Estes Honest John #7240

Here she is. Hoping to get started on it soon while getting the finishing touches done on my Soyuz. I understand there is a decal set out there for an olive drab military scheme, which sounds like a good way to go. Did we ever hear from Estes on whether the box scheme is scale or not?

Sub'd. I was happy to see another big Estes Honest John kit, even if it's not the 1/9th scale beauty that they used to sell.

I just me one of those. Looking forward to some answers to your questions.

In the process of painting mine. Fins turned out OK but eventually want to build another and shape with the razor plane I just got. I will probably just use an engine hook instead of the plastic retainer that comes with the kit also.

Parts! Yay! Several fin parts had popped out while in the package but are not damaged. The nose cone and boat tail are great.

The boat tail has raised bumps where the fins go. These need to be cut. I think Estes should have used molded scored lines instead to aid in precision in cutting. Not a big fan of this setup.

The raised bumps on the boat tail are a flaming pain!

The raised bumps on the boat tail are a flaming pain!

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With a sharp Exacto blade it should take you about five minutes to remove those bumps. Just take the blade and lightly cut along the left and right side of the bump. I would angle the blade about 30 degree from vertical. Repeat with light cuts. It only takes a few passes and you will be through the plastic. do the same for the rounded ends of the bumps. I've built seven of these models and the bumps were the easy part. Tapering the fins to a diamond shape is the pain.

John Boren

Working on the fins. This is going to take some time. I put some masking tape on the half that I'm not sanding in an attempt to get a clean edge. Working on the front of this fin right now.

The boat tail on my Canadian Arrow was the same way. It wasn't so bad. I used an Exacto miter saw blade and it worked well.

Sanding the fins isn't something I'd care to do again.

The fin can is coming together with the motor mount and retainer installed.

Starting to look like a HoJo. The instructions called for using wood glue to attach the fins. I tried it and didn't care for using wood glue on plastic, so I used wood glue on the fin tabs and CA for the fin roots. I'll come back with wood glue for the fillets. Likewise, I decided to use epoxy to attach the body tube to the fin can.

Nice build thread so far. Those fins look great; IMO it pays to spend the time to get the best diamond shape you can on a model like the HoJo. I have one in the build pile and I'll need to decide if an alternate glue is need for that part of the build.

Thanks; I agree that the fin shaping is a big defining feature of the kit. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour on each fin before calling them good enough. I used 150 grit for shaping.

Got the bits on, and waiting for the third application of aerogloss to dry on the fins. The nose cone is beautifully done, with just some minor sanding needed to smooth out the seams. No filler was needed there.

Getting a coat of Rustoleum 2X White primer on. Temperatures are starting to cool off but are still good enough for painting.

motor mount and retainer installed

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Just an FYI on why the motor retainer is so far forward in the model which makes it more difficult to unscrew. Honest John rockets are cool and I simply didn't want that huge motor retainer sticking out the back of the rocket when the model was being displayed. For flight you screw on the cap, for display I would remove the cap.

John Boren

I wonder what could be in this envelope?

The paint has had some time to cure now, so with any luck I'll have a chance to get the decals on today. I have to say, this rocket is pretty glorious in its badassedness. Yes I just christened that word in honor of this rocket.

Here's a quick and dirty finish shot of the new HoJo. I followed the decal placement from the old Maxi Honest John instructions. I'm hoping to get some better finish photos soon, including an Estes family portrait.

Nice! It looks like the kit has a good level of detail, even if OD paint hides a lot of it. Every once in a while, I pull out my Maxi Brute HoJo kit, look at the parts, then put it away again. Same goes with the V-2. I'm still having a hard time coming around to using vacuum-formed fins (after a poor experience years ago). But this kit does away with that, even if it replaces that with a different issue. I can still see building a couple of them - in fact, I just got a set of the same decals from Sandman...

Did you put mini rail buttons on there? Looks great!

No I didn't, and while studying the instructions of the maxi, realized they would have been a very simple and cool addition to the build. Oh well, some time in the future when I feel like doing the fins again, I'll do another one with more detail.

Can't wait to get my build pile down so I can get one. This looks like a well designed rocket. I'm currently modding a Mini Honest John to match the M-31 version.

How about a family portrait? I apologize for the sideways shot - this forum does NOT jive with my attempts to upload portrait oriented photos. I need to fix a zipper on the big one and would love to fly it again some time. Unfortunately the plastic fins are flimsy and may not handle a shot with an E20 composite motor. In comparison, the new HoJo's fins are rock solid. I did lightly sand the new rocket with 1000 grit after painting but there was still some decal silvering. I'll get some satin clear coat on it, which should help hide the silvering like it did with my mini HoJo. Really looking forward to sending this one up!

I am a big fan of the Ho Jo. You've done a good job with this kit.

Finally had a great day for flying. So here's the maiden.

[video=youtube;Jdk6upJI_1Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdk6upJI_1Y[/video]

Flyfalcons said:

Finally had a great day for flying. So here's the maiden.

[video=youtube;Jdk6upJI_1Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdk6upJI_1Y[/video]

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Nice Flight! Nice looking job on the finish too!

I've had only one rocket come back closer than that to the pad than that. I had to walk 6' to catch it out of the air.

Beautiful. Wicked. Nice Job. I will be starting my U.S. Army Honest John build soon. I have been looking over several U.S. Army Archive Photos. (two pics attached) And, build very sim. to your final finish. Looks like several of the U.S. Army versions had yellow nozzles, on the inside. I am also going to use Testors clear dull coat, (two or more light coats), over the entire HoJo after the Sandman Decal Company's U.S. Army decals have been placed. This makes the decal seams and gloss vanish, and they are never blown off from flight. I have found that this has worked very well in the past on my Estes, scale V2, Mercury/Redstone, Gemini/Titan, Saturn V/Apollo projects.