Wally's ever-expanding project thread
 

I'll lead this off with this one. FSI Echo 1 clone that I'd hoped to fly a couple of weekends back on the big field. A late start and early finish caused the hoped for first flight to be moved back to next weekend, if the weather gods allow it. :rolleyes: :D

Nice job.

I have one, an original, but it had no decals. Where'd you get yours?

Also, since the original had 21mm power, how did you resolve that? Down to 18? Or up to 24mm? Mine's 18, but if I built clone, I think I'd go 24.

Doug



.

Nice Build and the Classic Look is timeless...

Nice ECHO clone Bill (and nice original Doug)! Looks great white with black fins and nose cone.

I always had great flights on my original with D18's and built mine with the payload section too. I always thought it looked better with the longer sustainer with a payload section just like you built yours.

Although mine wasn't much of a looker it was a favorite and very stable flyer. I don't recall having decals with mine either though.

:)

.

No, I didn't give any details, did I? :o
Mine is a clone with 24mm engine mounts. They might be E capable, but I can't quite remember. (I'll figure it out tomorrow.) I made the decals using the scans at YORS. Just waterslides with my inkjet, but they turned out pretty well.

Apparently Don Fent supplied the scans, so maybe his had the decal. I know most of the catalog shots I saw showed it like mine, other than mine has the payload and those didn't. I didn't notice until after I applied the Echo 1 decal on the payload. I can live with it. :rolleyes:
Seems like those catalogs were from later in the FSI run, so that likely has something to do with it.

Very nice Echoes!

Thanks, Bill. Wanna take a guess at where I got the idea for this thread? :D

Beautiful build, Bill!

Steve

Estes Patriot minus the sticker decal and garish paint scheme. I never liked either and I have some white letters that I plan to use to do a US ARMY script up the side.



A REAL Holverson Wicked Winnie. BALSA, not cheesy foam. :rolleyes: (Although I'll admit to being a fan of the foam.) Planned paint is fairly close to stock. Testors Candy Apple Red over silver. I used it on the Excelsior Der Grosser Vati and liked the effect.



Flight Dynamics Zepher 5 and the upscale Zepher 7.95. Don't know who was behind Flight Dynamics, but I've got to think they never expected anyone to upscale this one.

Very nice stuff Bill! It becomes something of an addiction, doesnt it? :chuckle: Seems like every week im workin on something myself.......built me a Patriot a while back, set it up for D/E power, added some nose weight(tiny fins!) and ............OBOY!! WHATTA CHEAP LIL HOTROD!

Thanks. I bought my Patriot last fall specifically to fly at B6-4 Field. I liked the fact that it was 18mm powered and BT-60 based. That adds up to a great bird up there on a B6-4, and even a C6-5 if the winds are down. Just never got into that red/yellow/white/black scheme or the sticker decal.

My Grandaughters and i built another Patriot for my wife...they chose the color and named it the GRAMMY ONE......! And yep! It flies real well on a B6-4 or C6-5! Ive been in the mood to build 18MM stuff again..for those small fields! Its all fun! :)

Pink, green, gold, purple and orange! :cool: That's quite a color palate! I'm on my own tomorrow night and I'm hoping to get a few flights in. Both Patriots are on my list if the weather holds.

The Tau Zero Scram Jet upscale. This one has been around for a while, but it took me until yesterday to paint the nose cone. Decals have been done for a while, but I just found them on Sunday. That's what rekindled my interest in finishing the project.

A dead-stock, original Wildfire. I got this from the Beer Skunk back around 2005. Construction was finished soon after, but I got sidetracked after a failed inkjet decal experiment. The stickers for this were in the same place as the Scram Jet upscale decals.

Upscaled ~1.37X (ST-7 to ST-10) and 1.40X (ST-5 to ST-7). 18mm mount with extra-beefy 600# Kevlar shock cord anchor. :cool:

Awe. Some.

Now to see how she performs in the air. :D


Cheers,

Nice work 'fish. I had considered acquiring an Estes Equinox and making the mod(s) to make it look like the Centuri model. I dig the Wildfire as well.

It's fun finding stuff that has been lost in "the vicinity."

I also like the fact that you've started a Wally's ever-expanding project thread.

Holverson Wicked Winnie. Finished the paint today, a three day project which should leave this bird a bit on the piggish side. Two coats primer, two gloss white, two silver metallic, and a couple of candy apple red clear. And I still have to clearcoat it before the decal goes on. :cool:

Wow! That looks "juicy!"

I really like the Echo 1, not too crazy about the markings but a nice rocket anyway. Doug, your colors look great and A Fish Named Wallyum your builds look really nice. Since I am a Estes builder I'm not very well versed in other companies body tubes sizes. I figured out the parts I need from Semroc to clone this kit, but what parts do I need to order to make the 18mm engine mounts?

Here is the cleaned up decal. I can make a better Canadian leaf, but I was trying to make it look like the original model decal.

:o Uh, I cheated and used Estes-size parts. I was just trying for "close enough". ;) Since it's basically a 2 stage Goblin, I didn't think anyone would mind.

That reminds me. Does anyone know where the four stripes might go?

Thanks, Scigs. Lacking decals, I wanted to do something to make it more attractive, but didn't want to put lots of effort into it, so I just painted the nosecone and booster black and the sustainer red. The yellow came about when I repaired a dinged fin and opted to add some more color.

