I built mine in 1988. The Explorer lasted through many flights, but was sheared off in a ground accident. The suggestion of replacing it with a dowel sounds like a good one. If it ever breaks off you can use a hand drill to ream out the old one and replace it.

The fins require some carving/sanding, but if you do it right, they look just as good as or better than the plastic fins on the latest version of the Mercury Redstone. The Estes Jupiter C was just the Centuri Mercury Redstone with a shorter, one-piece body and different nose, just as the real Jupiter C was just the Redstone with a different nose. The fins are larger than scale though. I've never seen anyone try making scale ones except with the old Estes BT60 kit, and numerous Hawk/Glencoe Jupiter C conversions. The Hawks tended to be iffy in any sort of wind, and flew better on B6 than on B4 or MPC B3.

The MR has fins that are closer to scale. It is a longer rocket so it doesn't need as much fin area.

Well, the fins supplied with the Estes kit aren't scale in size, but neither are they really scale in shape either. There's more detail to them than Estes cut with their die. I did redraw some better fins for my model based on ROTW, but they turned out hard to cut so I gave up.

On another point, doing the double lamination thing is good for a couple of reasons. One is that it gives you a semi-rigid center point to sand against when making the knife edge, plus it is easier to cut a thinner piece of bass or balsa than the thicker stock.

I know that neither the Jupiter-C nor the Mercury Redstone are scale, but the Mercury Redstone's fin looks closer if you are just eyeballing it. You're right, they aren't truly scale, but the rest of the kit ain't exactly a 100% accurate reproduction either.

I have both models sitting beside each other right now, but normally I keep them separated. I did a good job building them, but they don't look good together because Estes made two different sets of fins for the kits even though they are the same "1:35 scale". It wouldn't take that much effort to make the Jupiter-C look more like the Mercury Redstone, IMHO.

According to Rockets of The World both rockets had the same fins. The Redstone was 92' longer. Both had the same diameter. I can scale the fins if you would like. What is the OD of the body tube you are using?

Here's a link to an image on the web for (one of) the Explorer missions:

http://www.redstone.army.mil/histor...6_4mar58_05.jpg

The fin detail is grainy, but you can get some of the scale from it...

I know exactly what the fins should be like. I've been to Huntsville and to the Cape and have plenty of photos of the Redstone boosters. The physical shape of the fins are identical for both the Mercury Redstone and the Jupiter-C. I have Alway's Rockets of the World, which also shows the fin dimensions. I have already built both kits, but didn't notice the ugly enlarged fins of the Jupiter-C until after it was completed and sitting beside my Mercury Redstone. I know the MR fins aren't scale either, but they look much better than the Jupiter-C fins.

I'm just saying that having both Estes models side by side looks goofy because not only are the fins not scale, they aren't even the same between the two models. I didn't want you guys to make the same mistake I did and build both kits in stock configuration.

I see three options for a good pair of Redstone based models for your display shelf. Any of these three remedies will make both kits much nicer to look at than if you build both of them stock. If you only have one of the kits and don't plan to build the other, don't worry with it.

1. Make both rockets with fins as close to scale as possible based on Alway's book or other scale data. Most importantly, the fins will be identical to each other so they will look good sitting side by side..

2. Keep the Mercury Redstone kit in stock configuration and make the Jupiter-C fins identical to the MR.

3. Keep the Jupiter-C in stock configuration and make the MR idental to the J-C.

For those scale buffs the Estes version is scale in length and the smaller outboard square fins are scale, however the diagonal portion of the fins are 3/8" wider on the Estes than they should be. You could probably make them scale and play with it.

It's a BT-70 kit.

Yeah I know. I dug out my Redstone and crunched a few numbers.
I'll draw up a picture and send you the dimensions so if you want you can make them scale.
If not I can just waste my time anyway and add them to my grow cashe of useless information. :rolleyes: