What kind of rockets do you favor building? Check whatever/as many as you like. How about a little of the "why?" you like to build such and such types of rockets.

I like sport and sounding rockets for the simple reason that they look the way I think a rocket should look. Nothing wrong with man carriers—I just haven't had an itch to build one yet.

__________________
Retro-grouch

Much like yourself, I favored the sounding rockets when I started. But, lately I have taken to exotic rockets to get away from the 3FNC syndrome.
__________________________________________________ ___

Started with them, but got tired of 3FNC

Mostly do Sci Fi, Fantasy, Odd Roc now

I like them all and have multiples of each category on display. However, when I look at my sport rockets I find that they are almost all classics from the golden era of rocketry. I have very few modern examples.

__________________
I love sanding.

So there needs to be a category for "classic sport" rockets

Of course, this being YORF, I suppose that's to be expected

BTW, mine, too.

In fact, I'm even more narrowly focused on variations of the K-40. Maybe foamy shoulda included a Midgets category

Doug

.

__________________
YORF member #11

One of the advantages of low power rockets is that they come in a variety of designs. Most of the MPR/HPR come in the simple 3FNC formula that it can get boring after awhile. I don't see a lot of fantasy rockets in the MPR/HPR range although some do exist.

That's a good point. I can only think of a handful of scale and oddroc mid- and high-power kits. And many of them are of uncertain and intermittent supply. SHR had a pretty big Sat 1B. Tango Papa had 1.6x and 2x scale Mars Landers. Neibauer had a 4" Mercury-Redstone. I'm sure there were a few more, but not a lot.

That said, I've seen quite a few upscale clones (ie, scratch builds) of classic sport, scale and odd-roc kits.

I tend to build mostly from scratch, be it LPR, MPR or HPR. My perception is that lots of folks who fly MPR and HPR tend to be more scratch oriented. If that's true, that may explain the lack of kits at that level. It may be there is disproportionately less demand than for LPR. But some of the MPR and/or HPR home built oddrocs I've seen include an X-30, a 4X Orbital Transport, a giant X-wing fighter, and an Me-163 with ~5 foot wingspan. So there is definitely some interest, but not necessarily enough to drive supply.

That is, it may be a lack of critical mass (of demand). Given the MPR and HPR market sizes are much smaller than LPR (in terms of units sold), it may be that, if, for example, 10% of LPR is odd rocs, the corresponding 10% of the mid-power market is so small as to be of insufficient size to tool up for.

Another perspective is that MPR and HPR tend to present other challenges that preclude the details of odd and scale rockets. For example, if I'm worried about building an av-bay, I may not want the added challenges of dealing with a Saturn paint scheme or hinged Mars Lander legs.

That is, with the added challenges of reloads and altimeters, I'm sure some rocketeers want to keep the rest of it simple and straightforward - ie, 3FNC.

Doug

.

__________________
YORF member #11

I favor designing, building and flying Jet aircraft rockets. Just my thing.

__________________
If it flies, I can crash it!

SF-style rockets are what drew me into this hobby and keeps me here the most. I like interesting designs beyond the usual 3 or 4FNC.

That said, I also like scale manned & sounding rocket kits and military ordinance, usually if they're interesting designs with lots of tanks, engine bells and surface structures - things like Vostok, Taurus, Jayhawk, etc.

But I build all sorts. They all have their appeal!

__________________
BAR after a 29 year absence. Using my plastic, resin & vinyl kit building skills (and my paycheck)
to build what I could only dream of as an 11 year old...

My Rocketreviews.com Gallery

Personally, i like the old '70s sci-fy models. they look great, compared to the things estes is pulling out today.