Earl,

I was disappointed that the "curvy" decals on the kitcards weren't included in any of the kits.

Scan courtesy Kevin Wickart.

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Jay Goemmer
"Centuri Guy"/"Tau Zero"
YORF Member 28
Semroc SAM #0029
NAR 86131


"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014

Lol, my first kit (that never flew and ended up destroyed so I don't really count it) was an Akela-1 from J.C. Penny. The only paint my dad at the house was some brown that was used to paint the fridge to match our new kitchen appliances. He was a mechanic and had been a paint and body man at one time so he bought a can and painted it like a car. It was perfect!

The rocket, however came out fugly since I doused it on without thinning it! The appliances and the rocket were darker than this pic, but it was Nutone that he was matching.

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I love sanding.

Yeah, those are the somewhat later ‘swoosh’ face card design, with the bold, double color swatches down the length of the card. That general design motive started about ‘73 or so and largely replaced the ‘roll pattern’ design motive. But you are right on that particular Excalibur kit; those really nice looking curvy ‘decals’ on the face card were no where to be found in the kit!

Earl

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

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Some kits with nice catalog decals were devoid of any decals, and the instructions were vague or completely different from the catalog models. Estes was bad about the decals and Centuri was bad about giving generic painting guides.

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I love sanding.

Remember the Astron Sprint catalog pic with the Alpha III decals? No decals in the kit!
The Centuri Taurus was a beauty in the catalog, but painting instructions were loose. It had a nice back story, though.

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I love sanding.

Here's a sample of one of the earlier 'roll pattern' face card designs, featuring in this case the somewhat rare Recruiter. Classic Centuri 'look'. This particular kit opened just last night, pretty much right at 50 years from when it was packaged. Had an insert that covered the newly introduced Centuri shock cord fastener, this one featuring the smaller first version of the fastener (it was a bit shorter and a bit wider than the later ones but essentially the same design).

This would be the last version of the Recruiter, with this one more than likely packaged the summer or early fall or so of 1970.

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 was happy to see just the slightest tilt back in the more "organic" feel of the 2020 Estes catalog compared to, say the prior two or three in particular.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

I to miss the classic stile that everything had back when. These day's everything has to have a
shiny bright look to it to get peoples attention. Out of the current Estes line up I have bought
5-6 Kits in the past couple of years. ( just can't Help it), the only new kit that I would like to get is the Orange Bullet because of the historical significance. the other current new offering of merit
is the re-release of the C5-3 engines. NOW Let's get a B14 or B8 back in the line up.
So not to say that Estes did not have cool catalogs back in the day I have to say I was a Centuri
Kid back in the day, I did not build my first Estes kit until 1868.
Attached are my favorite catalogs and kits as I had back in 1966.

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Neal Miller
Master Blaster NAR# 58296

I never understood the Gemini capsule on the Centuri cover as they never offered a Gemini Titan.

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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 !

Nice vintage kits there, Neal. You don't see many of those very early Centuri kits with the color fold-over hang tag, especially those in the style of your Micron. I have an early Arcon in that style, before it was enlarged to the latter Arcon size using ST-10 tubing. Attached is the hang tag from it.

Does your Javelin sport a plastic or balsa nose cone? If from the '69 catalog it is probably balsa, but I'd be interested to see if maybe you have an early 'transitional' version there.

Thanks for posting those!

Earl

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

Rocket-Brained Since 1970