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luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:06 PM
I was in recent communication with Wes, aka Dr. Zooch, and he inquired whether I might be interested in doing a beta-build of his new ANT-SCALE MERCURY REDSTONE kit. I JUMPED at the chance! So, after a couple days waiting on the mail, the kit arrived in my mailbox out here on the farm, right in the middle of baling hay. I had to curb my enthusiasm a couple days until I finished my work and had time to dive into the build. SO, let's get to it!

First off, this is a NEW KIT, built in an 'ant-scale' that approximately matches that of the BT-60 based Atlas Agena kit Dr. Zooch has had out for some time, and which itself makes a VERY VERY nice model! I also have a sneaking suspicion that the capsule and tower of this kit will eventually make their way on top of the Atlas model to make a quite impressive Mercury Atlas model... at least I hope so! The new Mercury Redstone is based on a BT-50 tube and capsule to put the 70 inch Redstone rocket into the appropriate "ant-scale" with the 120 inch BT-60 Atlas model. They look GREAT together! The kit comes with four capsule wraps to model any of the Mercury Redstone flights, from the 'plain jane' black capsule from the abortive MR-1 and subsequent MR-1A and Ham the Chimp's MR-2 flight, MRBD, to Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 and Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 that completed the Redstone flights.

Upon opening the box, you'll find the BT-50 body tube, a BT-20 motor tube, the balsa capsule nosecone, a Mercury capsule escape tower kitbag containing 3 wooden sticks, 3 fine metal wires, a toothpic end "aero-spike" for the tower top, and a short piece of wood dowel for the LES motor can itself. There's also a recovery kitbag containing a snap swivel, screw eye, engine clip, BT-20 engine block, and a launch lug. Inside the box are also a pair of 20/50 centering rings, a sheet of balsa fin stock, the wrap sheet, and parachute, kevlar shock cord, elastic shock cord, shroud line string, and tape dot rings for the chute. You bring the glue, hobby knife, sandpaper, and skills

We start with the simplest part of the build... the capsule (note I didn't say tower... ) Take the balsa nosecone and paint a black band on the bottom with a little black paint; I used Testors. If I understand correctly, this step may be eliminated in the final kit, but I include it here since I did it according to the present instructions. Choose which flight vehicle/capsule you wish to model and cut the appropriate wrap from the wrap sheet, and use a bit of white glue to glue the capsule wrap together into a cone shape. Once dry test fit it over the balsa nosecone, and then apply some white glue to the cone exterior and slide the wrap over it and press gently into place. The wrap SHOULD extend a bit below the shoulder of the cone, to mate up well with the booster/capsule adapter band that the Mercury Redstones used, which will be installed on the rocket later. Cut the recovery compartment, antenna fairing, and nosecap fairing from the wrap sheet and glue them up using a little white glue. I'd recommend some cheap hemostats for clamps while the glue dries. Once dry, test fit the recovery compartment band to the top cylinder of the balsa capsule above the capsule bell wrap, and if the fit is too tight, gently sand the top cylinder of the balsa down a bit until the wrap slides over smoothly and easily. Apply some white glue and slide the wrap into place, aligning the seams on the bell and the cylinder. This kit doesn't use the typical "black dot" of the larger BT-60 Mercury Redstone that Dr. Zooch has been selling for awhile, so I painted the top of the capsule black since it would be partially exposed and visible. Once dry, glue the conical antenna fairing centered on the flat top of the balsa capsule, and then the nose cap fairing on top of that, aligning all the seams. Dr. Zooch recommends rubbing regular pencil lead over the edges of the paper to darken it a bit and blend it in with the rest of the capsule, which is printed in a color to blend with the pencil lead. The effect is subtle but it works. Pens and markers are NOT recommended for this step. Your Mercury capsule is now complete, on to the hard stuff... We'll cover that in the next post...

Here are a few pics...

Later! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:12 PM
SO now down to the hard part... The LES TOWER... For those that have built the BT-60 based standard Mercury Redstone kit and thought IT was small, this is even smaller... but certainly not impossible. In fact, if I can do it with my smashed up cut up worn out "twinkie finger" farm hands, then most everyone else should have no problems either!

