The Estes Aerospace Club got a second (and final) exclusive kit, available only to EAC members.
The back end from the top,
From one side -
A great kit bash and helped Estes reduce some inventory. One of the better SPEVs.
and the bottom red 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.
Chris, I agree with you completely. This is one rocket I must build as well. It looks great!
ReplyDeleteSomething Estes should consider. They have the nose cone for it.
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed!
DeleteFrom Manuel Mejia, sfkeesuv@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteThis 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 ?
Hi Manuel,
DeleteI 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.
Hi Chris!:
ReplyDeleteThis one is SO NICE! I think the smooth nose cone looks better on this one!!
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.
ReplyDeleteHi Naoto,
DeleteYou're right - the balsa nose cone on my build is smooth.
Anyone notice the vague similarity of the fin configuration on the Firecat and the Space Ship One?
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm embarrassed that I did not notice the fin similarity to the Firecat when Space Ship One was introduced.
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I'm very glad you chose to build it. I finally got to finish it vicariously :^)