Model Rockets - Lets See Them

[Old Buckaroo]

Does anyone build or fly them? I grew up less than 50 miles from Estes Industries but I was a Centuri fan that was out of Phoenix Az.  Their catalogs really grabbed and sparked my Imagination at a young age.  I still build and fly them 50 some years later, most are scratch built to resemble the catalog models I never could afford at a young age.

[bbowser]

Earned a ribbon at the 8th grade science fair with Estes rockets.  Lots of fun!

[Jim B]

Great looking rockets. I used to build, and sometimes launch, rockets back in the 1980s when I lived in Miami, FL. Only lost one, and it was the only time the parachute actually worked! I think it ended up somewhere in Tampa. 😆

[Old Buckaroo]

Jim growing up with hundreds of flat acres surrounding me I learned at a early age to cut holes in the parachutes. Otherwise they would catch a thermal or normal breeze and head for the horizon.

[Jim B]

1 minute ago, Old Buckaroo said:

Jim growing up with hundreds of flat acres surrounding me I learned at a early age to cut holes in the parachutes. Otherwise they would catch a thermal or normal breeze and head for the horizon.

Yup! That's pretty much what happened. Caught the Trade Winds & long gone!

[dragin70s]

Love this thread. Nice fleet there, thanks for sharing those. I got my son a couple of rockets when he was a kid (gee whiz, that was probably 18 years ago) and it got me going again. Pics below with small descriptions. 

The Cherokee D was my first rocket as a kid, still my favorite. No kits available except expensive ones on eBay, so I cloned them. Flew the one of the left several times, and then built the other one, flew it once and now its just in the museum haha.

Love multi-stage, so up-scaled the Cherokee D to DD (long before the new kit came out)

Small one is the Quest Navajo AGM, so of course I had to up-scale it. Basically because the kit is so fast there is not much visual.

Cloned another old Estes kit.

Again, cloned another childhood favorite.

Variation of an old Quest kit.

And lastly, completed fairly recently (though no decals yet), a completely home made design, my first E-motor rocket. I kind of build by paper and pencil math and feel, and all of the others have flown great. Nervous about this one with the E, but OpenRocket says she'll fly true, so fingers crossed.  

[Old Buckaroo]

Now that's what I'm talking about - thanks for showing those pictures, I'm way impressed  Ive always like building my own also - when I was a teen those "Designer Specials"  box'o'parts was the greatest things ever.   I would do a string test, some flew great and some did a perfect arc for the ground. 

I'm considering getting another Saturn V now that they are E&F compatible.

[dragin70s]

4 hours ago, Old Buckaroo said:

Now that's what I'm talking about - thanks for showing those pictures, I'm way impressed  Ive always like building my own also - when I was a teen those "Designer Specials"  box'o'parts was the greatest things ever.   I would do a string test, some flew great and some did a perfect arc for the ground. 

I'm considering getting another Saturn V now that they are E&F compatible.

Thanks, fun to see and show some rockets.  I have always wanted to do the Saturn V, but haven't looked in awhile so didn't know about the E/F version. Definitely a must do some day. 

[Russell C]

Not sure if this qualifies, but the impression I get is that our MCM man "89AKurt" builds some kind of ballistic missiles that gets the police called on him .... 😂

 

[Old Buckaroo]

Russell my old friend - 89AKurt is the one who teased me with his pictures of "ballistic missiles" down in The Off Topic area.  I was quite happy to see another person with the passion of model rockets, so I knew there had to be more of us.

[89AKurt]

On 1/13/2025 at 9:13 PM, Old Buckaroo said:

Russell my old friend - 89AKurt is the one who teased me with his pictures of "ballistic missiles" down in The Off Topic area.  I was quite happy to see another person with the passion of model rockets, so I knew there had to be more of us.