From the LES kitbag, retrieve the 3 wood sticks. They're square, and if you want a more 'scale-like' tower you'll want to round them with sandpaper. I did a little experimenting and the most comfortable method I found for me was to hold the sandpaper down on the workmat, and gently roll/sand the sticks against the paper at about a 45 degree angle. Once the corners have been taken off, I held the miniscule stick (a little over an inch long or so) against one finger and gently sanded them down while rotating slightly after several sanding strokes. Don't oversand; they'll still feel slightly 'square' after rouding off the corners, and the more you sand off them, the more likely you'll inadvertantly break one, and weaken the finished structure at any rate, and these things are small enough that just rounding the corners off produces the desired effect. Once you have all three sticks done, set them aside.

Cut the triangular template from the wrap sheet and glue it to the balsa sheet, and when dry cut the triangular brace from the balsa. Carefully trim half a whisker's width (ok about 1/32 inch) off each corner so the sticks have a flat spot to glue to. Using a bit of wax paper as a work surface, carefully align the stick's ends parallel and square but about 1/8-3/16 inch apart. Put the balsa brace about 1/3 of the way up from the ends of the sticks, and using a bit of white glue or CA, carefully tack glue them in place. Don't go crazy with the glue-- you'll remove this brace later on. Just tack the sticks in place. Once dry, rotate the unused triangle point down and glue the remaining stick parallel with the other two, forming a tiny tripod.

Next, from the LES kitbag, get the short fat dowel and inspect it. If the ends aren't square, use a bit of sandpaper or an emory board to sand it square and smooth, and gently dress the top and bottom edges a tiny bit. Once done, cut a 6 inch strip of paper off the edge of the wrap sheet, about 3/32 inch wide (just over 1/16 inch) and cut it into TWO 2 inch pieces, and TWO 1 inch pieces. These will be the LES motor can bands. Using white glue, coat one side of the 2 inch pieces one at a time, and wrap them TWICE overlapping themselves around each end of the dowel "motor can" to make a 'double thick' band on each end. The top band should be FLUSH with the top of the dowel; the LOWER band should be recessed about 1/16 inch from the bottom of the motor dowel, leaving room for the stick tower legs to be glued on below them. The 1 inch pieces can then be similarly coated on glue on one side and then glued to the motor can equally spaced between the top and bottom bands. The 1-inch pieces do NOT overlap each other, making a much lower 'step' in the band and making it look smaller, like on the prototype. I kept the seams pretty much aligned with each other to minimize their appearance.

Now take the LES motor dowel and glue it to the stick tripod from earlier, using yellow wood glue. Make sure the LES motor dowel has the stepped (slightly recessed band) end down, to create a small 'step' for the dowels below the band, and is as parallel and straight as you can get it. Once dry, paint the whole thing red.

More pics and more to come... OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:15 PM
Here's a few more details of the tower legs and fabrication... and a few more pics...

More to come... OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:17 PM
Now you arrive at a crossroads-- You must choose, young Padawan, whether to pursue your Jedi skills, or embrace the Dark Side... "quicker, easier, more seductive the Dark Side is" but beware, "anger, fear, aggression..." may await you young Padawan! "Choose you must, how to serve them best..." You can either use Method A to build the tower to look like "the real thing", which will require you to 'stretch out with your feelings' and embrace some very fine detail work, or, you can choose Method B, which uses a paper wrap similar to the Zooch Saturn V to make the tiny tower, BUT, "If you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil!" (Ok, probably not, but your model will look a lot suckier!) As the good Dr. says in the instructions, even a BAD Method A tower will look better than a GOOD Method B tower! SO GO FOR IT!!!!

Method A:
Retrieve the 3 fine wires from the LES kitbag, and paint them red (I clamped the very ends in clothespins and painted them Testors Red like the tower) Once all the glue and paint is dry, mark each leg about 3/8 inch from the LES motor, and again 3/8 inch below that, then carefully remove the tiny triangular brace from between the three tower legs using tweezers or a small pair of pliers. Be VERY gentle here-- you DON'T want to break the legs off the LES motor can instead! Once done, test fit the tower to the top of the capsule conical antenna cover, about halfway down (DO NOT put the tower legs all the way down against the top of the balsa capsule-- you need to leave room for the inverted "V" legs below the three main legs that joined the real tower to the real capsule!) Apply some glue (white glue is probably best for a wood/paper joint like this) and then very carefully align the tower with the roll axis of the capsule. I set the capsule down on the workmat and gently turned it between two fingers to make sure the capsule was centered-- if it 'wobbles" straighten it up until you've got it the best you can get it. Once dry, you can start cutting and gluing the cross-braces and angled braces in using the previously red-painted fine wires. It's recommended you hold them up against the position they're intended to go on the tower, and then carefully snip them to length using a pair of nail clippers. This works fairly well but it's delicate work. Once snipped, carefully glue them into position. I used wood glue but you can use CA if you choose. The angled braces go down and to the left. Once done, go over the joints with a second application of glue to ensure everything stays put. At the bottom of each leg, cut two small pieces to "connect" the flat top of the balsa nosecone (the flat top of the "recovery compartment") with the bottom of each tower leg, forming an inverted "V". Once dry, rotate the capsule 120 degrees and repeat twice.

