I try to buy very little at Wal-Mart anymore simply because the big box stores kill off the little guys by selling very cheap and then when the competition is gone they jack up the prices.

Most of my hobby related purchases are either made at the few remaining hobby stores we have in my area or online. I won't say I never go to Wal-Mart, but less and less all the time. The same goes for Home Depot. Whenever possible I'd rather pay more at the local hardware store than give the Home Depot the money so they can kill off all the competition.

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I plan ahead that way I don't have to do anything right now.

Oh by the way, I'm not here just for the "olde" rocket discussions.

Well said, Rogue. But believe it or not, at one time not so long ago, Walmart was better - much better. I remember going to our first Walmart five years ago, right after I resumed the hobby. It had a HUGE Testor's section, and an entire row full of model kits. It had every color of model paint you wanted, in both enamel and acrylic, including all of the Boyd's line. Just rack after rack of them. It had airbrush kits AND was well-stocked with consumable supplies for them, too. It had a nice selection of adhesives and CA, along with nifty accessories like tube extender tips. It had a decent selection of tools, as well as knives and all kinds of blades, including Model Master. I don't recall if it had styrene, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. It absolutely put the model kit section of the nearby Michael's (itself a big store) to shame. Walmart's section much larger, more complete, better stocked and the prices were better, too. And then over in the crafts section itself, it had enough to give both Michael's and Joanne's a run for their money. I can't believe that I just took all of this abundance for granted. Walmart only moved into our area a little more than ten years ago, and for several years after that this was the only one that I had ever been to. I just assumed that they were all set up like that.

Then about two years later they decided to expand it into a supercenter. (Almost doubled in size, added a complete supermarket, etc.) When it was all done, I went back to the Toys section to look for hobby supplies, and everything that I described above was gone. Absolutely none of it was left. The model kits section in Michael's is a pale shadow of what used to be across th parking lot at Walmart, but now that's all we have.

Even when it was better, though, Walmart was still no hobby shop. It still lacked the kind of knowledgeable people like roguepink2. Its support for many other hobbies was, as in model railroading, nonexistent, or as in model rocketry, weak at best. (But I could always find a good supply of the Estes motors that they carried, which is seldom the case now.) The sole hobby shop in my region carries (supposedly) the entire line of Estes motors. (They seldom have D11's, though, and they never heard of 1/4A's. The proprietor insisted to me that 1/4A's didn't exist, until I pointed them out on his distributor's order sheet. He still doesn't carry them, though. And he also tried to tell me once that I needed certification or a license to but E9's. But I was just a strip of a lad at the time - 52 years old - so maybe my age had something to do with it. ) They also carry a decent selection of Estes kits, as well as most of the Custom line and sometimes a few from Quest. And they also have all of the nifty tools and supplies (like various grades of CA and lots of styrene) that you would expect to find at a hobby shop. And at 54 miles away, it is a good 10 miles closer to me than my nearest Walmart and 20 miles closer than Michael's. Not open as many hours or at all on Sundays, though. I have seen the first Sustainables at Walmart, which was cool, but it will be at my LHS that I will expect to see the bulk of Estes' new line of kits when they come in. And unless I want to pay for shipping (plus Hazmat for E9's), that is where I will continue to go to get my Estes motors.

MarkII

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SAM # 0011

Here are some pictures to clarify a few things.

First - The Alpha III fin can. Now that I have an Alpha III I can confirm that the RTF HiJinks and the new RTF Athena share the same fin can with the Alpha III. Body tube lengths are 5.5 inches for the Alpha III, 6.0 inches for the HiJinks and 8.5 inches for the RTF Athena. The HiJinks and Athena, as noted before, use the same nose cone, which someone here ID'd as PNC-50YR. I suppose the one on the Alpha III must be a PNC-50K. It's odd (to me) in that it has no closed base and that the 'chute and shock cord attach to a tiny screw eye that is off to one side.

The three are shown side-by-side in the first pic.

Second - the Rascal RTF and the SkyWriter do NOT have the same fin can.

This is the second image.

Finally, just for grins, the third pic is my original Alpha clone (based on Semroc parts including BNC-50K nose cone and laser cut fins) next to the Alpha III.

This Alpha III is of very recent origin - it came in the starter set I got the other day that has the sealed-in-bulb Electron Beam and has the translucent red post-lead-laws parachute.

Attached Thumbnails

     

The Alpha III's nose cone has always been made that way, and yes, it is odd compared with other injection-molded plastic nose cones. I had one of the early ones (with its plastic parts molded in red) in the 1970s, and it was the same (other than the colors of the plastic parts and body tube) as the current Alpha III. In the 1970s I also had a Quasar (with "unclipped" white fins [a white Alpha III fin unit] and a white Alpha III nose cone), and its plastic parts were the same shapes as the Alpha III's.

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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

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

Thank you for posting the article link, Fred. The number of employees at Estes (just 35) surprised me. Was that typical even of the Vern-and-Gleda and Damon eras, or is it unusually small (or large)?

__________________
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

Ye Olde Rocketry Shoppe, sister site of YORF, has some outstanding reference guides to the various components used in Estes kits from the dawn of time right up to today (or the most recent revision), all courtesy of YORF member John Brohm. They can be found in the "Building Tips" section. There are also a number of other handy documents there too, including some quite scholarly papers that are, quite frankly, a bit over my head.

Estes Body Tube/Kit Reference v3.1
Estes Nose Cone Reference List v10.1
Estes Fin Can Reference v2.0

For those who are daring enough to venture into the deep end of the pool:

The Geometry of Engine Clusters
The Mathematics of Flat Parachutes
The Properties of Model Rocket Body Tube Transitions

(Not for me - I'm still trying to figure out the dog paddle stroke. )

MarkII

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SAM # 0011

Blackshire,
You've probably read the history of Estes. If not, this link is from the "Ask Mr. Estes" header I saw at the Semroc site some time ago.

http://www.vernestes.com/Published%20Articles.htm

The third article from Sport Rocketry (scroll down) talks of the Estes plant and who worked there.
From the last page of the article, under a photograph explaining the Damon merger:

"Photo from a newspaper article in the Cañon City Daily Record (September 1969) about the merger of Estes Industries with Damon. The story was important local news because Estes employed about 275 people with an annual payroll of over $1 million. The article also reported that the assessor’s valuation of the Estes plant had jumped from $28,633 in 1967 to $340,366 in 1969."

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Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

I was investigating the rocketry section of a local hobby shop where I discovered two of the new Estes Classic Series kits hanging on the pegs for sale.

The were the Photon Disruptor and Photon Probe.

A couple of quick observations:

1) Balsawood nose cones looked good, had 1" shoulders

2) Main body tubes were brown colored paper, not white

It looks like the new Estes products are finally getting released.

Bob

Also the Satellite Interceptor and Hornet.