Wasted Balsa

I was going to build a Ranger using some parts from a Baby Bertha kit.
This is two of the fins included with the Baby Bertha kit. Two sheets like this are in the kit.

I thought I could use these for the Ranger, but these fins are a just slightly smaller and are cut from 3/32" balsa. The larger Ranger fins were cut from 1/8" thick balsa.

In the reissued Estes Classic kits, balsa nose cones were once included. Now, plastic nose cones are substituted along with a note explaning of a "world wide balsa shortage". Considering a claimed shortage, this seems like a lot of wasted wood.

That laser cut balsa sheet shown above is 4" wide.
To the right is how the larger Ranger fins sat on my 3" wide X 1/8" thick balsa.

In the old Estes kits you were shown how to lay out the fin pattern on the balsa sheet. You were supplied with enough balsa to cut out the fins needed for the build.
If you didn't lay the fin pattern properly, or with the leading edge running down the grain, in the end you didn't have enough balsa.
By carefully placing your fin pattern, you could save some wood for a future project.

After cutting out the larger Ranger fins, I set them on one of the two 4" wide Baby Bertha fin sheets.
I was able to fit all four of the Ranger fins on the one, 4" wide Baby Bertha sheet.

I'm not trying to tell Estes how to cut their fins for the kit. But, this does strike me as a one way to save balsa and some production cost on each kit.