Comrades:

Well, I finished another one. Not particularly noteworthy other than it took me 40 years or so to do so. Attached is my Sandhawk Prime, built to replace my first Sandhawk which suffered an ejection charge malfunction and recovered ballistically in a particularly rocky area leaving only shards of plastic. In 1976.

Shortly thereafter, I started this one to replace it. I wanted metal antennae so my dad helped me drill the holes. I completed the build except for glueing the body tube to the fin assembly. And so it sat for the next 40 years. So, after finishing the rescue Sandhawk in the eBay rescue rocket thread, I decided to go ahead and finish this one. I added a Kevlar leader and glued the body tube. Done.

Paint is white Duplicolor primer under Duplicolor Brilliant Red with Rustoleum Flat White and Flat Black for the fins and can. Testors Acryl Gold on the bolt-heads and Aluminium on the nozzle. The payload section was heavily sanded and primed in Duplicolor black. The area to become green was then masked and sprayed Rustoleum Silver and top-coated with two light coats of Testors Metallic Candy Green; Very Old School. The grey band at the bottom was hand painted with Testors Grey. The rest of the payload section was Rustoleum Gloss White.

That's it against yesterday's blue Texas sky.

This was my favorite childhood rocket. I would REALLY love to see Estes do a new version of this with corrections of some of the (very) minor scale issues, engraved panel lines and somewhat more secure attachments for the antennae. With a modern mold, it would be awesome! I know . . . highly unlikely.

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NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Very nice!

Love the green technique!

Bob

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illegitimi non carborundum

NAR# 54643 L-1

SAM# 043

AMA# 157091

VRCS# 154

A&P# 42x xx xxxx.

VERY nicely done! Congrats!

OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Looks great Mark. This was one of those models I drooled over in the catalog, but couldn't afford as a kid, so a couple years ago, picked up a vintage kit. I look forward to building it, and hope it turns out as good as yours!

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

Nice Sandhawk !
I also think it is highly unlikely Estes would pay for improved molds for this one due to the extremely small market actually wanting it.
I think we are ULTRA-lucky we got them to re-issue the 1/45 Little Joe II and TONS of us were asking for that one for DECADES.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !