News Years Eve and Looking Back...

Well, kiddies, tis that time of year again when we reflect on days gone by before focusing on days coming up; all the while completely forgetting about day right now. That made sense. Really.

Anyway, 2013 is winding down and I for one couldn't be happier. Any year when you discover the definitions of both "slab leak" and "psoriasis", well hanging is too good for it!

That's not to say nothing good happened. The newsletter was handed off to the very capable hands of Gary Briggs (who is doing a great job with it!) and this blog was born!

Still, I would rather look a little further back on this New Years Eve.

In my collection, I have an NAR 50th anniversary release of one of the first mass produced model rockets.  Bill Stein of Quest put these out a few years ago, and several club members bought one (or two). For those who may not know, Bill is the son of G. Harry Stein, the man that designed and marketed this model.

The re-released kit is full of retro- tastiness. The parts are simple and the instructions seem to be patterned after model airplane instructions. This makes sense, since the kit was marketed in model airplane magazines of the day. (As an aside, I recently picked up about 400 model airplane magazines from the 50's and 60's. I know there is at least one ad in them for rockets, but I need to dig through and find them all. Future post, maybe?)

Anyway, I guess my point is that in this day of GPS tracking, altimeters, and high power craziness, maybe its good to remember where it all started. A couple of balsa scraps, a cardboard tube, and some good old imagination can do miracles.

So, to all of my DARS friends, Happy New Year and fly 'em fast and high!

We Wish You....

...a merry merry Christmas! May your day be merry and bright, and may all your rockets light!

Of Stuck Up Rocketeers and Little Boy Birthdays...

What do you do when you write a weekly blog and you suddenly realize that it's the first part of the week and you haven't even thought about what the post will be? You go to your phone and look at the pictures! Not that I would ever find myself in that situation of course...

So, here is the first picture I got off my phone:

John Dyer

This is John. John is a good friend and an all around great guy. John is also a "rocket expert." John would probably never call himself a "rocket expert" but I will because it makes the next statement funnier. John has glued himself to his rocket. Now, if the truth be told, we have probably all done this from time to time, but seldom in a public place, and seldom where a guy has a phone that they can snap pictures is hanging out.

That'll learn ya, John.

I'm pretty sure he's calling his wife, Nina for help.

By the way, go to http://redriverrocketry.com/ and buy cool rocket stuff. Just sayin'.

The next picture is this:

Coolest Little Boy in the World

This is my grandson, Ayden. I say he's the coolest little boy in the world because,
1. He is, and
2. The title of "coolest little girl in the world" goes to my granddaughter, Kyrie.

Anyway, it's his fourth birthday today. As you can see, he is reprograming Wall-E to do his bidding and take over the world. I see great things for this kid.
Happy birthday, kid!

Until next time fly 'em fast and high!

Cardboard and the Conquest of Space

A fellow DARS member sent in the following picture in response to my GI Joe Space Capsule entry. It seems he wanted to show me up...and he did! Now I've seen ads (and actual pictures) for cardboard submarines and tanks, but this one was new to me. Here is the picture:

An intrepid DARS member heads into space!

 Looking up the name on the side of the craft (ain't Google grand?), I found this:

Ad for the above mentioned spacecraft!

As far as I can tell (which isn't much) Power Mite II was a GE brand of photo bulb...and a totally cool space capsule! Cross promoting at its finest! The comic book promoted both items quite well. I wish I had more than the first page. Maybe someday... sigh...

Anyway, your job, STB readers is to figure out who our astronaut is! The first reader who correctly identifies the mystery space explorer will win something grabbed at random out of my rocket room when I rush to the meeting. You must attend the meeting to win, since I don't want to mail it....whatever it ends up being...I really don't know...

So until next time, fly 'em fast and high!!!

LEMS of Paper, Dreams of Glory

You know, the space race in the 60's seems to be a theme that keeps creeping into this blog, and I really don't have any problem with that! The 60's were a time when all things seemed possible, and the entire country (if not the entire world) was caught up in the rush toward "the final frontier."

