I paid too much on eBay a couple of weeks ago for a Phantom kit which was unopened but, it turned out, had a fin broken off the can and a rusty screw eye. I didn't buy it for a collector's item but rather to use for it's intended purpose - a classroom illustration - so it's usable anyway and I'm putting it together.

I am curious as to how old it is, though. It has an orange/white parachute with a blue center with the contemporary Estes logo, and the shock cord is elastic rather than rubber.

Any ideas, those of you who are into all the variants of kits?

BTW, I'm going to substitute a longer BT cut from an 18 inch tube from Semroc so it'll be the same size as an Alpha III (rather than shorter) and I have put a kevlar shock cord anchor in it (as I did on my recently built Alpha III as well) so to show a "modern" construction approach. I'm also using RC56 rather than paper strips and white glue to assemble it, again so its just like my Alpha III.

yeah I once dated an astron phantom..but she left me cold after our second date

actually I had the same thing but couldn't date it , It also had a broken fin but I glued it with weldbond can hardly tell at all !

All I can offer (not being familiar with the Phantom's part variations) is that the rusty screw eye is not *necessarily* indicative of great age. When I sold Estes and Quest model rocket kits from a canopy-equipped outdoor stall at the 1998 "Golden Days" festival in downtown Fairbanks, I noticed that the moisture inside the kits' plastic bags and blister packages condensed in droplets when kits that had been in sunlight were moved into shade. If your Phantom kit was displayed in a store near a window that let direct sunlight hit it, multiple illumination/condensation cycles could have oxidized the screw eye much sooner than it would have rusted otherwise.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Gerry has it listed on his guide, but only 1 purchased and it went over $40. I have two but I don't remember the exact price. I know it was less than $20 each.

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I love sanding.

I paid $32 plus shipping and then another went for $26 a few days later. I'm really just curious how old this one is - it's no big deal. In the end it'll be a "ghostly Alpha III" or something since I've modified it a bit already with the Kevlar installation and will cut the longer BT when my Oddl Rockets tube cutter gets here (so I can do a neater job than I'd otherwise have done with masking tape and a X-acto razor saw).

Try dating women.
They might be a little more expensive but thoroughly more fulfilling.
DRM

I've been happily married for nearly 32 years.....

At one time maybe 2004 I had four paid $7.99 for local hobby shop long gone now. Assembled one for our 4-h club still have one in the bag somewhere sold the other two.

I have some holes in my Estes catalog collection but the 1975 catalog has the Phantom#1207 listed on page# 37 at $2.95. Hope that helps.

John

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John

NAR #91135 L1
SAM #0037

A nice variation on this kit (since you're building it to mimic the Alpha III) would be to make the body tube half clear plastic and half kraft paper, using lengthwise-cut halves of each type of tube carefully glued together. Also, you could paint only the broken-off-and-repaired fin, to both hide the glue joint and demonstrate what a normally-opaque plastic fin looks like.

The finished model would look just like a 3-Dimensional version of a cut-away or "partially transparent" drawing of a model rocket, such as can be found in books and educational posters. Also, a half-kraft paper body tube could be used (in a second Phantom) to illustrate how an Estes tri-fold card stock shock cord anchor (or a Stine "Shock Lock" anchor) is made and installed in the model.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

That half-transparent idea is indeed interesting. I have enough materials to hand that I could try it and if not so successful I could still revert to the original plan of just using a 5.5 inch piece of PST-50 rather than the 4 incher that came in the kit for the BT. Hmmmmmmmmmm.......