Plan Submission Guidelines
 

Hey folks, I've taken on the task of organizing the plans being sent in to Scott. This is just a friendly reminder to please follow the guidelines as stated HERE. When plans come in that are scanned with these guidelines it's a snap to get them processed and passed on to Scott. When they aren't and they require some Photoshop work they get put on the backburner until I have the necessary time to do the work.

If you have any questions about the guidelines either post them here or send them directly to me in a PM.

Thanks!

My flatbed scanner will only do A4 (just a little bigger than 8.5x11). Most of my header cards are too long to fit. How should I handle that?

Randal

Excellent question. Scan it in two pieces. I can merge the two together.

Thanks Randal!

I sent some scans to you this morning, but I scanned the "header card" stuff at 150 dpi, because I cannot go at 75. 72 is the closest, and I seemed to remember that the last time I sent scans y'all wanted me to send them at 150 and that you guys would "reduce" them from there.

If you want me to re-scan the box stuff from what I sent at the 72dpi, let me know.

Hi ForeCheck,

I downloaed the files and they look fine. 150 is fine on the box cover. I can reduce it.

I'm guessing here the same would go for Decals such as Super Nova Payloader.

BAR
JOHN

That is correct, sir. ;) If you would, send scans that need "joining" to the plans@rocketshoppe.com address. That would go directly to Buzz who handles that for me. Thanks.

Estes #1311
 

Scott
Scans sent for #1311

John

Hey John,

Guess what I'm working on today? :D

Buzz was able to join all the two-part scans you sent me as well such as decals and header cards.

I appreciate all the plans people have sent me in the past, and I look forward to many more submissions in the future from our members. After nearly a 3yr break, I started last month with getting Ye Olde Rocket Plans up to date with all the submissions I've received during that period. A daunting task to say the least. ;)

Scott
That's great news. I'll try to scan some of the boxes and Fins that are missing from some of the scans I sent you.

John

Thanks, John. I appreciate it!

A Reminder On What To Scan, And Why
 

A Public Service Reminder...

As you may or may not know, I'm always looking for resources on old and new kits so that I can sim them in OpenRocket, or (hopefully) build or clone them someday. I'm sure that a lot of others are too.

When you've got an old kit, please check to see if the instructions, fins, and decals are archived either at plans.rocketshoppe.com, or JimZ's site. If what you're building isn't there, or are somehow different, or the image they have lacks any kind of reference to it dimensions (including thickness), is bad (e.g. diecrushed fins), or they only have is a drawing of the fins, I'd ask you to scan yours with a ruler, and post them either here, at YORF, or at TRC (preferably all 3). Photos are good for documentation. But scans are far easier to gather information from.

Tags:
Did you know that Estes has changed its tags over the years? Sure! Who doesn't? Those tags can be really helpful for a BAR in IDing the variant they want (either on Ebay, or trying to clone). Including that information will help a lot of people.

Instructions:
Did you know that since the 1970s Estes instructions have part numbers and revisions? This may help you pin down the year that your kit was made. The longer a kit has been in production, the more likely that it has somehow evolved over time... Especially the older kits. Hand cut balsa gave way to diecut (crushed) fins. Balsa nosecones were replaced with plastic, then balsa, then plastic again. Shapes of nosecones evolved over time. Engine mounts have changed locations and sizes (Remember the short-lived short E motor Estes had back in the 90's?). Decals change on occasion (and not always for the better... (Estes Wizard)). Even body tubes have changed lengths (There's the Cherokee D with the 16.35" body tube that was later changed to a 18" body tube). All these changes lead to a plethora of variants (I'm looking at you Big Bertha... Alpha... and especially YOU, Omega!), and there's always a chance that someone that is out there that is looking to create that rocket that they got (or didn't get) for Christmas, or their birthday that year. You'll help them (and me) if you can scan those instructions.

Fins:
Many times I've found that the drawings of a rocket's fins are off. Tracings outlined from them often causes them to become too large, or the angle or lengths that were given by the person doing it was off. There's nothing quite as frustrating as spending time trying to recreate your old favorite (including wasting valuable decals), only to have your eye constantly drawn to something that just seems... Off. Then to find that your resource didn't proof the drawing or measurements. RocketReviews.com has more than it's fair share of really bad .rkt files and poorly simmed fin templates.

