Vintage Farside build

Well just finished my Interceptor and decided to get back on track. So here is the beginning of my Farside build. Should have it all built today. May be a week to paint because of work. Sure has a lot of parts.



Engines built and Wood cut




The engine mounts in place and now onto the fun part the fins. These fins are at an angle so I will not be able to use a jig.

Dude! you just punch out the kits don't you? You must either be single or have a VERY understanding partner!!! I always wanted the Farside. But since I don't even have a place to launch my Commanche III, The Farside wouldn't be wize. But just look at all that wood just waiting for sealing and sanding!!!!! I also love the look of that one! Have fun!!!!

Can you believe that I work 240 hours a month, go to classes, studying for a promotion and I am married. No kids, 2 dogs.

either you totally rock or get NO sleep!

Well, when I first got back into the hobby, I tried all the new techniques I read about. Fill spirals, paint, sand, polish, clear coat. Well at that rate I would never finish my rockets. Then I decided to just build and build a lot. I try to keep it simple.

I will be back to work tomorrow, and will not get a chance to apply sealer and prime until next Tuesday. I must say this is a strange looking rocket.

SCIGS30 said:

I will be back to work tomorrow, and will not get a chance to apply sealer and prime until next Tuesday. I must say this is a strange looking rocket.

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Strange looking rocket?! You're looking at a really cool classic!!

Extremely cool rocket. I cloned one several years ago, and flew it numerous times. Let's see here...

All three stages 12 times,
Two stages twice,
Upper stage only 6 times.

It was finally destroyed when the second stage didn't light, and it lawn darted through a tree, ripping off all of the fins and destroying the upper part.

Did you cant the booster fins for spin per the original instructions?

sylvie369 said:

Did you cant the booster fins for spin per the original instructions?

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If you look closely at the pic of the assembled model, the second stage fins
are canted slightly....

SCIGS30 said:

Can you believe that I work 240 hours a month, go to classes, studying for a promotion and I am married. No kids, 2 dogs.

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Ok, I kept saying, "So?", "So?", So?" ... then I read the "No Kids" ...

Explains a lot! ... (Just kidding, I have no idea how you build that much, even if you did not have a busy life.)



Wow, seeing this caused major nostalgic flashback. Loved the Farside, and the Farside-X. Never had either, but my best friend had the Farside. I had the Apogee II, another classic staged rocket.

If folks here are interested in staged rockets, check out the Estes plans for the Tiger Shark. The booster had fins that caused it to glide back, rather than tumble. I believe it was designed to do that, but if not, mine did! Very cool design. Another neat design was the Augie II -- for "thrust augmentation" (not really). Booster motor was CHAD staged within a larger outer body tube (BT-20 inside a BT-60). You needed to paint the outer tube with high-temp paint on the inside to to keep it from burning when the upper motor lit.

I edited the picture because the rocket was crooked. The couplers were loose so the top part was bent over slightly. I added some tape to the coupler and the body tubes straightened out just fine. I did slant the fins as per the directions.

My build is going slow since I am busy, but here is the Farside all primed. I applied 6 coats of Aerogloss and the fins came out smooth. I applied one coat of grey primer and a coat of flat white. I will begin applying my top coat today.

It has been a while but I am done. The build did not take much time, but I am so busy that I have not had any time to work on my rocket. I painted this one to look like the Farside in the Estes Catalog https://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/catalogs/estes79/79est46.html
Leo posted the Astron decal and I realized that I have the Farside X decal that is the same. I scanned the decal and redrew in Corel and printed on my Alps.

Fins came out smooth with Aerogloss balsa sealer and 1 coat of primer.

Where do you get all of these OOP kits? Do you have a stash of them from when you were a kid?

jj94 said:

Where do you get all of these OOP kits? Do you have a stash of them from when you were a kid?

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Quite the opposite, when I was a kid I was unable to afford very many rocket kits. Now I have my own money and I decided to build all the rockets I always wanted when I was a kid. I find them on eBay, swap meets, garage sells, Craig's list and once in a while I get lucky and find them at thrift stores. I have feelers out at the Antique shops, they give me a call when rockets come in. I just picked up a OOP Deluxe Der Red Max with a Big Foot Launcher.

Absolutely beautiful.

SCIGS30 said:

Can you believe that I work 240 hours a month, go to classes, studying for a promotion and I am married. No kids, 2 dogs.

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That's your problem!!! You need a couple of kids t soak up all that excess time on your hands!!

Lee Reep said:

If folks here are interested in staged rockets, check out the Estes plans for the Tiger Shark. The booster had fins that caused it to glide back, rather than tumble. I believe it was designed to do that, but if not, mine did! Very cool design. .

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The old Centuri Black Widow was a neater rocket....

I have a Farside still in the bag (but opened) that I'll get around to building one of these days.....

Very very nice.

Gorgeous!

Nuke Rocketeer said:

I have a Farside still in the bag (but opened) that I'll get around to building one of these days.....

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Ditto for me, too....

DaveCombs said:

Absolutely beautiful.

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Mega dittos!
What he said.
Fantastic!

Scigs -- tell us your paint choices?

Beautiful! Mine is almost complete and I'm painting just like yours. So you also did two yellow fins and one white fin on the first stage? 2nd stage and sustainer get a white, yellow and black fin.

Kevin Kuczek

You are correct on the colors.

Now you a Farside X to go with it.

Hmmm. A 10-year gap between posts. Have you been flying it SCIGS?

I flew it once, and it was great, had to go and chase it down. I am hoping to get out more this year and fly. Actually need to move out of California so I can fly my rockets when ever I want.