The Death Star never fails to please when launching for kids. Same with the Cato, a rocket designed to separate into multiple pieces at ejection.

The Klingon Battle Cruiser looks pretty good, especially if clear fins are used in place of the wood ones on top.

The Enterprise would not be bad at all if it can be engineered to use a long piece of PST-50 and the clear cone from the Phantom for the atmospheric probe...


Bill

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It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Maybe I'm some kind of purist (actually, that would be true), but:

The Cato ain't the Death Star. It's one thing to design a model rocket that falls apart, but it's a whole other thing to take a design that ain't a rocket, shove an unsightly tube up its arse-end (can I say that?) and go "ooh" and "ahh". *raspberry* No thank you.

Same for the Klingon. If you have to put extra extremities on a kit to make it fly, don't make the kit (and yes, I dislike clear plastic fins to make a scale rocket fly - how did the original do it in the first place? I've always wondered...). This is my personal opinion, but if you have to make a buck and capitalize on Trek or some other sci-fi property then how about a kit that is inspired by design elements of the show (I've posted such a design elsewhere recently)... but don't make an Easter basket into a model rocket, OK? Thanks.

And the Enterprise? If I'd been in the room when someone suggested doing the Enterprise by making it "a real nice scale kit with all the greebles in the right places and great decals" and then shove a body tube up through it to make it fly I would have said 'Don't you dare."

My opinion of runaway marketing.

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-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Yeah, it's a big crowd pleaser, especially if you don't tip your hand about the explosion before the launch. I'm on my second one, so someone must have done something right.

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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

Agree 100%. When I see nasa rockets going up with those clear fins I want to spew. And yes I know they have to have them to fly but why not just leave it alone. Wretched!

Randy
www.vernarockets.com

Don't get me wrong - I might well be obliged to do one of those kits someday if I stay back in this hobby long enough (especially the ones where you can take the fins off, at least) and the right opportunity comes along, but they aren't going to be on any bucket list of mine. Most of you guys are so far ahead of me that I still have to tackle a sizable portion of the Estes/Semroc/Quest/et al. catalog - not to mention my own stuff - to be worried about rockets with personal design turn-offs.

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-Brain
SKY AYE ROCKETRY
Follow Your Impulse!

Most "real" rockets without fins fly because they have active inertial guidance platforms that steer the rocket engines to keep it stable and control its trajectory.

As for the Enterprise and other such sci-fi vehicles, they would use similar types of "steering" if they were real vehicles. If you want to make them into flying rockets, you have to get the weight distribution right (CG) and the aerodynamics right (CP) to make it fly, just like anything else...

That, or add active guidance (which HAS been done, but it's not easy... and you STILL need the vehicle set up fairly close to stable even without the active guidance...

While these types of rockets might not be your cup of tea, there ARE plenty of people who really like this sort of kit, and I'm sure Estes has sold a ton of them. It's fine that they're not your favorite and you don't have to like them, but that doesn't mean you're not in the distinct minority and will remain there...

Later! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Doesn't the Desth Star model fall under the category of novelty rocket (i.e. oddroc)? As such then I wouldn't think it's too important for it to be very "rocket-like" in appearance. I don't see it as any different as novelty model aeroplanes.

R/C flying lawnmower: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26PpA1kFIWw
R/C superhero: http://www.rcsuperhero.com/
R/C NCC-1701D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6STlxPrwJE

How about flying panties? (Japanese text -- basically it's a rubber-powered ornithopter decorated like panties)
http://questioners.co.jp/gang/atc009/index_atc009.php
(vaguley connected -- an end credit sequence from an anime)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t21jLhpwAc8


how about a novelty R/C sub?
http://www.youtube.com/YDDock?gl=JP&hl=ja

Most of us can't stand those idiotic "novelty" flying airplanes like the lawn mower either.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Depending on who's they are, I don't have a problem wih flyng panties.

Randy
www.vernarockets.com

But... You can make a paper Cylon Raider and modify it to fly. Stuff and 18" BT-50 in it, add a little nose weight and off you go.

http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models_scifi.html

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If it flies, I can crash it!