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-   -   Apogee II (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=16925)

Initiator001 11-05-2017 12:36 AM

Apogee II
 
1 Attachment(s)
I finally finished up my Apogee II model today.

It's actually a Thrustline (Remember them?) kit with laser cut fins by Semroc and Excelsior Rocketry decals.

The parachute is an actual late 60s/early 70s Estes 12" black and yellow checkerboard version. The shroud line was still good but the tape strips had passed their expiration date so I substituted some adhesive monokote to secure the shroud lines.

The paint scheme is that which was first seen in the 1971 Estes catalog.

PaulK 11-05-2017 06:56 AM

Nice work, Bob . That's one I've been wanting to clone for years. Yes I remember Thrustline, picked up my first clone kit there, a Cherokee-D. (weird - when Illck on the thumbnail, up comes a sideways stretched image)

LeeR 11-05-2017 05:00 PM

Dittos on the nice job on it. I too see a sideways skinny picture. The post with your two Centurion kits, though, looked fine.

The Apogee II was my first two-stage build, back in the 60s. I think I chose it due to price. It was $2, and the Farsides started at something like 75 cents more! And throw in another 35 cents or so for one more motor — we are talking serious change for a teenage kid in the 60s. :)

Molniya 11-06-2017 08:18 AM

1 Attachment(s)
The Apogee II was my one of my favorite rockets and my first 2 stager. Lost a few of them to the tree monsters in Pelham Bay park (Bronx, NY ). Pictured here is the only surviving rocket from my childhood fleet - built circa 1970. Gonna have to build a clone soon. Thanks for the memories !

tbzep 11-06-2017 08:54 AM

<Molniya's pic>
Good daily driver, lots of character, driven to church by a little old lady. :D



.

Molniya 11-06-2017 10:17 AM

I prefer "vintage"

Gus 11-06-2017 08:48 PM

Really nice, Bob, as always!

blackshire 11-07-2017 08:58 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Initiator001
I finally finished up my Apogee II model today.

It's actually a Thrustline (Remember them?) kit with laser cut fins by Semroc and Excelsior Rocketry decals.

The parachute is an actual late 60s/early 70s Estes 12" black and yellow checkerboard version. The shroud line was still good but the tape strips had passed their expiration date so I substituted some adhesive monokote to secure the shroud lines.

The paint scheme is that which was first seen in the 1971 Estes catalog.
Mike Hellmund (who built the "photographic model quality rockets" for Estes) would be proud of your work! I can't help wondering, though, if that choice of colors wasn't at least partly motivated by marketing considerations; since blue rockets tend to vanish in a blue sky, they could sell more Apogee II kits... :-)

blackshire 11-07-2017 09:11 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Molniya
The Apogee II was my one of my favorite rockets and my first 2 stager. Lost a few of them to the tree monsters in Pelham Bay park (Bronx, NY ). Pictured here is the only surviving rocket from my childhood fleet - built circa 1970. Gonna have to build a clone soon. Thanks for the memories !
Wow--I wonder how many people instead have only the first stages of childhood two-stage models... One day in the mid-1960s, a brother-in-law of mine excitedly prepared for the first flight of his pride and joy, his newly-finished Apogee II. Its flight was spectacular, but--possibly due to an unnoticed slight fin misalignment, whose effects were amplified by a slight wind--it arced over quickly like a ballistic missile, staged while traveling nearly horizontally, and flew so far away that he never found it, not even the first stage. Crestfallen, he never attempted a multi-stage model rocket again.

Blastfromthepast 11-07-2017 01:14 PM

Yep, Apogee II was also my first multi-stager, as well as being my 4th rocket build overall. Another clone is somewhere on my future project list.


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