Can I use your photo on my website?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2...OrionAthena.jpg

Yes. I'm assuming you will still be using it to show what your Retro kits will look like. It would be a good idea for you note that these are original sized clones instead of your much larger kits.

I'd be willing to build and photograph your kits with a better background than that pic this summer. They'd make a good donation for our annual school rocket day display after the photo shoot.

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I love sanding.

Worth considering. Do you have photos of each rocket individually? Using real email send me your address.

This Retro Week thread inspired me to upscale my oldest rocket. It's an Estes Saros I built in 1976. The nose cone is the first piece, since The original part is a unique plastic part. Nothing as challenging as something like an Interceptor, but it is kind of a melding of a transition and an ogive cone. The original is BT-20 sized. This turned one is sized for a BT-55. In retrospect, making this BT-50 sized would have allowed for using a BT-60 for the main body tube.

For the first time, I switched from using a 3 or 4 jaw chuck, to using a collet chuck. It does not crush the dowel, so you can remove it from the lathe, re-chuck it, and have perfect alignment. I do this to get the shoulder "just right". Then I slip a section of body tube over the shoulder, and do my final sanding. I used a standard 3/4" dowel, held by a 3/4" collet.

The lower tube is going to have to be something like an ST-18, if I want to scale it uniformly, a BT-60 is a little small. But, if I used the BT-60, I could use a plastic tailcone I have. I think I'm going to go ST-18 if I can find it. I need to turn the transition anyway because the 55-60 balsa adapter I have is to short, it needs to be about twice as long as the Estes part I have.

UPDATE: Found it. The Semroc ST-18 tube is available from eRockets. Potential disaster avoided. Now I need to add tail cone to list of parts to turn.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

Wow Lee, this will be spectacular ! It is great to see my projects has helped inspire.

You are welcome! And thanks. I've only got about 5 projects going on, and 125 kits in storage, so I needed something else to work on!

Will be interested in your progress. Certainly you'll move faster than me -- so much custom stuff to do on the Saros upscale.

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

I'll have to look tonight. The Orion is with my son in Texas so I have no way to shoot it again.

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I love sanding.

Finished this one up this week, not a clone or retro kit but a Estes favorite of mine for years.

Hosted on Fotki

I put the decals on a Phred-era Goony that I started back 2004ish. The decals had yellowed because some moron had left them partially in the sun since then. It still turned out pretty nicely. After that I got my MPC Aquarius, quite possibly the ugliest rocket ever designed, ready for flight in the event that I get a flight window tomorrow. Gonna be a short flight with that pork chop tied around it.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

Picture, pretty please?