How rocket kits have changed over the years -
All the parts: On the lower right is the screen printed (but not cut out) balsa fin sheet.
Sitting on top of the balsa sheet is the three fin/tube marking guide. The model has four fins, but the guide is for three!
The parachute is almost 12" diameter. No three lengths of longer shroud line loops. There are 6 separate strings. Those will be fun to tie onto the base loop of the adapter. The small shroud line attachment rectangles have lost their stick.
Notice the short shoulders on the yellow nose cone and silver plastic adapter. And, who picked those plastic colors?
Parts of interest:
The small orange tag is a stick on address label, included in all the MPC kits at the time. A great idea, but there is very little space to write your name, address and phone number.
The yellow square at the top is fiberglass insulation wadding. It's not bio-degradable so I won't be using it.
To the right is the Stine "Shock-Lock" shock cord mount card. Instead of a glued tri-fold, the 1/16" diameter elastic shock cord is threading through the three holes. This mount glues in flatter than a tri-fold would.
At the bottom is the Custom Fin Template if you wanted a different look.
All the original MPC kits included a separate "Countdown Card". Pretty handy for newbies.
Ah, the memories....
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to bet that the plastic parts were made from whatever pellets were still hanging around in the injection molding hopper at the time.
The decal sheet is the standard that was included in all MPC kits of the day.
I still use the Stine shock cord mount concept in nearly all of my models, except I use a piece of Manila folder paper with three slots cut.
Seconding the Shock Lock. Very nice in my BT-20 streamer model.
ReplyDeleteMPC really got their money's worth out of that payload section.
ReplyDelete