Free Plans From Apogee

If you visit the Apogee Rockets Website you should find this offer -
FREE PDF Book of 25 Rocket Plans!
Simply subscribe to the Peak Of Flight Newsletter - CLICK HERE
Free plans - GOOD! Add the POF Newsletter  - Better GOOD!

EDIT UPDATE: You have to treat this FREE offer and "order it" like you would any rocket part or kit. They will then send you a link for the plans. Lots of out of print Shrox designs.

Peter Alway Saturn IV Build, Part 1, Plans and Parts

This model was from Peter Alway's Home Page. I can't seem to find it now! If anybody has a link, let me know. 
The website had plenty of sport and scale plans including a Vostok, Saturn I and a Flying Rabbit that looks better than the old Estes Cloud Hopper.

You can get Peter Alway's books:
Rockets of the World HERE and
Scale Bash HERE
Both highly recommended!


There's one model that has been on my "to-do" list for a while.
The SATURN IV!

This is Peter's "psuedo-scale" design of a Saturn that could have existed between the Saturn 1 and Saturn V, the Saturn IV.

Full resolution plans aren't available now, I'll build from the website pages.

Could this have been the missing Saturn IV?
Dick Stafford posted this on his great Original Rocket Dungeon Website. HERE

From a February 24 post,
TRF member luke skywalker has posted a summary of NASA's 
"Big G Final Report- Logistic Spacecraft System Evolving from Gemini." 
This includes drawing of more cool looking rocket configurations that never were and the layout of the capsule options". Here are da' rockets."


I have most of the tubes already, the largest diameter is short lengths of BT-60.
The nose cone is a PNC-55AC, or the same nose cone from the Bullpup and old Arcas kit. I pulled one from the PNC-55 assortment.
I don't have the 55-60 adapter rings, an order is off to BMS.

Goony Patriot Drawings

On TRF, Rich Holmes started a build of a Goony Patriot. HERE
Rich is doing a great job on the graphics making adjustments to get everything right. I was inspired to draw up my own set.
The Patriot is perfect for a Goony. It has a great paint pattern and is very recognizable.

(I'm not trying to steal Rich's TRF thread, I'm stuck in Mexico with nothing to build so drawing is taking up some of my time.)

Above is the Patriot art I found after a Internet search.
On the right is a screen capture of the Corel drawn image I put together.

To the right is that image dropped into and moved to vertical in Corel Draw.
The photo body tube area was squashed and stretched to 1.63" diameter.
Blue horizontal lines were puled into place where all the color separations ended up.

From the top the horizontal lines were:
Top of the body tube to the low red stop -
Width of the Yellow band -
Height of the Black bands and stripes, and so on.
Boxes were drawn and the colors filled in.

The black rectangles in the yellow field were drawn matching the height and approximate "weight" of the originals.
The "U.S. ARMY" was also set and pulled to fit the size and font weight.
The letters should be a little taller. The fins might end up slightly smaller.
Like Rich, adjustments are made throughout the design process.

The fins are extended a bit beyond the end of the body tube, much like my Honest Goon model.

Is it scale? No.
Is it close? It's a Goony, it doesn't really matter, just get it visually close.

Centuri Finless Rocket Plans from Jim Z's

Here's a fun one:
http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/finless.htm

I've had great luck with the 13mm BT-5 based Hot Rod Rockets Bell Bottom, I wanted to make one for 18mm engines.

I remember seeing this one in the mid 1970s and decided to give it a try with a few changes and updates.
I'll start the new build blog tomorrow.

Astro 1 Downscale - Free PDF!

I've just finished a new downscale of the Centuri classic:
The Mini ASTRO 1
It's BT-5 based and stands 8.5" tall.

The colors are based on the duo-tone Centuri catalog pages from the early 1970s.

The body is a wrap, you print it out on 24 lb. paper.
I glued mine in place with a glue stick. The seam was lifting so it was tacked back down by slipping white glue under the edge with a hobby knife.

The fins are printed on 110 lb. card stock.
The short leading edge is folded and glued over cereal box cardboard for a three ply fin. These ply fins are stronger than you'd think!

The nose cone is either an Estes plastic "Quark" style or the (closer to scale) Semroc BNC-5W balsa cone. You only have to paint the nose cone, the rest of the model is a print overlay.
Add a streamer, launch lug and a little nose weight and you are ready for launch with a 1/2A3-4t engine.

Patreon members can email me at: oddlrockets@bellsouth.net
Ask for the Astro 1 PDF

Finding Those Old Kit Instructions and Plans

Most all who build and clone model rockets know of these sites,
There may be a few here you haven't seen:

On The Rocketry Forum, Bradycros was looking for kit instructions on the Estes Website.
Here's a short version of his post:

". . . I clicked on nearly every box on the home page and got; nothing.
Customer Service? Why not try it? Tried everything else.
This what I found in the left hand column: Instructions
WTF. Who'd a thunk it?
I was thunking OOP instructions would be more of a archivel type thing and not a 'customer service' type thing.