Thank you for starting this OT dedicated to my current obsession! 😁   And thank you Russell for the tag!  What inspired me to reignite my passion, was seeing the Estes Model Rockets group on Fakebook, and so many from my generation who have done the same.  I didn't do anything for decades, didn't even have most on display, the way I got rebooted was to fix what was broke (always the shock cord), and update accordingly.

Start off with my display cabinet, not much real estate on top.

Made a display mount for the Big 3 of my designs, made as a teen.

Still had the cardboard range box, which has been upgraded to an ABS box found at the local swap meet, a guy has all kinds of boxes.

Got another box just because it was yellow, so all the motors aren't scattered around.

When I was a teen, built the Saturn 1B but never launched it, and never will.  I also built the Comanche3 and the F.S.I. Dart which supposed to break the sound barrier, never launched too, but I may join my first organized launch in Kingman on a dry lake bed to send those.  Here is the Space Shuttle, launched a few times and didn't imitate the Columbia demise, so it's a museum display.

Here is my pool table, that I haven't played on for over a year.  I also haven't been on the mountain bike (in the background).  Got the helmet so I don't have to borrow one doing RallyCross.  Got the borescope at an auction.  I know it looks like a boy cave, don't have a wife whining about my hobby.  I counted launches on the data sheets, about 250 times!  The record is 22 launches for one rocket (destroyed the last time).

I had only ONE unbuilt kit, forgot about it until I was going through the box in the storage attic.  Had just the fins started, so that made it uncollectible to be sold for HUGE $ on eBay. 😆

Done!

And then I ruined being able to say I finished my stash*, by buying a bunch of kits that I never could afford as a kid, now I'm self-retired and debt-free, screw it I'm getting what I want!  (this is not all of them either!)

*Can anyone tell I don't mean it? 😏

Here is an example of my updated recovery system.  Using sewing elastic from Hobby Lobby instead of the rubber shock cord (they can't make rubber that lasts anymore).  I bend a wire into a loop, which is glued inside the mount, each end of the cord has fishing line snaps (now my favorite section at Sportsman's), so now I don't need to rip out the old mount to replace the cord.  Whoops, this one is with the balsa cone and eyelet, the plastic cones get a snap on that end.

Here is the Maxi V-2 built as a kid, updated with more fishing line swivels, successful launch.

Built this just for the Estes altimeter, had the payload section from a rocket lost last century.

Odyssey has always been a good flier, despite the questionable aerodynamics of the nosecone.

I built this around the can, no fins to speak of, ended up destroying it because of too long a delay.  I will build a better version.

Thanks to the digital photo revolution, I could try a different angle for a launch.

...

[89AKurt]

I found out there is a limit on pictures for one post. 🤬  So this is continued.....

I love eBay, got a new Interceptor nose cone and revived a favorite.  I have parked my OCD about getting a perfect (and never attained) finish, but from launch control it looks great.

While I was at it, upgraded with missiles too, did add the cannon barrels.

Here is another one I missed out on when I was young.  I was born about a month after Alan Shepard launched into space.  *Had to* "weather" it.

Managed to recover in one piece!

Did my first dusk launch.

Which inspired another design of mine called Twilight.  One light is a modified fishing bob, the other is a bicycle valve cap, the third nosecone option is for the altimeter.

I have hundreds of pictures now, but will stop here today with the current project, which I was hoping to start a new OT with.  First drew a design Feb. 1983 based on 'The Blue Flame', since I still have the drafting board set up, drew the new design first.  I have painted two colors so far, have a bunch of masking to do now.  I'm not happy with the sanding/sealing job, but I know myself that when I futz with anything it gets worse, just finish it and send it.

My goal this summer is to build the Semroc Mars Lander (cottage industry reproduction of the classic Estes kit), then go camping in southern Utah and find a Martian landscape to take some glamor pictures.  I'm also looking forward to attending a launch to see how advanced the hobby has become, those guys use GPS and other technology to track their birds.  I'm also pleased to see others on this forum are into rockets.  Now everyone who sees this post, knows why I haven't been active since GSL.

