Oldest thing in your Build Pile

I have an Estes Klingon Battle Cruiser that's about 22 years old. My first one has about flown to pieces and was painted John Deere Green (hey, I couldn't find any olive drab out in the boondocks when I built it 36 years ago!) I always enjoy tilting the rod slightly, rotating it so the CG is above the rod, and launching. You get a nice roll that way.

Not rockletry related, but I have been building a metal detector since 1978. It started off with through-hole parts. Fancy discriminator/ground-elimination type. I redesigned it for surface-mount parts back in about 2005, including adding some more modern functionality and useability features and lower power consumption. Made a test setup for it. Slow progress.

Still have not made search coils and casing for it. I guess I could use 3D printing for that now!


For rocketry, I got plans for a Nike Hercules about 2010. I am planning on upscaling to 1/4 scale version. Might start around 2020 I think.

gdjsky01 said:

Do you mean that I owned then? Or just oldest. I have a a Centuri Star Trooper. And a bunch of the old MPC rockets. And some MRC Rockets like a few Iron Mans etc...

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One you have owned the longest.

The One I have had the longest, and still in the build pile, is a Mars Lander from about 1975.

Like everyone else, I have lots of kits in the build pile, but the oldest project in the pile is this BT-60 scratch build that's been sitting on the shelf for about six years now. It was originally intended to be a fantasy scale variation of a Delta rocket but it remains halted because soon afterward I suffered a form of "rocket builder's writer's block." It's too good to throw away, I'll eventually figure it out.

LW Bercini said:

One you have owned the longest.

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Have to be a Custom Rockets Serval, Lamprey, and Metrix.

When I became a BAR in 1997 I went to a hobby shop in Fountain Valley, CA. Near Mile Square Park to buy my first rockets. I was familiar with Estes as a kid. And those were there... However I had never seen Custom Rockets.
I bought a Equinox, Engage, and a Dynamic Carrier. The Dynamic Carrier survives to this day. The Engage's nose cone adorns my 'Engage V2'. A scratch build clone. The Equinox is gone...

However I bought a Lamprey, Serval, and Metrix shortly thereafter. So those date from 1997 and are still not built.

But then I have 100s of kits not yet built. :jaw: :surprised: