Estes Mini Mars Lander

Oh wow! That's come out really well!!

Krusty

krusty said:

Oh wow! That's come out really well!!

Krusty

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Thanks Krusty. I have a hard time with iddy biddy rockets anymore. Painting was a pain. The base coat was fine. The red went on but I had to do touch-ups with white, then I had to touch up with red ARRRG! Then came the orange on those braces. Oops! Gotta touch up with red again....Oops, gotta touch up with orange....sigh. At least the silver went on without a hitch. Decals. I don't like doing decals. I've never been any good with them and they are still a PITA! Can't wait to fly it.

Gary Byrum said:

Thanks Krusty. I have a hard time with iddy biddy rockets anymore. Painting was a pain. The base coat was fine. The red went on but I had to do touch-ups with white, then I had to touch up with red ARRRG! Then came the orange on those braces. Oops! Gotta touch up with red again....Oops, gotta touch up with orange....sigh. At least the silver went on without a hitch. Decals. I don't like doing decals. I've never been any good with them and they are still a PITA! Can't wait to fly it.

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You can't tell, the lander looks perfect (yeah, I know.. You're sitting there thinking "OMG, is he BLIND! Can he not SEE where I screwed up the paint!!" )

I've had days where I've just had to stop with the touching up the touch-ups LOL.

Looking forward to the launch report

Krusty

GREAT JOB!! it really turned out great!

Gary Byrum said:

Well, it's finished. The only thing that gets me is a couple areas on the decals that were white did not have an outline on them and they sorta disappear into the background. But I can live with that. I wanted it to look like the bigger one anyway.

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Thanks NJ. I appreciate that.

Krusty, I'm totally happy with the paint now. It was just a pain to get it right.

Gary Byrum said:

Krusty, I'm totally happy with the paint now. It was just a pain to get it right.

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Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you weren't. I just know from my experience there are times that I'm not 100% happy.

Krusty

krusty said:

Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you weren't. I just know from my experience there are times that I'm not 100% happy.

Krusty

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No prob. I didn't say 100% either. My paint jobs are average at best anyway. I only WISH I could do those pristine finishes like some folks can.

looks great and i have never seen this kit before

Fred22 said:

looks great and i have never seen this kit before

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It was only available from 1987 - 88. I never knew about it either. I got this one as part of a gift this past Christmas.

Gary Byrum said:

It was only available from 1987 - 88. I never knew about it either. I got this one as part of a gift this past Christmas.

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Someone you know is very thoughtful. When do you plan to fly it?

Gary Byrum said:

Well, it's finished. The only thing that gets me is a couple areas on the decals that were white did not have an outline on them and they sorta disappear into the background. But I can live with that. I wanted it to look like the bigger one anyway.

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I think it turned out really nice! Another addition to the other thread of the Estes wish-list of return subjects.

SteveA said:

I think it turned out really nice! Another addition to the other thread of the Estes wish-list of return subjects.

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Thanks Steve. Now I wish I had put something beside it for a size reference. But I did mention earlier it was 5" tall. Plus, in the 1st pic, it's on the cutting mat where there's a visible ruler. Maybe Semroc would consider it.

Looks good Gary

I've got one I opened many many many moons ago. I should build it aswell.

Leo said:

Looks good Gary

I've got one I opened many many many moons ago. I should build it aswell.

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YO Leo! That's a big 10-4 buddy. Get it ready for Freedom Launch. We can drag race em! :grin:

Turned out very Nicely!

I've been flying one of seveal for good long while now. #34 built 09/06/89 is pretty beat up now but still fly's OK. picked up #424 01-10-00 just for fun It's a X-2 RTF model. This all plastic version weighs a ton 46.8g compared to the original kit. I still have 6 of the #0881 Estes kits purchased in Jan 1987 hanging on the wall waiting for a spirit to build another.
Used a second RTF Mini Mars Lander as the third stage of a night flying Illuminated UFO just for fun.

