Estes Plan #55 Starship Excalibur
 

I have been wanting to build the Starship Excalibur from Estes's plan #55 for a while now. Unfortunately, the scan of plan up on Jim Z's website leaves a lot to be desired. Does anyone have copy of it that they could scan and post so I, and anyone else who wants it, could get a copy in better quality? I just missed acquiring an original copy of the plans off of ebay, or I would do it myself.

Thanks!

These are from the plan book that participants received from Estes at NARAM-11 in 1969 at Colorado Springs.

Chas

There are two other pages, but they are too large to upload. I will see what I can do.
C

Wow Chas! Those are great! Thanks so much. If you can figure out how to upload the other stuff that would be great too. Again, much appreciated!

I just ried to save them as zip files, but they are still too large. I did send copies of all of the plans to YORS. I have never looked to see if they had been posted.
Send me a private message with your e-mail and I can send them directly. The first two pages are building instructions and the scans overlap.
BTW, I did get Vern Estes to sign the booklet a couple of years back.

Chas

Those are great! That is one I fondly remember wanting to build and now you've gone and reminded me of it :D.

Try rescanning in black and white instead of color - your file sizes will be MUCH smaller.

I have a small Semroc order saved but not yet turned in. It looks like it's going to get a bit bigger :). Also, I'd go Kevlar shock cord anchor and a baffle rather than recreating the original in that regard.

Chas, you can reduce the size of your files in 'Paint'. Click on File-Open to open your file, then click 'Stretch/Skew' and enter 25% for each direction. Finally, save the file and right click it and click "Properties' to check on the file size. I believe you can upload 500MB to YORF, and you can reduce the file size more than once if necessary to get it down to an acceptable size.

Joe

Not yet. :o

But, I did increase the size of the PDF's that can be uploaded so you should be able to upload the first two pages to this thread now.

Thank You Scott!

Now, about the other 20 plans....

As was mentioned, the files would have been smaller if I had chosen B&W instead of color. I scanned the plans booklet for my NAR team mates and shared it with Scott. Some great stuff and some things that, well, your interest will vary.

Happy to share my stuff.

Chas

Great stuff! Thanks.

Now.... is there a page 5 for the Excalibur - with, say, fin patterns on it? I was able to print the one off of JimZ's site, and it's better than the other pages.

It's maddening that plan #55 appears to be between MRN V8 #1 and V8 #2.

I did not notice that the fin plans were not included. I will have to dig out the book and see if the other plans have them. I built mine way back when out of the Model Rocketry News. I will brave the cob webs to see if I still have the issue.

Chas

I found another place that has the plans. Don't know if they are any better or not.

Kit 55

Thanks for the link! I was telling rocketpunch that I still have the nose cone from my original build back around 1970. Do not remember what happened, but there must have been a separation and the model was not worth rebuilding.

Chas

Thanks for the link mycrofte. That's quite a find. Now all I have to do, is gather up all the parts and start building! :) I am planning on making custom decals for the Excalibur in Adobe Illustrator. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get a better copy of the plan than the one posted on Jim Z's site. I want the decal scheme to be similar to the illustration on the plan. With the Jim Z plan I wasn't able to make out the artwork on the tail. It was just a smudgey blob. Now I can see it's a rocket type graphic.

Still would love to get my hands on an original copy of the plans though. I missed that ebay auction by 25¢ Doh!!! :(

Order shipped from Semroc this AM....including parts I need for this :)

Bec, could you post what parts you ordered from Semroc?

Thanks!

It would be great if you could post your artwork, in Illustrator format if possible. I wouldn't mind putting one of those together as well.

No problem posting my artwork. I just got to make it first :) I need to get the parts and build the kit first so I can get proper sizing, etc. So, it may take a while, but I'll definitely post my artwork and be open to feedback.

What I ordered specifically for this are the main body tube (BT-55V), a full-length BT-5, all of the necessary nose cones - a BNC-55F, three BNC-5W, five BNC-5E, and a long WD-12 dowel. I have balsa, launch lugs and recovery system stuff on hand. I also ordered (well, already had planned to order) some RA-2055 rings and some JT-55Cs from which to make an engine mount. I have the BT-20 and engine hooks on hand.

I will set it up with a Semroc BT-55 baffle and kevlar shock cord attach and probably use a smaller-than-24-inch parachute. I have materials to make a mylar one of any size I want on hand.

For my contribution to this, here's the pattern sheet in .pdf form, converted from the TIFF file on the JimZ site, so now it's all in this thread. I just did a "no scaling" test print and based on the length of the BT-55 marking guide, the parts look to be the right size.

It's nice to have fancy software at work sometimes...:)

I have an original copy of the plans that I got from Estes.

When I got them, the fin patterns were printed on the same cardstock that was used in the kits produced at that time and by some mistake, two sets of the patterns were included.

So I have a set of the patterns uncut and I can take any measurements off them if you want .

Bob, if its not too much trouble, could you scan the pattern and post it?

Thanks

Thanks for the Semroc parts list BEC

Can you scan them and send them over?

Just ordered my parts from Semroc. Woohoo!

BEC................when I click on your link for the pattern sheet I get a 'damaged file' message. Is it just me, or does this link work for other folks?

Joe

It works, You may have to clear your browser cache. If you not sure how to do it google clear <your browser> cache.

BTW here's mine flown at NARAM 46.

I got in trouble with JimZ 'cause I didn't paint it white.

Oh...and this was before I could do decals.

Maybe I should come up with something?

Sweet looking bird! Even if it's not white :)

How about a 200% scale-up using BT-80 for the central tube (with an 80K nose cone) and BT-50 outboards using 50K and 50Y nose cones for the "Systems Pod"! :D

Greg

Way ahead of you!

I ordered the parts years and years ago.

The outboards are Vaughn Brothers' 1" OD tube. I ordered the custom cone from BMS. Main body cone is the long white plastic BT-80 cones Estes used to make.

Aaaaand I have decals for it. I forget who I ordered them from.

To be honest, I'm not feeling very ambitious these days. I might package up and sell the part collection so someone else can take on the chore.

That's lovely - and yes, you should come up with something :).

Hmmm, that never occurred to me before. Does the fact that you do decals mean that Jim no longer does?

He's dead, Jim. :eek:

I really don't think he does.

I still have a set of Andromeda decals that I bought from him back in 2001. I should save them for the sake of posterity. (They came with a set for the Condor, the Mark and one other that escapes me at the moment. The only bigger thrill came when I found that I could make my own. :cool: )

Resurrecting an old thread.

Scott had asked me to scan the Starship Excalibur plans and send them over because the scans on Jim Z's site are unreadable.

I had intended to do that at the time but something shiny and sparkley caught my eye and it was gone from my mind. :rolleyes:

Then a fellow club member wanted a copy of the plans and I scanned and printed them. This jarred a brain cell loose and I thought that I remembered something about scanning them for someone else so I did a search on Excalibur and found this thread again.

Anyways, I just sent the scans to Scott and I'm sure he'll have them uploaded to Ye Olde Rocket Plans sometime within the next year or 2.

Hahaha. What address did you send them to? If you sent to the plans address, that actually goes to Buzz first, which is fine. He'll forward them to me.

Yes, I sent them to the plans address

And....
 

And...Gentlemen?

Scott, did you get the scans yet? :rolleyes:
Did you post them yet? :eek:
Well? :p :D

Dan,

If I knew that you wanted them, I would have brought a copy to the launch yesterday