Method B:

Glue the LES motor can and stick legs on the top of the capsule, trying to get it as straight as possible. Cut the paper LES braces wrap from the wrap sheet, and then carefully glue it over the legs. You can leave the triangular brace in there, since it will be hidden.

Your capsule tower is now completed. Now young Padawan, you've either affirmed your status as a "steely-eyed missile man" or a "squirming hatch-blower" and you can congratulate yourself appropriately... (remind me not to mix metaphors... I'm confused! LOL

More pics and more to come... OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:20 PM
Once you've completed the tower by either method A or B, and perhaps touched up the paint a bit in places like I did (since snipping the wires tends to chip the paint, and painting over the glue makes it look better) you're ready for the LES motor nozzles. Cut the three nozzles from the wrap sheet, and carefully roll them into their conical shape and glue them up. Again I recommend cheap hemostats for clamps-- I have about ten of them that I carefully remove the serrated clamping face on a grinder (or with a dremel) so the jaws are smooth. The work GREAT for this kind of fine clamping work, and tweezers are handy in placing the tower wires as well. Another handy trick is to use a toothpic with a tiny TINY droplet of glue on the tip to pick the wires up and place them. You could probably just lick the end of the toothpick as well, to make it sticky enough to pick up the tiny wire bits and carefully place them on the tower legs.

You'll also need to cut out the clamp ring fairing from the wrap sheet and glue it up. Once dry, carefully darken the exposed edges with a pencil, and then slide it over the capsule and glue it in place at the top edge of the capsule recovery compartment at the base of the tower "inverted V" legs.

Take the dry LES nozzles and trim the pointy ends at a slight angle so they glue up to the underside of the LES motor can a bit more easily, and carefully glue them in place. You can paint them first, or paint them after they're installed and glued up, so you can paint over the glue. Also glue on the toothpic "aero-spike" end on top of the LES motor can, and paint it when dry. If the toothpic end looks "too fat" for your tastes, you CAN use a bit of the leftover tower bracing wire to make the aerospike instead. Now to the easy stuff...

Make the motor mount in the usual way-- cut a slit in the tube for the motor hook 2 1/2 inches from one end, put a drop of CA to strengthen the tube at this point, cut out and glue on the reinforcement band just below the slit to stiffen the tube, install the engine hook and tape it down with electrical tape, and glue in the motor block thrust ring. Take the 20/50 centering rings and cut slits on the inside of them, about 1/8 inch apart or so, but only cut PARTWAY through the ring, and carefully remove the material from the notches. Trim both rings in this manner-- the lower one to clear the motor hook, the upper one to provide clearance for the kevlar shock cord. Tie a loop in the kevlar shockcord and put it over the motor tube, and thread the upper centering ring over the shock cord and slide it over the motor tube, gluing it in place. Glue the lower centering ring over the engine hook 3/8 inch up from the bottom. Fillet the centering rings in position.

Using an angle or doorjamb, put a vertical line down the main body tube. Cut the main body wrap from the sheet, and apply about a 3/8-1/2 inch wide swath of white glue all the way around the edge of the wrap sheet, and carefully roll the wrap onto the main body tube, aligned carefully with the index line you just made. Ensure the color bands are aligned, and that the wrap is EVEN WITH THE BOTTOM of the main body tube, which will leave a small gap at the top. THIS IS INTENTIONAL. Burnish the wrap down and set it aside to dry. Don't put glue across the whole back of the sheet, or it won't fit properly, and won't lay down right. It works fine just gluing the edges.