Very cool Micro...You say you have 6 more of them? Hee hee, some of the other TRF'rs are prolly gonna want those. LW told me that the streamer didn't assist much so I'm going to use a tiny parachute instead.

Micromeister said:

Used a second RTF Mini Mars Lander as the third stage of a night flying Illuminated UFO just for fun.

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Love the Snitch/Lander combo. It looks like something I used to do with the old Estes and Centuri UFOs. What is the light source on the lander?

Gary Byrum said:

Very cool Micro...You say you have 6 more of them? Hee hee, some of the other TRF'rs are prolly gonna want those. LW told me that the streamer didn't assist much so I'm going to use a tiny parachute instead.

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10-4 on the small chute, been flying my older model with a 6" plastic chute for years. the TRF X2 has a 10" chute.

LW: the Light source for the MML is 6 various color Super Bright LEDs powered by a CR-2032 3V Lithium battery & holder housed in the upper section of the nose. Found a couple slightly better shots of the UFO-MML combo and a 2-stage flight photo, sorry didn't catch the third stage..they do tend to weathercock rather badly in a breeze

I'm interested in drawing the Estes PNC-60MX nose cone in Open SCAD for 3d printing and sharing on Thingiverse. Can someone please help me with the measurements? I would need the distance to and diameter of the two inflection points as well as the overall length. Right now I'm guessing by looking at pictures but I'd love to get it exactly right. Thanks!

robnee said:

I'm interested in drawing the Estes PNC-60MX nose cone in Open SCAD for 3d printing and sharing on Thingiverse. Can someone please help me with the measurements? I would need the distance to and diameter of the two inflection points as well as the overall length. Right now I'm guessing by looking at pictures but I'd love to get it exactly right. Thanks!

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It's amazing what you can find with just a little google image searching. If you can trace & scale in SCAD, then you should be able to use this. If not, I can do it in Autocad.

I had/built this back in 1972 but sadly lost it to a rocket eating tree. :sad:

Sure wish I had another.

Hey robnee, even though the pic I posted is of a standard Mars Lander, one would think that the mini nose cone would be based on the shape of the original nose and shroud, just smaller, and in one piece. Let me know if you can't mimic this because, I draw nose cones all the time in CAD. In fact, I could turn one of these on my lathe. But I'm not in the habit of turning cones except when I need one.

This is great, thanks! I'd still like measurements directly from a PNC-60MX but this is extraordinarily helpful.

If you trace and scale, you'll get the end result. There's plenty of info on that diagram to do that. Would you rather I go get the dims and calculate the angles?

I can pull dimensions from the drawing but the #1918 MX Missile nose top third look slightly different than this drawing. It appears to be a spherically tipped conic section while the drawing appears parabolic. I have the cone programmed in SCAD for printing already (thanks to your help with the drawing) but I'd really like the measurements taken from a real sample before I post to Thingiverse.

robnee said:

I can pull dimensions from the drawing but the #1918 MX Missile nose top third look slightly different than this drawing. It appears to be a spherically tipped conic section while the drawing appears parabolic. I have the cone programmed in SCAD for printing already (thanks to your help with the drawing) but I'd really like the measurements taken from a real sample before I post to Thingiverse.

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From the shoulder up to the first angle is 1- 1/8". Length of 2nd angle is .75". The length of exposed nose cone is 2 - 11/16". And you're right about the tip. There is a difference. There's another thread going on about the "Geo Sat LV" that used the same nose cone and Gary Crowell aka "vcp" here on TRF, showed some prints of one he is working on for 3D printing. He may have it finished by now and might share the specs with you. That thread can be found HERE.

Just finished mine. A fun little build. Too bad they're going for such crazy prices, these days. There's not much to 'em.... but they're deceptively challening.

Gary passed away soon after his last post on this thread.

Major bummer

Very sad indeed.

His Mars Lander is a is a fine tribute thread.

I think I'll name my Mini Mars Lander Gary in tribute.