The Optima is a great design, at any size. I'll worry about printing a name decal next time I make decals. That Rusto Metallic Black Nig...

The upper body was spray painted gloss black, followed by two coats of my favorite Rusto Metallic Black. The black extends down 8.5" fr...

The wider purple trim is cut much the same way as the chrome strip.  A light wipe of glue stick and press the template onto the trim materia...

With the right side of my ruler set into the root edge - The right side of the chrome strip is about 2 1/16". (The ruler has a little e...

TIP: The larger Estes Optima kit supplies you with holographic tape trim. It's a long strip that won't wrap over the rounded leadin...

The instructions don't mention where the black paint starts on the upper end of the body.  I assume the black paint separation mask is a...

Here's the build with the rear and forward fins in place.  On this downscale, the smaller fins are 4 5/16" from the rear of the tub...

Downsizing is often a compromise. I don't have a Optima shaped nose cone. For now, I'll be using the nose cone from the Monarch kit....

This kit had a definite stepped seam on both sides of the nose cone. Before filling the low side, sand the high sides down a bit using a san...

From the new Optima kit instructions: The leading edges and outside edges are rounded. The trailing edges remain square. The short leading e...

There is enough "free" balsa on one side of the Monarch fin sheet to cut out one of the larger, lower Optima fins.  The other two ...

  I decided to kitbash the Monarch into a downscale Optima. I've always liked the dual fin design and bold graphics. I couldn't find...

From the Estes Model Rockets Facebook page: Joel Shepherd posted - " This is an old Estes STM-012 that my daughter picked out of the fr...

I've shown Rob Caswell's work before! This is a great kitbash of the Estes Jetliner. It reminds me a little of the Shrox Lexxjet. ...

Damn paint! Painted plastic nose cones take forever to dry! Sure, the can says "Recoat within one hour or after 24 hours." I...

The fins got a different decal treatment. I used a marked spacer strip to be sure all three bars were consistently spaced. The home pr...

The low end fins were sprayed with Rusto 2X Aluminum. This metallic paint dries very quickly and decals adhere to it well. As usual, I...