Estes Starship Excalibur Build

I recently swapped some rockets and the Starship Excalibur was one of the rockets I got in the swap. Since the theme for this months club launch was Science Fiction and Fantasy rockets, I decided to build it for the launch.

Here it is in the bag. It was previously opened but all he parts were there except the shock cord.

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Here are all the parts laid out on the work table. I think it would be difficult for Estes to do a kit with wood dowels like this ever again.

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--- Ron

The balsa wood for the fins was really nice quality. The dowels were exceptional considering their thickness. Here are the fins being glued together with CA.

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--- Ron

I had never built this kit before. It is a straight forward build with lots of cool detail that really add some character to the finished product. Here are two shots of the rocket with the dowels being attached and the long balsa sides of the upper “crew quarters”.

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--- Ron

Attaching the fin tips to the fins was a little difficult. There is a template provided is card stock to assist. My tips did not come out perfect but you only notice the difference in angles when looking down straight from the nose cone. Here is a picture where I am waiting for the disks to dry on the dowels. Like I said, this rocket has nice details.

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--- Ron

Below are two picture of the finished rocket. I launched the Starship Excalibur last weekend using a B4-4. The winds had picked up to 5-10 mph by the time I was ready to launch. The rocket took off and weather cocked into the wind slightly. I do not remember the approximate height but I know it was not a low flight. It landed about 100 ft from the pad so I am not going to complain. It was fun to build and launch the rocket. I hope Estes will re-release it someday but I am not going to hold my breath.

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--- Ron

Nice one Ron

Very nice job. Very cool .

That looks like a kit version of the free plan that Estes put out. I got the plan with all of the templates way back and got all the parts for it but never did get around to building it. The kit version looks cheaper to make since there are 8 less nose cones.

https://www.dars.org/jimz/eirp_55.htm

Great thread and good looking rocket. Does anybody do a clone?
Cheers
Fred

fred22 said:

Great thread and good looking rocket. Does anybody do a clone?
Cheers
Fred

Click to expand...

PDR has a clone:

https://pdrocketry.com/rockets/1920.HTM

EDIT: But note that this clone's fins are not pre-cut. (Not that they look like they'd be too bad to cut, unlike something like, say, the Alien Invader...)

Cool looking rocket, by the way.

very nice !

Not the model I was expecting to see but very very Nicely done!