Vintage Estes Black Brant III Build
 

My next build is the Estes Black Brant III. Wood, tubes and decals are in great shape.

Going to be one to watch. Black Brants are my second favorite sounding rocket. By the way, how to you keep the cutting mat sooooo clean?

When I built my BBIII two years ago, the ancient decals nearly turned to shreds on contact with water. You may want to give the sheet a treatment of MicroScale film.

BTW, how DO you keep the mat so clean? MY mats look like a whale had been born on them.

I've tried to reproduce that decal but I can't get a good scan of the National Research Council round emblem.

The new one they use is a lot different so Google was no help.

Could you take a closeup pic of the round blue NRC emblem for me and post it?

Please. :)

The emblem only looks clear on the face card. The actual decal does not look like the one on the face card/catalog. The scanned decal that is posted on the plans section is about as good as the actual decal. I will scan it and see if mine is any better. As with all my vintage builds, I scan the decal and re draw it in Corel, so I can send you my drawing when I am done if that helps.

Try scanning the face card.

Maybe that will work out better but I'll take what I can get.

I just pinged the NRC liaison to see if there are graphics around from that time period. I had good luck with the CALCIT logo for the Explorer satellite, so perhaps there is a chance.

Cool,

The Black Brant III will be an easy kit to clone once I get the decals made up.

The nose and tail cone are available currently from Estes. I just got a bunch of them. ;)

My equine intuition gives me the distinct feeling that perhaps I should print out this above-quoted reply (particularly the second sentence) as a reminder, as well as keep some extra money in my drawer for a potential order of some kind...

When you say "available from Estes" direct or through retailers? I cannot find them locally.