Next, glue the motor mount into the rocket. The bottom centering ring should be flush with the bottom end of the tube. Remember that the WIDE black/white roll pattern is at the bottom, and the NARROW roll pattern with many bars is at the top! BE SURE that you install the motor mount with the motor hook turned TO THE MIDDLE of one of the roll pattern bands, NOT THE EDGES OF THE BANDS. The fins glue on at the edges of the roll pattern bands, and if the motor hook is aligned with a fin, IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BE OPENED because the fins overlap the motor tube a bit below the main body tube. This isn't particularly pointed out in the instructions and I didn't particularly notice it in the picture, but luckily my motor hook was about 1/3 of the way between the two fins, so it was ok, but could easily have been a "gotcha" that would have been hard to fix.

More to come! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:23 PM
Ok... now to the fins. Cut the templates from the wrap sheet and trace it onto the balsa, being mindful of the grain direction for maximum fin strength. Each fin is composed of two seperate pieces. One is the inner larger roughly triangular main fin, the other is the smaller outer steerable air vane fin that the Redstone used for stability. These are cut out as two seperate pieces and then glued together. After they're cut out and stack-sanded to identical size/shape, I then carefully sanded a 'wedge' cross-section on the front of each fin, keeping it as symmetrical as possible. Once done, I then actually exceeded the instructions and papered the fins. I cut a sheet of typing paper into roughly quarters, and applied a thin layer of white glue to it, then glued the fin down to the paper with the leading edge pointing toward the center of the piece. Then I applied some glue to the other side and the exposed face of the fin, and gently folded the leading edge of the fin over onto the other half of the paper, keeping the paper taut against the leading edge. Once glued down, burnish the paper down tightly on the fin and work the excess glue out from under the paper from the leading edge toward the trailing, root, and tip edges of the fin. Set them aside to dry. I sanded the tip vanes into wedge shaped leading edges and then using a smaller strip of paper, similarly glued them up in the paper, folded over the leading edge. Once dry, cut the fins out of the paper, carefully shave the edges down with the hobby knife until the paper is precisely shaved off at the trailing, root, and tip edges of the fins. Then, using some wood glue, glue the trimmed tip fins onto the tip edge of the main fins as outlined in the instructions. Set them on a flat surface to dry flat and true...

You'll notice in the picture of the body tube and wrap in the last post that I actually went beyond the instructions a bit and cut a slit in the paper wrap and removed the excess paper from the body tube so the fins could be glued directly to the tube itself rather than the overlying paper wrap. This is purely at your option, but it's not too hard to do. Simply carefully align the fin like you were going to glue it in place, and gently outline it with a fine point pencil. Remove the fin and carefully cut through the wrap with your hobby knife, then gently remove the excess paper from the cut. Don't cut down into the tube below. It can be a bit difficult to remove the paper near the bottom of the wrap, because it will be firmly glued to the tube beneath, but some careful cutting and scraping with the hobby knife will remove it with some care and time, and will result in a MUCH stronger joint between the fins and body tube.

Next, carefully mark the fins' positions on the body tube, relative to the roll pattern colors (the fins' sides alternate between solid black, solid white, and white top halves with black bottom halves and vice versa. Carefully mark where the color dividing lines are, and I put a "B" for black over the part of the fin that should be painted black adjacent to the black parts of the body wrap roll pattern. I then carefully painted the proper parts of the fins black with Testor's flat black and let them dry. I then applied double glue joints and let it dry, and then reapplied some glue to the joint and glued the fins to the rocket in their proper positions. I then filleted the fins with Titebond Moulding and Trim Glue. I also trimmed the front and back ends of the launch lug at an angle and then glued it into the fin root.

You'll also cut the black band from the center of the wrap sheet. It's a long thin band about 1/8 inch wide. Apply glue to the backside of it, and wrap it around the very top of the body tube in the gap directly above the main body wrap. It will overlap itself to create a stepped ring around the top of the body tube, which the capsule will then butt up against when installed, simulating the adapter ring used to mate the Mercury capsule to the Redstone booster.

