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Old 09-19-2010, 06:26 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Default Estes A.S.P. kit changes

Hello All,

Thanks to ghrocketman (who kindly checked his Estes A.S.P. model for me), I have been able to track and date materials changes in the kit during its time in production. Not only does his A.S.P. have fiber fins instead of balsa ones, it also has a PNC-20A plastic nose cone instead of the balsa BNC-20N. Checking all of the A.S.P.'s catalog appearances (links to all of them from 1981 to 1984 [as well as a link to the A.S.P. kit plans] are included below), Estes' changing nomenclature during those years makes it rather difficult to track materials changes in the kit. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that his A.S.P. kit was made in or after 1983, as I'll explain below:

In the 1981 Estes catalog in which the A.S.P. first appeared, they used the now-standard fin icon to indicate die-cut balsa fins. In the 1982 - 1984 catalogs, the same fin icon meant "Die-Cut Balsa Fins or Paper Parts." (The fiber fin icon with a capital "F" to indicate "Fiber" was introduced later.) The 1982 catalog listing for the A.S.P. also included a balsa nose cone icon (the 1981 catalog listing had no nose cone icon at all, as was also the case for other kits in that catalog that had balsa nose cones).

I think Estes switched to fiber fins (even though they were not specifically identified as being fiber) and the PNC-20A plastic nose cone in the A.S.P. kit in 1983, because in that catalog the A.S.P. kit listing included the fin icon (which at that time could have meant either die-cut balsa or "paper") and a plastic nose cone icon. Here are the A.S.P. kit catalog listing links (and a link to the plans):

1981 http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/81est024.html
1982 http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...82/82est26.html
1983 http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...83/83est24.html
1984 http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...84/84est30.html
A.S.P. kit plans: www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/estes/est0862.pdf

I hope this information will be helpful.
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Last edited by blackshire : 09-19-2010 at 07:03 PM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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