Part of that push was merchandising. Yep, it is American as Apple Pie (for sale at your local grocer). If there is a popular fad, grab hold and sell, baby sell! I'm not saying that's bad at all. Some of our greatest treasures from that time period are things that were produced to cross-promote space and...well, just about anything.

A case in point is the Gulf Oil LEM paper model. It was given away at Gulf stations in 1968 to celebrate the moon landing. (As an aside, I really miss the times when gas stations sweetened the pot of shopping with them with giveaways and special offers. I have Disney LP albums, Dallas Cowboy drinking glasses and other stuff from that time. It seems they could do that again and maybe make up for the fact that we are getting totally ripped off with every tank. Just saying...)

The Gulf Oil Lunar Module Kit was a single sheet of heavy card stock with die cut pieces that could be punched out to give you your very own Lunar Lander (with a bit of folding and assembling). The finished model was actually pretty good, and it has gone down in paper model circles (yes, there ARE paper model circles) as a classic.

The Gulf Oil Lunar Module Kit as seen, framed, in my office.

I happened to run across one on our old friend Ebay a few years ago. It took me a couple of more years to finally get it matted and framed, but now I see it every day in my office. Of course, I would never build it, but if you have a hankering to actually build one, you can. Just follow this link:  http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models_apollo.html and print out your own! I'm pretty sure this can be converted to fly (hey, I've seen plastic ones fly, so how tough could it be) and if you crash, just print out a new one!

In the mean time, fly 'em fast and high!

One from the Storage Locker

It was hot. Very, very hot. Laurie and I sat in our car on the Frisco field, not really knowing what to expect. A van pulled up next to us. A buzzard spontaniously combusted overhead. It was time....

Except that it wasn't. The long day of waiting had actually just started. I guess it really started a few weeks before when Jack Sprague mentioned that he had been approached by Storage Wars Texas to help with an episode. He knew that Laurie and I had experience with the crazy world of storage auctions (actually, they are boring and a TON of work....just sayin') and he wondered if we might be interested in showing to watch and possibly help out.

We said, "Sure!" and that lead to us sweating the day away while all the while trying to stay out of the way of the cameras and production folks. It became quickly obvious that they wanted Jack as their star, and even Suzy needed to be invisible, so we literally hid behind things as filming occurred. Still, it was fun to watch when we could peek out.

A few random thoughts: It takes a long time to film even a short segment. It takes a whole lot of folks to do it. The production team was pretty nice. The stars from the show didn't say much to us (although Bubba seemed to like to talk a bit more). I really don't think they knew what to expect out of the rockets. Yes, I said rockets, as in more than one. They actually flew a couple.

So, all in all, I think it went well. We had fun (in a hot, slightly dull way), and we got to see a side of reality tv that a lot of folks don't. I think Jack represented us well, and even though on the episode they were putting out "nerd alerts" because of the rockets, we came off looking pretty darn cool!

By the way, if you missed the episode, here ya go!

http://www.aetv.com/storage-wars-texas/video/excuse-me-i-think-you-re-stupid-64645699873

 

Jack and the crew setting up. That's a lot of folks you don't see on the show!

More settin' up goin' on!

 



You might think that this screen grab is a picture of Jack. You would be wrong. The real reason I put this in here is the tree in the upper right hand side of the background. If you could chop that tree down you would find Laurie, Suzy, and me hiding there. We missed stardom by that much!


 

When Jack cautioned the camera guy about possibly frying his camera to get this shot, he was informed that "cameras are cheap" Ok, so donate a few to the club!


 

The three amigos!



Of Plastic Men and Final Frontiers

One of the advantages of doing a weekly blog is that you can cover topics that may not be directly related to your main topic. This week’s post is a case in point. A couple of posts ago I commented on how Disney inspired the U.S. government’s space program. Today, I’m going to talk about how that space program inspired everyone else.

One of the coolest things about being a “child of the 60’s” is the toys. Sure, we didn’t have video games and such, but it didn’t matter. We had real toys that did real things. Our toys were massive and flashy and, in the case of many of them, futuristic!

