Interceptors and siblings: USS Pleiades, Est1910
 

Estes released a few rockets based on the Interceptor nose cone, or their slight variants. The USS Pleiades included the PNC-55J nose, the single-piece blow mold nose cone also used in the Vindicator. Under close examination, it has slightly different embossed patterns than the original Interceptor 55EJ nose.

This becomes the 2 stage entry in my Interceptor family. I cloned it with Basswood instead of balsa, since I like how easy it is to remove grain patters from basswood. Also, this rocket has extended winglets. The joint between the winglets and the fins looks like a nice fulcrum to break off those winglets, so I figured the strength of basswood would help keep the winglets from breaking off. We'll see.

Of course, the starting point was drawing up the pieces, cutting them with an intensely focused coherent light beam, and then gathering up the rest of what is needed.

I have a mint NIB USS Pleaides kit that I will eventually build.
Got it for around $50.

Lucky dog. I don't think I've seen one while I've looked.

I have everything to clone it in my personal stock. I’ve had them for quite some time.

It’s so old the decals are from JimZ!

Maybe I’ll do a build.

I tweaked the design a bit, so it would fit my concept of what an inbred Interceptor would look like.

I added a pointy thing to the vertical stabilizer.

I added strakes to the wings.

I added "cooling fins" around the booster, to capture the design of the "cooling" fins around the engine mount of an Interceptor. (I don't know how else to describe the stubby fins around the engine mount.

I didn't add skids, as I figured the lower two fins on the booster filled that role.

I left the wing tips alone, as the long radio-antenna looking things filled the spot for the pods.

The fin angles didn't really match my standard fin alignment guide, so I went old-school, and actually eye-balled the fin placement. Except for the winglet placement. I made a simple jig, and tacked it into place while the winglets dried in place.

Here it is after being primed with that thick sandable gray primer, and some body filler to smooth things out

After I painted it with Rustoleum 2X white, I decide to paint those "cooling fins" around the engine mount. Since I put those on the booster, instead of painting the entire booster, I went with just the fins. Here, they are masked off ready to be painted with a brush. I used an oil-based paint, since I was sure the acrylic wouldn't stick very well to the gloss rustoleum.

I had a copy of the decals that I downloaded, so I redrew them for printing. I decided to embellish the decals a bit. I added some from the original Interceptor. I also drew up some to highlight the wings, whereas they were pretty Spartan in the original design.

I also decided that those radio antenna looking things on the winglets looked better as steel instead of white.

And finally, a family photo.