Interceptors and Siblings : Civil War anachronism
 

It occurred to me that if history had been a bit different, then maybe someone at a different time in history would have been designing pursuit or interceptor aircraft, but styled with their contemporary thoughts.

Would that be steam punk, i.e. pseudo Victorian? nah, that's a bit limey for my thinking at the time. (At other times, I'm all for steam punk. But not on the day I started this rocket.)

So, a bit more USofA in design. Say, Civil War era. (Again, that would be the American Civil War. Not to denigrate the pride that other nations can take in their civil wars, of course.) Because, I could have gone Revolutionary War, but that would again look too limey, since until we won, we could have still been limey.

So, given that a civil war rocket would have Interceptor features, what would make it "Civil War-ish"?
It had a telegraph wire for communication? No, that's silly.
It used steam for propulsion like trains? Not, steam punk was ruled out, so that's silly.
It was a two-stage Confederate rocket? No, Mythbusters proved scientifically that's silly.

No, it would be armed with the coolest gun of the Civil War - Gatling guns. Gatlings would make it Civil War-ish. In my imagination, at least.

Also, I decided to capture how planes started small . Compare the size of WWI wood and fabric planes to the bombers of WWII, and you'll see that they start small. So, this Interceptor is BT50 sized instead of BT55 sized.

And, you don't get to see the build. I neglected to take pictures until the paint was applied. Oh well, more events lost to the ash heap of history.

The decals, of course, would need to be different than the Estes Interceptor's. There was no air force back then. In my design, the rocketeers were soldiers that didn't ride horses, they rode rockets. So, it was part of the Cavalry. The Space Cavalry in fact.

Also, it was during the Civil War. Decals had to be rationed. So, this rocket didn't get the whole regalia that the Estes Interceptor got. It was a bit more austere. Not for laziness - but for patriotic duty.

Just like the Texans that viewed the attack on the Alamo as a battle cry, this line of Space Cavalry Rockets is emblazoned with 12AP61. It has sumpt'n to do with Sumter on April 12, 1861.

Oh yeah, there were fewer states back then, but all of them are represented in the flag. No states recognized as secessionist wanna-bes's in this flag.

One just rolled of the assembly line (thanks to the industrial revolution that was happening concurrently to the Civil War and this anachronistic technical revolution)

It's gussied up with its guns, brass rings, and decals.

And finally, a family portrait.

Very very nice. Draggy as hell, but nice (I say this respectfully as a designer and builder of super-draggy rockets. :))

The black decal borders blend better against the metallic paint than I would have thought (I would have been afraid to even try it). Do you have a more close-up pic of the lettering on the side of the body?

The lettering.

Cut the decal close to the lettering, and outline the decal with a black permanent marker before soaking. That hides the white edge that likes to show through. But, be careful with the clearcoat, as some clearcoats will cause the marker to bleed. So just use light coats of clearcoat that will dry really quickly.

That looks quite good.

I like that diagonal cut tube skirt

I was inspired by the Cosmic Interceptor for that. I decided that it could fill the spot typically occupied by the skids on the Interceptor rockets.