That just leaves assembling the parachute-- I got one of the prized RED parachutes in my kit. It's already cut out, so just apply the tape rings to the corners, cut the shroud string into 3 equal lengths and tie it to parallel corners to eliminate tangles, and then draw them up evenly and push the loop through the snap swivel, push the swivel through the loop, and draw the slip knot up tight, and apply a dab of glue to lock the swivel in place on the shroud lines. Invert the capsule and screw the screw eye to one side of the pre-installed counterweight, which is factory-installed in a drilled hole in the capsule base covered over with wood filler. Screw the screw eye in and then remove it, apply some CA to harden the hole, apply a drop of wood glue to the screw eye, and screw it back into the hole. Tie the elastic shock cord onto the screw eye, and tie the other end to the kevlar shock cord leader coming out of the bodytube. I tied a loop in the kevlar end and then tied the elastic to that.

Voila-- et fini! (that means "hey you're done!") Enjoy your mini-Mercury Redstone! Rocksim shows it should make about 1,400 feet at nearly 400 feet/second on a C6-7 motor! A more reasonable B6-4 should send it up to about 600 feet or so. We finally got 6 inches of rain over the weekend, so I won't get to fly mine any time soon, but Wes informed me he flew his at MDRA over the weekend with great success, though with a 1/2 mile walk to retrieve it! Enjoy!

This is a very interesting kit and a great skill builder! I feel a LOT more confidence now in my tower building capabilities-- not that I did the greatest job in the universe, far from it-- BUT it ain't bad, considering this is the FIRST kit I ever built that included building an LES tower, and a VERY DIMINUITIVE ONE AT THAT!!! I'm quite confident I can whip those Saturn I/IB towers, and bigger Mercury Redstone tower fairly easily now, where I was rather reticent before! Bring it on!!!

I think this'll make a terrific addition to Dr. Zooch's line, and I'm hoping it will soon lead to a Mercury Atlas kit as well... That'd be a really nice thing to have as well! For now, though, enjoy another fine addition to the Mercury Redstone options available, and pick one of these babies up from Dr. Zooch Rockets!!!

Later! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:25 PM
Now for the glamour shots... I managed to get these shots on my "Pad 34Z (Z for Zooch)" Saturday evening after the rain, just before a brilliant sunset! I also got a couple indoor shots with my Zooch Atlas Agena!

Enjoy! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2010, 01:28 PM
Few more pics... enjoy! OL JR

jamjammer53150
05-19-2010, 06:12 AM
Is this a new redstone?
I already built Zooch and i was a by60

And where did the atlas come from

Rocketcrab
05-19-2010, 06:52 AM
Is this a new redstone?
I already built Zooch and i was a by60

And where did the atlas come from


Thats what I was wondering [about the Mercury Redstone I mean]. I have one sitting down in the basement still in it's box, and I thought it was BT-60 based. :confused:

jamjammer53150
05-19-2010, 08:16 AM
It is , and I already built mine , Nice kit BTW relaxing no pressure build . Havent flown it yet .
I built the zooch Saturn 5 as well , again very relaxing low pressure project

luke strawwalker
05-19-2010, 10:20 AM
Is this a new redstone?
I already built Zooch and i was a by60

And where did the atlas come from

Yes, this is an ALL NEW Mercury Redstone... it's sized to be *roughly* the same scale as the BT-60 version of the Atlas Agena model that Dr. Zooch sells, which I did a build thread on last year, here:

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=5647&highlight=Atlas+Agena

The Redstone was 70 inches in diameter (according to ROTW) and the Atlas was 120 inches. SO, using a BT-50 with a diameter of 0.976 inches gives a scaling factor of 0.01394, or a 1.39% scale. The BT-60 Atlas with a diameter of 1.637 gives a scaling factor of 0.01364, or 1.36% scale. As you can see, that's pretty close-- only 0.3% difference in scale... not perfect but plenty 'nuf for "ant scale" (Dr. Zooch LOATHES to discuss scale because all his kits are "sport scale" anyway, not meant to be perfect competition scalers!)

The Atlas is a fun kit that looks GREAT when it's finished! I would recommend staying away from "chrome in a can" though... that stuff sucks!

Dr. Zooch told me he plans on coming out with a BT-60 MERCURY ATLAS based on the Atlas Agena kit (BT-60, like the Atlas Agena, only with a Mercury capsule instead of the BT-50 Agena tube and nosecone in it's place).

I'll be first in line for one of those Mercury Atlas kits when they come out, lemme tell ya!