[Old Buckaroo]

@89AKurt - now that is a pretty impressive collection.  I never did flight logs, honestly doing such a thing ever crossed my mind, sure wish I had though. 

I have a hard time picking my favorite - a four engine Saturn 1B is pretty impressive , but as much as I wasnt a fan of the Blue Flame as a kid , I really like that one and cant wait to see it done.  ( He broke Craig Breedlove's, record, childhood hero and I have been scorned since haha)

I would like to see a drawing of the triple  rocket holder as that is one of the best displays Ive ever seen.

Your photography of inflight is really something. 

Did you by chance attend NARAM 2018 held at Pueblo Colo?  My wife and I loaded up a truck load of totes and went as vendors. It was a great time camped out on that sandy ranch. My truck still has dust and sand in it.

Thank you for posting all those and the back storys

[TonyK]

This stuff is really cool! I don't do rockets but can appreciate other hobbies especially when these great pictures are shared.

My rocket experience as a kid was one of those little plastic ones that you used baking soda and vinegar with a wad of toilet paper shoved in the bottom.  😄

[89AKurt]

On 1/16/2025 at 11:49 AM, Old Buckaroo said:

@89AKurt - now that is a pretty impressive collection.  I never did flight logs, honestly doing such a thing ever crossed my mind, sure wish I had though. 

I have a hard time picking my favorite - a four engine Saturn 1B is pretty impressive , but as much as I wasnt a fan of the Blue Flame as a kid , I really like that one and cant wait to see it done.  ( He broke Craig Breedlove's, record, childhood hero and I have been scorned since haha)

I would like to see a drawing of the triple  rocket holder as that is one of the best displays Ive ever seen.

Your photography of inflight is really something. 

Did you by chance attend NARAM 2018 held at Pueblo Colo?  My wife and I loaded up a truck load of totes and went as vendors. It was a great time camped out on that sandy ranch. My truck still has dust and sand in it.

Thank you for posting all those and the back storys

Thank you.  I was a kid when doing bureaucratic red tape didn't give me PTSD.  Reminded me of launches I forgot all about.

That holder was designed around the drafting light mount that I saved, black steel rods saved from mom's estate.

Taking Slo-mo video is the best way to take screenshots, but uses up camera storage in no time flat.

Never have attended a sanctioned launch.  Since I seem to have lost interest with competing in model contests, a new chapter may open for me.

Finished that LSR, but I sure blew it with the chrome.  It's not AK Interactive's fault, my first coats were too much paint that coagulated bad, and there was no saving it, and I'm not going to sand all that again.  The complex design also invited screwing it up with sanding and finishing, couldn't see things until it got painted.  I was so bummed, that this is what I wanted to show, will look okay from launch control and then at speed.

I'm planning to drive to Kingman soon, there is a dry lake bed that a rocket club uses, I just want to check it out and launch the 3 last builds, since I better not here because of drought.  My goal is to set up a forced perspective glamor shot.  Then I will attend an official launch to send the ones I was always afraid of losing.

[89AKurt]

I finished another model! 👀😳🎉  This time I did a much better job with the chrome 'AK Interactive' paint.  I used 'Rustoleum' gloss black for the base, which worked great!  This is the second rocket based on the food can, with a better design "fin" structure.

The business end.  The first one had a cool swooshing sound during launch.

I missed going to an official launch this month outside of Kingman at a dry lakebed, will endeavor to make the next one.  We are so dry that I don't dare launch at all.  Wondering if there is a Garbage class for this. 🤔

[Old Buckaroo]

Kurt the chrome finish is outstanding and I bet those cans do sound cool !

My launches are hindered here by being breezy or too dry.  But I still build them for those ideal conditions.

[Dave Van]

I  built and flew many a rocket back in the day.  Made my own launch system using a old door bell buzzer hooked to a car battery. Ended up losing them all.  Always wanted the Estes Saturn V but even back in the day it was $50!! 

So I got the LEGO version....harder to loose!