Estes Solar Warrior
 

I recently picked one of these up for a bargain price and it arrived today. When my brother in law and I played vulture at that hobby shop closing in Arlington, Texas back in 1994, this was one of the kits that Tony came away with. It's always been one of his favorites and currently has 35+ flights on it. It reminds me of the Centuri Spacemaster in that while the design is pretty cool, the paint and decals are plain ugly.
I opened it immediately, scanned everything and sent it to Scott, then started the build. The fins that came in the kit were warped, so I had to cut out new ones. That took up the bulk of my build time today, but I did get the body tubes slopped with Fill & Finish. The weekend looks pretty nice around here, so I'm thinking about doing some small field launching one day and I'd like to have this finished by then. It's a pretty simple rocket, so I stand a pretty good chance.

Man, if you can start a rocket on Wednesday and have it finished and ready to fly by the weekend, you're a better man than I am.

Bill, let me know when and where if you do get out this weekend and I'll see if I can join you for some modroc-sized fun.

Well, I'll probably be a lot more like you than you know. I plan to fly it unpainted. :eek: :rolleyes: :D ;)

Spring break starts tomorrow, so it should be pretty quiet around here.

I got the flipper fins and pods attached to the Solar Warrior tonight, and with just the two of them attached, I was surprised at how cool the profile was. It would actually be a pretty cool place to start with a new design, and once this project is flying, I might just give it a whirl. The upper and lower fins look badly planned out by comparison. Tony did an upscale that was based on a BT-55, and at that size, the upper and lower fins really look odd. I think I'm going to try something along the lines of that size, but I'll change the fin patterns. I wonder how it would look with four identical fins and pods? :confused: :cool:

Solar Warrior -- MUTATED!!!
 

Without any measurements to go by, my "wild guess" (and *boy,* is it wild!) is attached below.

This should give you an appropriately vague idea. :eek: :cool:


Cheers,

--Jay :eek:

Thanks, Jay. It looks almost familiar. Nowhere near as unique as I'd thought it might.
Now I'll be sitting here all night wondering where I've seen it before.
Then again, maybe I won't.
The Estes Screamin' Mimi :eek:

Here it is half finned. Work has progressed beyond this point, but this is all the farther that I've photographed.

"Thunder Dodo" -> "Solar Warrior" Mutation
 

Here ya go. :eek: I morphed this from my 24mm "Thunder Auk" file... :cool: ...which began its existence as a Screamin' Mimi. :rolleyes: ;)


Cheers,

--Jay :eek:


P.S. The original Solar Warriot "Mutant" above is almost 12" long, while the version below is twice that size.