The baby boom of the late 50’s met with the space race of the 60’s to give us such great lines as Major Matt Mason, Billy Blastoff, and Mighty Zeroids. Of course this was also the golden age of model rocketry, with many timeless designs being released every year. On TV, Star Trek was blasting through “the final frontier.”  It truly was a great time to be a red blooded American space-lovin’ kid!

One of my favorite toys from the time was the GI Joe space capsule. It was huge and hefty, and after daring space exploits could actually survive a splashdown! As for what it actually did, well, not a lot. It held a 12 inch Joe (decked out in his Jiffy Pop inspired foil space suit). It floated. And, that’s about it. However, I can assure you that mine travelled millions of miles through my imagination. The fact that it was a pretty good approximation of a real Mercury capsule helped keep the fantasy alive.

I got my capsule when I was a kid on Christmas, 1967. I played with it for years, until it suffered a particularly hard reentry and broke off a nozzle.  After that, I think it fell victim to a garage sale and was gone. Cue mournful music.



Me and my cousin, Tamra, on Christmas, 1967

 

However, years later, we were blessed with something called Ebay. On Ebay, you can find anything (and seller blue_art_dog sells great stuff…shameless plug) Anyway, I was able to get a replacement capsule that was in pretty good shape, for a pretty good price! It now sits proudly in my display case. And yes, I do play with it occasionally…

The Mighty GI Joe Space Capsule

The business end

 

The real business end



The finest in space age plastic seating and restraints

The controls that could take Joe to anywhere in the universe!

 

My First Upscale. The Story of The Scamp

With the DARS Classic IX behind us, I got to thinking about the subject of upscaling. I personally enjoy taking classics and blowing hem up from standard size to mid power size. For some reason, mid power seems to be the proper size to go with these models (not that I haven’t seen wonderful large scale models from Scott Cook and others!) but mid power (to me anyway) gives enough “adult heft” to the model without losing any of the original charm.

Over the years I have upscaled several models, including my Estes Pegasus, Centuri Vector V, and Estes Colonial Viper (which was actually a kit from Morerockets.com). These have all been fun and challenging, but I have a special place in my heart for my first upscale, the Estes Scamp.

The Estes Scamp was originally released in 1973 as a “Cold Power” (read: “Freon Powered”) model. It lasted for a total of one year, and then vanished until 1977 when it was reintroduced as a standard model using 18mm motors. The Scamp stood 13.75 inches tall and was BT-50 based.

The Scamp as Cold Power-1973 (thanks to ninfinger.com)

The Scamp returns in 1977 (thanks to ninfinger .com)

The yellow and black styling of the Scamp (not to mention the Groovy Goul decals) made a cousin to the slightly more recognizable A-20 Demon and the ever popular Goblin. I’m not sure why they thought “Scamp” was synonymous with goblins and demons, but it actually kind of works. I always liked the look of the Scamp, but, unlike the Demon and the Goblin, never actually owned one “back in the day.”

I based my upscale on BT-60 because…well…it’s what I happened to have sitting around. I already had the tubing and nose cone (I think from a long lost Mean Machine) and I bought some 1/8 inch aircraft ply for the fins. The decals were easy enough to make with my printer using Testors decal paper and sealer. One note here; I actually made a decal that didn’t exist on the original model. It’s the one with the model name on it. I just liked the way it looked. I used Jimz http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/index. for my reference materials and decal sheets.  The motor mount is 29mm…just because I could. She stands about 24 inches tall.

Originally I put on standard sized launch lugs, but then I realized that I was putting a  huge motor in there so I upscaled them as well. The original lugs are still there, but they are just for show. I made my own motor retention system from stuff I had about the house, and there ya go!

The Maxi Scamp!

The side featuring the heavy duty lug and the custom decal

The business end

A slightly less gray me at NSL 2006

I have flown the Maxi Scamp exactly once, at NSL at McGregor. I used an Aerotech G80 that blew that sucker right out of sight. I thought I would never see it again, but it was returned by a kind woman who had it drift in front of her car on a road about two miles away! Ever since then, I haven’t had the nerve to fly it again.

