Estes - (Astron) Alpha (K-25 or #1225) Gallery

Estes Super Alpha (#3216) Basic Information.

Estes Industries

MODEL NAME: Super Alpha Also known as:

NUMBER: #3216

Introduced: 2010
Final Year:
Designer:

Type: Sport, Upscale
Motor Mount: 1x18mm
Recovery: Parachute
Stages: 1
Length: 19.5 in. (49.5 cm)
Diameter: 1.64 in. (42 mm)
Span:
Weight: 2.2 oz. (62.3 g)

Mfg. Description: Super sized and super fun! That's what the Super Alpha is! Powered by Estes standard engines, you will reach amazing heights of 600 feet! (Estes 2011 Web Ad)



Estes 2010 Catalog Estes 2011 Web Ad







First post in this thread featuring this rocket.

See Also: LINKS
EMRR
RocketReviews
Mfg. Page


If you have any additional information on this rocket and/or catalog photos please let us know.

Semroc Start (KA-25) Basic Information.

Semroc Astronautics

MODEL NAME: Start Also known as:

NUMBER: KA-25

Introduced: 2010
Final Year:
Designer:

Type: Sport, Clone
Motor Mount: 1x18mm
Recovery: Parachute
Stages: 1
Length: 13.0" (33.0 cm)
Diameter: 1.04" (2.6 cm)
Span: 4.2" (10.7 cm)
Weight: 1.2 oz (34.1 g)

Mfg. Description: DESC



Semroc 2010 Web Ad







First post in this thread featuring this rocket.

See Also: LINKS
EMRR
RocketReviews
Mfg. Page


If you have any additional information on this rocket and/or catalog photos please let us know.

Since the class I teach starts out with an Alpha and I always build one along with the kids for demonstration, I'll have a new one in a different color every year until they cancel the class. Here's my silver Alpha. I forgot to take a picture of the 12 Alphas built by the students. They have some crazy color combinations!

Huh, apparently I never posted my original one from last year.

Finished my Super Alpha the other day. I upgraded the motor mount to 24mm but it's only flown on a B so far.

View attachment 102352

My Semroc "Start"

Built this one just for fun. Nice kit from Estes. Used Rustoleum silver for the body and Mica Blue for the fins and nose.

Pretty bird. It's my favorite small field rocket, although that could be said about any BT-60/18mm combo. Stick a B6-4 in it and prepare to photograph the whole flight. Good times.

bump for editing

zog139 said:

Built this one just for fun. Nice kit from Estes. Used Rustoleum silver for the body and Mica Blue for the fins and nose.

Click to expand...

Nice job. I like the mica blue. Ill have to see about getting blue.

Changed up the looks a tad.
Decal is on head over heels.
NC painted True Blue..Navy blue would be better.

I got this Alpha III for a steal, so I couldn't resist upgrading it a little. The motor mount was beefed up with Semroc #7 tubing and I attached a kevlar shock cord. The body tube got painted with Rustoleum gloss white, while the NC and fins got a coat of Testors Ice Blue lacquer. The Testors is a nice metal-flake that I was really happy with. The decals are by Excelsior.

I think this A3 turned out pretty nice, especially since I don't really care fore the Halloween colors that Estes uses on this E2X kit.

I finally got around to building the Alpha. I couldn't get along with the peel 'n stick decals so I went with a pseudo military scheme.

I finally built two Alphas a while back.

The first was based on the 1969 Estes catalog illustration:



The second was from the 1973 catalog:

Here are mine. The orange one I built back around 1980; the fins were really soft and so have a lot of little dings in them. The second, my Alpha X, breaks just above the fin can. I see that I've only flown it once (with good results)... I need to fly it some more.

ECayemberg said:

(snip great pics of awesome Alpha collection)

Click to expand...

Man! That's an awesome Alpha collection!! I thought my Midget fleet was pretty impressive, but your Alpha collection is magnificent!

Doug

.

A badly botched Alpha III from an Ebay starter set. Took me a few years, but I finally got it ready for flight.

Here is my first Maxi Alpha Three that I built a year ago and has been most most flown rocket so far. Don't look too closely --- its pretty banged up. Also I had to reglue the fins --- this time with JB Weld, so I repainted the fin can, and had a reaction with previous clear coat. Oh well.. it's a rocket and has led a hard life.



I was telling my nephew's girlfriend about flying rockets at the LUNAR club launch at the NASA Ames facility at Moffet field, and she was surprisingly very interested in going to see it some time, so I told her I would make her a rocket. She wanted it to be kind of girly, so this is what I came up with.



It's a Maxi Alpha Three in hot pink zebra print.



What are those D rings for?



There is an attachable shoulder strap to carry it like a high-end handbag.

Rocket purses are all the rage on the runways this spring! As they ask on the Fashion Police: Gotta Have It? Or Make It Stop?

I don't know the answer to that yet --- she'll see it for the first time tomorrow. She loves purses, so I think Gotta Have It. One thing is certain, with a rocket purse, you seldom run the risk of that other Fashion Police Game --- B!tch Stole My Look!

