Upgrading the Estes V2

A while back there was a wave of activity on the NAR Facebook group about painting V2's. I posted a picture of an Estes V2 that I had modified for a contest a few years ago. Well, flash forward to today and I stumbled across a data packet that I made for that model. Therefore, I thought I would share the contents of the packet with my STB readers!

By the way, I would be remiss to not tell you that I got ALL of my data from Peter Alway's "Rockets of the World" and the wonderful site V2ROCKET.COM.

Here are some pics!

The cover page!

A list of the modifications done to make the Estes kit closer to true scale. I didn't mention nose weight, but it's in there!

Here is the data from V2ROCKET.COM

The Alway drawing...

The color scheme from the web site.

...complete with modeling info!

The final product!

There you have it! I hope these resources help you on your next V2 build! Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A Hidden Surprise

A while back I bought a few model airplane magazines from the 1950's through the 1970's in an auction. Ok, I bought more than a "few." I bought around 300+ or so...maybe a lot more...I'm not sure... Even though I bought them about two years ago, I haven't gone through them all because....dang, there are over 300 of those suckers!

Anyway, occasionally I'll flip through a few and today I got an interesting surprise. Here is the magazine:

April, 1969

 When I flipped through the pages, I found this!:

Yep, right in the middle of the magazine, there was Model Rocketeer magazine! Now, I've been a NAR member since the mid-seventies, and I never knew that there was a time when the Model Rocketeer wasn't a stand alone magazine. So, this raises some questions;

1. Was the Model Rocketeer only available in American Aircraft Modeler at this point?
2. When did it start?
3. When did it become a stand-alone publication?
4. Do I have more of them?
5. Am I too lazy to check?
6. I could really use a drink of water...I should stop typing and get one.
7. Ah...better.

Anyway, there you have it. If anyone has the answers, feel free to comment!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

My Coolest Rocket

Last week I featured a book on Apollo 7. This week I figured that I would share one of the models that we built for the 40th Anniversary Celebration. We each got to keep one Saturn IB that our team built, and we got them signed! The complete story can be found in Launch magazine from a few years ago, so I'll just share pictures of the model. Here you go!

The mighty Saturn IB stands on my piano. Note the photobombing Moonliner....

Walt Cunningham signed her right in front of me! 

...as did Carl McLawhorn! For those who may not know, Carl owned Semroc (who provided the kits). His passing a few years ago was a real tragedy for the rocket community...

Mark Mayfield owned and ran "Launch Magazine." He had a huge role in planning the celebration!

The day was incredible. I was there with almost every one of my Apollo heroes, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Adrin (Buzz managed to charm my wife Laurie with about three words...Yep, he's still got it!) And to top it all off, I have this huge memento of the occasion. It doesn't get much better than that!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!