(Continued)
"Could you have prototypes ready for photography in two weeks?"
I was taken aback. Why the sudden interest and the rush?
Gary and Paul explained. They wanted to make a big splash at the LA RCHTA Show. This would catch the competition off-guard plus renew interest in the product line prior to the Chicago RCHTA Show. Spring and Summer were the big rocket 'seasons' for the hobby distributors and by exhibiting and making new product available would get AeroTech additional sales.
Why the rush for new kit prototypes? AeroTech would have a new catalog available for the LA RCHTA Show and the lead times required that photography happen as soon as possible due to production and printing lead times.
It was up to me.
"Okay", I said.
The next workday, I met with Gary. I had ideas for five new kits. If the Astrobee-D was finally put into production, that would make six kits. I asked if I had any budget for new parts (Nose cones, fins, etc.).
I was informed there would be no new money for nose cones or fins (The Astrobee-D was the exception but it would be the last of the kits put into production). Some money would be available for small parts. Body tubes were no big deal because they were relatively inexpensive. Decals, instructions and packaging was going to be the major expenses but even those had to be kept as inexpensive as possible.
With those groundrules, I went to work.
I lucked out on the 'no new fin design' issue. When the fin mold for the IQSY Tomahawk was designed, Dan Meyer had designed the fin mold so the trailing edge could be changed out. Also, the Tomahawk and HV Arcas fins had been designed so that both fins could be used with 1.9" and 2.6" diameter body tubes. The bad news was the Tomahawk and Arcas fins were in the same mold base so every parts run consisted of both fin types. The HV Arcas sold much better than the IQSY Tomahawk so we had boxes of Tomahwk fins stored at the shop.
Hmmm...
Okay, what if the trailing edge mold piece of the Tomahwk fin was rotated 180 degress to give a straight, cut-off edge to the back of the fin? Could that be done. A called to the plastic mold shop informed us that the trailing edge could be turned around. This fin design would come to be used for the Cheetah kit.
As I was thinking about the Cheetah fin, I asked if there was room in the mold for a different trailing edge insert for the Tomahawk fin. I was told yes and it wouldn't cost much. I asked the AeroTech management if I could have funding for a new trailing edge insert for the Tomahawk fin mold. It was approved. Dan created a new trailing edge insert which made the fin look somewhat-like an Aerobee-150A fin. This would become the Barracuda kit fin.
I still had many, many, many IQSY Tomahawk fins. I would have to come up with a kit which used four of those fins to use up the inventory. I decided to resurrect the Enertek Strong ARM model. The Enertek Strong ARM had been designed by Bill Stine and had a boat-tail on it. If I eliminated the boat-tail and used the Tomahawk fins, I would have a new kit. The plastic strakes could be made by extrusion and those types of molds were not expensive. The extrusion mold was approved.
Okay, now I had a different fin problem. Remember, the Tomahawk/Cheetah/Barracuda fin was in the same mold as the HV Arcas fin. Now I was going to have a bunch of Arcas fins from all the runs of fins for the Tomahawk/Cheetah/Baracuda kits. I needed a kit to use the Arcas fins. This kit would become the Wart-Hog. An extrusion mold was needed for the conduit tunnels on the kit and this was approved.
I needed one more kit. The Astrobee-D was going to be an expensive kit to produce with all the small scale parts needed. The fins were going to be big and expensive. Scale kits historically did not sell as well as sport kits. I needed to get more usage out of the Astrobee-D fin mold to increase the part run numbers and thereby lower the individual part cost. I decided to make a tall sport kit using three of the Astrobee-D fins. This would become the Mirage kit.
These new fins would not be ready for me to use to make my prototypes so I made the fins out of plywood or G-10 fiberglass (Miriage).
After ten days I had five new kits built and painted but no decals. In three days the models would be photographed. Since photography would take place in Phoenix (Paul was handling the picture taking) I figured I might as well drive to Phoenix, stay with Paul for a few days and the two of us could finish up the models.
Off I drove to Phoenix with my models. Paul and I hit art stores and bought all sorts of decals, sitckers, color sheets, etc. to apply to the models. Paul had come up with names for all the new kits and I had some ideas on how each model should be finished. It was a race against time but we finished up at 2:00 AM and we had to be at the photo shoot at 8:00 AM that morning.
(To be continued)