Friday, April 15, 2022

Estes EAC Firecat #0821, Build, Finished


This could be one of my favorite designs. 
The Estes Aerospace Club got a second (and final) exclusive kit, available only to EAC members.
A great kit bash and helped Estes reduce some inventory. One of the better SPEVs.




The back end from the top,
and the bottom red side.


From one side -
It's hard to make out the small decal positions from the online instruction drawings.
Take your best guesses, there is no wrong here.

That long half-half nose cone mask is hard to get straight. 
Setting the U. S. AIRFORCE  centered on the mask line is brilliant!

This could be part of the Estes Designer Series kits. It's a beautiful design with a great back story.


Add this design to my favorite builds - 
The Dr. Zooch Saturn V, Quest FLV, Sirius 18mm Interrogator and ASP 18mm Corporal.

11 comments:

  1. Chris, I agree with you completely. This is one rocket I must build as well. It looks great!

    Something Estes should consider. They have the nose cone for it.

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  2. Great job on a beatiful bird, Chris! I'm totally looking forward to getting started on mine. Will be obtaining the nose cone this week. Thanks for posting the build series.

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  3. From Manuel Mejia, sfkeesuv@yahoo.com

    This rocket came out looking very nice ! I can see people grabbing parts of the Mini Honest John to build one. One question related to stability--What is the weight of the balsa cone vs. the plastic cone ?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Manuel,
      I don't know the weight difference. The plastic nose cone is probably a little heavier than the original kit balsa cone. Stability with a plastic nose cone should be fine.

      Delete
  4. Hi Chris!:
    This one is SO NICE! I think the smooth nose cone looks better on this one!!

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  5. A side note -- the plastic nosecone from the Mini Honest John kit has some surface detail such as indented panel lines and indented sections to represent the spin motors. These would not be present on the balsa nosecone.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Naoto,
      You're right - the balsa nose cone on my build is smooth.

      Delete
  6. Anyone notice the vague similarity of the fin configuration on the Firecat and the Space Ship One?

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    Replies
    1. Actually, I'm embarrassed that I did not notice the fin similarity to the Firecat when Space Ship One was introduced.

      Delete
  7. I remember thinking, "What a gorgeous rocket!" when I saw the Firecat advertised in EAC literature about 1974-75. I ordered one and tried to build it but ran into problems midway. The unfinished kit eventually disappeared.

    That's why I'm very glad you chose to build it. I finally got to finish it vicariously :^)

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