Having unearthed the corpse of my Custom Stealth Interceptor recently, and also having noticed the list of vintage Custom OOP plans at YORS, I got interested in the idea of cloning a few of the better looking birds in the original Custom series. I ordered several of the BT-60 and BT-55 cones and they arrived yesterday, so I spent the morning coming up with two OOP BT-55 and two BT-60 rockets to clone. I came up with the Landviper, Lightnin', Lamprey and Bullet, and got started on the Lamprey immediately. It's a fairly standard 3fnc bird, but the paint reminds me of an old Estes favorite, the Rogue. The fillets are still drying, but here's a little of the progress so far.



A quick flip through the mid-90's Custom catalog is kind of depressing. Does anyone but me think these rockets make today's Custom offerings look pretty stale? Maybe Custom also needs to get into "bring back" mode.
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rock.../94custcat.html

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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

they have five new kits,, warning... hold on to your hat these are really groundbreaking

http://www.customrocketcompany.com/index.html

Bill - I quite agree. Some of those older Custom kits were great designs (I still have a soft spot for the Dynamic Carrier). I really don't understand why Custom doesn't re-release them.

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John
YORF #003
SAM #004

I've got a Dynamic Carrier that's almost ready for paint and a Satellite Drone that I built incorrectly because I was watching a baseball game instead of paying attention to what I was doing. My Stealth Interceptor is pretty well trashed, but easily rebuilt with the nose cone and some BT-55 and BT-50 tubing. I'm kind of amazed at how primitive the instructions were for these kits. The only painting instructions for the Lamprey, (an admittedly simple paint scheme, but still,) are "Spray the model with enamel spray." They're still nice looking kits, and I'll take anything over the "plastic fin can/sticker decal" crap they're running out today.

__________________
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

The catalogue is a real eye opener. If it wasn't for stuff like Gallileo, you would think they were a different company.

I've been curious about "The Custom Story"... I know the basic "story" behind pretty much all of the current rocket companies... most tell it on their website and / or have owners that hang out with us on the various forums, but I've never seen anyone from Custom and know nothing about them as a company. Insight anyone?

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Daniel Runyon Net