Decals:
These things are SOLID GOLD... Nothing can bring a rocket to life quite as much as the colorful decals that came with a kit. Sure, there are those who don't want to have a cookie cutter version of their rocket (and more power to them). However, often it's the markings that drew many of us to a specific design. It'll help a whole lot of old BARs recapture that feeling of having an old rocket that they lost to time, or scratch that itch they had when they weren't able to buy/build the kit of their childhood dreams. Again, keep in mind that the longer the kit's been in production, the more chance that there have been changes to the decals.

Scans:
I've found that .png and .tif files are much more reliable for creating useful tracings of in making my .ork files. However, sometimes my browser doesn't like .tif files, making them a pain sometimes. Pdf files are great (sometimes), but I can't always right click and copy an image, making them a source of frustration as well occasionally. Then there's .jpgs. Jpegs are common, but extremely problematic for me. Unfortunately, my skills with high power (read: expensive, or feature laden) image processing software is very limited (by my knowledge on how to use them, or ability to purchase more intuitive versions). Jpeg files compress images in a manner that frequently makes finding edges a royal PITA. Toss in a curved edge, and the frustration only increases. DPI? Maximize this. 300 is good, 600 is better. Please remember to have a ruler in your scan, as well as something indicating the thickness of the balsa, or other flat parts (oddball centering rings and the like). A Digital Micrometer is a very useful tool to have for gauging thicknesses. They aren't really expensive (mine was less than $20 USD at Harbor Freight (I brought mine with me to China)), and I'm sure you'll find it useful for other things once you've got one.

Thanks!
Jim

Hi all,
I do have some kits/plans that I have never seen or been able to find in the usual places, and that I'd like to carefully scan and submit. And decals for some more common kits that I also do not see available anywhere.
When I scan for myself, my own files, to preserve instructions or to print my own decals or whatever, I generally combine everything for a given kit into a single pdf. And actually when I find a set of instructions/plans/decals in the usual places, a pdf format seems much easier to download, view and use, compared to say a folder of tif or jpg or whatever.
Do you not want instructions/plans/decals submitted as pdf files?
Thanks.

Since it's been almost 20 years since the original plans submission guide was published, I wanted to update it to today's standards. Note that if any scans you'd like to submit are larger than 2mb in size you'll need to send them directly to me at scott at rocketshoppe dot com.

A big thank you goes out to Earl Cagle (Earl) for helping me with this updated guide.

Here is how you can help:

When scanning any item, be it instruction sheets, decals, fins, face cards, centering rings, patterns, whatever, set your scanner to uncompressed TIFF. This will give you a very good quality ‘master’ scan with the least loss of detail, at given scan resolutions. While this will give you large file sizes, computer storage is very cheap today. The resultant TIFF files can then be used as a basis for ‘exporting’ smaller file sizes such as .jpg, .pdf, etc. to be sent via email or other distribution methods.

For primarily ‘text’-based materials such as instruction sheets or catalogs, a second scan of the item with the file type switched to .pdf will give you a good pdf copy without resorting to a pdf generation program (many people do not have access to good pdf exporting programs or they can be tricky to use).

*IF* however you are NOT adept at exporting files from a given graphics progam, then set the scanner file type to .jpg or .pdf at the outset (instead of TIFF) per the sections outlined below.

And finally, USE A RULER IN YOUR SCANS to provide a proper scale for the item being scanned. For items like fins, rings, templates and decals, the ruler is invaluable and allows others to properly interpret your scanned items. Generally, the ruler is NOT needed when scanning primarily text-based items such as instruction sheets, catalogs, etc.

Instruction Sheet(s):

--- Set your scanning software to .pdf, 300dpi, Grayscale, if the instruction sheets are black and white; set to Color if they are in color.

Front Picture Panel (Header Card):

--- Set your scanning software to .jpg, 300dpi, Color.

Decals:

--- Set your scanning software to .jpg, 600dpi, Color.

Fin Patterns, balsa fin sheets, templates, centering rings, cockpits, fin marking guides, etc.:

--- Set your scanning software to .jpg, 300dpi. Generally, Grayscale is fine for these items. If there is particular ‘color coding’ or markings in the templates or guides, set scanner to Color.

Again, if you are adept at exporting different file types form your favorite graphics program, always do your ‘master’ scans in uncompressed TIFF format, then do your ‘distribution’ files (.jpg, .pdf, etc.) from the master TIFF file.