Here's the final address that Todd found: http://www.estesrockets.com/customer-service/instructions/

Another source of Estes instructions from the Official Forum of Tripoli Rocketry of Louisiana & South Louisiana Rocketry (SoLaR)
http://estesplans.larocketryforum.com/

Getting to the Shasta instructions archive requires too much searching.
These are the final destinations you are looking for:
http://ashasta-sadie.com/FArchive1.html
http://ashasta-sadie.com/FArchive2.html

Another favorite resource:
http://www.oldrocketplans.com/

And don't forget Jim Z's:
http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/index.htm

PIGLET-SUS PDF Now Available!

The MicroMaxx
PIGLET-SUSPDF is available to Patreon members!
Shoot me an email and I'll send it right out:
oddlrockets@bellsouth.net

(I'll blog the build someday)

Mini Big Bertha PDF Now Available!

Here's the latest downscale:

The Estes
BIG BERTHA
Over the years, the Big Bertha paint pattern has changed. This one is from the 1969 Estes Catalog.
I remember this catalog page well. It was one of the few full color pages in that year's catalog. Most of the other rockets shown were airbrushed and printed as a duotone. (two color print)
On the other hand, the Big Bertha was an actual photograph of a finished rocket. It really stood out against the other products.

Bob Harrington has already made a carded "Mini-Brute" version of the Big Bertha. This version is BT-5 based and stands 7 1/2" tall.
Many of my downscales have a "skin" you print and wrap around a BT-5 or BT-20. This makes the model stronger than a cardstock rolled tube. It's also easier to fit a standard nose cone in an actual body tube. Sometimes a hand rolled tube can have slight variations in diameter.
Instead of spray adhesive, this time I used a Glue Stick to adhere the wrap around the body tube. I might be on to something here, the finished results were good.
I have built Bob Harrison's version a few years back and have flown it many times with MicroMaxx engines. I wanted to downscale this one to fly with the 1/2A3-4t engines I recently bought from the ScoutStuff.com sale.

These pictures are of my first draft. The available PDF has had some subtle changes made to better match the catalog picture. The changes were made after setting the finished rocket beside the catalog page.
If you've never built a carded rocket, you are missing out! I'm always surprised by how strong the laminated cardstock fins are. And, no painting - except for the nose cone.
Open Rocket says it'll get to 190 feet on a 1/2A3-2t engine.
With a A3-4t engine it could reach 485 feet.

If you are a Patreon supporter, email me at: oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and I'll send you the PDF!

Old Estes Plan - The Orange Bullet

I came across this plan on the Shasta Plan site and on a publication for sale on Ebay.

You can follow the Ebay auction of the 1960 Estes publication: "Model Rocketry" HERE

You can see the entire booklet on the Ninfinger site HERE

For some more background, read the third paragraph in this letter from Vernon Estes on the Ninfinger site HERE

Click on the Vern Estes letter to see the 1960 Estes catalog.

The eight page Model Rocketry Handbook with the Orange Bullet plan (the same one in the Ebay auction) is listed in that 1960 catalog for $.25

It was one of the earliest printed plans from Estes. You can see it's numbered as Plan No. 3! Click on the picture for an enlargement.

The reason I bring it up -

DBrent recently built a Centuri Lil' Hercules clone. He posted pictures of the build on TRFand YORF. He did a great job of insetting the unsightly washer weights into the fin stock.

The Open Rocket line rendition of the Semroc Lil' Hercules is on the left.

Comparing the two, I was surprised how close these designs are.

Both rockets had weights on the fin tips. The line drawing at the left doesn't show the washer weights.

Notice on both models, how the the fins profile gets wider towards the outside edges. The Estes fins are square, the Centuri rounded.

The Estes Orange Bullet does have 1/16" thick "ribs" under the root edges of the fins extending over the bottom of the nose cone. The earliest Orange Bullet version had square exhaust ports beneath the nose cone to vent out the ejection charge pressure. These ribs were there to keep the nose cone in place.

Downscale Carded Estes Patriot

Here's the newest Carded Downscale:
The Estes PATRIOT
It's build around a BT-20 airframe and stands 11 5/8" tall.
A printed body wrap and carded fins eliminate all painting except for the nosecone. The nosecone is a BNC-20AH available from Semroc.comI built mine for 13mm engines and streamer recovery.
The two page PDF is available to Patreon supporters.
Shoot me a request at www.oddlrockets@bellsouth.netand ask for the Patriot PDF.

Pigasus! Build Part 3 Fin Plan

With all the detail on the wing and leg pieces, the fin design took some time.

This is my master template sheet used to mark and cut the fins.

For strength, the legs and wings will be pieced together.

The balsa grain is going a few different directions, I had to plan ahead to eliminate breakage on a hard landing. Other reinforcements might be needed.

On the upper left side, below the name are the goggles.

They'll be made out of double thickness cardstock and set over the nose cone like a canopy.

Downscale MMX Galaxy Guppy GooneyBird

Here's another in the downscale series I've been working on.
This time it's the Galaxy Guppy based on the old Estes GooneyBird #0852.These are actually easy to build, there is no painting involved except for the nose cone. The blue match isn't perfect, but close enough for me.

Drawing the mouth with a Sharpie pen takes a steady hand, but came out okay.
If you are a Patreon supporter, email me at: oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and request the MMX Galaxy Guppy PDF. 
I'll send a PDF plan for you to print out.