Later! OL JR :)

luke strawwalker
05-19-2010, 10:24 AM
BTW, I presume (and we know how presumptions go) that Dr. Zooch will continue to sell the "regular" BT-60 based Mercury Redstone; this kit is (I think, don't want to speak for the "Doc" here!) an adjunct to the Atlas-Agena kit and the soon coming Mercury Atlas kit.

IIRC the BT-60 Mercury Redstone was "loosely based" on the old Estes Mercury Redstone kit from back in the day, before they became the 'plastic wonders'...

I remember reading that somewhere... :)

Later! OL JR :)

jamjammer53150
05-19-2010, 10:26 AM
Put me second for the Atlas .
Yippy one i can build with out fear of ruining a collectors item

wes oleszewski
05-19-2010, 05:43 PM
This Mercury Redstone kit is an all -new, smaller version of out T60 MR. This one is officially called "Freedom 7" and is being released looking forward to next year's 50th anniversary of the actual Freedom 7 flight. The rocket is a part of my "No Arc" line- in that it does not arc over, not even on a C6-7. Additionally, on that engine it can fly over 1,400 feet. In the months ahead it will be joined by a Mercury Version of my Atlas kit, which BTW uses the exact same capsule. The kits will provide different capsule wraps for every Mercury flight on the launch vehicles (including Big Joe for the Atlas) The kits will retail (on our web site at least) for $24.95. Expect all of our retailers to carry the Freedom 7 kit by mid-summer.

YES- we'll always be selling the T60 based MR.

Wes Oleszewski
Dr. Zooch Rockets

jamjammer53150
05-19-2010, 06:26 PM
It will be awsome to have a scale set Thanks , I know ill buy both !
And as a note , love your kits , I always have one building on the side , there no pressure nice looking kits ( I do detail them up a bit) and I stole the moter technique for some other projects

hcmbanjo
05-21-2010, 11:09 PM
IIRC the BT-60 Mercury Redstone was "loosely based" on the old Estes Mercury Redstone kit from back in the day, before they became the 'plastic wonders'...

I remember reading that somewhere... :)

Later! OL JR :)

I can't speak for Wes, but I did see similarities with the Estes kit.

Like the Dr. Zooch version, the original version of the Estes Mercury Redstone was BT-60 based. They are both 23.5" tall.

The Estes version didn't give you dowels to make the tower. In the kit was a flat piece of wood (density of basswood but like mahogany) with rounded "strips" pressed into the wood. You cut the strips off and rounded them with sandpaper.

The Estes version had five pieces to each fin. They were near to impossible to fill and sand once glued together.

The Zooch capsule is much like the Estes was, printed cardstock wraps were used. I was working at a printshop at the time and remember thinking how bad the graphics on the Estes capsule was. The Zooch capsule graphics are much better.

luke strawwalker
05-22-2010, 12:50 AM
I can't speak for Wes, but I did see similarities with the Estes kit.

Like the Dr. Zooch version, the original version of the Estes Mercury Redstone was BT-60 based. They are both 23.5" tall.

The Estes version didn't give you dowels to make the tower. In the kit was a flat piece of wood (density of basswood but like mahogany) with rounded "strips" pressed into the wood. You cut the strips off and rounded them with sandpaper.

The Estes version had five pieces to each fin. They were near to impossible to fill and sand once glued together.

The Zooch capsule is much like the Estes was, printed cardstock wraps were used. I was working at a printshop at the time and remember thinking how bad the graphics on the Estes capsule was. The Zooch capsule graphics are much better.

That's one thing I REALLY like about Dr. Zooch rockets-- the material quality is MUCH better than a lot of stuff I got from Estes over the years... and the price is VERY competitive or in a lot of cases much cheaper than other such offerings (semiscaler's) from other vendors, Estes in particular...

AND, if you have a problem, Wes has ALWAYS been quick-as-a-whip to support his customers with replacment parts ASAP, even when it was really "the builder's fault" rather than the kits... That is something that has sadly slipped somewhat with Estes, IMHO and from personal experience...

Later! OL JR :)

luke strawwalker
05-31-2010, 12:04 AM
Now have pics of the liftoff and recovery... well, two anyway.

Special thanks go to Randy Milliken, who was out visiting with us from Indiana and took these photos! I appreciate it Randy!

Enjoy! OL JR

PS... Dr. Zooch reports he'll begin building the first run of this kit this week, so it should be on the website soon!