Super Mars Snooper on Display at Estes

On Facebook, Braden Carlson posted some pictures from a tour he got at Estes.

(This was a private tour, Estes no longer offers public tours.)

That's my Super Mars Snooper build on display in the glass case at the front doors.

Maybe it shouldn't be in the 1960's case, it's the upscale version from 2021!

To see the Estes tour video: CLICK HERE

To see the Super Mars Snooper build: CLICK HERE

Check out the "War Room" segment for some upcoming new products - 

At 6:16 the Jayhawk

At 6:18 a re-release of the D-Region Tomahawk

Quest Builds On Display!

Many of my builds are now on display at the new Aerotech/Quest facility in Cedar City, Utah.

I built and finished probably all the Quest builds on the right side, the four cases on the top row.

The first two window cases on the left have my Enerjet by Aerotech builds. 

I've yet to build the tallest models.

The Micro Fleet

Here's the active MicroMaxx fleet.
I built and flew a lot of Micro models when I got back into rocketry. They are perfect small field flyers. I just wish the delays were a little longer. Any light, streamlined model will eject before apogee.

From top left to right:
FlisKit Crayon, FlisKit Honest John, FlisKit M.A.C.M.E. Spitfire, Applewhite BIC Pen, Quest No Mercy, ASP Jayhawk, FlisKits Dim. Duece.
Middle, left to right:
Goonys, all downscales - Cloud Hopper, Piglet-sus, Missile Toe, Sky Shreak, Galaxy Guppy, Zoom Broom, Star Snoop.
Bottom, left to right:
FlisKit Interloper, Downscale Odd'l Break-Away, ASP Wac Corporal, Downscale Sky Writer, FlisKits HEMV 4.

The Quest No Mercy is the only RTF in the bunch.
The Dueces Wild, Crayon and Interloper went through some minor design changes.

Many of the carded Goony and SkyWriter downscale models are available to Patreon members as a printable PDF. Check out the "Patreon PDF Plans" button above.
Email me at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and request whatever models you like.

The Shelf Queens

In a comment, Jim asked to see some other models in the fleet.

Here's the Shelf Queens, the models that don't fly!

(Yes, they are in a kitchen cabinet. I'm single and can get away with this.)

Most are Dr. Zooch models, two Semroc Deci-Scales, an Estes 260 Space Booster and three different sizes of Mercury Redstones.
Most have flown - 
The 260 Space Booster, MPC Nike Smoke, Zooch Aries Stick, Zooch Little Joe I, Zooch Jupiter C, Zooch Atlas Agena B, Zooch SLS and the Zooch Titan IIIC.
The stands are small squares of cardboard with an engine casing glued on the center. CLICK HERE
The small red stands are the bases of the plastic champagne glasses from the Dollar Tree store. CLICK HERE

I took this one out of the cabinet to get a better picture -
The Dr. Zooch Space Shuttle.
This one isn't completely finished. The nose cap needs paint, a launch lug is missing and the elevon elastic hasn't been tied on.

I know - it's not a rocket unless it has flown!
Some of these (like the Zooch Soyuz and a second Zooch Saturn V) have too much build time in them. I don't want to see flight damage! 

The (Smaller) Fleet!

I've been asked to post a picture of the active fleet before.
Here's most of them after I finally got all the short rods in the shelf boards.

The upper shelf are models approaching two feet tall.
The middle shelf are odd-balls, favorites and contest design models.
The bottom shelf are the shorter models, 18mm and 13mm birds.
Here in total, about 75 models.

With this arrangement I can see and easily pick out models I might want to fly. Shorter models are to the front, taller models are in the back rows.
I still have MMX on a different shelf, larger models on yet another shelf and my favorite shelf queen rockets in a cabinet.

New Rocket Storage Shelves, Part 2

The shelves are Melamine from Lowe's.
Look close and you can see the pencil marks for the drilling.
They are 4" apart across the long front and 3" apart from front to back.







TIP: I used a wrap of masking tape around the drill bit as a depth guide so I wouldn't drill through the bottom of the shelf.




The the thicker drilled shelves are set on the thin plastic shelves in the storage unit. I wouldn't have been able to set rods into the thin plastic.

The models are slid over the rods, shorter models in front, taller in the rear.
Some models slide over the launch lugs, most models have the rods going up loose into the engine mounts.
This is a big improvement over my first try a few years back.

The short rods help keep the models upright, the best position for storage. Standing on the rods, there is no chance of the models falling over like dominoes!

New Rocket Storage Shelves, Part 1

Here's my old rocket shelf in my laundry room.
I've been remodeling and one of the upstairs bedrooms will be the rocket room.
The old shelf has short 1/8" welding rods to slide the rockets over.
Some of the old rods are crooked, I didn't have a level bubble in my hand drill.

Home Depot doesn't carry the 1/8" diameter rods anymore, I picked some up at Lowe's.









The rods are dirty, wipe them down with a paper towel.
After that, wipe them down with some light oil.





My old shelf had rods that were about 8" long.
8" rods turned out to too tall for most models.
More models were slid loose into the motor mounts and not into the launch lug.

A bunch of 5" long rods were cut with a bolt cutter.