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  #1  
Old 02-06-2011, 10:41 PM
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Default When did the Alpha go from a balsa nose cone to a plastic one?

I was just curious when the Alpha kit lost the balsa nose cone in favor of the plastic one it has now? I'm thinking of cloning one and I want something as close to the old K-25 as I can get with Semroc (or other currently) available parts...
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Old 02-06-2011, 10:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbrent
I was just curious when the Alpha kit lost the balsa nose cone in favor of the plastic one it has now? I'm thinking of cloning one and I want something as close to the old K-25 as I can get with Semroc (or other currently) available parts...


The catalogs show the change took place with the 1984 catalog. The 1983 catalog (page 16-17) still calls out a balsa nose cone in the blurb. The 1984 catalog (pages 18-19) says plastic in the blurb.

1983 catalog pages
1984 catalog pages
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Old 02-06-2011, 11:13 PM
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Well, the mold was recently damaged and needs repair.
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Old 02-06-2011, 11:18 PM
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BNC-50K is the correct nose cone to use for a K-25 clone.

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Old 02-06-2011, 11:28 PM
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WOW! Thanks everyone for the fast replies!

So can I use the current kit's body tube or has there been a length change?

Don
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Old 02-06-2011, 11:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry Irvine
Well, the mold was recently damaged and needs repair.
If any of Estes' personnel are reading this, I hope they re-condition and resume using the PNC-50Y mold (Antares, Condor, Orbital Transport, etc.) as well as the Alpha nose cone's mold.
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Old 02-06-2011, 11:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbrent
WOW! Thanks everyone for the fast replies!

So can I use the current kit's body tube or has there been a length change?

Don


Look at one of the earliest versions of the Alpha from this insert in the 1969 catalog to get the tube length and the fin pattern.

Tube was the BT-50H, which the 741 Parts Catalog calls out as 7.75" long. SEMROC has the tube to the correct length.
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Old 02-07-2011, 01:30 AM
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Agreed on the Semroc BNC-50K. And current Alpha kits with the plastic NC have the same body tube length as the original.

There's also the slight fin shape change from the earliest days....you may or may not want to start chasing THAT down .
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Old 02-07-2011, 08:53 AM
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I could be wrong, but way back in the early 70's I had an Alpha that I could have sworn had a plastic NC and fin can... no?
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Old 02-07-2011, 08:55 AM
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The only Alpha in the 80's that had a plastic cone and the fin can was the Alpha III, not the regular Alpha.
The change from balsa to plastic happened the same time they redesigned the kit graphics and included decals; basically when Estes was starting to go to hell....mid 80's.
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