As for parts, I used CR-20-55 rings to make the Echo-I flyable on Estes motors. They were a little loose, so a wrap of kraft paper around the ring made it fit better in the tubes. It was only later that I learned that FSI used Centuri parts/dimensions in their kits, and that I was working with ST-13 and not BT-55. In Estes terms, it's called BT-56, and that's why the rings were loose :o

Doug

.

Honestly, if anyone could tell the diff, they were cheating and using micrometers. BT-55 versus ST-13/BT-56 amounts to an almost trivial difference - 1.325" OD versus 1.34" OD.

Other than Steve Austin, I doubt many folks can see the difference with the naked eye ;)

Doug

.

Finally finished the Custom Matra, which, owing to the changes I made both accidentally and on purpose, looks only vaguely like the actual Matra. Parachute section is a bit longer on purpose, and it's only six fins as opposed to seven, also on purpose. Bottom fins were supposed to be swept the other way, but I didn't notice until last night. :o

The Kingpin is just a BT-55 upscale of the FSI Dart. E-powered, and hopefully to fly next week at NARAM, the name came from a Manfred Mann song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A7_ZpKwK1w

The decal is a modified version of a logo I found online. I resized it, then printed it on inkjet decal paper.

Man, I had to do some digging to find this thread! I knew it existed because I remember copying the idea off of Bill Cooke, but I didn't have a clue what I called it.
The good news: IT'S PAINTIN' SEASON!!! Or a reasonable facsimilie thereof. I spent some time over the weekend in the paint booth (outside) and got a pretty decent start on finishing a bunch of the rockets that have been sitting around nekkid since the big boxes showed up from Estes. The bad news: no pics yet. :o
The FlutterBy is done but for the decal. Not the easiest rocket to sand and it shows, but from the launch button it should look STUNNING. Silver and candy apple red. :cool:
I sprayed the bottom section of the Estes Vector Force in a smoke grey metallic. Looks great to my less than discerning eyes. I have some metallic orange left over from another project, and today is supposed to be more paint friendly than today was. ( :confused: You know what I mean?) The Estes Reflector will get the leftover smoke grey metallic and the candy apple red of the Vector Force and FlutterBy. The Cosmic Explorer might get some smoke grey metallic, as will the Phoenix Bird. Guess I'll be hitting Hobby Lobby later today. Hope they have more smoke grey metallic. :rolleyes: The Leviathan just needs sanding, but MAN, that's a lot of sanding. I need to think up a paint scheme again because I forgot whatever I thought up a couple of weeks ago. :o Of interest to one particular member of this forum is my first ever Semroc Midget. Construction is finished, and priming begins today. Still not sure just how I'm going to go about flying this one. An A10-0T might be a bit more than B6-4 Field can hold on a little bird like this.
Anyway, this is just what I remember. There are still a bunch of MRI, MPC and Custom birds needing paint. I'll try to be more entertaining later today.

Inflight Nike-X. This is the third of four Inflight kits that I've got, with the NASA Pegasus and W.A.S.P. being the first two and the Mach 10 the final one. I think this one has been around since 2010 or so, and I've spent the last few weeks applying the decals a little at a time. B6-4 Field is pretty sloppy at the moment, but I think I might still risk it tomorrow.

Another one I've had around for a long time. It was part of a starter set that I won from an Ebay auction as the only bidder. It had been started and the paint was done badly, so I sanded and reprimed it, then hit it with a coat of fluorescent orange. I ran off some decals at the end of an ink cartridge, but I was able to cut off the part where the ink failed on the lower wrap.

Awesome looking builds. I love them all. I have a special place in my heart for the Red and White Alpha III. That was my first rocket way back in 1982 I think.

I need to get back to building and finishing. I've taken about a month off. The last one I built was an Estes Starchaser Thunderstar. I have a Spaceship One started. I haven't been impressed with the quality of these two. I think Estes fumbled on these kits.

David

The Thunderstar isn't terrible. I've had one ready to go at about three straight trips to the field and just haven't felt the urge to try it. I think the cluster worried me at first, but I launched my ill-fated El Gato a few months back and had no trouble lighting both engines. I scanned the sticker decals, cleaned then up, and printed out a set, which really made a huge difference in the finishing process and how it looks. The stickers were just junk. As for the Spaceship One, I've yet to see one of these fly worth a ****, so I think you may be right on that count.

I thought the motor mount was extremely flimsy on the Thunderstar, and the plastic doesn't bond well with plastic cement, I had to use medium CA to bond the plastic. Just saying...

I bought the kit for the two engine cluster. I thought it was cool. It does seem like over kill given the size and weight of the finished rocket. You're right about the stickers. not very impressed with them.

David

Now that you mention it, I do remember being disappointed in the cluster mount. I think my rings tore and had to be finagled into place. The plastic is never good, but I got mine to turn out ok using CA. I plan to fly mine on a 2xA8-3 cluster for the first flight. Small field, you know. ;)

Yep. My engine mount did the same thing.

David

Thunderstar a good flier
 

My Thunderstar has about 17 flights, and it is a favorite. 2 A8-3s keep it nice and visible throughout the flight. The B flights get surprisingly high, and the C flights need a sod farm. Yes, the stickers are junk. My plastic tower has been replaced. Only once did both motors fail to light.

I have copies of this kit so another can be built when this one is forced into retirement.

John

Well that's good news. Thanks.

David

Bill, We really liked your Zepher 7.95 @ NARAM last Summer. I think Debbie's Zepher 5 is still in that pond :-)

Bob

:D I was trying to remember who it belonged to. I just posted a picture of it on TRF in the galleries last night.