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Originally Posted by GlenP
is that Vanguard Eagle kit available anywhere?
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Maybe on a dusty hobby shop shelf somewhere... It's not in production anymore and about 99.999999998% sure it never will be again. It's a neat kit though, as you can tell from my build thread on it... lots of clever engineering in the stuffer tube/engine exhausts and stuff...
That kit came about when Wes at Dr. Zooch was at some big space soiree and commented on the Estes kit-- how it wasn't even a two-stager, and other limitations or problems he saw with that kit. Someone told him, "Can you make one better?" and he was like "Sure!" and set to work.
The nose cone/capsule on it was hollow cast resin. Very nice piece I might add... There was a guy on the forums doing some amazing work with RTV molds and casting resin-- pour it in the mold, swish it around, pour out the excess, so you get a hollow part instead of heavy solid resin. He used to sell some pretty slick looking rockets himself, including a delta-winged X-15 rocket plane IIRC. AFAIK he and Dr. Zooch struck a deal and he did a run of the nosecones for the Vanguard Eagle.
I don't know that it ever sold that great-- you'd have to ask Wes, if you can find him. By the time it came out, the interest in the X-Prize was already waning big time, and it's all ancient history now.
It wouldn't be a particularly hard kit to clone-- just read my build thread-- it's all there... the only "special" part of the kit was the "capsule" nose cone, which you'd have to turn yourself, but that's not hard with a drill and some sandpaper... not like you're making a thousand of them...
Later! OL J R