So there you have it. I threw my first upscale together with stuff I found in my rocket junk boxes, and not much more. It just goes to show you that upscaling doesn’t have to be very difficult or expensive.

Until next time, fly ‘em fast and high!



Every Store is a Rocket Store...

The title of this post is a (more or less) quote from our esteemed president, Jack Sprague, The idea, of course, is that no matter where you shop there is always something you can use for rocketry. Sometimes, however, stores that you wouldn't think are rocket stores actually carry them! For example, I got his e-mail from Sam Barone:

Estes Rockets at Fry's in Plano
Quite a few kits and motors.  Estes/Aerotech composites, lots of E9-6 and –9’s, and D12-0’s.  Blurry cell phone pictures follow.   For the blog.

And here are said "blurry cell phone pictures:"

As you can see, they have an assortment that actually seems to rival Hobby Lobby. Definitely worth checking out!

This brings us to another point I wanted to make. It's easy to contribute to the blog! See with one sentence and some quick pics, Sam has become the first guest contributor! Yea Sam!!!

So until next time; fly 'em fast and high!

Walt Disney Treasures....Tomorrowland!

Every now and then you come across something so cool that you just have to share it. Today's post is about just such a thing.

In 1954 Walt Disney started producing a weekly TV show called Disneyland that promoted his upcoming theme park. The idea of the show was that each week, and different "land" in the park would be featured to generate interest with the public. For Fantasyland, they could use bits of their movie catalog. For Frontierland they made great shows such as Davy Crocket (which touched off a national craze). For Adventureland they used Disney's Tru-Life  Adventures movies . However, Tomorrowland was a bit of a problem.

You see, Tomorrowland was the last "land" to be built at the park, and it suffered from a lack of money and focus. Walt Disney was not interested in the Space Operas of the 50's. His mind was more focused on what could actually be. Therefore he termed the idea "Science-Factual" entertainment. The Tomorrowland he wanted (and never got exactly) was one that showed the real future, filled with hope and promise.

If he never quite got it at the park, he DID get it on his TV show. In 1955 he produced three programs; Man in Space,  Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond. In order to make sure that the shows were as accurate as possible he enlisted Werner Von Braun, Willy Ley, and Heinz Haber. In order to make it entertaining he enlisted his favorite animator, Ward Kimball. Mr. Kimball was best known for giving life to Jimminy Cricket, but he was actually a true renaissance man with interests in music, railroading and (of all things) U.F.O.s. He was actually a natural choice to direct the programs.

The shows were a smash hit and had far reaching consequences. It is public record that President Eisenhower had them shown at the White House to inspire the government's involvement with space exploration (perhaps the current administration needs to see them).

A couple of years ago I found that the Disney company had rereleased these shows (plus two more) on a DVD called Walt Disney Treasures- Tomorrowland. They have these shows, plus special features that include original art and interviews. The DVD was produced in 2003, but is still available through Amazon or the Disney Store online for about 30 bucks.

So, if you want to have a great piece of rocketry history, I can't recommend it enough.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

The DVD, plus a model of Von Braun's Space Ferry

Walt Disney poses with a model of Project Bumper, a V2 and Von Braun's other creations.

 

The DARS Classic Part IX.....

Well, The DARS Classic has come and gone yet again, and it was  (as usual) tons of fun! The weather decided to be kind to us this year, so we weren't in danger of going hang gliding using the EZ-Ups as wings. The theme was right up my alley (and yes, I DO actually have an alley) being Sci-Fi. There were tons of great models there and, as usual, it was kind of luck of the draw as to which ones caught the public's eye. Still that's all part of the fun! I will post more pictures on Gary's page, and I will leave it to Gary to give everyone the full rundown in the newsletter, but here are a few of my favorite things (sorry, no gumdrops and kittens).




Establishing shot: The rocket table. There were lots of great models this year! Note multiple Space Arks and a certain TWA model photo bombing in the back...
 

