The Enterprise Picks Up a Hitchhiker

I found a couple of pictures I took of my old Estes Enterprise in the late 80's. This is the same Enterprise that suffered a massive cato, however the Federation was up to the task and she was rebuilt!

Unfortunately, her misadventures were not over.... look closely at these pictures:

Liftoff!!!

After recovery...

Ok, did you spot it? If you look closely, you will see an unexpected passenger made the flight. The launch rod. It seems if you want to use a clothespin to support the model on the rod, you might want to take into account the engine pylons.

Oops.

The weird thing is, it was a fantastic flight! Apparently adding a little weight to the ship makes little difference in overall stability. Pretty cool! And if you spotted a Klingon in the field, you could spear him! Ok, maybe not so cool...

Anyway, the main point is that even though the Estes Enterprise had that huge "pod" on it, it actually looked pretty good and was a solid flyer. Unfortunately, later she was damaged beyond repair while in storage. Maybe I'll have to build another one some day...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A Patch From the Past

While digging through a bunch of stuff on my book shelf, I came across an item I picked up at a NARAM long ago. It looks something like this:

Ok, actually it looks exactly like that. I remember having a great time down in Houston, but not really doing very well in the competition. I think my team placed in one event, but I can't remember what it was. Our scale entry was a non-starter due to the fact that we could never find a photo of it. In the pre-Google world, that was a big problem! The model never flew.

I like the design of the patch, and the slogan. In fact, I like it so much that I also have a coffee cup with it on it.

That's about it for now! Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

How to Kill a Concept

In 1986 Testors came out with their vision for a stealth fighter. Pulling from the wealth of design cues provided by the stealthy SR-71, they came up with their own concept model, the F-19 Stealth Fighter.

As she appeared at Michaels MJ Design...

So when it came out, I did the only logical thing; I tried to fly it! Now, never mind the fact that it was just about the least "rocket-like" model I had tried, I was going to go for it! So, after adding a lot of nose weight, a recovery system and a C engine, I loaded it into my custom made tower and...

Lift off!!!

Splat down!!! I wasn't fast enough with my camera to catch the 2 seconds of looping "flight."

Well, there you have it! She never did fly. Still, you don't know until you try....I guess....

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Why I Don't Design Ships For the Empire

Every now and then I get a great idea that just flat doesn't work. Case in point; this late 1980's plastic model conversion of an Star Destroyer. On paper, it worked great! In flight.....well, not so much. Let's just say that the Empire probably had to hire more stormtroopers....and that Rey has probably scavenged all the best parts out of it...

Awaiting launch....Note that I didn't detail it out yet. The only wise choice I made...

Moments before disaster....

Well, you can't win them all, and that's what keeps this hobby interesting!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!