I could've sworn she had some bikini shots that were floating around as well. I seem to recall some TRF'ers being offended.

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Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
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Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

I also have the LOC kit - although I've not started to build it yet. I picked up the LOC in large part to be a replacement for the Sheri's Saturn - since I fly it regularly I figure eventually something bad will happen to it (this is my second Sheri's Saturn V - the first was written off after the previously mentioned J275W case failure). My disappointment with the LOC kit is that nearly complete lack of scale detail - the Sheri's Saturn details may be of so-so quality, but at least they're there. In fact, when I do build the LOC Saturn, I will likely use the Sheri's as a baseline for adding the scale details (the full size drawing that came with the Sheri's kits is a nice touch for adding the details).

The Skunkworks/Polecat Saturn V that I used for my L3 cert has a 98mm center surrounded by four 54mm outboards. I used a single 75mm M1293W for my L3 cert - and just for that it needed 10 lbs. of nose ballast. Although I doubt I'll ever do it, doing a full five motor cluster reportedly requires upwards of 35 lbs. of nose ballast

Always liked that Polecat one.

Knew the LOC one would NEVER be one I wanted, due to lack of detail, but at least they are up-front about their kit.
If I would have bought a Sheri's, it would have been returned after examination.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Ok, yep, that’s a boat anchor no doubt. But, with that much juice in the tail it ain’t gonna sit in the pad long!

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I'd put the quality of the Skunkworks/Polecat Saturn as roughly on a par with the Sheri's kits. OK, buildable, but basic. Mediocre part quality and many of the parts didn't fit and required significant rework.
The glassed surface of the main body tube took a great deal of finishing effort (I ended up using a technique similar to what I did for the Sheri's tubes. smearing filler over the entire tube and sanding it down). The 'scale details' consisted of ~ eight hundred half-round dowels (that needed to be individually sanded and glued in place - don't ask how long that took ) and blocks of wood that need to be hand formed to the appropriate shape. The only part that was particularly noteworthy (in a positive way) was that huge fiberglass nose cone (everything above the second stage) and even it's not very scale accurate...

Skunkworks vs. Skankworks. Can you choose wisely?

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

Yeah..... I tend to avoid SKANKS.
There is at least one place that Skanks are MANDATORY.
In Mötley Crüe videos... that's a must.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Especially the later ones pulled from worn-out molds with half the detail missing... Later! OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Well, for one the "scale" details on the capsules were all wrong... whomever did their original masters just did "whatever looked good" which kinda defeats the purpose of a "scale" kit, particularly a BIG one where much smaller details are visible due to the larger size...

Then they cheaped out so much that at the last they were sending out kits with half the details missing off the capsules and parts... their molds were COMPLETELY worn out and the details were lost. Their materials weren't very good either so I heard-- lots of "carpet tube" and stuff like that instead of better quality tubing from tubing mfg's for rockets that size that WAS available.

The nicest things about the kits were the turned aluminum rocket nozzles, which looked like real rocket nozzles and served as screw-on rear closures to hold an APCP motor in the rocket... BUT Sheri and her ex had a VERY messy divorce and apparently a machinist friend of HIS was making the aluminum nozzles for them at cost or for a modest fee, and of course he QUIT making them for her once she divorced his buddy.

She moved to Hawaii from the west coast (VERY expensive move and expensive to live in Hawaii) and apparently was SO short of cash and materials that she stiffed a bunch of people on high-dollar kits that she never delivered, or delivered incomplete if they got anything at all. When she was called out on it she was positively SHRIEKING at anybody who questioned her on it, and then quit the rocket community altogether.

Red Arrow Hobbies bought the SHR line from her (or whomever had rights to it, assuming it was her) and the remaining stock, and started revamping the line probably about 10 years ago... I visited Red Arrow Hobbies one time when I was up in Michigan from Indiana on a sweet black cherry/farm equipment run, and he was kind enough to show me some of the stuff he got from Sheri as part of the deal-- all of it substandard and "unusable"... He told me the story and was in the process of having NEW masters made by an excellent modeler; these were complete with the ACTUAL scale details and were extremely accurate-- VERY nice master he showed me, absolutely NO COMPARISON to the substandard "that looks about right" masters that Sheri had been using (for instance, the windows on her Gemini capsule were COMPLETELY the wrong size and shape, and the screw detail on the "shingles" on the surface of the capsule were all wrong... his NEW master corrected ALL those deficiencies and added a LOT of detail totally missing from hers...

He also told me he was trying to find someone who could turn the aluminum nozzles/retainers for him... so far (at that time) all the machinists he'd talked to wanted SO MUCH per unit to do them, even in bulk orders, that it would effectively DOUBLE the price of an already expensive kit... so he was still trying, but considering the option of just including drawings/instructions for the kit purchaser to have them made locally at their own expense *IF* they so chose...

OF course that was a long time ago, probably close to ten years ago, and Red Arrow Hobbies is no more... It looked like a rather shoestring operation even then, basically a nearly dark, un-air-conditioned (on a 95 degree day within sight of Lake Michigan and the humidity off it= unpleasant) old store of some sort (looked like a former appliance store or small supermarket building) and boxes everywhere, and about 1/4 of the store was dedicated to homebrewing supplies to make your own beer... He fell on hard times later on and now Red Arrow is gone as well.

Later! OL J R : )

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!