Chas Russell shows us all how a Maxi Alpha III is Supposed to look! RETRO, Baby!

Speaking of retro, how about a beautiful Estes Trident? It had a great flight!

After six tries, my Maxi Colonial Viper finally takes to the skies! Black powder is MUCH easier to light than AP (at least for me).

The Klingon Empire will long tell of the bravery of these fallen heroes..... I can't say more...tearing up...

Sam Barone's take on an SR-71. It had an inboard C and outboard A's. Probably the coolest one I have ever seen...

Run a contest for nine years and what do you get? A t-shirt! Actually, a very cool classic DARS t-shirt! Jack and Suzy Sprague award Gary Briggs for a job very well done! 

Well that's it for this year! By the way, there is a comments section at the bottom of the blog for any feedback you might want to leave (be kind, please). Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Fast and Loud!

No, today's title isn't about the best way to fly rockets (although it certainly could be!), it is about a TV show on the Discovery Channel!

The idea of the show is that a guy in Dallas (Richard Rawlings) and his mechanic (Aaron Kaufman) go around and find old beat up cars to turn into hot rods. Its interesting to watch even if you aren't a  gear- head (or, you are like me and are just a wannabe) because you can often see places around North Texas that you recognize. Actually, they even bought a 'Vette off of a guy I recognized (but that's another story).

Anyway, in a recent episode, they went to Roswell, New Mexico and bought a 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 that they brought back to Dallas and totally tricked out (I would love to have that car!) So, you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with DARS? Settle down, I'm getting to it!

The whole theme of the show was space and U.F.O.'s and stuff (a Galaxie from Roswell, get it?) and when they showed the completed car, they did it here:

For those with sharp eyes, you can see that they are at the good old Frontiers of Flight Museum, Actually, they are right about where DARS sets up for Moon Day every year! You can see Apollo 7 in the background (and I still want that car!)

So there you go! I hope to see everyone at the Fall Classic next Saturday! Until then, fly 'em fast and loud!

Post, the Second

Hello from the world of Shroudines!

I'm still getting the feel for the ropes here, so I thought I would do some housekeeping stuff. Fist of all can I post a picture? Hmmmm......

Yep! That was easy!( Yes, I snuck in the Moonliner one more time...) Ok, so on to other matters.

I think the way we will run this thing is that about once a week, we will have a posting. Hopefully there will be other people besides just me posting (or you'll get mighty tired of Moonliner pics) but we will just see how it goes. I can either schedule a time for things to post, or I can just do it as soon as it is written. I see advantages to both, so, again, we'll see how it goes.

By the way, everyone remember that the DARS Classic is coming up very soon (Oct 19). The theme this year is Sci-Fi, so come on out and take part in the festivities! You don't have to enter to appreciate the models, but entering is very fun too (and probably rewarding). Gary Briggs has done a fantastic job of running this thing for years now, so a splendid time is guaranteed for all! More info can be found on the DARS site: www.dars.org or here: http://www.dars.org/fallclassic/fc2013.htm if you want to go directly to the event page. (Notice how I just learned how to put in links)

Anyway, keep checking back here for more stuff! Fly 'em fast and high!

 

Quisp says, "Blogs are full of QUAZY Energy!"

Stu

The Future is Now!! Oh, wait...Now....No, wait.....Now!....nevermind...

In this world of constantly changing technology and rapidly travelling information, it sometimes becomes necessary to roll with the flow and update our means of communication, To that end we have created Shroudlines...The Blog! The purpose of this blog is to better serve DARS members by quickly getting information out, and providing a more fluid "real time" basis of communication. In other words, stuff can go out quicker and easier!

It is my plan to have several authors posting here, so that the burden does not fall on one hapless editor, but rather several hapless writers. If someone wants to post a launch report, no problem! If someone wants to do a kit review, go for it! if someone wants to expound upon their love of apple crumb cake.....well, maybe not so much, but you get the idea.

So, there you have it! Hopefully word will get about this blog and people will really like it! Check back often to see any updates! Fly 'em high and fast!

Stu