Now that the Caveat prototype is ready and waiting for an afternoon of launching, I have ordered and received an Estes Guardian from Hobbylinc. I like the looks of this rocket, and I wanted something to put up against my cousin Mike's Polaris, which has yet to disappoint in the flight department. They have similar designs, but the Guardian has two sets of tailfins (as opposed to the wider-at-the-bottom single Polaris fins, which I find somewhat aesthetically displeasing).

Inspection of the parts reveals nothing particularly amiss; the balsa sheet of laser-cut fins was broken in half along the length, but nothing happened to the fin pieces themselves.

As for the finish: I like the paint job that Estes shows for the rocket, but I hear that it is tough to mask and paint (the only decals/stickers are two 'GUARDIAN' words with a bit of a gradient blue stripe after them). So, I'm thinking about emulating the Polaris' simple black-with-white-name-decal scheme, since this is going to be a competition! Ideally, I'd like to play the white hat guy and have a white rocket with black decal, but it don't come that way. And yes, I know I can order a decal like that if'n I want...

Up to this point I have sanded the fins and glued the transition to the upper body tube, as well as glue the NC sections together. Next is the motor mount assembly.

Stay tuned...

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

The Estes Guardian is a cool design. SATCO has them for $8.95 each. Hmmmmmmm.

__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

I got mine for $7.79.
Of course, there was the shipping... but for $13.00 I can 'splurge' for a kit I really wanted.

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Posting some photos of my Guardian build...

PROS:
A straightforward build with no surprises.

CONS:
1) It's my belief that the upper tailfin sizes and/or proportions are not quite the same as the pictures that come with the kit and those online. I doubt that this will ultimately affect its performance, but it's an aestheitic thing for me.

2) Besides having to put up with a Chinese red plastic parachute, the shock cord is about the lousiest I've seen - a simple flat rubber cord that was too short for the job. What happened to the elastic cloth cords I've been getting? C'mon, Estes!

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Don't sell that cheap parachute short until you have flown it a few times. That red color shows up amazingly well against the sky, especially an overcast one. And the material is somewhat stiff, so the chute is more likely to open when you need it to.

Many think the rubber cord is more durable than the cloth elastic.

Give it a chance!


Bill

The Guardian was the first rocket I built in my BARdom! I think my paint job came out looking pretty good. Flies great on C6's!

__________________
Jon
SAM #0396
BAR 02/07
NAR 86940
KF4GUL
Aim high, fly straight!

Brain, it's a little too late now seeing as how you've already painted your Guardian black...

I also have a rather small black rocket named "FlatBlack" and last weekend I discovered that black is a terrible color for finding a lost rocket in the weeds. It also didn't present a lot of visibility in the sky either.

My solution to this was to apply two 1" wide rings of highly reflective/refractive tape known as "Sky Sheen" around the body tube. This special tape creates a highly visible rainbow effect while the rocket circles under the chute...assuming the sun is shining. Second thing I did was to swap out the dull red parachute for bright neon pink nylon chute.

If you don't plan to fly much or fly on a sod farm, black is probably fine.

BTW, I no longer use elastic or rubber strip for my shock cords - just a length of black government spec parachute cord on a loop of kevlar epoxied inside the body tube in the traditional Estes fashion. It works exceptionally well.

__________________
Kit (aka Cranky Kong)

I'm just a roadie for the banned...

I only painted it black to match my cousin's Polaris, since we're going to go up against each other with similar rockets. His flies GREAT on every engine we've flown it on (Quest & Estes C6's!). Only once have we had to do something like lose the upper half to a broken shock cord (the elastic cloth kind, go figure) and wait for a rainstorm to come and go and fetch it out of where it (finally) fell from a pine tree over in someone's property across the street. Otherwise IN-tact, I might add. That's one tough rocket.


Hopefully the parachute will still be around to help with that...


That's a good idea, and one I ought to incorporate into an rocket design.
And I have no doubt that the parachute will function OK, given what all can happen to them. I happen to like the classic 'circular chessboard' designs. It would be neat if parachutes could be designed around the kit, in terms of graphics. I'm sure that would raise the cost, but it would be pretty neat.


I plan on using Kevlar when I don't need to spend that cash on more important items, like motor mounts and such. I just last night managed to put my entire fleet of eight (back) into flight readiness, repairing parachutes and shock cords, not to mention adding a couple of NCs to the orange Dr. Evil and Mini Me, there. Next launch day is going to be a hoot!

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Kevlar is reasonably inexpensive if you buy from the right place.

I can highly recommend BRS Hobbies as it's where I buy my 100lb kevlar for only $2.99 for 24 feet. It's presently out of stock but keep checking back . Here's the link...

BRS Hobbies Kevlar Thread

You'll need a very sharp pair of scissors to cut it.

The parachute cord doesn't seem to be available at Army Surplus stores any more. Actually, there are no Army Surplus stores where I live so I buy it from Amazon for about $5 for 50 feet of genuine military spec 550lb test cord. Again, here's a link...

Mil Spec 550 Paracord

Might be overkill on a small Estes type model but most of my stuff flies on either D/E motors or clusters thereof. Too much motor is just enough.

__________________
Kit (aka Cranky Kong)

I'm just a roadie for the banned...

I have a limitd budget, and when the pennies work out right I'll stock up on some more stuff (I just bought some new tools to do a few things with).

ADDENDUM:
Did a side-by-side between the Guardian and my cousin's Estes Polaris, and they are the same rocket with different fins. Some of you probably knew that, but now Mike is chafing at the bit to see if the Guardian flies as well as his!

__________________
-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!