the decal sheet. A real pain to place all those tiny details. On a Goony it's not really needed.

Here's all the tiny decals I didn't use on the Goony!

In 1988, Estes had a stumpy NASA X-15 kit #0889.
The side fairings look great but were probably hard to form out of cardstock.

Nike Goon Follow-Up With Decals

Did you ever finish a model and wish you had done a few things differently?

As I usually do, I made two of the Nike Goons. One to fly, the other to sell on Ebay.
On the left is the first try using the black trim. This is the model I've flown twice already, I'm keeping this one.

On the right is the second trimmed Nike Goon. The top roll pattern is a bit taller. The rounded rectangles aren't as wide, a little more of the white is showing. A few subtle changes and the second model looks better.

And finally, two weeks later I printed up some decals.

The original Estes Nike X kit had a U.S. ARMY decal going vertically down the body. This one got a U.S. GOONY in red with a thin black outline. Sometimes adding an outline to letters makes it visually stand out.

The two white right side fins have a black NIKE G decal. Not a lot of decals but it does finish it off well.

Nike Goon Build, Part 6, Same Kit Differences

The two Nike Goons under construction were made from two different Baby Bertha kits.
Both had the same face card but they were obviously from two different runs.

At first the nose cones looked the same.
The cone on the left had very little molding seam, if any. The cone on the right had seam marks, highlighted with a pencil.

The shoulder bases were different. The cone on the right had a sharper taper and a smaller hole on the bottom.

When slid into the body tubes, one had a tighter fit.

The body tubes were also different.
The tube on the left was rougher with a definite spiral seam.
The right side tube had no seam! Well, there was one but it was so tight I didn't fill it with CWF. A shot of primer/filler and sanding was all it needed to fill it.

I checked the kit production date embossed into the stick on "decal".
One was 8/15/11, the other 1/25/13.

Estes Solar Warrior (#3225) Builds, Comparison

I had a few blog followers ask to show the two Solar Warrior builds side-by-side.
I like the looks of the metallic red Solar Warrior a bit more.
The top of the other rocket on the right is actually purple. My camera photographed it as blue.

Look above the launch lug on the red model. I usually start wrap around decals in line with the launch lug. The wrap around decal was slightly longer than the circumference of the body tube. The spacing of the downward facing "nubs" is closer where the decal ends meet.

TIP: Start a wrap-around decal at the launch lug line and any incorrect spacing won't be noticed when a picture is taken on the launcher.
That wrap around decal is actually centered above the launch lug. The model is slightly turned out to the left.

Estes Long Tom #3016 Build, Part 16, Booster Comparison

Here's how the booster came out.
It still reflects the Centuri paint styles from when the kit came out in the 1970s.






The inset picture shows a part of the face card art.
The back end of the rocket had a lot of black. I didn't feel like masking four fins anyway.