Very nice!

Very nice.
I always liked this one and is one of very few Estes "futuristic" designs I never built.
Would be really surprised if they brought this one back as it was not popular in the first place being catalogued only for ~2 years and uses several parts that are unique. The molds may not even exist any longer for the wrap and nozzles. Many production items were destroyed when the company had that BOZO junk-toy manager occupying the helm.

John,

does Estes still have the molds for the kit?

No molds that I know of exist for this model. That doesn't mean one day they couldn't be made for a reissue of the kit.

John Boren

John Boren may be able to answer that question.

In my view, the special plastic parts aren't that critical to cloning the model, at least not for sport flying purposes. The plastic nozzle set is an ornamental display piece, and is set aside for flying.

What makes the nose somewhat unique is the inset molded grooves that mark out the bottom one third of the nose, denoting the heat shield area. Well intended, but odd when one considers that those grooves aren't replicated on the airframe. They certainly were useful guides for masking around this area for painting, but one had to be careful about masking tape placement to avoid any paint bleed through on the underside of the tape. If I were to build another, I think I'd just use a regular old Big Bertha nose, and work out the masking area by hand. If one didn't know that the kit had a special variation of the Big Bertha nose, no one would be the wiser.

The parts that do require some consideration are the embossed cardstock corrugation sections. Replicating these does require some scratch building, and were I to build another, I would likely still scratch build these parts, as the cardstock versions are a bit subtle for my taste, and I found I had to do a fair amount of fitting/trimming of the wrap to proper seat the thing on my model. My partial kit didn't have these parts, so perhaps others can comment on fit, but I'd be worried whether the stock kit part would have enough slack to properly fit my build.

That rocket screams Centuri to me.

John,

Beautiful build! I think your styrene pieces give it much more texture than the original wraps which is what makes it much more impressive than the original kit. If Estes could make wraps as textured as your build I'd nominate this as a real contender for a bring back.

Would you mind adding a couple pictures of the bottom heat shield side of the model.

Again, beautiful build, John!

Steve

Thanks Steve;

It seems I only have one photo of the underside before flight, taken just after the masking had been peeled away. That's the first photo, below. There you'll see I had masked a strip just below the launch lug, as I was worried that leaving that area black would discolor the red decal strip that would later be placed over top.

The next two photos are of the somewhat banged up model, post-flight. The first of those shows the finished underside of the model. The second photo gives some idea of the masking involved for the edges and wing tips, and of course those ducky canards. Masking those edges and tips, making sure one had not left any pinholes or bleed-through spots behind, is what took the time.

As mentioned at the outset, the STA was an enjoyable build, although I'm not in a rush to do another! Thanks again for your note - you'd be most welcome to join us for our forthcoming regional, the Carl McLawhorn Memorial Flyoff VI, should you be able to make the trip. Details to be found here - http://www.psc473.org/Contest.htm

Looking forward to seeing you soon;

Beautiful job. I don’t remember it at all! I guess it was such a “Plain Jane” in the catalog, especially being placed below the Andromeda.

I imagine Estes (meaning John) could use the plastic parts and wraps in all sorts of ways, to defray the initial costs.