The hot pink zebra print is actually a wrap of Duck brand Duct Tape. It comes in all kinds of crazy patterns now, and also in big 8.25 x 10 sheets. 8.25 inches is just about a perfect wrap around a BT80 tube, with just a tiny overlap. I got the sheets at JoAnn fabrics.

Well, I can't make a cool rocket for my nephew's girlfriend and not make on for my wife, so this is her Maxi Alpha Three.



It is inspired by the logo of her business --- similar colors, similar font, and similar shapes.

There is a red line separating the words Renger and Rocket.



Here is the Rocket side.



Here it is from a heroic angle.



I really liked how it turned out, and my wife was amazed. The lettering is a vinyl decal that I had made by my local FastSigns right up the street. I didn't have time to order anything from Stickershock and have it arrive in time, so I gave FastSigns a try. The minimum job there is $20, so I got two sets of the decals for that much. I placed the order on Monday, they sent me a proof that I approved on Tuesday, it was ready to pick up at 9 am on Wednesday. That's fast!

FastSigns could do all the red as well, but it would have cost more, I wasn't exactly sure how to lay it out for them, and I wanted the red on the body to exactly match the nose cone that I had painted. So the red is all painted --- the most complex masking job I have ever done in my very limited experience. I had painted the red nosecone over white primer. So, since I wasn't sure how well the red would cover the blue, after I masked the body and fins, I shot on a layer of white, then the red over that. So my only complaint is that you can see a little edge of white, and it almost makes it look like the red is a sticker too. I'm thinking about adding a clear coat of Future to maybe smooth the edges slightly and give the whole thing more shine.

Here all all three Maxi Alpha Threes together.



The best thing about this kit is that even though it is a LPR, it is a nice big rocket and a great platform for decorating.

Almost forgot a few things on the rockets I built for the ladies.

Here is the recovery gear for the zebra-print rocket.



It's a fluorescent pink nylon chute from Top Flight Recovery. There is a normal elastic shock cord down in the BT, and attached to that is 2 yards of frilly pink elastic from JoAnn fabrics --- like something from Victoria's Secret.

Here is the lovely "astronaut" who can ride in the rocket and come down on her own shiny chute.



And here is the Renger Rocket recovery gear --- nice shiny teal elastic and red nylon chute from TFR.

Here's some shots of my Alpha Phamily. Used Sticker Shock markings on the Maxi Alpha 3. Really pleased how well they turned out.

ATJOE1972 said:

Here's some shots of my Alpha Phamily. Used Sticker Shock markings on the Maxi Alpha 3. Really pleased how well they turned out.View attachment 181496View attachment 181497

Click to expand...

I like the vintage Alpha livery on the big MA3! Nice!

Here are a few more in addition to the others I've already posted before.



This is my favorite rocket to give as a gift --- easy to make, not very expensive, nice and big, cool to decorate. I feel like I've built a million of these (but it is really only about 8). The two on the right were gifts --- the Yellow Colby rocket was for a nephew, and the D Coy was for a friend. These were a rush to get finished, and unfortunately there was some trouble with the yellow paint on the Colby rocket, and some of that bad texture is also under the black on the fins, but Colby liked it. And if I had had time, I would have painted the fins on the D Coy Red for symmetry.

My daughter had rocket camp this summer and built an Estes Wizard. It got damaged, so I helped her rebuild it. It was fun, so I bought a kit for myself. I wanted one that used the same engines (cheapskate).
My Alpha:

After its second flight:


I was able to use my roof rake and get it down. Yeah, I live in Minnesota.

I wanted to put the decals on, but put it off because I've never been good with decals (model airplanes, trains). I finally decided to do it. Imagine my surprise when they turned out to not be water-slide decals, but stickers:

My Alpha family. Original Alpha built in the 70's. More recently, Super Alpha and a Maxi Alpha 3. Don't think I'll use the decals on the 3, I like the clean lines.

Decided I need to get in on the Alpha Goodness, so here I go!
Full Bore 24mm MADNESS!!!!:y:
Going to Fiberglass the whole thing!:headbang::headbang:

It's now finally finished! My Alpha version sold between 1982 - 1996.

I say this because the nose cone was painted red and the engine mount glued into the body tube back in 1988!
Then a couple of years ago I glued the fins to the body tube and gave the Alpha some color.

Today I applied the decals

It's done! There's very little that says "Astron" about this Alpha. It has a tail cone, sports a hand turned nose cone on a BT 70, all graphics are of my design and I cut the vinyl also. (sorry Mark. I bought me a plotter) It does have the single colored fin and accompanying vertical stripe though. This will use 24mm motors. It's also in honor of the 50 year anniversary of this rocket.

Very nicely done Gary!

Leo said:

Very nicely done Gary!

Click to expand...

Thanks Leo. You'll get to see it fly in Camden this year.

Agreed. Well done.