Revell / Estes Air Rocket

Here's your rocket escape video for the day.
Kixi (I assume that's her name) assembles and "launches" a Revell / Estes Air rocket.

CLICK HERE

It's not English, but that almost makes it funnier. The real action starts at 6:00 in.

This Revell branded product is the same as the Estes Rocket-Star Air Rocket Starter Set. Somehow the rocket sitting on the table isn't quite the bulbous diameter of the rocket on the box.

I doubt this video did much for sales.

FlisKits Mecury Redstone Decal Fix and Finished

On one side of my FlisKits Mercury Redstone the UNITED STATES decals transferred fine. On the other side, the word UNITED broke apart.

After redrawing the larger and thinner font for the new Estes Mercury Redstone I decided to fix the bold decals on the Flis version.
The black band separating the UNITED STATES didn't reach all the way around the BT-5 body. That would also be home printed.

I first tried masking tape to lift the old decals but these were really stuck!
It took some gentle scraping with my knife to remove them.




I simply reduced the large UNITED STATES from the redraw I did for the Estes kit. (The new release Estes Mercury Redstone is coming up!)

The UNITED STATES decal font in the Flis version was also too bold.

The black band was placed first, the UNITED STATES was placed on either side.

Why is a Copyright notice going through the picture?
Some vendors use my pictures to sell their kits. I'm just tired of being ripped off without (at least) a name credit.

Now the build can be considered finished!

The weight of the UNITED STATES decal isn't as bold and closer to scale.

The plastic tower spike broke off a while back. I'll replace it someday.

Estes Crossbow SST #7207, Finished

I bought this one back in 2009 when WalMart was selling them as boxed kits. It was cheap, probably only $6.00 or $7.00 dollars. With Estes bringing back the kit, I pulled it from the build pile.

The design is downscale based on the discontinued Satellite Interceptor. On the Crossbow SST, the smaller tubes are missing on the outside edges of the wings.
It's a great looking BT-20 based model. This older version has two lower fins (with the F-00339 decal) making it a five fin position model.
The larger Satellite Interceptor had red and black decals instead of the purple and black.
In the third picture, that tube wrapped canopy decal was a major design element.
You'll never see me lose this one on a C6-5!

More Added To Estes Sale

Many more kits have been added to the Fourth Of July Specials on the Estes website.

I was surprised to see the Cosmic Interceptor for only $16.99 and the Asteroid Hunter for $8.99.

The Maxi Alpha 3 is $15.59 and boasts "Proudly Made In The USA". Huh? I thought everything (except engines) was made in China. The most recent Saturn V was produced and boxed up in Penrose. 

Bundles are back! See it all, CLICK HERE 

In the Coming Soon section is the Sahara.
It looks like a cross between a short Argent with Partizon fins.

Estes Crossbow SST #7207, Build Part 7, Decals

Light coats of white followed, sanding between coats.
Then the final heavier coat.

This is an easy one to paint, it's just gloss white overall.

There are a LOT of decals on this one. The decal placement picture in the instructions is vague. There is no wide purple band decal to go under the wing.
TIP: The two Caution decals go on either side of the front.
Set the first one down and wrap a strip of paper around the tube to help line up the opposite decal.

The long purple line with the "2" is tricky. It breaks at the nose cone seam.
TIP: Push the nose cone all the way into the tube. Set the entire length of the decal down, the break in the purple line goes on the seam.
Cut the break in the decal after it dries.

I mentioned earlier there is no second set of wide purple bands on the decal sheet. The instructions show the wide band on the upper and lower wing surfaces.

There are plenty of extras with no placement shown for them.
I used some of the thinner purple stripes to give some interest to the underside of the rocket.
I didn't use all the decals. It might have ended up looking too busy.

Estes Crossbow SST #7207, Build Part 6, Space Probes & Launch Lug

They're just dowels, but the instructions call them "Space Probes".

TIP: When cutting them to size, roll your knife over the dowel for only 1/2 turn. First roll forward for 1/2 turn of the dowel. Then roll back for 1/2 turn.
If you just roll straight and long you have a good chance of the knife traveling and cutting a spiral down the dowel.
Cut about half way through and break the dowel at the cut line. Sand the cut ends flat with a block.


The dowels are glued on, centered on the outside edge of the fins.
I marked the center of the fin outside edge and the center of the dowel.
This makes it easier to find the center of both when gluing.




The instructions show the lug set back from the trailing edge of the wing.
To better hide the lug, I glued it even with the trailing edge.

Estes Crossbow SST #7207, Build Part 5, More Fins!

The instructions just say to glue on the Main Wings (Part J)
It doesn't say how far from the rear.
All the other measurements are in inches. After looking at the illustrations, I can assume the rear edge of the Main Wing is 2" from the rear end of the tube.

The Main Wings are glued on at an angle, the outside edges are lower than the root edge line.

For a better fit and gluing edge, an angle was sanded with a sanding block.

Here's the fin layout viewed from the rear.
You can see how the Main Wings are angled.