Estes Collosus advice / Input

[Green Dragon]

ok guys, just wanted to toss this out and see what the 'community' thinks, lol ...

I recently ( a few months back :-( .... crashed my vintage Maxi Alpha 3 , that I;ve had since 1985 ish .
Many flights, but repainted it yellow with the Bt50 Alpha decals in the early 90's.
old shock cord snapped, even though it stretch tested ok , and .. prangsville.... cone is ok, fin can is ok .
I was going to repair / restore it, but then when I realized that the Collossus has 36 : of BT80 , and I happen to have a few 36" BT80 tubes laying around.....
plus I always wanted one since I crasjed my last one... and have a partial set of decals ( and Tango Papa has these, too ) .

side note - we had a pile of these kits back in the late 80's, a local Estes distributor use to donate OOP / leftover kits to our club for contest prizes, we won a few o fthe Collossus kits - used to build em up for HPR and crash / lose em ... if we only knew..... we also use to use the tubes / parts from other winnings to build more contest birds, so I have ( had since I sold a few ) a large assortment of original decals, some die-cut fins,etc... slowly finding plans and rebuilding the 'not-quite-clones' , lol ...

ANYWAYS .. after my long babbling .. brings me to the question :

I;m now having second thoughts on rebuilding a Maxi Alpha 3 vs Colossus , and was wondering about building the COllossus using lite-ply fins and longer BT80 .

1 ) has anyone done that ?

2) is that 'acceptable' , since most ppl wouldn;t know anyways - or is it a 'violation of the original' . lol .....

just curious as to input, since I was thinking now that the multi-piece fin unit is better to use for a Maxi Alpha 3 , since that one sort-of 'needs' the unit to look right ?

( might build both ,as I have a line on a beat up old Maxi Alpha 3 that I;d given my cousin way back, he thinks he still has it ......... )

~ AL

[tbzep]

Rebuild the Maxi Alpha 3 and do a Colossus from scratch. The catalog finish of the Maxi Alpha III is unpainted, showing the fin can's plastic rings, etc. that would look odd if done in wood and paint. The catalog finish of the Colossus is white and yellow paint which will better disguise the wood fin substitute. The catalog model is probably made of wooden fins anyway, at least there's no visible fin can rings.

Since the original birds used thin plastic fins, why not use thin aircraft ply instead of basswood? If you want it to look scale, 1/16" ply will probably be stronger and less brittle than typical 1/8" basswood .


OR....

Use the Maxi Alpha 3 to build a Colossus and build a Maxi Alpha (which had regular balsa fins) from scratch anf forget about the M.A. 3.


I bet that helped you with your decision about as little as humanly possible! :D

[barone]

Well, maybe if you bid and win this, you can build the other?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ESTES-MAXI-ALPHA-3-OOP-RARE_W0QQitemZ290016219114QQihZ019QQcategoryZ2567QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Or, did I miss understand the question and you should use plywood fins, that is, 1) no I haven't done that and 2) A clone doesn't have to have all original looking parts...heck, I didn't know the Colossus had a fin unit....


Don
NAR 53455

[Green Dragon]

Rebuild the Maxi Alpha 3 and do a Colossus from scratch. The catalog finish of the Maxi Alpha III is unpainted, showing the fin can's plastic rings, etc. that would look odd if done in wood and paint. The catalog finish of the Colossus is white and yellow paint which will better disguise the wood fin substitute. The catalog model is probably made of wooden fins anyway, at least there's no visible fin can rings.

Since the original birds used thin plastic fins, why not use thin aircraft ply instead of basswood? If you want it to look scale, 1/16" ply will probably be stronger and less brittle than typical 1/8" basswood .


OR....

Use the Maxi Alpha 3 to build a Colossus and build a Maxi Alpha (which had regular balsa fins) from scratch anf forget about the M.A. 3.


I bet that helped you with your decision about as little as humanly possible! :D

LOL ... :D

Not so much helped or otherwise, I'm just curious what the 'purists' / Gurus thought on the subject.

I already have the Maxi Alpha buried in my build pile , I think I cut fins fo rthat, but might've just printed the patterns.

Also agree on the Collossus looking ok without the 'fin rings' , so leaning back towards restoring the Maxi Alpha 3 to catalog paint ( and more drop-staged D12's :)

Thanks for replies and will keep updates.

~ AL

ps: and I am now watching that one, thanks Don ....* sigs in pockets for more than lint :( *

[Green Dragon]

Well, digging through the tubing supply,etc last night and found a nice 18" BT80.

Soooooo... looks like maybe the Maxi Alpha 3 will be reborn.

Collossus to follow - will keep you posted.

~ AL